Details:
  • Film: The Abyss
  • Soundtrack composer: Alan Silvestri
  • Original year of release: 1989
  • Number of tracks: 13
  • Soundtrack duration: 47 mins 6 secs
  • Tracks with vocals/distracting aspects: None
  • Film score duration (with distracting tracks removed): 47 mins 6 secs
  • Suggested suitable book genres: The soundtrack is absolutely perfect for a sci-fi, supernatural thriller, or indeed a slow burner horror. However, it’s also a great all-round soundtrack for general reading as well.
DLS Summary:
Quite simply, this is one of those classic “go to” soundtracks that’ll fit with most reading experiences. A superb background piece from start to end, with tracks which set down a perfect low-key backdrop, with gradually escalating drama and moments of beauty. It’s absolute textbook Silvestri, exhibiting the composer’s highly revered talent for scores perfectly. One of the very best soundtracks to have in a collection.

DLS Review:
The soundtrack starts out with a haunting and dramatic crescendo of choir harmonies, before a 21st Century Fox style percussion comes pounding into the piece. This is met by a tightly delivered short brass section before we’re taken straight into the next track in a seamless way.

For Track Two we’re thrust into a delicately eerie setting, with whispers of synths creating an incredibly sci-fi and/or supernatural backdrop. Absolutely perfect for reading something creepy and quietly creeping to.

Track Three is a sudden leap into dramatic and heart-thumping suspense, with brass and a thick orchestra creating an excellent tension, bursting with energy and a magnificent thick wedge of suspense. Some serious ‘Predator’ (1987) vibes are definitely in there, which isn’t surprising considering that too is another one of Silvestri’s.

Track Four is far more reserved, delicately pacing itself with a slow, gradual whispering of notes, edging us oh so very gradually into the piece. It’s an incredibly delicate track, with fleeting moments of sound tiptoeing back and forth. At almost the 4-minute mark, the mood lightens, and delicate choir-like vocals come in before a sudden rush of orchestra is followed by waves of vocals, woodwind and flutes. It’s all incredibly evocative and a near perfect piece for reading to.

Track Five returns to an eerie undertone, again sticking with those delicate whispers of music, however here we have a building bass undertone, steadily droning and escalating into gradual waves. This is followed by more whispers of ethereal and otherworldly sci-fi sounds, with sudden bursts of brass jumping in with moments of revelation and drama. The track finishes off with a beautifully delicate piece of strings and harps creating a sense of wonder and cheerful intrigue before ending with a perfectly executed punchline of audio drama.

Track Six thunders in with a dramatic thump of percussion and bass, moving into an adrenaline-pumping electronic rhythm with icy tones overlaid. This finishes up with a cliffhanger of percussion and more hanging high pitched notes leading us to the track end.

Track Seven is classic Silvestri, with drama and bursts of percussion, more hanging notes, and an urgency built into every section of the track. It’s dramatic, using all of Silvestri’s textbook traits. It leaps back and forth between punching urgent drama to lingering notes of suspense. Again, there’s a heck of a lot of ‘Predator’ (1987) in there. In fact, it’s almost identical in many of its places.

Track Eight continues with those eerie violins stretching out their sinister high-pitched singular notes once again, in a creepy opening section which gradually edges towards a darker ambience of low notes and a guttural droning bass. There’s a dark surging threat within the music, with strings and a thumping, reverberating drum pounding, creating an altogether dramatic aura. This eventually settles down to a vaster landscape of unnerving unease, with synths and a thumping rhythm behind its body, along with further waves of pulsing synths. Utterly intoxicating and again excellent background music for reading to.

Track Nine is one of those evocative pieces which fills you with hope. It plays with delicacy and notes designed to set you at ease. Romantic and full of longing, pulling at your heartstrings with the use of a full orchestra broken down into individual sections as the track progresses.

Track Ten is far more sinister, with again a low droning and gradually emerging hints of something perhaps looming out from deep within the abyss. It’s suggestive and eerie, laced with mystery, gradually surging with that deep bass drone. We then have those quiet whispers of strings layered on top, which are slowly drowned out by more sinister droning bass packed with reverb. That reverb stays with us, as thumping synth joins the dark landscape creating another sinister landscape. Absolutely perfect music for reading a horror or creepy dark sci-fi to.

Track Eleven starts out with delicate notes creating a sense of awe and wonder before another ethereal backdrop of choir like vocal notes come in with the same style as that of the opening ‘Main Title’ track. It’s all incredibly evocative and beautiful, with dramatic strings and a full-blown orchestra returning again in a similar vein to the ‘Main Title’ piece. Dramatic is definitely the word of choice here.

Track Twelve is a short and delicate piece, delivering whispering notes on a haunting melody of choir vocals before a mounting wave of that dramatic orchestra introduces itself for another magnificent burst of drama.

Track Thirteen, the final track in the soundtrack, is every bit as dramatic and grandiose as you would hope it to be to end this stunning soundtrack with. Glorious waves of dramatic orchestra, again in a similar vein to the ‘Main Title’ track and indeed the ethos of the entire album. There’s a bit of everything in this final track. Almost akin to a medley of all the tracks and moments brought together within this one final, magnificent piece of music for the film credits to roll over. It embodies the soundtrack as a whole, as well as the sheer wonder and skill of Silvestri. Such a fitting ending for the album.

As a soundtrack for reading to:

The soundtrack as a whole:


© DLS Reviews















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