Snow Files of the Week

[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: "Ice Cubes/Dan to the Rescue/Hit and Run/No One Ever Leaves Me/Victoria's Madness" from the tv movie "Seduced and Betrayed" (1995).

In the early 90's BASIC INSTINCT hit the theatres and became almost immediately a modern classic. It was a huge comeback for erotic thrillers and in the years that followed many movies wanted to be like it. This is also true for the music, composed by the great Jerry Goldsmith, that influenced the thriller genre for years to come. When SEDUCED AND BETRAYED came around in 1995, it more or less tried to imitate the sexual undertones. And it is pretty obvious that Jerry Goldsmith's score was used as a temp track, before Mark began working on the movie. His main theme is pretty much a slightly different arrangement of Goldsmith's theme. But for the rest of the movie Mark came up with his more mellow and harmonic style.

The main theme was featured on the sampler "The Snow Files". The score was released, paired with CAROLINE AT MIDNIGHT, on "The Mark Snow Collection Vol.2" by Dragon's Domain Records. The CD is limited to 500 copies.

Enjoy!

 

[SadEyes]

Snow Files of the Week: "Big Yellow House/Exterminated" from "MillenniuM", episode "Pilot" (1996).

When The X-Files went into its fourth season, Chris Carter's second show "MillenniuM" premiered. The first episode of "MillenniuM" gained the highest number of viewers FOX ever had for a pilot, the episode was even shown in selected theatres.

The home of the Black family, the big yellow house, is a place of safety for Frank Black. Here he can provide his family with a normal life and keep them away from the dark world outside, at least he thinks he can. If you watch the show closely you will notice, that all the scenes, that play in or around the yellow house, have a certain golden glow, while the scenes in the real world have washed out colours.

Mark uses the main theme from "MillenniuM" to create a haunting variation for the introduction of the yellow house. His soft and moody string pads, combined with the solo violin, create a place of peace, but also underlines the darkness waiting outside.

The tracks are taken from the first volume of music from "MillenniuM", released by La-La Land Records. It was released in 2008 and sold out shortly after. In 2015, the volume was re-issued, limited to 1.000 copies.

Enjoy!

 

[SadEyes]

Snow Files of the Week: "Suite" from "Pasadena" (2001).

 

"Pasadena" was a very short-lived tv series in which the main character, Lily McAllister, witnesses a suicide and then embarks on an investigation that also leads her into her own wealthy family, the Greeleys. 13 episodes were produced, but after only four episodes the critically acclaimed series was canceled due to poor ratings. As a possible reason it was stated that the series started so soon after the attacks of September 11, 2001 that people probably didn't feel like watching dark and cynical series at first.

 

Mark's music moves in familiar territory. He scored the soap opera crime drama similar to the X-Files. Apart from the main theme, which sounds like music from a music box. Otherwise there are the spherical choirs, the shimmering soundscapes and a few quirky interjections of the main theme, with percussion and pounding beats.

 

The album was released digitally by BUYSOUNDTRAX.COM and is available for download and streaming.

 

Enjoy listening!

[SadEyes]

Snow Files of the Week: Suite from "The Substitute Wife" (1994).

 

"The Substitute Wife" is a 1994 TV drama starring Peter Weller, Lea Thompson and Farrah Fawcett. Set in the era of the American Pioneers, the movie tells the story of a farmer's wife who is dying. Because she is afraid that her family falls apart without her and they might lose the farm, she hires a prostitute to take her place.

 

Mark composed a warm-hearted orchestral score, far from gloomy soundscapes, with a slight folk touch. The concise main theme, which was already released on the sampler "The Snow Files", runs through the entire score. Sometimes with an oboe as a solo instrument, sometimes with the piano.

 

The album was released digitally by BUYSOUNDTRAX.COM.

 

Enjoy listening!

[SadEyes]

Snow Files of the Week: "Catalogued/Deny Everything/Blood on Paper" from The X-Files, episodes "Duane Barry" and "Ascension" (1994).

A classic X-Files two-parter from the second season of the series. And with Duane Barry one of the most distinctive figures in the X-Files universe, played in a disturbingly manic way by Steve Railsback. For a long time Barry has been haunted by aliens at night who repeatedly carry out experiments on him. When another visitation is imminent, Barry goes crazy and takes some hostages in an office building. The police thinks he's a dangerous lunatic, of course, but Mulder is interested in the visits.

Mulder manages to outsmart Barry and he is shot and rushed to the hospital. But Barry only plays along on the pretense, breaks out of the hospital and kidnaps Scully, whom he wants to leave to the visitors for their experiments in his place. He takes her to Skyland Mountain at night, from where he was kidnapped for the first time. When Mulder arrives, he only notices a bright light in the sky and finds Barry alone. Scully has disappeared.

Mark Snow accompanies this double episode with very melancholic-mystical sounds. The short motifs for the Cigarette Smoking Man and the conspirators appear again, as they of course also have their fingers in the game. The tracks are from LLL's fourth set of X-Files music. The set is limited to 2,000 copies.

Enjoy listening!

 

[SadEyes]

Snow Files of the Week: "Starspeak/Hidden Truths/Big Happening" from "The X-Files, season 8, episode "This is not happening" (2001).

At the beginning of season 8, Mark introduced a theme for Scully. The theme got a vocal performance by Nicci Sill, singing the words "We are near", to heighten Scully's quest for Mulder. In the episode "This is not happening", the theme reappears in an instrumental version, when Scully is talking to Skinner about a conversation she once had with Mulder.

When Mulders dead body appears on a field at night, Scully knows that the only help is Jeremiah, the healer. But before Scully can get to him, she witnesses an alien spacecraft abducting Jeremiah. Mark scores the scene with big, dramatic music, turning Scully's theme into an epic march.

These tracks are featured on the first volume of X-Files music from La-La Land Records, limited to 2.000 copies.

Enjoy!

 

[SadEyes]

Snow Files of the Week: "Cortege" (1999/2002) from the "Cold Spring" sampler "The Chamber".

Here we have a very rare occasion, where Mark didn't compose for a movie or a tv series. The track "Cortege" was supposed to be an appetizer for an all non-movie album called "Death...be not proud", consisting entirely of new compositions by Mark.

The release date was set for spring of 1999, there was even a tracklist (Intonation, Cortege, If Hitler Had Autism, Mr Jones, Quietude and Colonel Parkinson). But apparently, that never happened, at least I coulnd't find anything concerning the album. It's not even listed on the label's website. The only thing, that was released, seems to be this track.

I sent a message to the label and got a very surprising response. Mark indeed started working on the album, but he had more and more soundtrack work on his hands, that he just didn't have the time to continue working on this album. The label still has a master for the album with a running time of 25 minutes and they now want to contact Mark again, if he still wants to finish it. So, sometimes asking is not a bad thing. 😉

The track shows Mark in his dark ambient mode. This is for all those dark-and-moody-loving X-Files fans.

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!