Beyond Borders [SOUNDTRACK]

James Horner (Composer)

Product Details

• Composer: James Horner
• Audio CD (November 18, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Varese Sarabande
• ASIN: B0000UX4UI
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #23,721 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a pretty good james horner score, November 24, 2003

By	Anthony1778 (USA) - See all my reviews

If you are looking for something of a departure for James Horner and his usual sappy string themes, then Beyond Borders is for you. While this score does have a georgeous main theme, it is not overscored, but instead uses light strings with a heavenly children's choir. the use of synths will either make or break this score for you, with some synths appropriately placed to set the mood for the location, and others just put to provide cheap score, which gets rather annoying at times. but when horner utilizes the use of orchestra along with synths, it sounds surprisingly good, but it is rare. overall this is a horner score not to be missed, because it is a departure from normal Horner style, and horner comes up with some new ideas that sound rather good. I give this album 4 out of 5 stars.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 3 and a half... Very surprising., December 28, 2003

By	Jason Farcone (Mukilteo, Wa United States) - See all my reviews

Very poetic, moving, and surprisingly distinct score from Mr. James Horner, one of the most emotionally-captivating film composers of the past few decades, as well as the most leeched for his unoriginality and plagiarism. The reviews of the film were hysterically bad -- I never saw it -- and that, I believe, caused this score to come and go (even within the film music community) with the wind... It's a shame, because this is a worthy score that should be heard by Horner nay-sayers.

The score isn't structurally as engaging as it is on a purely thematic level. There's a boatload of themes, many of the utmost quality, performed by strings, piano, and choir. Very good stuff. Likewise, there's also some very interesting, and different, synthesizer work from Horner ("Cambodia II") that is a nice change of pace.

I guess ultimately, however, the reason I find this score less than, oh, "excellent" is because it doesn't seem to function as much as one score, with one narrative, as it does a compilation of sorts. That makes sense, too, after looking at the track titles. There's not a whole lot of coherence, in my opinion, and despite containing some gorgeous melodies, it's in fact not a very memorable score.

Still, oh-so-pleasant on the ears...

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful score!, November 20, 2003

By	T. Shioji "Tina" (Long Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The first track takes my breath away ("Ethiopia, 'i'" section - opening scene when she (Angelina Jolie's character) first goes to Africa).

The CD Booklet - contains black and white images from the film mostly of actors, Jolie and (Clive) Owen, the last page has a full credit list of the Hollywood Studio Symphony. There are no comments or notes from James Horner.

The CD is divided into three sections (with 12 tracks) - Ethiopia, Cambodia and Chechnya (4 tracks in each section).

Aside from the lovely orchestra sounds there were some very synthesized sounds (which I, personally, did not care too much for).

There are two tracks on the CD that are not Horners work - "Tirut Tebatin Lig" (track 2) and Schuman's "Traumerai" (track 11), but these tracks fit perfectly with the film score.