Kronos Quartet & Mogwai
The Fountain (Soundtrack)

THE REVIEW

Death Is A Disease

Death Is The Road To Awe

A dichotomy life and death, a dichotomy Kronos Quartet and Mogwai, a dichotomy Clint Mansell and The Fountain.

The film and the score are from the series, if you like them then they are fantastic, if you don't like them then they are to be torn apart, the middle ground is not allowed, the theme is too "delicate" and becomes quite subjective and personal.

A triptych that is based on the cycle of life, death, and rebirth with a unique purpose, plunging into an odyssey to save one's woman from death. Hugh Jackman plays the same man in three different times, 16th century, a conquistador who is searching for "the Tree of Life", drinking the sap should grant eternal life, 21st century, a scientist desperately fighting to find the cure to save his woman from cancer and finally 26th century, an astronaut who will clash with the true meaning of life, and Rachel Weisz who plays the same woman, the fulcrum of the fight, almost futile, because we all are and will always be the mortals of "the Tree of Life". A great composer, Clint Mansell, great performers, Kronos Quartet and Mogwai, who deliver magical, deep, and unsettling sounds, have the ability not to necessarily be connected to the film to interpret the melody because it becomes visible just by listening to it, they lead an exhibition of true talent that truly builds a dream.

Forty-six minutes of numbing and continuous pain, the basic motive is the equivalent of an "interpretive funeral march", composed of repeated refrains but distinctly and differently nuanced for each track, the erupting beauty of guitars, bass, percussion, and piano by Mogwai that blends with the orchestral finesse of the Kronos Quartet, and the lyrical chorals that explode on a continuous base of violins, cello, viola, cello, and piano. Tracks of frustration and soul-wrenching. Both groups master their genres and their inspirational ability, slow and pressing, with such simplicity and refinement as to leave one astonished.

Like the opening track "The Last Man" a member of the Kronos introduces a melody with cello on a backdrop of cello almost suffocating it and leading into the next track "Holy Dread!" where the Mogwai hold back pushing the instrumentation to the maximum of their resistance and two minutes before the end of the track, exploding in a wonderful finale, and they are also in their full glory in "Tree Of Life" and "Stay With Me", calming down in "Death Is A Disease", leaving time to a floating violin set by synthesizer pulses in "Xibalba" not to mention the elegant instrumental plea of "First Snow" and "Finish It."

"The Fountain" to admire and damn beautiful to listen to.