Lakeshore Records release the Alias Grace - Original Mini-Series Soundtrack, which features original music by Mychael Danna and Jeff Danna created for the acclaimed CBC/Netflix mini-series produced by Halfire Entertainment. The story follows Grace Marks, a poor, young Irish immigrant and domestic servant in Upper Canada who, along with stable hand James McDermott, was convicted of the brutal murders of their employer and his housekeeper in 1843. James was hanged while Grace was sentenced to life imprisonment. Grace became one of the most enigmatic and notorious women of 1840s Canada for her supposed role in the sensational double murder, and was eventually exonerated after 30 years in jail. Her conviction was controversial, and sparked much debate about whether Grace was actually involved in the murder, or merely an unwitting accessory...

Mychael Danna and Jeff Danna once again pull out all the stops to deliver a score that mixes a good selection of beautiful, eerie, haunting and uplifting themes. It's not a million miles away from their score for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and Tideland - although it's not surprisingly a little more grounded, and is a little closer to classical music.

Like their aforementioned earlier scores, this is an album that you'll enjoy the first play through, but get to totally love the more times you play it. It contains 28 tracks (50 min, 15 sec). I started making notes of what I loved about each track... but in the end the list just got so long that it seemed a little too gushy.

Every now and then we are taken on a diversion. 'Torn Open' is a melancholic, slow amble which works better because it's placed in the middle of two upbeat and mellow tracks ('Mary Whitney' and 'Home for Christmas'). While 'Nancy Montgomery Herself' contains one of this album's most memorable themes. You can almost imagine it being the main theme to a detective TV series.

I really can't imagine for one second how this collection of tracks could have been improved. Every second, every note, is carefully constructed to create a picture in the listeners imagination. It's a wonderful, imaginative work of art.

10

Darren Rea