Snow Files of the Week

[SadEyes]

Snow Files of the Week: "Woke up hungry / Not an option" from "The X-Files", episode "Darkness Falls" (1994).

 

Classic X-Files at its best. Another episode outside of the alien mythology, but no less memorable. When lumberjacks seem to disappear without a trace in a large forest area, Mulder and Scully set out to investigate what had happened. People have been disappearing in this area again and again since the 1930s. The agents quickly find out that a previously unknown species of insect is apparently at home there. These green-glowing insects pounce on their victims as soon as darkness falls.

 

At this point, Mark was still in the early stages of his X-Files music. Which means that it is less melodic, but still doesn't lack intensity. This is ensured by a high-pitched sound that is repeated as an echo, evoking the proximity of the insects.

 

The tracks are from the fourth set by La-La Land Records, which is limited to 2,000 copies.

 

Enjoy listening!

 

[SadEyes]

Snow Files of the Week: "Randi loves Jason/Theme From Skateboard" from the movie "Skateboard" (1978).

This is the oldest release of a score by Mark so far. Only available on Vinyl and audio tape, the album "Skateboard" features late-70's rock music and Mark's grooving score.

Let's travel back to the 70's!

Enjoy!

 

[SadEyes]

Snow Files of the Week: "Time like a heartbeat / Lonely Man", from "The X-Files", episode "Memento Mori" (1997).

In the episode "Leonard Betts," Scully learned from Leonard that she had cancer. She only tells Mulder and Skinner and is determined to keep working. While Mulder searches for information to help Scully, Skinner tries to make a deal with the Cigarette Smoking Man to save Scully's life.

Mark's music is accordingly melancholy. The gentle strings accompany the struggle for Scully's life, there is also a nice piano theme to be heard. The music comes from the fourth set by La-La Land Records, which is limited to 2,000 units.

Enjoy listening!

 

[SadEyes]

Snow Files of the Week: "The Seeds Of Mistrust", from "The X-Files", episode "Kitten" (2018).

 

In this season 11 episode, we learn a little more about Assistant Director Skinner. During the Vietnam War, Skinner served in the Marines. Together with his fellow soldier and friend John "Kitten" James he is to escort a crate marked MK-NAOMI. They are attacked and both have to hide in a hut with civilians. While Skinner is helping a wounded soldier, the crate is hit by bullets and a green gas leaks out, which John is exposed to. When Skinner returns to the cabin, he sees that "Kitten" murdered all civilians. In the present, Mulder and Scully are put on the trail of Skinner, who has disappeared without a trace. Something from the past has reappeared.

 

In this piece Mark shows his melancholy side again. A ghostly choir sings over the gentle strings and piano motifs, the X-Files theme briefly emerges before the piece ends with a wistful solo trumpet. The tracks come from the 2CD set by La-La Land Records, which is limited to 3,000 pieces.

 

Enjoy listening!

 

 

[SadEyes]

Snow Files of the Week: "Suicide / Nancy gets wormed", from "The X-Files", episode "Ice" (1993).

 

Another classic episode from the first season. It was basically the X-Files version of the short story "Who goes there?" by John Campbell, on which also "John Carpenter's The Thing" is based. In a research station in Alaska, a murder-suicide scenario occurs among the scientists. Mulder and Scully fly to Alaska to investigate what has happened. Scientists have discovered a life form in the ice, in a crater that was apparently caused by a meteor 250,000 years ago. This life form, small, worm-like beings, invade the host body and take control of thinking and acting. Soon no one trusts the other and there is also tension between Mulder and Scully.

 

In the first seasons of the series, Mark's music was much more focused on sound collages. That was a requirement of Chris Carter, who did not want music that was "too intrusive". So Mark had to get creative again so that he didn't just deliver the same suspense music every week. He did this excellently over a decade of X-Files. The music to "Ice" also stands out, despite the lack of themes, through the sounds that Mark uses. Its sound landscapes are ice-cold and a sound that reappears again and again with an echo effect underlines the isolation in the station, enclosed by the ice and not knowing who is already infected.

 

The tracks are from the fourth set by La-La Land Records, which is limited to 2,000 pieces.

 

Enjoy listening!

 

 

[SadEyes]

Snow Files of the Week: "Grow up Superboy/Ferris Wheel" from "Smallville" (2001).

The show ran for ten seasons, but after season 6, Mark left the show and his former music editor Louis Febre took over for the remaining three seasons. It was Mark's decision, since he was so busy doing the music for "Smallville" and "Ghost Whisperer" at the same time, with additional movies in between (like the second X-Files movie in 2008), that he just wanted to have more time with his family.

The music for "Smallville" shows Mark again as a master of haunting themes and melody. His distinctive sound is easy to recognize. A digital album was released with music from the show, before La-La-Land Records released a 2-CD-Set, containing all tracks from the digital album, as well as a second CD with even more music from the show. It also has tracks by Louis Febre from the later seasons. The CD was limited to 3000 copies and is now sold out.

Enjoy!

 

[SadEyes]

Snow Files of the Week: "Smoking Telegram", from "The X-Files: Fight The Future" (1998).

 

This track from the first X-Files movie was previously thought to be lost. It accompanies the last scene of the film when the Cigarette Smoking Man visits the huge field with the manipulated corn in the desert of Tunisia to inform Strughold that the X-Files have been reopened.

 

Originally, this scene wasn't supposed to have any music. But at the last second Chris Carter decided to use music. The final mixing of the film was already in progress, so Mark had to go to his studio quickly to compose the music for the final scene. He sent the finished piece to the recording studio as DAT. There was so little time that Mark, contrary to his usual habits, was unable to make a copy of it for his archive.

When La-La Land Records produced the expanded album for "Fight The Future" a few years ago, they looked everywhere for this last track. Mark no longer had it because the DAT has probably disappeared in the general chaos with the recording and the studio didn't seem to have a copy of it in their archives too, so this track was missing from the album.

 

For the fourth box with X-Files music, this lost piece could now be found after all. It is a successful conclusion to the first movie, the music subtly underlines the impact that this last scene has for the further course of the X-Files.

 

The fourth box from La-La Land Records is limited to 2,000 copies.

 

Enjoy listening!

 

[SadEyes]

Snow Files of the Week: "Shackles / Dark Vision", from "The X-Files", episode "Mind's Eye" (1998).

 

This season five episode is about blind Marty Glenn, played by Lili Taylor, who has visions of murders as they happen. When she is picked up at a crime scene, the case seems clear to the police. But how could a blind woman have committed these murders? Mulder also has his doubts and discovers a tragic secret.

 

For Marty, Snow composed a melancholy piano theme that keeps reappearing throughout the score. It breaks through the gloomy soundscapes that accompany Marty's visions. The tracks are from the fourth set by La-La Land Records, which is limited to 2,000 copies.

 

Enjoy listening!

 

 

[SadEyes]

Snow Files of the Week: "Room 1413 / Sharon Forever", from "The X-Files", episode "Avatar" (1996).

 

Again, in this episode, Assistant Director Skinner is the focus. His marriage failed after 17 years and he receives the divorce papers to sign. But he puts it away and goes to a bar. There he meets the attractive Carina and they have a one night stand. That night Skinner has a nightmare about an old woman who is lying in bed next to him. When he wakes up, Carina is dead next to him, her head turned completely backwards.

 

For the police, of course, Skinner is the prime suspect, and he asks Mulder not to interfere in the case. Again and again Skinner sees the old woman who finally leads him to his wife Sharon. At night, Skinner wakes up from a nightmare and learns from the police that his wife Sharon has been pushed off the road in her car and is now in a coma. Since Skinner's car shows signs of an accident, he is arrested and then removed as assistant director. But Skinner's wife, Sharon, previously told Mulder that Skinner was in therapy for sleeping disorder. Apparently he had recurring nightmares of being suffocated by an old woman in bed. Mulder suspects it is a succubus, a female demon. But the Cigarette Smoking Man also seems to be involved in the case, because he is observing Skinner's interrogation.

 

Snow's gloomy soundscapes accompany Skinner's visions, and once again there is a wonderful piano theme, this time for the relationship between Skinner and his wife Sharon. Snow also uses a sample of a distorted scream in the score, which he also used in other episodes, mostly the mythology episodes.

 

The tracks are from the fourth set by La-La Land Records which is limited to 2,000 copies.

 

Enjoy listening!

 

[SadEyes]

Snow Files of the Week: "Raga Shave / Scully's Tattoo", from "The X-Files", episode "Never Again" (1997).

 

In this episode, Dana Scully is now the focus. Frustrated with her life and how her career is going, she meets Ed Jerse. Shortly before his marriage went down the drain and he got a tattoo of a woman looking over her shoulder with the words "Never Again". But this tattoo has a demonic life of its own. It speaks to him and under its influence, he commits a murder. Scully doesn't know about it when she sees Ed as a soul mate whose life is also at a crossroads. Ed convinces Scully to get a tattoo too. It's an Ouroboros, curiously the sign of the Millennium group, Chris Carter's second series, which was in its first season at the time. But Ed's tattoo becomes jealous of Scully and keeps pushing him to murder her too.

 

The actual main theme of the episode is one of the most unusual in the whole series. And one of the most concise. And it's not by Mark Snow. Snow's Music Editor Jeff Charbonneau, who also repeatedly helped out as arranger and with additional music, composed this piece, which became the leitmotif for the entire episode. By the way, the voice of Ed's tattoo is none other than Jodie Foster.

The track comes from the fourth set by La-La Land Records, which is limited to 2,000 copies.

 

Enjoy listening!