Press Release from Dragon's Domain: Dragon’s Domain Records presents THE JOEL GOLDSMITH COLLECTION, VOLUME 2, a second compilation of previously unreleased scores from film and television composer Joel Goldsmith’s extensive filmography. Joel was the oldest son of veteran composer Jerry Goldsmith and Sharon Hennagin. THE JOEL GOLDSMITH COLLECTION, VOLUME 2 focuses on three little known projects from the mid- and late-1990s .
Released in 1999, STEALTH FIGHTER was directed by Jim Wynorski (credited as “Jay Andrews”), for whom Joel had previously scored the comedy LITTLE MISS MILLIONS (aka HOME FOR CHRISTMAS on video) and the sci-fi horror film VAMPIRELLA. The film follows a naval pilot who fakes his own death and steals an Air Force stealth fighter in order to become a mercenary, targeting military installations around the world. Goldsmith didn’t score STEALTH FIGHTER but composed its main theme at the director’s request (a task Joel repeated on Wynorski’s MILITIA and LOST IN THE WOODS). The movie was scored by Alex Wilkinson, a composer Joel had worked with and mentored in the past.
From 1996, RATTLED is a TV movie of the nature-on-the-rampage ilk, as hundreds of deadly rattlesnakes overrun a new housing project after dynamiting a nearby hillside awakens them from hibernation. Designer Paul Donahue (William Katt) is understandably concerned when his homestead is unexpectedly under siege by the confused, rattling serpents. Based on a novel by Joseph Gilmore, the film was directed by Tony Randel (HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II, TICKS, FIST OF THE NORTH STAR). Joel’s score is richly melodic and possesses some very effective musical action and horror manifestations.
HAWKEYE was a single-season TV series, offering 22 episodes in syndication from 1994-95. The historical adventure drama is set in the Hudson Valley during the French and Indian War (1754-1763), and follows the continuing adventures of Hawkeye, the character created by James Fenimore Cooper in THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS and other novels. Lee Horsley is Natty Bumppo (aka Hawkeye), with Rodney A. Grant as his Native companion Chingachgook, and Lynda Carter as Elizabeth Shields, owner of the local English trading post. The series focused on Hawkeye, the indigenous woodsman he befriends, and the brave English woman trying to free her husband from the French. Goldsmith scored the series acoustically with an orchestra supplemented by flutes, harp, guitars, dulcimer, shakers, voices, whistles, and various percussion that resonated well with the series’ period and setting. Included here are some selections from Joel’s score for the pilot episode.
Joel Goldsmith was born on November 19th, 1957, Los Angeles, California, the third of four children of singer Sharon Hennagin and legendary composer Jerry Goldsmith. Since his first cinematic composition, a collaboration with then-newcomer Richard Band on the low-budget science fiction thriller, LASERBLAST (1978), Joel scored a number of feature and television films throughout the 1980s and ‘90s, including the sci-fi series SUPER FORCE (1990), Roland Emmerich’s early sci-fi thriller MOON 44 (1990), and Jim Wynorski’s gentle family comedy, LITTLE MISS MILLIONS (1993). After THE UNTOUCHABLES, Joel went on to score the TV series HAWKEYE (1994), BAD BLOOD (1994, aka VIPER), KULL THE CONQUEROR (1997), TV’s WITCHBLADE (2000), HELEN OF TROY and several iterations of the STARGATE TV series (1997-2011). He also provided synthesized sound effects for STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE (1979) and composed additional music for STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT (1996).
Dragon’s Domain Records presents THE JOEL GOLDSMITH COLLECTION, VOLUME 2, featuring previously unreleased music composed by Joel Goldsmith, mastered by James Nelson at Digital Outland. The booklet contains liner notes written by noted author Randall Larson.
