scott johnson

Patty Hearst O.S.T.

Scott Johnson's pioneering soundtrack for Taxi Driver writer Paul Schrader's 'Patty Hearst' has been unavailable for years since its original release back in 1988, and now thanks to Tzadik the world can once again get to grips what, to my ears, was a soundtrack way ahead of its time. Combining his rich classical training with any modern technology he could get his hands on, Johnson managed to come up with something incredibly fresh sounding when it was originally produced. He fused electronic sounds with acoustic, yet the two sides never feel at odds with each other, something which was rarely achieved at the time. In the last five years there has been a real explosion of electronic/classical crossover records from artists such as Murcof, Ryan Teague, Max Richter, Sylvain Chauveau, Marsen Jules and many more, but this lesser known score actually lays down the foundation for the scene. I'm not saying in any way that this influenced any of those artists, but the ideas that Johnson was playing with deserve to be re-discovered by anyone with an interest in the genre. A dramatic and complex piece of cinematic scoring, this would be enjoyed by soundtrack fetishists and avant-classical fans alike.