Customer Reviews

Wonderland 1999 Film Score

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Just when you thought that it might just be impossible to compose a score more beautiful than that of THE PIANO, Michael Nyman puts pen and calculator to paper yet again, and outmaneuvers his own work.

WONDERLAND, may be his most stunning piece yet, and when juxstaposed with the wrenching images in Michael Winterbottom's emotionally resonant picture, the cold, cold name of Peter Greenway, slowly, (and, for me, thankfully), becomes a distant memory.

Please...see the film. Listen to the music. Or don't. It's up to you. I liked them, though.

The score written by Michael Nyman for Michael Winterbottom's film "Wonderland" is one of the most simple and yet sublime pieces I've ever heard. It is incredible the way that Nyman expresses such intense emotions from seemingly so simple and probably unpromising materials.

This is mature Nyman at his best, far from the dazzling neo-baroque exercises for the Greenaway films (great they were indeed), the british composer writes now in a less spectacular manner but defintively in a deeper and more senstitive way. His orchestrations are here delightfully thin, almost ethereal (relying mostly on strings), while some piano solo's become pristine poetry.

With Wonderland Nyman has achievd beauty in simplicity, with music that goes, rather than to our ears ... straight to our hearts.

I have three Nyman CDs (Gattaca, Drowning by Numbers, and this one) and find them to be uniformly amazing. All of these CDs delight me with their lushness and unparalleled evocativeness. In Gattaca you can hear fiery determination. In Drowning by Numbers you can hear overwhelming desperation and sorrow interspersed with joyful innocence. In this CD you hear a wistful..sometimes restless.. yearning. Don't buy this CD if you dislike subtleties: you will find not only that the main themes are repeated in only moderately different settings, but also that variations within songs are very subtle (eg, there are perhaps only three loud crescendos on the entire CD). Do buy this CD if you enjoy truly beautiful and evocative music.

This is one of the greatest filmscore I've ever listeded to. This composer Michael Nyman knows how to make it right. I've listened to his other work in a movie PIANO which he has more classical approach.
Tracks in this Wonderland has more urban taste. When I listen to this CD, it always reminds me of the scenes of this movie.
I think the movie is excellent too. It's not like recent Hollywood movies which are uncreateve. Actors in this movie are just amazing, story is great, but what's more, it's the music.
I'm currently working on the remix of one of the tracks. I'm fastforwarding the tempo a little bit and adding the beat on it. It really works. I think remix version of this CD should be released.
So just check this CD out, and watch the movie too.

The movie reflects both the subtle and not so subtle compexities of life. The music, mysteriously added an amazing warmth and grounding in quintessential opposition to what was going on in the movie itself. It was always this music that held me. It is beautiful.... An amazing mixture of elements....

If you follow film music you probalbly know Nyman's music from the popular The Piano or Peter Greenaway films like Drowning By The Numbers.The film Wonderland followed the exploits of sevral different British people with all different problems.The movie honestly is forgetable but the music is brillant.Like Philip Glass Michael Nyman's music can stand on it's own apart from the film and does so beautifully here.Each piece of music is named after a character but each piece flows nicely from one to the next.From delicate piano pieces to the soaring intense sequences near the end(for the fireworks scene in the film)this is a terrific musical journey that you don't have to see the film to appeciate.So good Wonderland director Michael Winterbottom reused portions of it years later for his film Nine Songs!If you're the slightest fan of Michael Nyman or classical type music this is a must have.

You are watching a movie. You really like the soundtrack. You think you might buy it. You check it out. Oh. It's Michael Nyman and company. What a coincidence, I already have two soundtracks by him.