The Loft

Phenomenon is a delightful score by Thomas Newman, one of his very best. If you like the lush string sound from Little Women, Up Close and Personal or How to Make an American Quilt, you're sure to like this one. The main theme is a gorgeous pastoral melody for strings and clarinets that segues into some pretty energetic accoustic and eletric guitar playing (similar to certain tracks of The Horse Whisperer, let's call it Newman's countryside style). The rest of the score is equally elegant, with the great Oscar and Lucinda-like track Shout in the Sky, the rhythmic Orchard-track with its dynamic percussion and the many soothing tracks with soft piano and string melodies. It works marvelous in the movie and offers a delightful listening experience on its own. Of course, this score has not been officially released on CD. The only available source is a 23-minute promotional cassette compiled by Mr Newman that was sent out to the Academy's Music Branch voting members. At some point Varèse Sarabande had plans to release the score (most likely coupled with another Newman-project, like they did with American Buffalo and Threesome) but those plans never materialized. The promo cassette was the source for a bootleg-CD-R, which can be found on the collector's market. For now, this is the only way to obtain a copy of Newman's score, and that's too bad because Phenomenon is undoubtably one of his very best and most popular scores.

The soundtrack

Street date: Not released commercially; first distributed in October 1996.
Availability: Very difficult to find.

The track Phenomenon (2:54) was included on Hollywood '96 (VSD-5764), Joel McNeely's third CD of Hollywood themes, recorded with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

A bootleg CD-R of this promo cassette is available on the collector's market.
If you are interested in a copy of this on CD with artwork. Email me for a link.

Only one track, The Orchard, was officially released on the official soundtrack album.

This score received a BMI Film Music Award in 1997.
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Track listing

Phenomenon (3:38)
Something To Do (0:54)
The Orchard (2:21)
Lace (0:51)
Earth And Trees (1:24
Chicken Wire (1:39)
Portuguese Angel (0:44)
Illusion Of Light (0:52)
Lousy Scenario (2:23)
Shout At the Sky (1:05)
An Expedition (2:13)
Home (1:49)
George Malley (1:00)
The Rest of Us (2:43)
Total Time: 23:34

Soundtrack notes

Original Score Composed and Conducted by Thomas Newman.
Orchestrations by Thomas Pasatieri.
Recorded by Dennis Sands, Allen Sides and John Richards.
Music Editor: Bill Bernstein.
Assistant Music Editor: John Corngold.
Music Contractor: Leslie Morris.
Music Preparation: Julian Bratolyubov.
Musicians: Thomas Newman, Rick Cox, Michael Fisher, George Doering and Bill Bernstein.
Produced by Thomas Newman and Bill Bernstein.
Mixed by Dennis Sands and Allen Sides.
Additional Engineering and Mixing: Tom Winslow.
Recorded at Paramount Scoring Stage M and The Village Recorder.

Executive Soundtrack Producer: Robbie Robertson.
Soundtrack Produced by Kathy Nelson and Jon Turteltaub.
Soundtrack Coordinators: Christine Edwards and Jared Levine.