Snow Files of the Week

[SadEyes]

Snow Files of the Week: "Threnody in X/Quitting/Plague (Alternate Segment)" from the movie "The X-Files - Fight the Future" (1998).

For the first X-Files motion picture, Mark took his electronic soundscapes and put them into orchestral music. He even surprised the producers, when he conducted his music, because for them he was just the "synthesizer guy". Some bits of the films score also appear in the tv show, like in the final episode of season five, "The End".

A score album was released with the movie. Sadly it has some sound issues. The stereo channels are reversed, which leads to an overall muffled and flat sound. La-La Land Records released an expanded album of the score, which not only solved the sound problems of the original release, but there is also more music on it and a very informative booklet with not one, not two, but three interviews with Mark. This release is limited to 3.000 copies and is sold out.

Enjoy!

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[SadEyes]

Snow Files of the Week: "Carl Gerhard Busch/Heavy Wheeling" from The X-Files, episode "My Struggle III" (2018), composed by Mark Snow.

The X-Files returned and so did Mark. After the short Event Series, now called season 10, the show gained new popularity among viewers and so a season 11 went into production.

"My Struggle III" follows the cliffhanger from season 10, revealing that the pandemic and the alien invasion were just a vision Scully had. But the danger is there nevertheless.

For this season Mark abandoned his more melodic style that he brought into the later seasons of The X-Files and returned to the more moody and ambient soundscapes of the first seasons. But with a modern touch.

The score album was released by La-La Land Records, limited to 3.000 copies.

Enjoy!

 

[SadEyes]

Snow Files of the Week: "Capsules/A Mother Never Forgets/Mulder’s Memories" from "The X-Files: The Event Series", episode "Founder's Mutation" (2016).

As the X-Files returned in 2016 so did Mark Snow. His music for the new episodes is familiar, but with enough new elements to keep it interesting. The score is more minimalistic overall, but nevertheless Mark wrote some wonderful themes.

"Founder's Mutation" is the second episode of the event series. It evolves around a scientist who is experimenting on children with genetic anomalities to cure them. Scully and Mulder have visions of their son William, who is genetically different too. At the end of the episode Mulder fantasizes about his son William being grown up to schoolboy-age. He plays with him, builds a rocket and launches it and witnesses his abduction, just like he did with his sister. Back in reality Mulder looks at a photo of William. The music by Mark for this scene, "Mulder's Memories", is surely one of the most beautiful tracks of the event series.

The tracks were taken from the 2CD set, released by La-La Land Records. The set is limited to 3.000 copies.

Enjoy!

 

[SadEyes]

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

 

This track has quite a remarkable story behind it. It was previously thought to be lost. The track accompanies the final scene of the first 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 had 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. But shortly after the expanded album had been released, the track reappeared. According to Neil S. Bulk, who co-produced the box sets, the track resurfaced because the studio was doing some music restoration. Now this is acutally quite interesting. He wasn't specific about the amount of music restoration the studio was doing, whether it just concerned the X-Files movie, the X-Files franchise or their film music archive in general. But it seems that something was happening behind the scenes, maybe even to prepare the music for a further release. Time will tell, but as Mulder once put it: „Maybe there is hope."

 

So where did the studio get the track from, if it wasn't in their archives? Maybe they used the so-called film stems. These are basically the separated audio tracks from the film, if you're lucky. Sometimes the music on it is already mixed with the sound effecs and/or dialogue, sometimes the music track is just in mono, sometimes there are volume fluctuations. So it's not the best source to get a music track off it, but it's better than nothing.

 

That is why this standalone track from the movie was put on the fourth box set and wasn't on the expanded album release for „Fight The Future". 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: "A Message of Faith" from "Night Sins" (1997).

Of course, the score has the familiar sounds, that we already know from Mark's work on "The X-Files" and "MillenniuM". "Night Sins" has a beautiful main theme, which gets its finest presentation in this track. Mark also added etheral choir work to it and showed again, that he indeed can write beautiful piano themes.

The album was released by BSX Records and is limited to 1000 copies.

Enjoy!

 

[SadEyes]

Snow Files of the Week: "Origins / Base Camp", from "The X-Files", episode "Firewalker" (1994).

 

Scientist Dr. Pierce monitors the transmission of the research robot "Firewalker", which is supposed to document volcanic activities in Mount Avalon. During the transmission, Dr. Pierce discovers the corpse of the research director Erickson in the images. And a shadow that appears to be moving there, which, due to the high temperatures, would be fatal to any living being, before the robot's camera is destroyed. Mulder and Scully are put on the case, and Mulder soon discovers that the scientists have apparently found an organism in the depths of Mount Avalon.

 

Mark weaves the title theme into the track "Origins", while "Base Camp" is a spherical piece of music reminiscent of the 80s. Both tracks come from the fourth set by La-La Land Records, which is limited to 2,000 copies.

 

Enjoy listening!

[SadEyes]

Snow Files of the Week: "M. Magdalene/Divine Daughter" from "MillenniuM", episode "Anamnesis" (1998).

This is one of the two episodes in the entire series, where Frank Black takes a step back and leaves the stage for his wife Catherine. She teams up with Lara Means to investigate the possibility that a schoolgirl experiencing visions may be biologically descended from Jesus Christ.
Mark's music fits the religious tone of the episode. There is a soft piano theme for the schoolgirl and etheral choir work to accompany her visions. Also, the sampled flute sound from the episode "Luminary" returns in this score.

The tracks are taken from the second volume of MillenniuM music from La-La Land Records. The set is limited to 2.000 copies. The CD is sold out.

Enjoy!

 

[SadEyes]

Snow Files of the Week: "Only way to escape / Lamp / Chimera Man / Fix it for good" from "The X-Files", episodes "Talitha Cumi", "Gethsemane" and "Redux II" (1995-1998).

 

A colorful mix of different episodes, but all of which contain what we love about Mark's music: the gentle, calm piano passages, mystery themes, eerie soundscapes and melancholy strings.

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: "No place like home / Silo" from "The X-Files", episodes "Triangle" and "Apocrypha" (1996-1998).

 

Here we hear two sides of Snow's X-Files music. "No place like home" is another wonderful piano theme that grows out of the X-Files theme. In "Silo", mysterious soundscapes and driving action come into play again.

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

 

Enjoy listening!