Europa Report follows a contemporary mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa to investigate the possible existence of alien life within our solar system. When unmanned probes suggest that a hidden ocean could exist underneath Europa’s icy surface and may contain single-celled life, Europa Ventures, a privately funded space exploration company, sends six of the best astronauts from around the world to confirm the data and explore the revolutionary discoveries that may lie in the Europan ocean. After a near-catastrophic technical failure that leads to loss of communication with Earth and the tragic death of a crewmember, the surviving astronauts must overcome the psychological and physical toll of deep space travel, and survive a discovery on Europa more profound than they had ever imagined...

Bear McCreary's score for Europa Report is another fine example of the great man's work. However, I couldn't help but be reminded of his recent releases for Defiance (both the game score and the TV series soundtrack) and Da Vinci's Demons. This isn't a complaint, and if you enjoyed those albums then you'll equally find much to appreciate here.

The album contains 14 tracks (56 min, 24 sec of music) and weaves some interesting themes amongst atmospheric tracks - but unlike most scores where dull filler material is pumped in to pad out the score, McCreary gets away with it as he injects just enough quality segments to make you overlook the parts where nothing much is going on.

'Theme from Europa Report' is probably this album's stand out track - showcasing the main theme that is woven throughout the entire album in various forms. This is another winner of an album... oh, and was that a homage to David Arnold's score for Stargate I heard in the track 'Water'?

8

Darren Rea