Press Release from Dragon's Domain:Dragon’s Domain Records presents THE MARK SNOW COLLECTION, VOLUME 3, featuring two scores composed by Mark Snow (THE X FILES, SMALLVILLE, GHOST WHISPERER) for two television movies from 1994, while Snow was working on THE X FILES. With this collection we celebrate a pair of dramatic scores that Mark Snow (THE X-FILES, MILLENNIUM, THE GHOST WHISPERER) composed for television in 1994. The first is a murder mystery based on a true story, set in New Orleans. The second is a melodrama about two brothers competing for the same woman in a south Texas town. Both scores show how the composer can wield his versatile array of Synclaviers and digital samplers, mixed with the occasional live instrument, constructing exceptional melodies along with energetic and convincing simulated orchestral textures into effective and affecting dramatic musical storytelling.
MURDER BETWEEN FRIENDS premiered on NBC on January 10, 1994. Stephen Lang and Martin Kemp play best friends Kerry Meyers and Bill Fontannille in a suburban New Orleans neighborhood. After an argument in which both have stabbed and beaten each other, and during which Meyers’ wife Janet has been murdered, detectives try to piece together what happened and prosecutors prepare a trial in which Fontannille is charged as the murderer of Janet. But the trial ends in a hung jury and Fontannille is freed. After the proceeding ends in a mistrial, the prosecuting attorney continues to search out the truth and is able to bring about a conviction in a new trial using the then-new forensic science of blood spatter analysis. Snow’s music immediately conveys the setting with a stylish New Orleans male baritone vocalise sample, out of which exudes a bluesy, humid electric guitar solo, played over menacing Synclavier pads and low drones.
SHADOWS OF DESIRE, broadcast by CBS on September 20th, 1994, was directed by Sam Pillsbury, New York born and Massachusetts-raised, whose film career began in New Zealand. His long pedigree as screenwriter (THE QUIET EARTH) and director (WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS, FREE WILLY 3) generated work on numerous television movies throughout the ‘90s and ‘2000s. Set in Utah (but filmed in Texas), this film stars Nicollette Sheridan as Rowena Ecklund, who returns to her hometown for the funeral of her estranged mother, owner of the local café. Adrian Pasdar (NEAR DARK) plays the timid Jude Snow, who carries around a leg injury from a hunting accident as a youth and soon takes up with Rowena, despite the objections of the town’s official busybody, his mother Ellis. Jude and Rowena’s bond is threatened when bad-boy brother Sonny (Joe Lando) returns to the farm. He and Rowena had a fling back in high-school, one Sonny is eager to renew, despite any protestations from the lady, resulting in a dangerous amount of sibling rivalry. Snow’s music features an abundance of folksy acoustic guitar and digital violin melodies, which lay down a very likeable harmonic texture that nicely fits the film’s environment and characters.
Mark Snow is primarily known for his work in the medium of television, including many seasons of music scoring for shows such as THE X-FILES, MILLENNIUM, SMALLVILLE, GHOST WHISPERER, BLUE BLOODS, NOWHERE MAN and many others. In 1993, composer Mark Snow began a fruitful creative collaboration with producer Chris Carter on THE X-FILES, which culminated in a unique marriage of music and macabre storytelling. Snow’s work on THE X-FILES put him on the Hollywood scoring map, offering up a unique mix of atmospheric sound design and affecting layers of ambient melody on a weekly basis and this sound became very much in demand in the industry. Mark is considered one of television’s most capable composers. The large percentage of his musical output has centered around the subjects of the supernatural, the macabre and outright science fiction or dark fantasy but there have been occasions for him to break out and work on other projects, such as PRIVATE FEARS IN PUBLIC PLACES and WILD GRASS for Alain Resnais, the legendary French director.
Mark Snow has worked on more than two hundred television movies and series, PC games and feature films including THE X-FILES, MILLENNIUM, SMALLVILLE, GHOST WHISPERER, BLUE BLOODS, and NOWHERE MAN, among others, returning to THE X FILES recently when the series made its triumphant return to television in 2016. Mark has been nominated for 14 Primetime Emmy awards since 1984 and won at least 19 ASCAP awards. The composer is also a founding member of the legendary New York Rock'n'Roll ensemble, along with fellow composer Michael Kamen. The band was signed to Atlantic Records and Mark toured and recorded with them for 5 years before turning his focus to writing music for film and television.
Dragon’s Domain Records presents THE MARK SNOW COLLECTION: VOLUME 3, featuring the world premiere releases of the original television soundtracks to MURDER BETWEEN FRIENDS and SHADOWS OF DESIRE, featuring music composed by Mark Snow.
