The Island at the Top of the World

Maurice Jarre's score to the 1974 Disney film Island at the Top of the World was his first project for the studio. The elaborate visual effects, exotic settings and imaginative action sequences gave Jarre ample opportunities to showcase his penchant for atypical orchestration and unusual instrumental approaches. He brought a battery of unusual instruments to the recording sessions, including immense alpine horns, traditional Nordic instruments, and conch shells.

Jarre took particular care to reinforce the film's imagery of ice floes, snow and massive ice caves by employing glass rub rods, water chimes, waterphone and other unusual instrumental combinations to create creaking, glassy, fragile sounds. His main title instantly proves his ability to both fit into the "Disney style" and maintain his exotic, epic sensibility. His main theme, blasted forth by horns and trumpets, is boisterous, filled with the requisite, almost childlike enthusiasm that Disney adventures required.

To present this premiere release of the complete score, Intrada was given access to all of the original session masters recorded in 1974 at the Disney Studios. Happily, all of the original scoring session elements were vaulted in perfect condition. Every channel of every reel survived, including all of the percussion overlays. This allowed the Disney engineers to create digital transfers for every element, making it possible for Intrada to present brand new two-channel stereo mixes of every single cue for this CD.

Island at the Top of the World was based on Ian Cameron's novel, The Lost Ones, and followed a group of adventurers as they discover a hidden island in the Arctic waste that is home to Astragard, a lost civilization peopled by descendants of the Vikings.