This Rugged Coast Soundtrack by Urban Bowerbird (197?)

This Rugged Coast was an Australian documentary series that followed Ben Cropp and his team as they traveled around Queensland's Coral Sea  in the 1970s - like a cross between The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau and Ron & Val Taylor's Inner Space. I discovered it by accident a few years ago while watching late night tv and got so excited by it, I wrote a number of blog articles remarking on its amusing anachronisms and my genuine fondness for the show. As I described the program at the time:

The crew is lead by Cropp perpetually standing alert at the helm in nothing but skimpy bathers and a beard, smoking a pipe and continually lifting his binoculars skyward and scanning the horizon for anything film-worthy. The watery, blue depths are his domain and he presides over them like a tanned Antipodean Neptune. He is joined by Hal the fearless sea-snake expert with a perplexing accent and thick-rimmed glasses, a crew that seems to consist mainly of beach-belles in bikinis (it wasn't clear at first what their capacity on-board was, but Lynn was credited with 'sound' so I can only assume the other girls are equally technically equipped), guys with beards who look like they know a thing or two about boats and of course the ship's cat, Skipper. In tonight's episode, our crew are venturing around a treacherous maze of coral reefs called 'The Coral Labyrinth' (the name is repeated at every opportunity by the voice-over guy who pronounces it 'Lab-ee-rinth' with a faintly rolled 'r'.)

Like all good underwater documentary shows, the drama on  This Rugged Coast is constantly underscored by music. I asked James Pianta of Votary Records, about the source of this music back in 2011 and he said; 

"I actually spoke to Ben Cropp a few years back about releasing his soundtrack music, he was less than interested.

Although he did tell me that he uses library music. This is problematic as unless the original cue sheets exist (they never do) it becomes really hard to source all the tracks let alone licensing."

So, I took it upon myself to piece together a soundtrack by ripping the audio from the DVDs. Most of the audio comes from The Coral Labyrinth episode mentioned above. There is the unavoidable presence of narration and dialogue from the program over the music that, at first bothered me as being 'messy' but which I now rather like as it truly recreates the atmosphere and the ambience of the show.



Now, here's a challenge. All of the music on this soundtrack is sourced from library records - does anyone recognise any of these pieces and can you identify them?

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The Living Soil - CSIRO, Tony Gould (1982)

My never-ending quest for documentary soundtracks, particularly from Australia, continues. Here is a gorgeous short film, The Living Soil, produced by the CSIRO (The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) in 1982 and scored by Melbourne jazz pianist Tony Gould. You can find the music from the film on Chronicle: Orchestral Music of Tony Gould, available on CD from the excellent local label Move Records or on iTunes.

Sinfonia Antartica - Vaughan Williams (195?)

From New Zealand, we move slightly further south, for a musical examination of Antarctica - Vaughan Williams’ Sinfonia Antartica. This piece was adapted from the incidental music Williams’ wrote for the 1948 film Scott Of The Antarctic. The first performance of this sinfonia was in 1953 by the Hallé Orchestra under the direction of Sir John Barbirolli. There is no date anywhere on this LP, but as it is performed by the same ensemble, I’m assuming it was recorded not long after its debut.

Sinfonia Antartica is broken into five movements, all combining elements of soundtrack and modern classical music. The first section (Prelude) starts slowly, with a sense of our team embarking on their great adventure into the unknown. At around the 3:00 mark, things get interesting; we hear the appearance of what the composer referred to as ‘antarctic shimmerings’ of xylophone, piano and harp and an eerie female soprano - sounding as if lifted from a seventies horror movie score - enters the scene. A trumpet fanfare announces the coda, and the orchestra turns its attention to the main melody for the remainder of the section.

The second movement (Scherzo) opens with a whirl of woodwinds and tuned percussion over slightly ominous chords and follows this pattern for the rest of the section. The liner notes inform us that in this section ‘there is the unmistakable sound of penguins’. I’ve listened to this LP a lot and I studied a colony of penguins for my thesis, yet I’ve never been able to discern them on this record. I reckon Scott Goddard is talking nonsense. 

The third and fourth movement (Landscape and Intermezzo) share a band on side two. More antarctic shimmerings can be heard in these movements before building up to a dramatic peak of brass and woodwind. From the liner notes: ‘This is the illusory region of atmospheric and visionary impressions[...] Slowly the landscape reveals itself through the mist and huge outlines appear.’ At around 5:00 (in what I assume is the beginning of the fourth movement) a lovely section of harp, reeds and bass strings is introduced. — At just before 7:00 an organ blasts out of nowhere! Things eventually quiet down and the pace slows; this is the appropriately sombre music which accompanied Oate’s death in the original film score.

The final movement (Epilogue) alludes to all the preceding themes and attempts to wrap them up in a satisfying conclusion. The Epilogue turns the bombast and tragedy up a notch depicting the ultimate fate of our embattled heroes. A wind machine can be heard and the melody from the first movement is repeated. In the final couple of minutes the female soprano reemerges, accompanied by a chorus and more wind machine and nicely evokes the bleakness of the Antarctic landscape.

For other great pieces of music which attempt to evoke the Antarctic, check out Vangelis’s soundtrack to the 1983 film Antarctica and Benjamin Bartlett’s Antarctic Spring and Spirits Of The Ice Forest from the excellent Walking With Dinosaurs soundtrack.

Label: HMV

Released: Mid-fifties

Players: Sir John Barbirolli - conductor

Margaret Ritchie - solo soprano

Hallé Orchestra and choir

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A Place To Stand (Ontar-i-ar-i-ar-i-o) - Dolores Claman (1967)

Despite its unsurprising popularity in Canada, I suspect that few non-hosers are familiar with this charming geographical pop oddity from 1967. This EP is the soundtrack to an Oscar winning short film intended to promote the Canadian province of Ontario, first shown at Expo 67. "So popular has this music become that a demand arose for an original sound track recording, in stereo", the liner notes inform us. 

It begins with a concise vocal version of the song - a jaunty, catchy melody sung with hearty enthusiasm by a chorus of female and male singers. I have unashamedly loved this song from the moment I heard it. It has all the elements of a great pop song and I wholeheartedly suggest incorporating this track into mixes for a bit of unexpected flavour, like adding a dash of fine maple syrup to a meal. The remainder of the EP is taken up by the actual soundtrack to the film, in two parts. These two tracks contain some great material occasionally evoking jazz, Gershwin, SMiLE-era Brian Wilson and general late-sixties soundtrackery.

The song and the soundtrack were written by Dolores Claman who is the subject of some veneration in her home country due to having penned, not only this unofficial anthem, but also the theme to Hockey Night In Canada. In partnership with her husband and lyricist Richard Morris, she composed over 3000 commercial jingles over a 30 year period.

Label: RCA Victor
Released: 1967
Players: Dolores Claman - composer
Richard Morris - lyrics
Jerry Toth - arranger
Rudy Toth - conducter
Larry Trudel - French lyrics

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The Australian Ark - Derek Strahan (1970)

If I had to name an all-time favourite genre it would be nature documentary soundtracks - particularly if they're Australian and from the sixties or seventies. Admittedly, it's a fairly limited genre, so at this point, finding a new one (new to me, anyway) is pretty exciting. While doing a little wandering on the internet, I found the soundtrack to Shell's Australia; a thirteen part series by Robert Raymond documenting the natural history of Australia which originally aired in the early seventies. The soundtrack, titled The Australian Ark, was composed by Derek Strahan during 1969-70 and features the talents of a number of Oz jazz players including John Sangster and Derek Fairbrass. I've only been listening to it since I obtained it this morning, but from my initial impressions, it sounds really, really good. The inclusion of Sangster on percussion lends the soundtrack a very similar feel to Sangster's own soundtrack works and also the celebrated soundtracks of Sven Libaek. I don't have a rip of this album - it was never released on vinyl, although a cassette tape was released by Strahan in 1980 - but the whole thing can be purchased on CD or mp3 from CD Baby. Strahan seems to release all his music independently, so purchasing this album will directly support this Australian composer and his fine work.

If you want to hear some of the music in context, there are a couple of videos of the original documentary available at the National Film and Sound Archive's australianscreen site.

Bush Theme/Lonely Australian Landscape - Sven Libaek (1966)

Here's another gem from Urban Bowerbird favourite Sven Libaek. These two tunes are taken from the nature documentary soundtrack Nature Walkabout, however these are quite different versions to the tracks that appear on the LP. These versions are shorter and have faster tempos than the album versions and a few changes in orchestration and arrangement. The two tracks also seem to be played by a more stripped-down version of Sven's usual ensemble - there are no saxophone, flute or trumpet parts, just piano, guitar, bass, vibes and harmonica on Bush Theme. I am unsure why different versions of these songs were released on the single - is this a standard practice? I have a 7" single from Libaek's Inner Space soundtrack (Thatcherie/Sounds Of The Deep) and it contains exactly the same versions as featured on the LP. Weird.

I always felt that Bush Theme was one of the weaker tracks on Nature Walkabout and I think the increase in tempo and the concision of this arrangement improves it immeasurably. Lonely Australian Landscape on the other hand is one of my favourite of Sven's compositions and I like it even better with this pacing and arrangement. It takes what is already a great melody and gives it an incredible urgency and energy.

Label: Festival
Released: 1966 (I assume; that's when the Nature Walkabout soundtrack was released.)
Players: Unsure, but here's an educated guess: Sven Libaek - piano 

George Golla - guitar
John Sangster - vibes, percussion
Ed Gaston - bass
Derek Fairbrass - drums
Richard Brooks - harmonica

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Discoveries Underwater - Howard J. Davidson (1988)

Everybody loves underwater soundtracks. This obscure, but well-loved genre has become very popular amongst record collectors, culminating in the veneration of records like Sven Libaek's Inner Space which was reissued in 2008. This album is from a different era from most of the popular underwater soundtracks, but it's an interesting and atmospheric listen nonetheless. The soundtrack is scored for an eighties documentary series on underwater archaeology, so ambient synths and slowly layered soundscapes are the natural choice for the subject matter. Where this sort of approach could so easily turn into a snooze-fest of glacial synthesiser, Davidson's material seems to more aligned with the Vangelis school of awesome synth soundtracks. Many of the themes are written in unconventional time signatures, but the composer's ability to make electronic music sound organic means that the listener barely perceives this deviation to the norm. Davidson is also able to incorporate live instruments into his electronic soundscapes to great effect such as cello in 'Aqua Sub Aqua' and guitar in 'Atocha'. The subtlety and depth that Davidson achieves with only synthesisers allows the live instruments to join in without jarring or sounding out of place. Overall, this album feels to me more like an ambient concept album than a television soundtrack and it is a piece that I find myself listening to a lot.

Label: BBC Records

Released: 1988

Players: Howard J. Davidson - synthesisers etc.

Hugh McDowell - cello

Phil Palmer - guitar

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Film And Television Themes - Bruce Smeaton (1987)

I hadn't heard anything about Bruce Smeaton when I picked up this album at the Salvos with a bunch of other Australian soundtrack LPs. But this combination of movie and television soundtrack pieces is actually a very nice set from an interesting and talented composer. As seems to be the case for anyone who wants to do this sort of work in Australia, Smeaton has an eclectic resume. My favourites from this LP tend to be tracks that are clearly written in an established genre, but which Smeaton has added an extra, idiosyncratic edge. '1915' for example, a track from an ABC miniseries about ANZACS in the first world war, is played as an old-style military march - but Smeaton uses chord progressions and arrangements which give it far more emotional depth than its source material ever really achieves. On the film soundtrack excerpt 'Eleni I And II', Smeaton attempts to evoke the film's setting of Greece with the use of soprano sax, accordion and strings in the first movement and in the second, a 7/8 motif that starts out quite starkly but then is joined by the full orchestra and turns into something incredibly compelling. This second movement sounds quite unique due to Smeaton's use of the Akai EWI - an electronic wind instrument which he also uses to great effect on the track 'Iceman' - which produces a synth sound that could easily sound dated, but in this context blends nicely with the other instruments to create a very distinct sound. The liner notes on the back describe the theme from 'The Great McCarthy' as 'a cross between early ragtime and Nino Rota' which sounded pretty bloody appealing to me - and the liner notes were spot on. Once again this track sees Smeaton taking a familiar style but giving it a fresh approach and creating something truly interesting. Although some tracks on this LP are a little more pedestrian than the favourites I've mentioned (the less said about the soprano sax-laden, cheesy, eighties rom-com theme to 'Roxanne' the better) this is a predominantly enjoyable album of some very well composed and produced soundtrack material.

Label: ABC Records

Released: 1988

Players: All pieces played by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Bruce Smeaton.

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