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'Soar into a Magical World of Action, Excitement and Enchantment!'
Dragon's Domain Records presents the original motion picture soundtrack for ARABIAN ADVENTURE, featuring music composed by Ken Thorne (A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, JUGGERNAUT, HANNIE CAULDER) for the 1979 fantasy adventure film directed by Kevin Connor (FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE, THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT, MOTEL HELL), written by Brian Hayles, Milo O'Shea, Oliver Tobias, Emma Samms, Puneet Sira, John Ratzenberger, Shane Rimmer, John Wyman, Hal Galili, Art Malik and Christopher Lee as Alquazar.
Christopher Lee leads the cast of ARABIAN ADVENTURE as Alquazar, the Caliph of Jadur, who has sold his soul to usurp the rightful ruler. He holds the populace in an iron grip, sending out thugs each night to punish those breaking curfew. One evening, two strangers are captured: Majeed (Sira), a young beggar boy with a monkey, and a handsome stranger (Tobias), who eventually break out of the dungeon. He impresses Princess Zuleira (Samms) with his fighting skills as he battles his way to the throne room. Once there, he introduces himself to Alquazar as Prince Hasan and requests Zuleira's hand in marriage. The Calif demands a test of his bravery, a quest to find and return a magical rose from a perilous land far away...
For the film's score, composer Ken Thorne was allowed to create a lush orchestral palette of motifs featuring arrangements highlighted with bold brass, warm strings, and an ethereal choir. Principal themes include a lovely romantic melody for the princess and a thrilling percussion-driven performance for the flying carpet battle.
Ken Thorne (1924-2014) was a veteran English composer for motion pictures since the mid-1960s. He gained a successful career as a big band pianist during the 1940s, and later took up studying composition at Cambridge, which led to scoring films, starting out with a 1948 musical but began earnestly in the early 1960s. Thorne so impressed director Richard Lester on one of his early films that he became Lester's composer of choice, writing the instrumental underscore for HELP!, starring The Beatles, then winning an Oscar for best adapted music for Lester's film A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, and reworked the music of John Williams from SUPERMAN for Lester's two sequels, SUPERMAN II and III. Over his career, Thorne composed, orchestrated or conducted more than 100 feature and television movies.
Director Kevin Connor collaborated with composer Ken Thorne many times over the course of their careers, on films such as THE HOUSE WHERE EVIL DWELLS, THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, the mini-series GREAT EXPECTATIONS, SUNSET GRILL, the mini-series RETURN TO LONESOME DOVE, LETHAL EXPOSURE, AGE OF TREASON, THE ELIZABETH TAYLOR STORY, THE APOCALYPSE WATCH, MARY, MOTHER OF JESUS, IN THE BEGINNING, SANTA, JR and MARCO POLO.
Dragon's Domain Records presents ARABIAN ADVENTURE, featuring music composed by Ken Thorne. The music has been mastered by James Nelson at Digital Outland and the liner notes have been written by author David Hirsch.
- BSX
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