Caldera Records

[Caldera]

Caldera Records proudly presents Roy Budd’s score for the action thriller “Zeppelin”.

The 1960s and 70s saw a flood of films depicting the horrors of the world wars as entertaining action fare, of which “Zeppelin” is one. Michael York plays a young lieutenant in the British Army who is sent on a secret mission to Germany. The Germans are building the LZ 36, a Zeppelin that can fly up to 12,000 feet and thus higher than any British aircraft. For the lieutenant it becomes a dangerous mission, one that threatens his life and the existence of his country.

The strongest element of the film is its score by Roy Budd, who provided a rousing and memorable soundtrack that stands as one of his most refined and accomplished works. It is an especially worthy achievement since Budd was still in his early 20s when he wrote it. While Roy Budd was able to flex his muscles writing dense action music, he also infuses the score with his trademark jazzy style, most notable in the quieter scenes featuring Geoffrey and Erika, as well as in the moments between Geoffrey and Stephanie, the woman with whom he is having an affair, who turns out to be a spy. The love theme that Budd uses for this romantic triangle is one of his most beautiful.

The release of Budd’s “Zeppelin” score almost didn’t see the light of day. For a long time, the recording tapes were considered lost. Budd’s widow Sylvia had one stereo tape of selected cues in her personal archive, but for decades the vast majority of the score was nowhere to be found. Then in early 2024, Roy’s cousin presented us with an acetate copy of several cues from the recordings. We have done our best to clean up the transfer. Unfortunately, several pieces are still missing and are unlikely ever to be found. Considering the circumstances, we are still glad to finally present a selection of his cues from his score for “Zeppelin,” and thus pay tribute to his talent and versatility. As a bonus, we included several instrumental demos Roy recorded in the late 1960s and early 1970s that were previously unreleased.

The 65th CD-release of Caldera Records features a detailed booklet text by Stephan Eicke and elegant artwork by Luis Miguel Rojas. The CD was mastered by Richard Moore and produced by Stephan Eicke.

C6065

Music Composed and Conducted by Roy Budd
Album Produced by Stephan Eicke
Executive Producers for Caldera Records: John Elborg, Stephan Eicke
Album Art Direction and Design by Luis Miguel Rojas

Mono
1. Main Titles (2:19)
2. Showdown (4:36)
3. Approaching Balcoven/In Germany (1:57)
4. Trouble in the Sky (5:37)
5. LZ 36 (2:57)

Stereo
6. Erika Visits (1:13)
7. To the Boat (1:01)
8. Docking (1:19)
9. Reaching 12,000 Feet (1:44)
10. Descend! (2:15)
11. A Night with a Spy (3:09)
12. Erika Visits (alt.) (1:17)
13. Garden Party (0:43)

Bonus:
14. A Day Alone With You (3:04)
15. Roy’s Tune (2:52)
16. Someday Summertime Will Come (2:25)
17. Untitled Demo (2:35)
18. Give Me One More Chance (Demo) (4:09)

For more information and sound clips, please visit:
https://www.caldera-records.com/zeppelin

[Ballanmire]

Achat direct !

[Caldera]

Until you have the CD in your hands and enjoy the music, this might pass the time:

We at Caldera Records decided to try something new. Thus, we will upload a short video/reel on Instagram for every new album. In this reel, we will offer a glimpse behind the scenes by discussing our production work.

You may (or may not) find this interesting. We start with DAVID SHIRE'S SELECTED WORKS:


Follow us on Instagram!

[Lee Van Cleef]

Achat direct !

À quoi bon tergiverser, en effet ? La simple mention des mots "Roy Budd" et "action thriller", fanfaronnant côte à côte, aura suffi pour ma part à vitrifier le moindre embryon d'atermoiement. Comme ce fut le cas quelques années auparavant, quand Caldera flatta nos oreilles éperdues de gratitude du fumasse Wild Geese II.

[Ratatouille]

Dr. Lee voulez-vous dire ce titre ?


Merci ! Mon moral remonte...

[Caldera]

Thank you everybody for the kind words and support!

We have a new video about the challenging, adventurous production of Roy Budd's ZEPPELIN! You might enjoy this small-scale Indiana Jones story.

[Caldera]

Caldera Records proudly presents Zbigniew Preisner's score for Hector Babenco’s “Foolish Heart.”

The director, in 1998, put his personal experiences in a cloak of magical realism. The plot device for his film is daring: Juan is a young man who is drawn into the circle of Jacobo and Ana. Jacobo is a photographer who claims he can photograph people and capture their souls. When Juan agrees to participate in his unusual experiment, he is astonished at what he sees: while everybody’s souls are clearly discernible, Ana’s is a blur. Who is this mysterious, seductive woman? Juan embarks on a dangerous journey to find out.

For “Foolish Heart,” Zbigniew Preisner wrote a deeply emotional, sensitive composition for small orchestra and solo instruments such as piano and recorder. The former introduces the main theme, a brief phrase that is repeated throughout the score in various iterations and that is both wistful, melancholic, and mysterious. Rather than develop motifs for each character and thus follow a leitmotif method, the composer found a musical voice for Juan’s inner life as the young man is struggling with an impossible relationship and finding his true nature as an inspired artist.

There is an ominous tension running throughout the pensive compositions even as individual instruments, such as the saxophone, get their chance to stand out and shine. Although the soundtrack forms a delectable, harmonious and consistent entity, Preisner reassembled the different short cues to form a new work that stands on its own, outside the images.

The 66th CD-release of Caldera Records features a detailed booklet text by Stephan Eicke and elegant artwork by Luis Miguel Rojas. The CD was mastered by Leszek Kaminski and produced by Stephan Eicke and Zbigniew Preisner.

C6066

Music Composed and Produced by Zbigniew Preisner
CD Produced by Stephan Eicke
Executive Producers for Caldera Records: John Elborg, Stephan Eicke
Album Art Direction and Design by Luis Miguel Rojas

Part I Beginning of the Story (2:06)
Part II Ana and Juan (4:14)
Part III Fascination (6:27)
Part IV Love (3:16)
Part V Drug Rush (5:31)
Part VI Juan and Father (4:03)
Part VII Ana in Psychiatric Hospital (5:56)
Part VIII Twenty Years Later (5:32)
Part IX Foolish Heart (4:29)

For more information and sound clips, visit our website:
https://www.caldera-records.com/foolish-heart

[DarkCat]

Youpi ! Adorant Zbigniew Preisner, un de mes compositeurs préférés, j'attends impatiemment de pouvoir écouter ce titre !

[Dadid]

Ze big new Preisner ! ça m'a l'air joliment reposant, très preisnerien, l'écoute des extraits m'a convaincu. J'aime beaucoup écouter ce genre de score intimiste tard le soir, sur enceintes, dans la pénombre. Les instruments prennent vie, pas besoin de pousser le son... et si tout va bien je ne m'endors pas avant la fin !

[Mortimer]

Tiens l'autre soir, je me suis revu Fairytale A True Story avec la brève apparition de Mel Gibson à la fin du film. Et la musique de Preisner est une franche réussite. Elle est facilement dans mon top 3 avec La double vie de Véronique et The Secret Garden.

[Alcibiade]

Je pense, pour ma part, que cela sera la seule B.O. achetée ces derniers mois, et ceci dit sans aucune malice, puisque rien ne me tente plus vraiment sinon encore Preisner.

[Lee Van Cleef]

J'aime beaucoup écouter ce genre de score intimiste tard le soir, sur enceintes, dans la pénombre. Les instruments prennent vie, pas besoin de pousser le son... et si tout va bien je ne m'endors pas avant la fin !

De l'ASMR chuchoté par des instrumentistes eux-mêmes pris en flagrant délit de prostration, en quelque sorte. Il doit bien exister de moins frileux slogans publicitaires, mais au sortir d'une salle obscure frangée d'enceintes purpurines d'effort, où bruitages gonflés au centuple et musique gueularde s'entendent à liguer leurs potentiels de déprédation auditive, ça peut avoir son petit charme réparateur.

[Caldera]

We also have a new video in our Behind the Scenes series. This time we talk about our creative relationship with Zbigniew Preisner:

[Alcibiade]

Précisant la neuvième collaboration entre Caldera et Preisner, ce Stephan reconnait la facilité avec laquelle on peut travailler en amont avec Preisner pour une présentation en CD d'un de ses travaux. Si la musique de Preisner est admise comme d'une limpidité qui n'a rien d'hermétique (contrairement aux vues générales), est aussi admise la qualité du compositeur à faire œuvre de perfectionnisme concernant la structuration de son travail sur support physique ; ce qui constitue manifestement pour Caldera un atout majeur : un gage d'intégrité artistique pour les béophiles, mais aussi un gain non négligeable pour la publication quasiment immédiate d'un de ses scores perdus. Personnellement, je n'avais pas eu vent de ce film argentin de 1998 d'un certain Babenco.

[Caldera]

Caldera Records proudly presents Ernst Reijseger’s scores for Werner Herzog’s “Family Romance, LLC,” “Fireball,” and “Nomad.”

In “Family Romance, LLC”, shot within just two weeks without professional actors and without a permit in Japan, Herzog tells the story of Ishii, a man who is contacted by a single mother. She wants him to pretend to be the father to her daughter Mahiro. Ishii consents. But before long, Ishii develops a real connection to the young girl and must question the morality of his actions.

“Family Romance, LLC” is like a summation of Ernst Reijseger and Werner Herzog’s work: it was recorded by the composer’s beloved ensemble featuring pianist Harmen Fraanje and vocalist Mola Sylla with Reijseger on the cello. It includes one of Herzog’s favorite pieces of music, Notturno by Franz Schubert, with Reijseger improvising an extra voice. A Gaga Muen Bwebwe had been written originally for the director’s documentary “Cave of Forgotten Dreams,” before it was recorded live in a concert in Krakow and subsequently used by Herzog in his new feature. The piece opens the film.

For Herzog’s subsequent film, “Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin,” Reijseger exclusively wrote new pieces. The heart of Reijseger’s work is undeniably Ombra, a piece inspired by his previous recording Shadow (featured in “Cave of Forgotten Dreams”). Reijseger took the same chords and the same rhythm but arranged it for a large ensemble: piano, four cellos, two violins, two recorders, and two voices (Mola Sylla and Monica Akihari).

“Fireball,” a documentary about meteors and comets, was a project Reijseger was particularly passionate about and started developing, writing and even recording the music before the film was finished. All three scores are perfect examples for Reijseger and Herzog’s fruitful, inspired collaboration. While we previously released “Chronicle” as a compilation of Reijseger’s work, we are delighted to now present excerpts from three specific, recent films that underline the composer’s depth and versatility for three projects vastly different to each other.

The 67th CD-release of Caldera Records features a detailed booklet text by Stephan Eicke and elegant artwork by Luis Miguel Rojas. The CD was mastered by Niels Brrouwer and produced by Stephan Eicke and Ernst Reijseger.

C6067

All Music Composed by Ernst Reijseger
* arranged by Ernst Reijseger

CD produced by Ernst Reijseger and Stephan Eicke

Executive Producers: Stephan Eicke and John Elborg

Album Art Direction and Design by Luis Miguel Rojas

Family Romance, LLC

1. A Gaga Muen Bwebwe (3:39)

2. Biruta (8:17)

3. Limonaia (1:55)

4. Notturno (Franz Schubert) (3:32)*

Nomad

5. Ombra (5:12)

6. Bruce (5:56)

7. Coda for Mola (4:46)

8. Landscape A (4:36)

9. Landscape C (1:07)

10. Landscape D (2:17)

11. Landscape E (6:29)

Fireball

12. Ave Maria (5:38)*

13. Night Watch (7:21)

14. Portal to the Netherworld (2:54)

15. Stabat Mater (5:08)*

16. Tunguska (5:50)

For more information, please visit:

https://www.caldera-records.com/family-romance

[Caldera]

We also have a new edition of our BEHIND THE SERIES series.

Enjoy the gossip!

[Caldera]

Caldera Records proudly presents Zbigniew Preisner’s score for Soren Kragh-Jacobson’s “The Island on Bird Street.”

A young boy named Alex lives with his father and a friend of the family, whom Alex with great affection calls Uncle, in a Polish ghetto at the height of the Second World War. The young boy is an immediate witness to the cruelty of the Nazi officers who use every opportunity to humiliate both his father and his so-called uncle. Though he may not be able to articulate it, Alex knows that his childhood has ended, cut short by fascists who made it their mission to eradicate people like him and his family.

How do you grow up in an environment of threats, danger, and humiliation? Quickly.

“The Island on Bird Street,” released in 1997, tells the story of Alex’ survival. Following the arrest of his father and his uncle, he has to fend for himself in the rubble that is his playground of death.

Zbigniew Preisner received a Silver Bear at the Berlinale for his music in the film. It is indeed one of his grandest achievements. The director and his composer were careful to avoid the usual cliches in films about the horrors of the Holocaust. Thus, “The Island on Bird Street” doesn’t feature any instruments or orchestral colours that could be deemed ethnic. Instead, it is a both aggressive and tender meditation for large orchestra with solo instruments that get their chance to shine.

The piano – and the harp, which also features prominently in the music – proved a particularly fitting choice since their fragility captured Alex’s situation and his fear, the fragility of his existence within the tragedy of the Second World War. Moreover, the pieces for piano and harp can be viewed as a depiction of the nobility of Alex’s spirit. Throughout the horror of the war, the young boy doesn’t lose his humanity. He remains firmly himself, adept at escaping danger and resolute in his stance to oppose the enemy and pray for the return of his father.

The danger is expressed in aggressive, suspenseful, and propulsive pieces for full orchestra and a male voice. The staccato strings and relentless percussion add to the tension on the screen and make clear the harrowing circumstances of Alex’s existence in the rubble of Warsaw. That way, “The Island on Bird Street” is a score of two halves: one fittingly captures the brutality of the regime; one expresses the fragility of Alex’s situation.

For the album, Zbigniew Preisner assembled shorter cues into more extended suites that reveal new facets of his composition. Their context is now different. It is as if a whole new work has emerged.

The 68th CD-release of Caldera Records features a detailed booklet text by Stephan Eicke and elegant artwork by Luis Miguel Rojas. The CD was mastered by Zbigniew Preisner and produced by Stephan Eicke and Zbigniew Preisner.

C6068

Music Composed and Produced by Zbigniew Preisner
CD Produced by Stephan Eicke
Executive Producers for Caldera Records: John Elborg, Stephan Eicke
Album Art Direction and Design by Luis Miguel Rojas

Part I Separation from the Family (6:33)
Part II Empty Street (6:55)
Part III Escaping the Ultimate Solution (8:30)
Part IV Dream (1:53)
Part V The Final Stage of the Fight for Life (13:15)
Part VI The Island on Bird Street (4:23)

For more information and sound clips, please visit:
https://www.caldera-records.com/island-on-bird-street

[Dadid]

Chouette ! Pour une fois ce n'est pas un robot qui écrit, bien que l'album soit produit par... John "le borg" Dans le genre comique il m'a l'air bien, ce Preisner. "Escaping the Ultimate Solution", tout particulièrement.

[Alcibiade]

Ce dernier Priesner est, à l'écoute des extraits, vraiment sous l'influence du Dracula de Kilar ; et après tout, pourquoi pas ? Décrire musicalement la Shoah est un exercice difficile, Williams évidemment avec "La liste de Schindler", "Uprising" de Jarre, "The boy in the striped pajamas" de Horner, "etc. Guère d'hésitation pour ma part quant il s'agit d'un Preisner et d'un Caldera accordés.