Howard Blake: Ghost Stories

Dragon's Domain Records, to be distributed through buysoundtrax.com, presents Howard Blake: Ghost Stories featuring music composed and conducted by Howard Blake for The Canterville Ghost and Amityville 3-D, two films from his filmography that both have a common theme. Ghosts.

Based on the Oscar Wilde story, The Canterville Ghost has been filmed several times. This particular version was a television film broadcast in 1986 and starring Sir John Gielgud as the eponymos ghost. The Canterville Ghost has to do with an American family who inherit an old castle haunted by Sir Simon Of Canterville, the ghost of a dead English nobleman who was walled in and starved to death after killing his wife, Lady Eleanor, whose only memory is a bloodstain on the carpet which is impossible to clean up. A young Alyssa Milano plays the young daughter who befriends the cranky ghost. Even though this was a made-for-TV movie, the composer treated it as if it were a feature film and used a classical 32-piece orchestra performed by The Sinfonia of London, conducted by the composer and subtly enhanced by synthesizer.

Released in 1983, Amityville 3-D tells a ghost story with a harder edge, as a reporter (Tony Roberts), moves into the notorious Long Island house to debunk a pair of phony spiritualists but then finds himself besieged by the evil manifestations which are connected to something sinister lurking in the basement. His estranged wife (Tess Harper) is against their daughter (Lori Loughlin) visiting the house but her friend Lisa (Meg Ryan, in one of her earliest roles) talks her into taking her for a tour, which causes havoc to stir within the haunted house. To score the film, producer Dino De Laurentiis recalled the exceptional work Blake had done for his Flash Gordon film, even though much of his music had been replaced by Queen's synths. De Laurentiis insisted that the assignment be given to Blake. His score for Amityville 3-D features a female vocalise with a piercing ghostly resonance, designed to build anxiety. While his score is presented primarily for acoustic orchestra, Blake added some subtle synth effects to augment some of these vocalise moments..

Dragon's Domain Records presents Howard Blake: Ghost Stories, featuring music from The Canterville Ghost and Amityville 3-D. The Canterville Ghost is presented for the first time on this release and Amityville 3-D includes previously unreleased music. The music has been remasterd by James Nelson at Digital Outland. The booklet contains liner notes written by noted author Randall Larson, including insights by composer Howard Blake on the creation of these ghostly scores.