From the Earth to the Moon: Mare Tranquilitates (Promo)

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

From the Earth to the Moon were powerful series in space, a bit like Band of Brothers and since Tom Hanks equally was a part of crew and cast, it was noticeable it was done with fan attention and flair abound. The composers on the series were equally an impressive list of their own, Jeff Beal, the forgotten Brad Fiedel nowadays, the late Michael Kamen (who got on to score the equally as said celebrated Band of Brothers), Mark Mancina, Mark Isham & Mason Daring were just all the composers on board, except of course for James Newton Howard who scored Mare Tranquilitatis, written wrongly on the cover of the promo. Yes, indeed only the material (and only some cues) of Michael Kamen surfaced on a soundtrack release along with songs, and so the contributions of all these composers were only heard in the series themselves. Apart from Mancina, Kamen & Newton Howard of where promos / bootlegs surfaced for fan enjoyment. But fan enjoyment I don't know? Since this 30 minute CD is covering nice music and would be a lovely addition to the Howard cannon if only the quality of the sound would have been that of a true commercial release. Of course, you can say "its your own fault when searching for the hard to get non commercial release", and true you got a point there. But my point is equally as strong, namely good music deserves to be heard. And From the Earth to the Moon is covering nice music overall, with occasionally a Apollo 13 feeling rising from Howard's score. Some feeling of that Horner epic is found in minimal sings, naturally the topic itself is daring to mention it a few times, but occasionally the light choir or brief inspirational moments push us equally to that statement. 'Apollo XI Liftoff' starts gently with light choir, a lovely but soft main theme and drums leading to something loud and powerful, but the sudden drop of sound is astonishing to make sure your pleasure is at least half gone. The main theme softly states its presence but you will not sing so fully with it!

And the soft, truly soft tone of this recording continues to ignore the obvious light music of Howard, 'The Lunar Landing Research Vehicle' is acceptable in both tone as sound, its more on edge too with darker sounding horns (Fugitive like) and it states the theme on horn solo, but still lacks the true punch. What you can hear of the almost super soft 'Who's Gonna Get out First?' is a success, because if not loud played you don't hear nothing at all. 'Training in the Sim' is a bit of light suspense music but the real important cues start from nr. 5. 'Undocking / Power Descent / Landing on the Moon' is the big one, stating first nice growing fantasy moments with added choir (giving here a true basis feel of The Dig's enchanting wonder) which moves after 8 to 9 minutes to something edgier, a bit more suspense (though lighter) and from time to time you hear Atlantis in the more moody tones. The sudden burst of choir and through its recording is a nice surprise for 'The Eagle has Landed / A Prayer on the Moon' before returning to really soft music. Luckily the recording graces us a bit with 'One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for Mankind', because here the sound is a bit up to par with its score. Its the best recording of the CD, but still you wish to receive it in the best sound circumstances, but here choir shows the fantasy of space, main theme and choir more then once are noticed in a beautiful mix with enchanting vocal performances, but I wished the whole score could sound so much better in its recording. From the Earth to the Moon isn't truly brilliant, but its very nice to hear such a more subdued score growing occasionally with choir and orchestra in a fantasy surrounding. And if done in true clarity, power and perfect mixing, it would easily become a selling score of Newton Howard. To think more music like this (from the other composers) still is out there is a quest to pursue, but I still know James Newton Howard's score is a nice way to start, and would have been given a better rating if it all sounded much better in tone.

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Tracks

Single Disc

1. Apollo XI Liftoff (3.31)

2. The Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (2.42)

3. Who's Gonna Get Out First? (2.30)

4. Training In The Sim (3.15)

5. Undocking / Power Descent / Landing On The Moon (14.21)

6. The Eagle Has Landed / A Prayer On The Moon (3.53)

7. One Small Step For Man, One Giant Leap For Mankind (4.37) Exc. Track

Total Length: 34.53

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=== Link to Composer Site: James Newton Howard ===