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Dragon's Domain Records presents LES BAXTER: THE HORROR COLLECTION, a compilation of music from several horror films from the composer's extensive filmography.
LES BAXTER: THE HORROR COLLECTION includes music composed by Les Baxter for CRY OF THE BANSHEE, BARON BLOOD and a suite of music from the AIP television special AN EVENING WITH EDGAR ALLAN POE.
Airing on television in 1970, AN EVENING WITH EDGAR ALLAN POE featured the legendary Vincent Price reciting four classic stories from Poe, directed by Kenneth Johnson (THE BIONIC WOMAN, THE INCREDIBLE HULK) and music composed by Les Baxter. The suite includes music for The Tell-Tale Heart, The Sphinx, The Cask Of Amontillado and The Pit And The Pendulum.
Released in 1970, CRY OF THE BANSHEE was directed by Gordon Hessler, written by Tim Kelly and Christopher Wicking, starring Vincent Price, Elizabeth Bergner, Essy Persson, Hugh Griffith, Sally Geeson, Robert Hutton, Patrick Mower, Hillary Heath, Carl Rigg, Stephan Chase and Marshall Jones.
Price portrays Lord Edward Whitman, a ruthless Elizabethan witch hunter whose persecution of a coven unleashes a terrible supernatural vengeance. CRY OF THE BANSHEE received a new score from Baxter for its American theatrical release after AIP rejected the original music by Wilfred Josephs. Strings, percussion, and piano combine in jagged rhythmic patterns, violent accents, and unsettling repetitions, creating a musical atmosphere that is as unpredictable as the supernatural forces stalking Whitman and his family.
Released in 1972, BARON BLOOD was directed by Mario Bava, written by Bava, Willibald Eser and Vincent Fotre, starring Joseph Cotten, Elke Sommer, Massimo Girotti , Rada Rassimov, Anotnio Cantafora, Umberto Raho, Luciano Pigozzi, Dieter Tressler, Nicoletta Elmi, Gustavo De Nardo and Valeria Sabel.
Also known as GLI ORRORI DEL CASTELLO DI NORIMBERGA, BARON BLOOD follows Joseph Cotten as the sinister Baron Otto von Kleist, a sadistic nobleman whose murderous legacy is awakened when his descendant returns to the family castle and an ancient incantation is read aloud. For the American market, AIP shortened the film, altered some scenes, redubbed the dialogue and substituted Les Baxter's music for Stelvio Cipriani's score. Baxter's score is one of the most distinctive aspects of the AIP version. Rather than simply preserving Cipriani's music, AIP gave American audiences a more overtly ominous, traditional horror-movie sound.
Born in Mexia, Texas, Les Baxter studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory of Music and later at Pepperdine College in Los Angeles. He began his professional career as a musician with the Freddie Slack big band and later sang with Mel Tormé's Mel-Tones.
Baxter established himself as an arranger and conductor at Capitol Records, working with major artists including Nat King Cole. In the late 1940s, he pioneered the emerging "space age" sound with MUSIC OUT OF THE MOON, an innovative recording featuring the theremin. During the 1950s, he became one of the principal architects of exotica, creating lush, highly orchestrated fantasies inspired by Polynesian, African, Asian, and Latin American musical colors.
At the same time, Baxter was an extraordinarily prolific composer for the screen. He ultimately wrote music for more than 250 radio, television, and motion-picture projects, with a particularly large body of work in horror and science-fiction films. His association with American International Pictures produced scores for such films as THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM, THE DUNWICH HORROR, THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES and numerous other genre productions.
LES BAXTER: THE HORROR COLLECTION includes music that has previously been released but has been remastered by James Nelson at Digital Outland, including liner notes by G.B. Kemner.
- BSX
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