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Epica - The Score: An Epic Journey


Epica have been working on a soundtrack inspired by a Dutch movie entitled "Joyride." The soundtrack will be released by Transmission Records on September 8th, under the title, The Score: An Epic Journey.

According to guitarist Mark Jansen, The Score is "Typically Epica, Only without the singing, without the guitars, no bass and no drums..." Mark Jansen, together with Yves Huts and Coen Jansen are responsible for the greater part of the music. The Score is much more than simply Epica without the Gothic rock. The remaining orchestrations have been worked out into the most minute details with strong arrangements. As a result, The Score has become an extremely attractive album which will appeal to a far larger audience than just the rock aficionados. An album that might be regarded as detached from all the earlier Epica work, but also as the next logical step.

"Of course The Score sounds different from the earlier albums, on the other hand it is at the same time unequivocally Epica. For this reason we're obviously releasing it under our own name. We are enormously proud of this album and we do not feel we have to confine ourselves to a certain genre."

"Collaboration is something Epica feels very strongly about. It is just like a colouring picture that you keep on making more beautiful with the whole group. Yves also contributes a lot of music, Coen takes care of the arrangements, subsequently I have some ideas and in this way, a project continues to grow. Into everything we do, we put our hearts and souls. The guitars, singing, bass and drums may be lacking, but with regards to work, this album took nearly as much time as a regular Epica CD."

The influence of composers Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer is very clearly present. The music of this duo ranks as the crème de la crème of what is being composed in the field of incidental music in Hollywood at this moment. Mark Jansen looks upon the duo as a shining example:

"To me, personally, it is an aspiration to reach that same level at some point in the future. They are the absolute top in their discipline and each and every member of Epica thinks of them as shining examples. Our dream therefore is composing the music for a Hollywood film at some point in time. Films such as Gladiator, Braveheart or The Last Samurai are projects to which I would have gladly contributed. Films such as these pre-eminently suitable for our music."

"I would like to write more scores, preferably intertwined with what we are doing with Epica. With The Score, we want to make a name for ourselves. This is who we are and this is what we have to offer. Nothing is impossible and that is why we pattern ourselves on the best composers and strive for the best. In the arrangements on our album Consign to Oblivion you can easily detect to what an extent Epica has been influenced by cinematic orchestrations and soundtrack elements. On The Score we explore these influences."

Source: Dutch Progressive Rock Page
Band profile: Epica
Posted: 21.07.2005 by rubyeye



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