Milan Records releases Daniel Pemberton's original score for Enola Holmes 2. Fresh off the triumph of solving her first case, Enola Holmes follows in the footsteps of her famous brother, Sherlock, and opens her own agency - only to find that life as a female detective-for-hire isn’t as easy as it seems. Resigned to accepting the cold realities of adulthood, she is about to close shop when a penniless matchstick girl offers Enola her first official job: to find her missing sister. But this case proves to be far more puzzling than expected, as Enola is thrown into a dangerous new world - from London’s sinister factories and colourful music halls, to the highest echelons of society and 221B Baker Street itself...

Daniel Pemberton's soundtrack for Enola Holmes 2 consists of 29 tracks (1 hr, 03 min, 49 sec) of gothic themes (similar to Danny Elfman's work with Tim Burton) and beautifully melancholic set pieces. If I had to pick out a couple of tracks to recommend this, then I'd have to chose 'Dancing Lessons', for its wonderfully engaging main theme, and 'Stage Fight', for its intense suspense theme.

Discussing the score, director Harry Bradbeer says: "Enola Holmes 2 had to be grittier, more emotional. It had to be worth telling. And sometimes it was only Daniel’s music that helped me keep the faith. Daniel’s soundtrack is predominately orchestral, but if you listen carefully, there’s a repertoire of clanks, pipes and eccentric twangs in amongst the strings, recorded in Abbey Road. They are the sounds of the city: the new world Enola is entering."

I really loved what Pemberton turned in here. It's a rich and multi-layered score which has many delicious themes to discover.

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Darren Rea