Customer Reviews

Danny Elfman: Serenada Schizophrana [Hybrid SACD]

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I mention my appreciation of Danny Elfman's work to other people, a question I often get is "What kind of music does he do?"

To date, the best answer I've been able to come up with is, "Imagine a truly great jazz impressario given an entire symphony orchestra to play with." He does movie soundtracks, of course, which I absolutely love, but to say that he is a soundtrack artist is not giving him the credit he deserves.

This album is marvelous. Every time I listen to Danny's music, it not only fires my imagination, it kicks it into high gear. In that respect, I would call this album truly inspiring. It is by turns ethereal, imposing, surreal, ambient, overwhelming, disturbing, and just plain fun!

If you love good music, if you love to have your imagination captivated and set free on a whole new plane of existence, then you owe it to yourself to give this album a listen.

Your imagination will thank you for it.

Danny Elfman has long been a favorite of mine, going all the way back to his days with Oingo Boingo. I've been following his career closely since I heard his Beetlejuice score in 1988. He followed it with the classic Batman score in 1989. He made wonderful music throughout the nineties, often accompanying Tim Burton's films (he scored all of them save for Ed Wood). In my opinion, it took until 1999 to surpass his work on Batman, with the release of the Sleepy Hollow soundtrack. And now, with the release of Serenada Schizophrana, Sleepy Hollow has been dethroned. It'll take an impressive score to take this last composition's place.

This orchestral suite showcases Elfman's versatile influences and he sounds better than ever. Sometimes dark, other times playful with more quiet and subtle parts, this was a completely different project than his usual film scores. He had a lot of freedom for this symphony and it shows. Serenada is divided in 7 movements and contains a bonus track.

If some of the cuts sound familiar, it's because it was heavily featured in last year's Imax film Deep Sea 3D, narrated by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet. It fit perfectly well with the mysterious underwater world unfolding in 3D on the oversized screen.

If you're a fan of Elfman's, you'll love Serenada. If you love movie scores, chances are you'll enjoy it too. The only downside with this CD has nothing to do with its content, but rather with its encoding. This is a SACD (Super Audio CD) and therefore will not be playable on your computer. It is designed for super audio players so you might want to check if your CD player can play it. It plays fine on mine and on my DVD player. The sound quality is much clearer than your average CD, but I find it disappointing that I'm not able to listen to this great suite on my IPod. Still, it's well worth it for the opening track alone!

Serenada Schizophrana is probably the best work Elfman ever made. It is mature, virtuoso, deep and powerful. All his usuals styles are transcends, and the six mouvements are rich in shades and tones. The mouvements are all interesting in their own musical way, and invit us to a long travel inside the genius and strange brain of Danny Elfman. The fifth, "I Forget", which is probably his most wonderful piece, looks like a tragic fantasy opera with beautiful females choirs. Serenada Schizophrana is a truly amazing orchestral piece, but not easily accessible. Patience and lot of listening are recommanded in order to understand the richness of this work of art.

Danny Elfman is one of Hollywood's most talented score writers, with more than 100 movie soundtracks under his belt. His musical arrangements never fail to impress, and he has an almost mystical ability to match the mood of his music to the action on-screen -- particularly when he's working with filmmaker Tim Burton.

Commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra, this symphonic piece gave the former Oingo Boingo frontman a new challenge -- working without the visual cues of a movie to inspire him. But, while the resulting tracks are entertaining on an aural level, they still sound like a soundtrack to me. And, without my own visual memories to accompany the music, my imagination filled them in -- I mostly saw scenes of Johnny Depp emoting or the stop-action hijinks of a skellington at play. Appropriately, it was later picked for use as a soundtrack for the IMAX film, Deep Sea 3D.

So really, it's simple. If you enjoy Elfman's soundtrack work, get this and you'll love it. If you think soundtracks should only be heard in the background of a film, skip this or get yourself to an IMAX theater for a little underwater exploration with narrators Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet and, of course, Elfman.

by Tom Knapp, Rambles.(n e t) editor

So, a rock star turned film composer writing a classical piece. Following the way most popular musicians-gone-composers, it wouldn't be surprising if "Serenada Schizophrana" sounded really old and trite. But this is Danny Elfman, and Serenada exceeds every expectation.

Elfman claims much of his inspiration came from music of the early to mid-20th century. While this is quite obvious, there is still something very new about it. His sense of pacing is amazing, and his melodies and harmonies amazingly aesthetic. "Pianos" makes an excellent first movement, automatically drawing you in. And the "End Tag" is definitely necessary, as "Bells and Whistles", the last movement, draws you even further into Elfman's musical world, excellent for a last movement.

However, it's impossible to pick favorites, not because there's so much music or anything like that, but because the entire score is phenomenal! This is excellent classical music that combines the best of today with the tradition of old-school contemporary stylistics. And as if the music isn't enough, George Condo's album art is gorgeous, and fits the music quite well. If you enjoy Elfman's music, or that of such composers as Prokofiev or Shostakovich, or even if you are looking for a unique addition to your CD collection, "Serenada Schizophrana" is a timeless work that promises and fulfills. Do not pass this one up.

Danny Elfman is truly awesome and i think as a composer he is supremely skilled. Another review mentioned this to be a movie soundtrack not orchestral. I'm pretty sure that a musical score is orchestral and besides its absolutely refreshing for someone to use music in this way.

The music is imaginative and slightly dark and playful - very Danny Elfman. The artwork in the booklet is good fun too, there are not a lot of pictures, but they are disturbing and yummy to me.

I like that this orchestral composition gives Mr. Elfman all the freedom he desires, I think he uses a fun blend of traditional technique, "film" or visual type sounds and the freedom in which it flows only enhances the experience.

I love the whole CD, honestly I do, I enjoy the rise and fall that moves through Pianos, I love the twisted melancholy that is in Blue Strings, Of course A Brass Thing is titilating for all the heavy brass in it - it's a rather agressive piece and I like that, The Quadroped Patrol is a fast moving number with a slight feeling of anxiety, but interestingly enough I laugh when I listen to it (must be a little twisted myself), I Forget is simply gorgeous with the Spanish vocals bringing a slight sex appeal to the music the music feels a little goth and dark, but the song as pretty as it is in Spanish is still about someone losing and looking for a thought with a tint of crazy (absolutely brilliant). Bells and Whistles is a lot of fun with sounds. There is the brief End Tag, and then the bonus track of Improv for Alto Sax which is quite pretty and I'm not a sax fan traditionally.

My only regret is that I never heard this performed live, that would have been truely awesome.

This music inspires my mind to go outside the box, I have brilliant ideas when I listen to Danny Elfman's compositions. His music is so imaganitive and it is just bent enough to impress my mind, I really appreciate this album. I like music that I'm allowed to interpret and that impresses and entertains me.

It took me over a year to find a copy of this album (the curse of living in the midwest) but it was well worth the wait. This is just as solid and thrilling as Elfman's Classics like Batman and Black Beauty. The Cd starts off with "Pianos" and what a start it is! A moody melody that slowly builds and bascially serves as the unofficial theme of the piece. "Blue Strings" is very Herrmannesque with it's shades of Psycho and various other mood pieces. "A Brass Thing" Is one of the more fun cues that shifts between a slightly march like melody and a Jazz combo middle section (and if you listen closely you'll hear Danny's Sub-theme from Hulk).

"The Quadruped Patrol" is a darkly humorous romp with "two dogs" tearing up a city street and is one of the most enjoyably chaotic cues I've ever heard. "Bells and Whistles" is the only real let-down on the album but it still has it's moments, most notably toward the end when the brass comes to the foreground and the piece comes to a conlusion.

After a short reprise of "the Quadruped Patrol" called "End Tag", "Improv for Alto Sax" comes next. It is nice and mellow and is a good end to the album. Listen closely to this piece and you'll hear a theme from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory buried in there.

Now I know what you're thinking, I left out a piece. Not really, I just saved the best for last. Words cannot describe the piece entitled "I Forget". It is simply perfect!Even now after multiple listenings, I am at a loss for words! This is the kind of music that instantly puts an image in my brain yet again it's an image I can't describe. It's like some kind of haunting journey. The use of choir makes it even more outstanding. If you buy this album for "I Forget" alone, It is still worth every penny.

Oh, by the way, There is an extremely creepy clown picture in the jacket. Just warning you if you have an aversion to clowns. If you like creepy clowns, then you'll love the picture.

BUY THIS CD!!!

In Danny Elfman's latest work, he really showed his range without losing himself in the music. Every movement is fabulous; they're all deliciouly dark and half-crazed, but have little vignettes laced with fun, beauty and sorrow throughout.

This is an incredibly delightful piece; those with high expectations from him will not be disappointed! I am still not tired of listening to this.

As the title states, Danny Elfman's Serenada Schizophrana is not the kind of music I usually listen to. Beatles, Steely Dan, Crash Test Dummies, Bare Naked Ladies are just a few of the bands I listen to. But every once and a while I put on some classical music.

To be honest, I prefer most of my music on CD, via Ipod or my computer using high resolution (24/96) music files, or dvd-audio, but you get the kind of music you like in the format you can get it.

Danny Elfman's Serenada Schizophrana has become my favourite album of all time. I bought an SACD player just for Steely Dan's Aja album. Serenada was my second SACD and in my opinion, it was worth buying the player just for this album. I'm not a fanatic. I didn't spend a small fortune on my system. I have a small inexpensive headphone amp connected to the stereo outputs of the SACD player, which I listen to on some decent headphones.

IMHO, SACD sounds better then CDs when you get a decent recording, which Serenada Schizophrana is. I've noticed on some CDs that multiple instruments playing at the same time can muddy some or all of the instruments sounds. SACD is much clearer. It also has a much broader difference between clear low sounds and clear loud sounds, (dynamic range), then CDs or records, which on the whole is good. I prefer to listen to music at the lowest volume setting possible while being able to hear the lowest sounding notes. I don't care to damage my hearing.

Serenada flows well from one set to the next. Its surprising how much enjoyment I get from listening to it. My favourite track is "I forget". My least favourite track is 6, Bells and Whistles. The entire work is complex, thrilling, compelling and mesmerizing. I would dearly love to hear Serenada Schizophrana performed live. If I was to have any complaint of the work, I would say its simply too short.

Serenada was my introduction to Danny Elfman. Of course, if you've seen a movie, chances are you've heard his music, but I didn't know that before. I don't research bands, or collect every album, or find every possible different recording of the same music. I find what I enjoy, and listen to it. Now I'm listening to Elfman's other works, including his Oingo Boingo days, trying to find albums and scores I like as much as this one. So far, I haven't found any.

Serenada Schizophran is not only worth the price of the SACD, its worth buying an SACD player for.

I find the this album most compelling after a long hard day, as I drift off to sleep for the night. I let the music invade my dreams. No matter how bad the day, I find myself going to sleep with a smile.

Please Mr. Elfman, may I have another?

Before purchasing this multichannel SACD my only exposure to Danny Elfman was via some of Tim Burton's movies. I've liked the music in those movies so decided to give this a try. I was not disappointed. The music is great and the recording quality is excellent. The use of the surrounds is appropriate for this type of music and is not at all gimmicky. The surrounds really add to the enjoyment of the recording. Highly recommended.