Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek is the pair who created together Lola Rent, One Hour Photo and Land of the Dead and while the first 2 come over as the ones who stirred up the most intriguing notice of all, the last one is the only one which is remembered in the end because its basically the most commercial film of the trio. So it was inevitably a mere question mark response of how we actually had to approach Perfume as an experience? Thing is that director Tom Tykwer lend his vision upon the music too and so they created together one of the year's most intriguing experiences. Never will you question again the mere effect this score embodies and how easily it lets you sink in the story of scents and murders itself. Call it a dark yet powerful score that brings forward all the treats a thriller score should have. The only thing they mixed together with the scent was, sheer mood and a drop of emotion. Voila, Perfume was created. With 'Prologue / The Highest Point' Perfume starts to unravel its unique own scent, with an intriguing mood that doesn't stop until the CD has finished playing. And in 'Streets of Paris' they bring forward their first theme which is for me Grenouille's own theme, here from mere piano it swells to an enticing string pact that shows in a way the beauty of the city and yet the mystery that surrounds it. With 'The Girl with the Plums' its clear how the artists want to paint their score. In a moody surrounding but covering a stroke of broiling essence that can explode in any way, powerful, rhythmic or emotionally captivating, here its captivating with its vocal and string sound and voila, the mystery theme is born. However with 'Grenouille's Childhood' an example is presented how you can build upon mere eeriness to a mesmerizing effect with just high strings, sharp vocals and flutes to create this unfelt scenery that screams for uneasiness. What's more striking however is 'Distilling Roses' because this is a textbook performance of how easily emotion is embodied in a Basic Instinct texture, the sense of emotion never escapes this one. 'The 13th Essence' comes around as more Basic Instinct but also more as a dance as it shifts between these various instruments as seductive as the smell itself, its incredibly innovative in its eerie effect. 'Lost Lose' tries to create then further emotion with a vocal over a somber setting. With the classical 'Moorish Scents' and the vocal surrounding the orchestra in 'Meeting Laura' sounds stunning and beautiful. An effective beat is heard in 'The Method Works!' and by now you know the method itself of this score, always an underscore that grows or lingers behind and in between mere vocals make the enticing change, also here.

Its however different when they go for a more gun ho approach that they leave their underscore for once behind and go for mere orchestral bombast, like in 'Grasse in Panic', now the underscore becomes the actual score and plays on the foreground, showing a sense of danger along with a chanting choir that scares you immensely at times, even with an organ the thing sounds truly impressive together. It's 'Richi's Escape' that is noticed however more, because as known mere percussion can make a score so much more powerful and riveting. Even whirling strings create a case of rhythmic intensity. This is one of those tracks that suddenly show the composer's might together in the other genre, the bombastic genre. The sense of eeriness is back for 'Laura's Murder' and mere strings and vocals create once more the enticing mix, this piece comes however close to a classical recording I heard once. The score grows its way through 'Awaiting Execution' from eeriness to powerful suspense back to eeriness. Its however in the next take that all 3 composers create the cue 'Perfume' that will make all the fuzz surrounding Perfume, this is a perfect example of eeriness growing to full bloodied carnage, powerful resolution and amazing texture. This is a 5 minute tour de force of mood that blows you away. In a way it resembles Heat on occasions (the last piece by Moby for the finale of that film). Its however truly amazing to hear this after 50 minutes of light suspense. With 'The Crowd Embrace' the emotional high note is created with the classical tilted piece, bringing back the main theme but now with choral support. The piano treatment in the begin of 'Perfume / Distilled' is a nice change of scenery for once but it soon changes back to the playful dance serenade of 5 and 6, meaning more of Basic Instinct emotion. Its until we receive the whirling strings and the feeling of chase and be chased that this track shows his qualities again, including too is the Goldenthal carnage of clusters and atonality in its most expressive form yet. The mysterious theme returns one final time in 'Epilogue / Leaving Grasse' and slowly fades out in the eerie calmness that started this enticing motion picture score. Again its amazing this comes from Klimek and Heil, the ones who drove anyone berserk with Land of the Dead, and even though One Hour Photo essentially covers the same mood building and structure, Perfume does it orchestral all the way, and this is essentially always more enticing. Make no mistake about it, Perfume is alongside The Da Vinci Code the best classically trained score of the year and both deserved a nomination in whatever genre. That they were neglected hasn't got anything to do with the brilliant mood these 2 scores just embody in one hour of mesmerizing bleakness.

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Tracks

Single Disc

1. Prologue / The Highest Point (1.51)

2. Streets Of Paris (3.11)

3. The Girls With The Plums (5.27)

4. Grenouille's Childhood (5.16) Excellent Track

5. Distilling Roses (1.52)

6. The 13th Essence (2.29)

7. Lost Love (1.45)

8. Moorish Scents (5.15)

9. Meeting Laura (4.14) Excellent Track

10. The Method Works! (3.32)

11. Grasse In Panic (5.33)

12. Richi's Escape (4.30) Excellent Track

13. Laura's Murder (3.06)

14. Awaiting Execution (3.07)

15. The Perfume (5.32) Excellent Track

16. The Crowd Embrace (3.05) Excellent Track

17. Perfume / Distilled (7.11)

18. Epilogue / Leaving Grasse (3.01)

Total Length: 70.03

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