Existenz: Music from the Motion Picture [Soundtrack]

Howard Shore | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 13, 1999)
• Original Release Date: April 13, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B00000IKTD
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #245,905 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. eXistenZ By Antenna

2. MetaFlesh Game-Pods

3. Reality Bleed Through Effect

4. UmbyCord

5. Organic Pod Technology

6. Pop Your Spine With A Little Hydro-Gun

7. A Genuine Game Urge

8. Inssect Boards

9. Original Marway Tissue Architecture

10. Viral Ectasy

11. Trout Farm

12. Genius In A Game-Pod

13. What's So Special About The Special?

14. Hypoallergenic Weapons

15. An Element Of Psychosis

16. Traumatized Nervous System

17. Anti-eXistenZialists

18. Industrial Espionage Happens

19. TranscendenZ By Pilgrlmage

20. It Neural-Surged

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Shore and Cronenberg with another winner!, May 4, 1999

By 

Claude Avary "West Coast Reader" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Existenz: Music from the Motion Picture (Audio CD)

Shore has been collaborating with sci-fi and horror master David Cronenberg since the 1970s, and this score is yet another wonderful result. Like many of Shore's dark and brooding scores (THE GAME comes to mind) this isn't a CD from which you can pick favorite tracks -- there is really only one track that had to be divided into multiple parts. Most of the tracks sound similar and cannot be differentiated easily -- but in Shore's case this isn't criticism but praise. The score is like a book: you can't skip to one part and read it on its own and expect full gratification. The only way to listen to this CD is to pop into your player, press play, and let it unwind and permeated the room. A wonderful exericise in gloomy, doom-ridden atmospherics. Check out the movie, too -- the best thing Cronenberg has done since DEAD RINGERS.

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrifyingly beautiful soundtrack from a fantastic film!, August 21, 2011

By 

Patrick Devlin (California, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Existenz: Music from the Motion Picture (Audio CD)

I never am in a mood where I don't want to listen to this music. Moody, strange, and mysterious - this music always sends me into a trance-like feeling (reality?!) which is exactly what Howard Shore was aiming at with it. As music accompanying one of my all time favorite films, I greatly appreciate this music from eXistenZ.

You follow Ted Pikul's strange adventures through the gigantic computer game structure accompanied by this music and in a way you become Ted Pikul or Allegra Geller as you absorb this music. One of the things I particularly like about this music is its universality: you can listen to it when you're excited, exuberant, depressed, sleepy, or wide awake. It doesn't matter.

This is an impressive score from Howard Shore's pen, and I encourage you to buy this - it is one purchase that you will never regret!

"Hey, tell me the truth... are we still in the game?" - The Waiter

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the great Howard Shore's very best, April 15, 2011

By 

Charles Wilson "Equal-Opportunity Dilettante" (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Existenz: Music from the Motion Picture (Audio CD)

At first, like the other reviewer, I heard this score as one long variation on the same obsessive musical idea, much like the film. That alone would be enough to earn a high rating, because of what a great theme Shore is working with. But over time, I've come to appreciate just how varied and subtle this work really is. Yes, there is that harp ostinato that drives the overall piece rhythmically and musically, and those Shore-like stacked string chords augmented by synthesizer, running throughout. But he manages to find so many different ways to present these elements, and the mounting tension is so effectively handled, that this has ended up being one of my very favorite Shore scores.

He was really on fire during this period, especially with his scores for Cronenberg films. Along with Crash: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Naked Lunch [Music from the Original Soundtrack] from this same time period, this score marks the highlight of one of Shore's many reincarnations throughout an amazing career. He would later go on to surprise everyone, including me, with the incredible scale and intricacy of his Lord of the Rings scores.