Bernard Herrmann - Mysterious Island

The 1961 film Mysterious Island was the third film that Bernard Herrmann had scored with the ground-breaking stop-motion animations of Ray Harryhausen - which went by the name "Dynamation".

Based on a Jules Verne novel, which was a sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, the film sees American Civil War Confederate prisoners stage an escape in a gas balloon. The balloon takes them westwards across the US and out over the Pacific Ocean, where it eventually crashes in a storm near the island of the film's title. Over the course of the film they encounter the giant animals that much of the music suite from the film on this record is depicting.

The trailer for the film gives the context for the music.

Bernard Herrmann's music is virtually an aural equivalent of Ray Harryhausen's Dynamation. With a greatly extended orchestra, including 8 french horns, 4 tubas, multiple woodwind, and a huge array of percussion the scene is set for a thrilling ride through a score which has outlived the film it came from.

The 1975 recording from Decca's Phase4 team is as colourful as the music - the multitrack, spotlight sound complementing the scoring perfectly. My (not very flat) secondhand copy is a US version issued on Decca's London label - it's UK provenance proudly flagged up on on the cover.

Cartridge: Ortofon Synergy GM SPU

Phono amp: Graham Slee Accession + Elevator EXP

Turntable: PTP Audio Solid12 + SME M2-12-r tonearm