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Posts Tagged ‘Gaute Storaas’

Under-the-Radar Round Up 2022, Part 4C

January 20, 2023 1 comment

Life has returned to world cinema in 2022 following the easing of the COVID-19 global pandemic, and at the end of the fourth quarter of the year I’m absolutely delighted to present the latest instalment in my on-going series of articles looking at the best under-the-radar scores from around the world. This article covers five scores for projects from Scandinavia and adjacent countries in eastern Europe, and includes a Polish comedy drama set in Denmark, a Norwegian animated film based on a classic children’s book, a Finnish super-hero film for children, a Norwegian WWII action film, and a gorgeous romantic score for a Finnish film set in the wilds of Ireland. Read more…

Under-the-Radar Round Up 2021, Part 4C

January 18, 2022 1 comment

2021 is over and, as the world of mainstream blockbuster cinema and film music continues to recover from the COVID-19 Coronavirus, I again urge people to look beyond the confines of mainstream Hollywood to find the best film music being written. As such, I now present the third and final part of my final group of reviews looking at the best “under the radar” scores from around the world – the five titles included here again represent some of the best film music heard this year, and include a historical drama from Malta, a big-screen reboot of a beloved Japanese-Spanish children’s animated series from the 1980s, a sweeping British natural history documentary, a Norwegian Christmas fantasy-comedy, and a documentary from Iran with a score by one of 2021’s breakthrough composers. Read more…

Under-the-Radar Round Up 2021, Part 4B

January 7, 2022 2 comments

2021 is over and, as the world of mainstream blockbuster cinema and film music continues to recover from the COVID-19 Coronavirus, I again urge people to look beyond the confines of mainstream Hollywood to find the best film music being written. As such, I now present the second part of my final group of reviews looking at the best “under the radar” scores from around the world – the five titles included here represent some of the best film music heard this year to date, and include a seasonal fantasy from the Netherlands, two British dramas telling very different true stories, and two spectacular entries from Scandinavia: a Finnish nature documentary, and a Norwegian variation on the Cinderella story. Read more…

Under-the-Radar Round Up 2020, Part V

January 12, 2021 1 comment

As the year winds down and the COVID-19 Coronavirus continues still to decimate the 2020 theatrical movie schedule, it appears that yet again a lot of the best film music released comes from smaller international features not as reliant on massive theatrical releases to make their presence felt. As such (and as I did last year under much different circumstances) I am very pleased to present the fifth installment in my ongoing series of articles looking at the best “under the radar” scores from around the world – this time concentrating on six more of the best scores from the fourth quarter of 2020!

The titles included are a Christmas-themed animated film from Norway, a documentary about the Spanish civil war, a Russian Romeo-and-Juliet style romantic drama, a Dutch WWII spy thriller, a historical romance from Spain, and Italian biopic of a mad genius painter! Read more…

Best Scores of 2018, Part II

January 22, 2019 2 comments

This is the second installment in my annual series of articles looking at the best “under the radar” scores from around the world. As was the case before, rather than doing the scores on a geographical basis, this year I decided to simply preset the scores in a random order. This second batch includes six scores: two superb scores from Spain – a fantasy drama and a period thriller – a children’s animated film from Norway, a children’s adventure film from Sweden, a family adventure film from France, and a big-screen version of a beloved children’s story from Germany. Read more…

Best Scores of 2017 – Rest of Europe, Part II

January 26, 2018 2 comments

The seventh and penultimate installment in my annual series of articles looking at the best “under the radar” scores from around the world sees us back on Europe mainland for a final dash around the continent. This is where we get really obscure: we’ve got a total of eight scores here, including a TV series from Poland, a historical action movie from Russia written by a rock musician, a Norwegian supernatural thriller, children’s adventure films from both Germany and Norway – one of which is animated – and a comedy road movie about racism from Finland! It just goes to show that good film music being written everywhere, in the most unexpected places, if only you have the patience to seek it out. Read more…

Best Scores of 2016 – Scandinavia

January 7, 2017 3 comments

The fourth installment in my annual series of articles looking at the best “under the radar” scores from around the world concentrates on music from films from Scandinavia, one of the world’s most impressive sources of excellent scores. One score from Finland, one score from Sweden, and a veritable plethora of scores from Norway are showcased this year. Read more…