A Journey Within A Journey

"A Journey Within a Journey" is a documentary that was released on WETA on April 19^th at 10:30pm.. The music for this film walks a balance between traditional and bold. The opening track ("Travel Theme") is an enchanting piece utilizing mostly violin work. Meanwhile, track 3 ("Travel Theme III") uses more a great deal more percussion. Ms. Dibucci is certainly not afraid to try something different in her music. In it, Chitra Neogy, the director, lends her considerable talents as a poet and narrarator. This score is laced with Ms. Neogy‚s poetry, and it does aid the progression of the music.

At varying times the music is beautiful and terrifying. Track 6 ("Kali") is full of chanting and background vocals which set the listener on edge most efficiently. The very next track, however ("Chitra with Friend") is one of the most tranquil flute pieces I have enjoyed in a long while*only to be followed by track 8 ("Fire Ritual") which could have come directly from one of the stranger episodes of "The X-Files".

Please keep in mind that this in no way makes this score disjointed. Quite the opposite, as the title of the movie suggests, it takes you on a journey. By the time the recording has ended, you feel not as though you have been listening to a piece of music, but rather that you have been somewhere*. that you have experienced something different.

This epitomizes what is possible with this venue. Since this film is a documentary, and not a "mainstream" release, Dibucci has been free to experiment with varying sounds, rhythms, and mixtures of music and spoken word. Even as she alternates between styles, and instruments, and approaches, there is an underlying feel for the music that binds it all together. Sometimes this "base" glue is chanting, and sometimes it is strings, but always it is there, propelling the music forward, and securing a theme for the various tracks.

I have not yet had the pleasure of viewing the film ( I look forward to it with great anticipation), but I expect something between "National Geographic Explorer", "The X-Files", and "Gandhi". Dibucci and Neogy have done a superlative job with blending their talents to create a compelling soundtrack.