Ken Thorne Collection, The: Volume 1 (CD)

Dragon's Domain Records presents THE KEN THORNE COLLECTION, VOLUME 1, featuring music composed by Ken Thorne (A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, JUGGERNAUT, HANNIE CAULDER) for two projects from his rich filmography, released for the very first time. Released in 1976, ASSAULT ON AGATHON tells the story of Interpol agent Cabot Cain (Nico Minardos), who has been recently assigned to stop the mysterious Agathon (George Moussou), an insurgent who is instigating a new revolution in Greece. The film makes the most of its spectacular Grecian scenery, allowing the composer many exciting musical opportunities. The film opens with an engaging main theme, a mix of strings, brass, and drums behind a provocative, rising woodwind melody, which is reprised several times in the score, along with a delicious love theme later on for strings and harpsichord and plenty of articulate action music. Released in 1978, POWER PLAY, also known as COUP D'ÉTAT, takes place in a fictional country beset by corrupt government, terrorism and martial law, where a small group of military officers (Peter O'Toole, David Hemmings, Donald Pleasence) decide that they must overthrow the current administration. But the coup's leader worries that there is a spy in their group and ultimately it is revealed that he's not wrong. Based on a 1968 non-fiction book, COUP D'ÉTAT: A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK, it won Best Screenplay at the Canadian Film Awards. Not all of the score's tracks have survived (including the main title), but we feel the 17 tracks that have remained offer a sufficient example of the composer's music for this film. POWER PLAY is primarily a suspense score full of tension and brooding, which Thorne offers through effective orchestration and textural interaction but there are also opportunities for a poignant melody for guitar and strings over keyboard presented underneath a eulogy and also some great moments of action/suspense writing.

Track Listing