Gorky Park

Track List:

Main Title 2:44

Following Kirwill 2:59

Irina's Theme 2:34

Following KGB 2:04

Chase Through the Park 1:56

Arkady and Irina 2:40

Faceless Bodies 1:54

Irina's Chase 3:44

The Sable Shed 6:42

Airport Farewell 3:50

Releasing the Sables/End Title 4:18

Total Time: (35:65)

Composed by:
James Horner

Conducted by:
James Horner

Orchestrated by:
Greig McRitchie

This is so absolutely different from any other Horner score I've ever heard before. I suppose that 48 Hours comes close, but this is just so unlike anything else. The score for Gorky park contains boatloads of synth/pop backbeats that are completely uncharacteristic for the composer. With a movie concerning murder in Russia, you'd think that this type of music would best be avoided, but oddly it seems to work. I've only seen about three fourths of the movie, so really didn't know what was going on, but I enjoyed the way the score worked quite well.

The main title contains bits of classic Russian music, such as snippets of the 1812 overture, but don't think that Horner's committing his usual steals, this was done intentionally to enhance the Russian flavor of the film.

The entire score is actually rather disconcerting as it slides in and out of soft moments which are often abruptly cut into by dissonant piano chords (striking the strings directly, not the keys). This does contain one very soft and enjoyable track, "Irina's theme" is a lovely theme for Joanna Pacula's character that is very reminiscent of other love themes that Horner Composed at the time (such as the love theme from Krull), only this has very bittersweet overtones.

This doesn't contain many "self-rip off's" but it does contain one very distinguishable motif consisting of decrescendoing rim-taps that would be used extensively in Aliens three years later, and "Releasing the Sables," which was replaced in the film by classical music, contains the swirling strings that were so prevalent in Horner's work from this period.

Certainly not the cream of the crop from Horner's early years, but Gorky Park provides a decent listening experience if you can find it. I definitely recommend it to fans of Horner's earlier work such as Krull or Star Trek 2.