MovieScore Media release composer/director Stephen Edwards's score for Syndrome K. The titular syndrome is a highly contagious, but also highly fictitious disease created by three Roman Catholic doctors (Adriano Ossicini, Pietro Borromeo, and Vittorio Sacerdoti) during the holocaust to hide Jews in Vatican-affiliated hospitals - the idea of catching a deadly disease kept Nazis far away until further steps could be made to save those in need...

Stephen Edwards turns in some impressive themes on this 20 tracks (1 hr, 11 min, 26 sec) album and it's even more impressive when you consider he also directed the movie. Obviously he never sleeps.

The score is unusual in that it’s recorded by several different orchestras and thus a truly international venture. Talking about the project, Edwards said: "Since this project took place in World War 2, I was inspired to have a ‘world orchestra’ perform the score,” explains Stephen Edwards about his unique vision to score his own film. “We were able to have cues recorded in Los Angeles, London, Moscow, Prague, Belgrade and Rome. Thematically, I borrowed Haydn’s 'Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser' - which became the German National Anthem - and flipped it into minor mode to represent the Nazis and SS troops in the film. It is also subtly woven into the score to represent our villains. I was lucky enough to have vocalist/composer Lisbeth Scott perform on the score, and her voice is crucial to the “rescue theme” that is heard in later cues. My goal was to musically reflect hope over despair, love and acceptance over hate, and the best of humanity helping one another during one of the darkest periods of human history."

There's so many intricate little themes running throughout that this is a score that you'll discover something new that you previously missed on each replay. 'No Chance of Escape' has a ring of Thomas Newman's music for The Shawshank Redemption. And there was the occasional beat that reminded me of Tim Wynn's score for the game The Darkness II.

It's a deeply emotionally compelling score that I strongly urge you to seek out.

9

Darren Rea