K2

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

In Hans Zimmer's expanded career so far there have been few that received the commercial outlet. K2, a mountain thriller comparable to Vertical Limit now in scope has drawn the line in several countries to a minimum standard of that outlet. The score received the attention in Europe but was replaced by a different score for the American public and so they couldn't hear Zimmer's score in its ultimate form. I on the other hand got my hands on the European release and saw by accident several scenes of the movie. Quickly to realize that, in my opinion they made a fault by sequencing each musical moment together, to receive the two gigantic mammoths found on the release of Varese Sarabande. I definitely discovered that the musical moments weren't as long as those in the movie, they sort of glued the moments together. In other words, instead of giving us 5 to 10 tracks of 2 to 5 minutes (which I think is the best way) they offered one piece of 27 minutes, and another one of 13. We have had this before but in a way this bothers because the music isn't as interesting as say Crimson Tide or The Peacemaker, you feel as if you want to separate them yourself near the end.

The score itself has a lot in common with other soundtracks of Zimmer, first of all Backdraft, with the use of several sound effects and certain mood preparations, secondly Drop Zone by its mere feel of the electric guitar by Pete Haycock (which of course puts the resemblance in small ways to Thelma and Louise), other small recurrences lead surprisingly to The Prince of Egypt and Gladiator (the mere fact of the Southern influence in the movie, when they reach certain borders of certain countries). K2 has in fact the feeling of using ideas that Hans Zimmer seemed to develop in other soundtracks, past as future ones. Probably because the score was rejected and only has found its ways into the European network. But the major problem of the score in my opinion are the immense track times, Zimmer gave us some good moments of score, and if they resemble the style of Backdraft and Drop Zone they can't be bad, but this also means that the score loses my interest when we reach the moments that aren't so stimulating. They put you in sort of an uninteresting mood which continues to happen with each less then stimulating aspect of the score. K2 would have benefited from a wider use of tracks, if only to give the people the opportunity to visit their favorite moments, and not to push fast forward for a sequence on the 13th minute.

I wonder what Hans himself feels about this score, it is in my opinion a solid score with its doses of better material, but as said I cant lure myself to listen to it more, simply for the fact that it all feels to last forever. Zimmer's use of synthesizers adds other prime instruments, by all surprise an orchestra (no word of size, name of amount of musicians) and several instruments including cello, solo viola and the ethnic instruments performed by Richard Harvey (Animal Farm). Last we discovered the performances of Pete Haycock and we supposed to hear moments of score composed by Nick Glennie - Smith. K2 isn't the strongest competitor in its genre, but offers moments that resemble other fine releases of Zimmer, and works extremely nice in the movie (those that rejected this score should had been deaf). So K2 is interesting for the Zimmer fans and those that don't have anything against massive tracks of 27 minutes, I on the other hand discovered to lose the attention more then often, especially in the second track, and isn't one score I will listen to much often. It feels to drag when it should have been the lesser burden, recording to the mountaineers. K2 is a score on reserve, and should be examined close in any way or form before picking it up, for whatever the cost or the price.

\ЕЕ1/2/

Tracks

Single Disc

1. The Ascent (27.37)

2. The Decent (13.41)

Total Length: 41.24

The use of artwork or photos is posted for non profitable reasons

=== Link to Composer Site: Hans Zimmer ===