Disclosure Day
A Soundtrack Review
by Mikko Ojala
Disclosure Day is the 30th collaboration between Steven Spielberg and John Williams, one of the most enduring and celebrated collaborations between a director and composer in cinema history. Spielberg himself seems to be still going strong and continues to direct and produce at 79 and perhaps even more amazingly John Williams still at 94 has composed a lengthy score for this new science fiction outing. This director/composer pairing has quite a legacy where sci-fi cinema is concerned having brought us classics like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. – The Extra-Terrestrial, where Williams’ indelible scores were a huge part of the narrative and success of the movies. The duo also later in their career has taken us to the far future in their part sci-fi part fairy tale A.I. – Artificial Intelligence with a ruminative, eclectic score emotionally rooted in gentle melodies, and also explored the darker side of a first contact with aliens in War of the Worlds, where the music formed a dark undercurrent and aggressive, primal force which propelled the narrative along and mourned the Humanity suffering in the hands of the alien invaders.
It might bear repeating that having the grand Maestro of film music himself still composing (and conducting!) at the age of 94 is a small miracle and each new film score or musical creation from him is a true blessing. But while I evoked Close Encounters and E.T. above, it has to be said to temper the expectations a bit, as this new score is a very different beast in scope and style than those collaborations. Reportedly Spielberg and Williams both decided that the music for Disclosure Day should work underneath or behind the film rather than to take the forefront or lead it, and the result sounds very much like a modern era Spielberg/Williams collaboration in the vein of early 2000s Minority Report and War of the Worlds with a dash of A.I. – Artificial Intelligence thrown into the mix. Typically for Williams, the score is written for a standard symphonic ensemble, and many sections of the soundtrack are surprisingly intimate and small scale; Williams has given several instruments, such as piano, harp, oboe, horn and timpani solo parts throughout the score. Williams blends this traditional orchestral writing here and there with synthesizer/electronica effects that mostly provide the beats and pulses that drive the suspense and action and infuse the music with some modern scoring sensibilities.
The album opens with the aptly named listen… which certainly grabs your attention as it introduces a noble, yearning theme on solo horn that is taken over by the impassioned strings and developed in a concert suite like manner, passing the idea through the orchestra and extending it into a wonderful elegiac meditation. No wonder this piece was released as a single before the film and the soundtrack album came out. It is beautiful and directly emotional piece of refined modern Williams writing. As ever the composer’s melodic gifts are on full display here, however in this score some of his themes seem to function more as individual singular melodies on the album rather than systematically integrated into the fabric of the score or repeated on subsequent tracks. Such is also the fate of the theme from listen… Apart from a short hummed quote heard on the track in vivo…it is only heard again in the reprise…also first hummed by a female soloist and then in a modern, ostinato driven, brass punctuated setting, which actually works quite nicely as a bookending musical idea for the album.
The second track memories… introduces the second major musical idea featured in the score itself, a dreamy, gentle theme, which is performed first haltingly on piano and then sung out by solo horn and explored by harp and flute over strings. It is a searching, a bit elusive, nostalgic, childlike tune very much in the style of A.I.-Artificial Intelligence. It is further explored here and there in snippets throughout the album, but most noticeably in the latter half of the lengthy and appropriately heavenly sounding celestial…The track opens with beautiful, luminous, wordless female choral writing, until in the latter half the memories melody is intoned by a solo horn and then by glockenspiel with gorgeous harp accompaniment to a wonderful effect. Again, this piece reminded me of similarly styled music in A.I. – Artificial Intelligence and it is one of the highlights of the album.
Third notable melodic idea of the album appears in empathy…and is a sorrowful, heartbreaking theme starting on a simple piano and growing into another gorgeous string elegy that is full of the direct, affecting emotionality that the composer seems to be able to conjure with such seeming ease. It is only tempered by its brevity here as yet again this seems to be another one-off melody, which Williams then uses to form the final part of his end credits in reprise…
In believe… Williams again writes singular, beautiful, simple musical idea, where a lilting piano over string accompaniment is ascending through the melody somewhere between hopeful and bittersweet. Wonderful stuff. But then the track makes a complete 180-degree turn and suddenly launches into a short statement of one of those classic Williams fugato marches for strings, that certainly seems to hint at skulduggery and military presence.
The suspense and action music in the score is very much in the modern Williams vein, meaning that these pieces take their cue from the dark, sustained low string sounds and synth embellishments and the propulsive, kinetic scoring style of his 2000s action writing that largely forgoes melodies in favour forward momentum and quick changing motivic ideas. First example of this suspense and intrigue is the dive… which opens with long mysterious string and brass lines and synth pulses that proceed to terrific intrigue-laden, jittery col legno and pizzicato passages from the lower string section and ethereal synth effects. in vivo…builds a mysterious, slightly chilling atmosphere through sustained high strings, piano, harp, and female chorus until a brief female soloist hummed quote of the listen theme rears its head towards the end. Negotiation… from the other end of the sonic spectrum is pure atmosphere as it churns slowly in lower strings, celli and double basses, and lower brass to create a dark, thoroughly ominous soundscape that slowly develops into grim brass chords and pounding timpani.
The album does not feature many full bloodied action set pieces but the ones that are here are certainly intense. The just little over 2 minutes long and succinctly named chase… features Williams trademark forward chugging rhythmic string, woodwind and vintage brass writing peppered with angry, meaty percussion and timpani hits without forgetting the composer’s classic flute and xylophone accents. In unseen…Williams conjures the forward momentum with pulsating low woodwinds, brass and strings with strident timpani punctuating the driving orchestral pulse and clearly ramping up the tension and momentum, which is undeniably effective. signs…is a brief track that opens with gradually growing overlapping repeated string and woodwind ostinato figures that crescendo into sinister, atmospheric orchestral and ghostly synth effects in the latter half. home…starts off with a churning, driving string figures, quite wonderful unique synth harp effects and brass before developing halfway into another poignant and hopeful string elegy.
The album features several lengthy tracks that move through varied moods and narrative beats like the gorgeous celestial… The intriguingly named kcxe…again combines the modern synth pulses with the orchestra, its rhythmic bass drum hits, string ostinati and fateful brass chords that keep steadily ascending to raise the dramatic stakes until released in a sudden, brief heroic fanfare and a mournful denouement for elegiac strings. caught…runs the gamut of various moods from wonderful, pensive solos for oboe, bassoon and clarinet and noble horn, to hints of the memories theme moving to scary musical avant garde effects of the Close Encounters variety and all the way to the finale of strident brass, chugging strings and percussion. The penultimate track of the album, disclosure… doesn’t actually bring the score to a grandiose finale but is very much an exercise in restraint with a throbbing synth pulses subtly driving the piece forward under harp and alternating string ostinati lines that never quite coalesce into a clear melody or theme and ending the score with bit of a musical whisper.
And finally reprise…that rounds out the album gathers all three major melodies present in the score into a single satisfying summation first introducing a variation of the listen…with a busy modern ostinato figures very effectively livening the music underneath and then memories… first in a brass and then a full orchestra setting before ending with a lengthy reprise of the empathy…theme that brings the album to a somewhat melancholy close. This is very much a classic Williams end credits piece with some modern touches added and a great way to end the experience.
As I said at the start of the review, every new John Williams score is to be cherished, and Disclosure Day is no exception. Musically everything we have come to expect from John Williams is here: Well written melodies, finely detailed orchestrations, driving action music, dark suspense and gentle sense of awe and wonder. It is amazing how Williams at 94 is still writing music at this level. And while the score might not reach the lofty heights of many previous legendary Spielberg/Williams collaborations, on the album the score is a very solid and entertaining listening experience with a lot to enjoy for the fans of the Maestro’s orchestral magic.
TRACK LIST
- listen… (4:08)
- memory… (4:07)
- dive… (4:37)
- chase… (2:14)
- believe… (3:35)
- in vivo… (2:49)
- negotiation… (3:25)
- empathy… (2:24)
- celestial… (6:50)
- unseen… (3:09)
- kcxe… (5:56)
- signs… (2:37)
- home… (3:37)
- caught… (5:56)
- disclosure… (4:22)
- reprise… (4:54)
TOTAL TIME – 64:40
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