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Varese Sarabande Records has quite the bounty of soundtrack CD club releases this spring, announcing two stellar deluxe editions and reissuing a favorite album on disc.

First up, a double-header for John Williams fans: his 1990 score to the romantic drama Stanley & Iris and the premiere release of his score to 1972’s Pete ‘N’ Tillie. Stanley & Iris starred Robert De Niro and Jane Fonda as two struggling coworkers in a baking factory–she struggles to make ends meet with her extended family and no husband, he takes care of his ailing father and hides a secret about his ability to read. Williams underscores their friendship and eventual romance with typical gentility, making for a strongly overlooked entry in his scoring canon recently spotlighted with an isolated score release on a Blu-ray manufactured by the Twilight Time imprint. Album producers Robert Townson and Mike Matessino also give Williams fanatics a treat with the short but notable score to another romantic dramedy, Pete ‘N’ Tillie, starring a Golden Globe-nominated Walter Matthau and Carol Burnett as an idiosyncratic couple. Recorded in the same era as Williams’ exhilarating scores to The Cowboys and The Poseidon Adventure, this score is a notable archival find for fans of the composer.

Varese next moves to heart-pounding action with a generously expanded edition of Basil Poledouris’ score to Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995). A team of armed mercenaries and a crazed computer hacker hijack a passenger train in the Rocky Mountains, with an insidious plan to destroy The Pentagon with a nuclear strike. There’s just one problem: one of the passengers is Casey Ryback, Steven Seagal’s mild-mannered ex-Navy SEAL-turned-cook, who single-handedly thwarted a group of mercenaries aboard a naval battleship in 1992’s Under Siege (Seagal’s highest-grossing film of his career). Poledouris provides non-stop thrills with his themes, greatly expanded from the original Varese album, which ran at half the length of this new disc.

Finally, the label revives a Disney favorite: Elmer Bernstein’s stunning original soundtrack to 1985’s animated feature The Black Cauldron. This sword-and-sorcery flick, loosely based on Lloyd Alexander’s Welsh myth-inspired The Chronicles of Prythain (and the first Disney animated feature to earn a PG rating from the Motion Picture Association of America), features the adventures of pig-keeper Taran and his fantastical friends in battle against the wicked Horned King (voiced by John Hurt). Recorded by Bernstein with the Utah Symphony Orchestra shortly before the film’s release (Intrada has since released the original film score), this original album continues Bernstein’s late-career hot streak from lighthearted but powerful scores to Trading Places (1983) and Ghostbusters (1984), which used the same ghostly ondes Martenot as heard in The Black Cauldron.

Stanley & Iris is limited to 3,000 copies; Under Siege 2 tops out at 2,000 and The Black Cauldron is repressed at 1,000 copies. All are available to order from the label right now!

John Williams, Stanley & Iris: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack – The Deluxe Edition / Pete ‘N’ Tillie (Varese Sarabande VCL 0317 1178, 2017 – original films released 1990 and 1972)

1. Stanley and Iris
2. The Bicycle
3. The Pink Sweater
4. Iris After Work
5. Stanley At Work
6. Looking After Papa
7. Entering the Library
8. Night Visit
9. Factory Work
10. Naming the Trees
11. Finding a Family
12. Lost in the Streets
13. Stanley’s Invention
14. The Kitchen Table
15. Seeing the Baby
16. Reading Lessons
17. Growing Together
18. Putting It All Together
19. Letters
20. End Title
21. Stanley and Iris (Film Version)
22. Stanley At Work (Film Version)
23. Looking After Papa (Film Version)
24. Stanley’s Invention (Film Version)
25. Putting It All Together (Film Version)
26. Letters (Film Version)
27. Pete ‘N’ Tillie – Main Title
28. Afterglow
29. Marriage Book
30. Bedroom Scene
31. Vacation
32. For Robbie
33. Funeral
34. Hospital
35. End Title and End Cast
36. Love Theme

Tracks 1-26 from Stanley & Iris. Tracks 1-2, 5-6, 8-9, 11, 13, 16 and 18-20 first released on Varese Sarabande VSD-5255, 1990. Tracks 27-36 from Pete ‘N’ Tillie–previously unreleased

Basil Poledouris, Under Siege 2: Dark Territory –  Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: The Deluxe Edition (Varese Sarabande 0317 1179, 2017 – original film released 1995)

1. Main Titles: Dark Territory
2. Meet Casey Ryback *
3. Casey’s Family
4. The Train Departs *
5. Compound Assault
6. Casey and Sarah/Choppers Approach *
7. Mercs Take Over Train *
8. Access Codes (Extended Version) **
9. Out The Window/Bye Bye Thriller *
10. Ryback Startles Bobby/China Blues *
11. A Billion Dollars/Modem Time *
12. Dane Shoots Airliner *
13. Scramble Map
14. Intruder Discovered (Extended Version) **
15. Misery *
16. Dead Not Dead
17. Casey Off the Train *
18. Cliff Fight/Train Pulls Away
19. Dane Starts Final Count **
20. Casey Reboards Train **
21. The Gates of Hell **
22. Hostage Car Shootout *
23. Kitchen Fight *
24. Penn’s Wish
25. Train Wreck *
26. Casey’s Farewell/After the Train is Gone
27. The Pleasures of Love (Source) – Grieg McRitchie *
28. Unused Plaisir d’Amor (Source) – Basil Poledouris *

* previously unreleased ** contains previously unreleased material
Tracks 1, 3, 5, parts of 8 and 14, 16, parts of 21, 24 and 26 from Varese Sarabande VSD-5648, 1995

Elmer Bernstein, The Black Cauldron: Original Motion Picture Score – The Encore Edition (originally released as Varese Sarabande STV-81253, 1985 – reissued Varese Sarabande VCL 0317 1180, 2017)

1. Escape From the Castle
2. Taran
3. The Witches
4. Gurgi
5. The Horned King
6. The Fair Folk
7. Hen Wen’s Vision
8. Eilonwy
9. Finale