The Original Motion Picture Score by iconic film composer Mark Isham for the 1998 cult-classic film Blade, is now available for the first time as a record. The record is available here, with the jacket, inner sleeve, and labels referencing the warehouse rave scene.
The film starred Wesley Snipes (The Expendables 3), who is a half-vampire, half-human that has a goal to rid the world of evil vampires with the help of Whistler (Kris Kristofferson.) The first film was successful, so they created two sequels, Blade II and Blade: Trinity. Marvel Studios has announced a Blade reboot that is coming in 2020, featuring actor Mahershala Ali.
Mark Isham is a music innovator, jazz artist, and film composer whose melodies transform the film. Just hearing them places fans back in the moment with the ability to visualize the scenes. His colleagues acknowledged him and awarded the highest honor for a composer from The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), the Henry Mancini Career Achievement Award for musical excellence.
When talking about creating the score for the film and the process, Mark Isham had this to say;
“The score needed to have an epic super-hero quality but with a very dark side, and it needed to be able to live next to the world of 1990’s electronica – The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Aphex Twin etc. We used a large symphony orchestra supplemented with electronic synthesizers and samplers for a unique musical vocabulary. I did a lot of sampling of weird and strange sounds as well as programming my synth collection. We recorded at the Fox stage which is a wonderful room. The process went smoothly as I had worked tirelessly with Steve Norrington, the director, during the demo process to get what we both wanted. We recorded some sections of the score in smaller segments – to be edited together later – as a lot of the visual effects hadn’t been completed yet. I think my two favorite musical moments are The Death Of Whistler – which is very emotional scene, a bit unexpected in a film of this genre – and the culmination of the Ritual For Summoning La Magra. This is big and bombastic and just plain FUN!”.
The Blade Original Motion Picture Score will have seven songs between the two sides. The tracklist will include “Daywalker,” “Top of the Food Chain,” “Temple of Light,” “The Bleeding Stone,” and more.
Watch the trailer for the film below.