Rob Lane, Rohan Stevenson, James Gosling and Michal Pavlicek have composed some of the most epic music written for the television medium in recent years. The entertaining score album for Merlin: Series Four has been meticulously sequenced to make for a great listening experience that highlights the best of the music, and the composers have taken into special account requests from fans of the series when the album was put together. Beautiful themes, swashbuckling action music, dark and mesmerizing suspense scoring, quirky scherzos - all painted on an epic canvas featuring orchestra and choir...

And so another Merlin soundtrack album is released. The scores for series one, two and three were incredibly well produced, with numerous themes that put some major Hollywood blockbusters to shame.

For those worried that another album just means more of the same... you couldn't be more wrong. Sure, there are a few variations on the main themes, but once again this album's 19 tracks (56 min, 32 sec worth of music) deliver new and impressive themes and set pieces.

As with the previous seasons, there are obvious influences that are drawn from movies: The ending of 'Titles - The Strange Girl' reminded me of Thomas Newman's music for Shawshank Redemption ('So was Red') ; 'The Darkest Hour' and 'Ygraine's Theme' are obviously influenced by Howard Shore's music from The Lord of the Rings film; 'Morgause's Magic' brought to mind John Williams's music from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi ('Emperor's Throne Room'); and 'The Labyrinth of Gedreth' reminded me of Hans Zimmer's score for Angels and Demons ('Chevaliers de Sangreal' and 'Rose of Arimathea').

Once again Merlin fans are being spoiled. This is yet another album that will no doubt find itself on the wish list of lovers of classically scored soundtracks.

9

Darren Rea