Soundtracks/OSTs/Scores.

[Caraliz]

What are some of your favourite ones & why? What element does it add to the film?

For me, Clint Mansell is my favourite composer. The Fountain is a brilliant sountrack and adds so much saddness and drama to the movie and the story. It ties everything together perfectly. I think Mogwai, another one of my favourite bands, helped them compose it which makes it that much better!

Requiem for a Dream was also a good soundtrack, but it didn't hit as many chords with me as The Fountain did.

Alexandre Desplat (The Painted Veil) and Cliff Martinez (Solaris) get honorable mentions as amazing scores as well. Cliff Martinez makes amazing ambient music as Alexandre Desplat just captures the scenery and the imagination of the story perfectly.

Stranger Than Fiction's soundtrack was composed entirely of Spoon, which was AMAZING. I love Spoon and I was ing the whole time cause it was an amazing movie and had Spoon!

Anyway, yours?

[Breine]

I own all the OSTs to all of Quentin Tarantino's movies, and they all rock my socks off. Brilliant music all the way.

[I Don't Need A Name]

Howard Shores Lord Of The Rings OSTs are, obviously, masterpieces. (along with Williams' Star Wars)

[charliepanayi]

Lost in Translation - Kevin Shields, My Bloody Valentine (with the peerless Sometimes), Girls by Death in Vegas is a great opening to the film, and there's Air and The Jesus and Mary Chain to go with it too. It's a hazy concoction that matches the film's disconnected feel perfectly. Sofia Coppola always picks great soundtracks.

[Momiji]

I doubt anyone here did not see this coming, but I like the soundtracks to anime (particularly The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Chobits, Tsukuyomi -Moon Phase-, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, and Rozen Maiden) and video games (particularly and quite majorly the Project Touhou soundtracks, Final Fantasy OSTs (the only good part of FFVII IMO) and just random game songs over all). Movie soundtracks, not so much.

[Nifleheim7]

I have too many favourites but i think Enio Morricone is above them all.
He is a living legend.

[Jessweeee♪]

Serial Experiments Lain



SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN

[escobert]

as you know all I listen to for OSTs is .HACK//signs

[Balzac]

The OST for Orgasmo, if only for Twisted Steel, Leather Donut by The Head Set.

[BG-57]

As far as anime goes, I'm a huge fan of Yoko Kanno (Vision of Escaflowne, Please Save my Earth), and Kenji Kawai (Tenchi Muyo, Vampire Princess Miyu (TV). They both do excellent music that complements the action perfectly.

For live action I love Jerry Goldsmith's work in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, especially the main titles, Klingon battle, and V'Ger's theme done by the strange instrument, the blaster beam.

Another great ST is to Topsy Turvey, which features music by Arthur Sullivan and words by Willaim S. Gilbert. Anybody who likes the Mikado or any other of Gilbert and Sullivan works should own this album.

EDIT: Franz Waxman, especially Sunset Boulevard. Also Bernard Herrman, especially with Vertigo.

On a related note, I was apalled to find that the live action movie version of Silent Hill had no official ST. I had to go to FYE and download the ST from the four different games and compile them as a playlist. It's very creepy and atmospheric. I have the same problem with the first Soul Reaver game: absolutely brilliant work by Information Society, but no ST.

[Rengori]

I have too many favourites but i think Enio Morricone is above them all.
He is a living legend.

What this man said.

[Kossage]

There are too many good composers and scores to list, so I'll just mention one of my all-time favourites.

I really like The Land Before Time by James Horner. Even if it borrows some things from classical composers, it manages to bring in originality as well, and it's quite complex composition-wise. There are many great and memorable themes that are hauntingly beautiful and brutal at times (e.g. the beautiful Whispering Winds theme and the theme for the Sharptooth). Orchestra and choir is used to a great effect, and the music really aids the film and helps to tell the narrative in a musical form. It also helps that the tracks are long, so it almost sounds like a symphony instead of a film score, but all in all it's a beautiful score that is still as stirring as it was back when I first listened to it.

Caraliz: If you like Clint Mansell's work, give Sahara a try. It's unlike anything he's composed before, because it relies more on the brute orchestral power than synth-laden stuff. It has many kickass and beautiful themes in it too, and it's an all-around upbeat adventure score.

[Rye]

The soundtrack to Pan's Labyrinth was incredible.