The Basil Poledouris collection Vol 3

Dragon’s Domain Records presents THE BASIL POLEDOURIS COLLECTION, VOLUME 3, featuring two previously unreleased scores composed by Basil Poledouris (CONAN THE BARBARIAN, THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, LONESOME DOVE, FREE WILLY) during his early days as a film composer.

1977’s TINTORERA: KILLER SHARK is renowned in bad movie circles, but contains an excellent score. While the title of this Mexican exploitation movie promises JAWS-like terror and suspense, the actual film is not really so much about killer sharks but about two guys who spend their time hunting and bedding warm, willing women and only briefly actually hunting and snuffing cold, hungry sharks. 1979’s DOLPHIN is an ecological documentary about the plight of the dolphins in the late ‘70s, really one of the first documentary films to recognize and examine the intelligence of these oceanic mammals and promote the notion that they should not be regarded as commodities for our entertainment or the by-catch of the Tuna industry. Both scores obviously appealed to Basil due to his love of the sea and of sailing, and both scores reflect the passion of a rising young musician soon to emerge into his fullness as a composer.

Basil’s musical score for TINTORERA is a mix of synth-based suspense tracks and catchy pop rhythms; he also composed and arranged the film’s main song. By successfully steering away from any musical reference to JAWS in his TINTORERA score, Basil created a potent shark motif of his own using the low growling drones of a Moog synthesizer, accompanied by a variety of percussion, keyboard, and other underwater noises that essentially create the sound of being underwater, circled by a menacing, killer shark. Two lighter themes focus on the characters as they pursue their licentious lifestyles, sharing and trading partners with hedonistic abandon; these tuneful, poppy/jazzy melodies featuring woodwind, saxophone, marimba, acoustic and electric guitars and keyboards are taken through a number of variations associated with love scenes, tourist destinations and montages.

For DOLPHIN, Basil provided a gentle, rhythmic main theme and many specific pieces of music for the film’s individual segments. The score was written for a small ensemble consisting of five players using a simple palette of guitars, bass, keyboards, synthesizers, drums, and percussion; Poledouris is among them, playing keyboards. The result is a quietly intimate score built around folk melody and harmonic structures that fit each segment’s tone that is also a delight to listen to on its own.