Alice [Original Television Soundtrack]

Recording information: Lochinkop Studios, Vancouver, B.C.
Editor: David Ramos.
Ben Mink is best known for his work with k.d. lang on her seminal album Ingénue as producer, composer, conductor, and arranger (he also worked on her soundtrack for Even Cowgirls Get the Blues). The soundtrack and score he wrote for the television show Alice (a retelling of the Alice in Wonderland story) is his second foray under his own name. His first was the wonderfully quirky Foreign Exchange in 1980. Mink not only composed the score for Alice, he performed all of it. It ranges from hard rock vamps in the intro (with a direct rip from Deep Purple's hit "Hush") to more ornately moody cues that combine classical music with atmospheric textures -- "Romance Flute," "Boat Talk Grey," the intro to "Solo Flamingo" (as well funky surf on "Disco Daze") -- to brooding, rhythmic, and atmospheric pieces that meld world music traditions and noir-ish dramatic moods ("The Black Arts"). All of his cues are short, never leaving the listener to dwell in one place for too long; they shift continually through a mazelike musical architectural structure that works beautifully as a suite all on its own. ~ Thom Jurek