Academy-Award-winning Alan Silvestri composed the score to Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life (2003), borrowing Nathan McCree's original motif from Tomb Raider (1996) in his own arrangement as the "Main Title" and for subsequent uses and developments throughout the film.
The Original Motion Picture Score album is still available via both Amazon & iTunes. The motion picture itself happens to run for 112 minutes; while there are segments of the picture without music and other lengths using peripheral music not by Silvestri, the 59 minutes of material present on the soundtrack CD is cut rather short.
One interesting piece is a transitional cue that plays at about 5 minutes and 40 seconds into the film, during the boat ride to the Luna Temple dive. At only 24 seconds in length, it is a beautiful composition offering depth to the opening of the film and further expanding the leitmotifs of the Cradle of Life score.
This piece in mention unfortunately isn't present on the published album, but via methods of interpolation from the DVD audio we are able to stream a sample for our readers. The tune has since graced the landing of our (now under construction) Commercial Discography page. Do take a look!
A couple of weeks ago, VikingWasDead posted an entry regarding the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) film soundtrack. Following in their footsteps, I'm here to share some additional information, resulting from a thorough research I undertook a couple of years back.
There are a number of songs credited for use in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Luckily, most of them can actually be found upon the official soundtrack album, but this is not the case for all of them as VikingWasDead pointed out. One of the most mesmerizing songs featured in the film, called "Lila" and performed by experimental band Vas, is another track which unfortunately was not featured on the official soundtrack album. You can hear a snippet of this great song right below. It is from the album "In the Garden of Souls", available as both physical and digital releases via Amazon.
The song plays during Lara's first encounter with Mr Powell, no doubt you'll remember. Its experimental nature would probably clash with the majority of songs on the soundtrack album, although that didn't prevent the presence of equally psychedelic songs "Edge Hill" by Groove Armada and "Song of Life" by Leftfield.
Now a rather trivial curiosity. While there is an official "Tomb Raider Mix" for U2's "Elevation", you might never have realized that there is play of an additional remixed version in the film. The "Elevation [Influx Remix]" plays as Lara rides a kayak to the Cambodian village. If it doesn't ring a bell you can try the snippet below to jog your memory. This amazing remix is available on the various "Elevation" singles (there are quite a handful of them differing across regions) and also on the extended play "7".
There are more tidbits and facts regarding compositions featured on the films that we will be sharing here, all in due time.
Crystal Dynamics Community Manager, Meagan Marie, dropped the second official Crystal Habit Pod-cast on the Official Tomb Raider Blog today (pertaining to Tomb Raider (2012)).
As well as discussion about various franchise and game-play related tidbits with Global Brand Director Karl Stewart and a representative from Eidos Montreal, the pod-cast also includes samples of the music heard in the Tomb Raider "Turning Point" cinematic trailer.
The 5 samples include the opening theme from the trailer, a few seconds of an entirely new musical stinger, the official Tomb Raider.com "Ringtone", an excerpt of a previously unobtainable piece (that builds up to the climatic leap of faith) and finally a clean rendition of the closing score to the Turning Point trailer:
Today's samples were available at a high fidelity of 320kbps; a similar quality to look forward to for the promised upcoming iTunes serial of the pod-cast.
Also elaborated upon was the music that plays on Lara's headphones in Turning Point; apparently it was an original techno piece "whipped up" by in-house sound designer Alex Wilmer. Ambiguously, Stewart jokes that Crystal may even release the piece as a treat for the fans. The composer for Tomb Raider (2012) is expected to be announced later in the year.
A while ago H4RR7H wrote an article regarding the revised track-listing for first film's score. I'd like to elaborate on the accompanying Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) various artists soundtrack album; pertaining to featured songs by music bands around the world.
If you are looking to purchase the CD album, it is still available via Amazon.com as an Audio CD or a MP3 Download. In my personal opinion, mp3 is the better choice because you are able to purchase selected tracks.
Firstly, as most of you know, "Elevation" by U2 was released as a promotional single from the motion picture. U2 is an alternative-rock band from Ireland and their music is known worldwide. The official music video features scenes from the film with the band members digitally addded in:
This version of the track is an edit produced particularly for the motion picture. If you're interested in the original mix it is again available for purchase via Amazon.
Another featured artist on the Tomb Raider soundtrack is an American band Nine Inch Nails; their track "Deep" (quote from ninwiki.com):
"is a Fragile-era song made specifically for the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider soundtrack. Since it was written specifically for a soundtrack, it has never appeared on a studio album."
Right, I'm not going write about each and every track released from the soundtrack - I have mentioned the two interesting inclusions above because "Elevation" promoted the motion picture as a single and "Deep" was written specifically for Tomb Raider.
Now, let us move on to tracks used in the film that are not available on the officially released soundtrack.
The first is a 'classical' piece from the Baroque period by Johann Sebastian Bach. "Piano Concerto in F Minor" plays during the scene when Lara does her Bungee-Ballet, and it is a great experience of Baroque music. If you're interested in this piece of music, similar recordings are available to purchase via Amazon.com.
Another track not provided on the album is a song by Craig Armstrong, who notably would later contribute instrumental work to Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life (2003). For Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), he did not compose any original score (the majority of which was completed by Graeme Revell). As well as creating and composing scores for motion pictures, BAFTA-Award-winning Mr. Armstrong also creates his own lyrical music just like other singer/songwriters or music bands.
"Inhaler" is a connection of electronic, rock and orchestral music in one piece. In my opinion it fits Tomb Raider franchise perfectly. Again, it is available for purchase via Amazon. The scene in which this track was used is when Lara, along with Bryce, Manfred Powell and Alex West, are riding the sledges pulled by Husky dogs to reach the Tomb in Siberia.
So there's a little about the Tomb Raider soundtrack. I hope you enjoyed reading it and perhaps I'll do something similar for the Cradle of Life motion picture soon.
IndyCroft.com's competition for original compositions, renditions or remixes of the Tomb Raider and/or Indiana Jones themes, dubbed "RaiderFest 2011", has been extended until September 22nd.
Since our last mention of the rewards at stake, an additional piece has made it's way online:
We'll continue to post any news or entries as they surface. If you'd like to share your currently unpublicised RaiderFest entry with us online, feel free to drop us a comment below.
If you haven't yet begun producing a submission, and with the more-than-a-month extension in mind, why not make a start on one now?
My name is Pieter Smal (aka Liszt). I am a pianist and composer studying at the University of Pretoria (South Africa). In September 2010 I decided to start an analysis of the soundtracks to Tomb Raider: Legend, Anniversary and Underworld. One year later and I am far from finished.
With the help of various interviews with Troels Folmann and Colin O'Malley, I am analyzing the use of motifs, themes, theme transformations (especially in Underworld) and unifying elements in orchestration, rhythm and other stylistic elements.
In due time I shall blog more about relevant information, and hopefully share the finished product with you online. Feel free to contact me or ask a few questions in the comments section below.
Update: Smal's work ultimately assembled into a scholarly dissertation, published in 2013.
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