From Hell [Soundtrack]

Trevor Jones

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 16, 2001)
• Original Release Date: October 19, 2001
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Varèse Sarabande
• ASIN: B00005QK23
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #68,114 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Nobodies [Wormwood Remix] - Marilyn Manson

2. In Memoriam

3. Royal Connections

4. Sprig of Red Grapes

5. Whitechapel Murders

6. Chasing the Dragon

7. Portrait of a Prince

8. Compass and the Ruler

9. Marylebone Workhouse

10. Investigation

11. Death Coach

12. Pennies for the Ferryman

13. Bow Belle (Absinthium)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

If twin-brother filmmakers Allen and Albert Hughes wanted to deliberately mess with their reputation as masters of the contemporary black urban milieu, they couldn't have chosen a better vehicle than a faithful adaptation of Alan Moore's graphic novel and its ominous exploits of notorious serial killer Jack the Ripper on the shadowy streets of Victorian London. This soundtrack album opens with the "Wormwood Remix" of Marilyn Manson's Holy Wood single "The Nobodies," an obvious bow to contemporary marketing that nevertheless sets the proper tone with its bleak ethos and jagged rhythms.

But it's the dark, brooding score of largely unsung South African composer Trevor Jones that's the real focus here. Jones's masterful use of orchestral color and pacing, punctuated by slight percussive, choral, and electronic flourishes, paints a musical landscape as bleak as it is suspenseful. The composer's use of melody is spare, deliberate, and minor key, helping to infuse the score with a very human sense of melancholy even as it tightens the screws of dramatic tension. The concluding track, "Bow Belle (Absinthium)," offers up the strangest treat: a swirling, psychedelic cocktail of twisted, 19th-century ballroom gentility and contemporary digital sorcery that seems to crackle through a gramophone player. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful score...Perfect!, July 24, 2002

By A Customer

The horror/suspense genre has continually turned out some of the best film scores ever (think THE OMEN, ALIEN, INTERVIEW with the VAMPIRE, PSYCHO, JACOB'S LADDER, HELLRAISER II, etc.) yet its composers' work (Hermann, Goldenthal, Jarre, Young) goes largely overlooked and underappreciated. One of the masters of the genre (Howard Shore of David Cronenberg fame) got his due this past year (rightfully so) w/ his masterful score for LORD OF THE RINGS. However, 2001 also saw another masterful score from Trevor Jones, a man who hits a career high with his take on themes such as love, death, disease, desire, addiction, remorse, melancholy, and rememberence. To be sure, this is a "dark" score, as "high gothic" as any Requiem or cathedral in France. The score here expands past the limits of the film's narrative (that of Jack the Ripper) and soars into a larger territory, probing ultimately the dark & foggy territory of the lusciously unknown. Of course, we could do w/o the Manson song at the beginning (there to make some extra money for the studio no doubt) but the start of the score (track 2) more than makes up for this mistake, offering the listener a suite of sorts encompassing most of the themes and motifs to be elaborated on over the course of the entire score. Not only is this track worth the price of this cd but it also showcases why Trevor Jones now joins the ranks of the contemporary masters.

(Also give a listen to Han Zimmer's score for HANNIBAL if you like this one.)

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TRAILER MUSIC FROM HELL, June 1, 2003

By	wolf (FRANCE) - See all my reviews

informations about the trailer music for you people. The real title is "REFLECT TREE WHISPERS" and it is from BILLY CORGAN, last song on stigmata's soundtrack. This trailer song is excellent.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Trevor Jones' solid soundtrack for "From Hell", May 27, 2004

By	Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (VINE VOICE)

Trevor Jones provides a solid if not spectacular soundtrack for "From Hell," which is actually a good thing. I have seen too many horror films where the chills are supposed to come from the loud and omnipresent musical score instead of the action on screen. The Hughes Brothers had the story of Jack the Ripper to work with and while they actually did not get as explicit as the historical record allowed them with regards to the Ripper's victims, there is enough that the music is required to add to the scenes and not carry them.

Obvious Jones is trying to come up with a gothic score with Victorian overtones (or visa versa; either way, both elements are equally strong). Because it is a horror film the use of strings is important, but Jones does this without falling into the "Psycho" psychotic slashing mode, which explains why the Academy of St. Martins in the Field was the orchestra of choice. They are going to give Jones the period feel that he wants for this score. There are even some Chinese touches, reflecting the opium den frequented once too often by the film's hero. Yes, opening the album with the "Wormwood Mix" of Marilyn Manson's single "The Nobodies" is a marketing ploy, but then it is the rare soundtrack that does not have some recognizable voice pop up in the closing credits and starting singing a song. But even with that track leading off the album there is still over an hour's worth of music from Trevor's score (most of the tracks are 5-8 minutes in length).

"In Memoriam" establishes the main theme of the film through a nice mixture of strings and choir that belies for the moment the horrors ahead. Only "Portrait of a Prince" and "Pennies for the Ferryman" allow moments of beauty and light comes back into the score. Most of the tracks focus, such as "Sprig of Red Grapes" and "Death Coach," on the horrors of the Ripper and his murders. Throughout Jones develops the requisite sense of unease and tension through the use of cellos and basses. The soundtrack ends with "Bow Belle (Absinthium)," written by Trevor Jones and Victoria Seale, performed by Amanda Floyd and Heather Cairncroft, and done so that it sounds like you are listening to it over a old fashioned gramaphone, which makes for an interesting bookend to the opening Manson track. "From Hell" does not qualify as a classic horror film score, but Jones still provides something worth listening to on its own.