SOUNDTRACK REVIEW: Ghost Light

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GHOST LIGHT
by Mark Ayres

Details HERE
CD/Download out Aug 26

Review by Jack Bowman


This re-release, all remastered and brought beautifully into the 21st Century, is Mark Ayres' soundtrack from the very last classic Doctor Who production made solely by the BBC in 1989.

Season twenty-six was a moment where the show, having struggled for many years since the infamous hiatus (just a few years previous), finally began to find a new-found confidence under Andrew Cartmel and nowhere was this more apparent than in the contribution of Mark Ayres, as the composer of Ghost Light and The Curse Of Fenric.

Trying, with limited resources to bring a more cinematic, orchestral feel to the series, Ghost Light represents an ambition that feels more familiarly-aligned with "new" Who. Deliberately evoking the best of haunted house scores, Ayres creates a genuinely creepy atmosphere for what is a rather surreal serial, which still manages to incorporate the composer's own signature motifs.

This package represents for newer fans the first time in twenty years the chance to own this score – which is rather more definitive than the original Silva Screen release in 1993. For those who may already own that CD edition, the draw here is a collection of alternative and unreleased editions included, along with several previously unheard tracks. The alternative compositions are good fun listen to and, naturally, to also play the game of 'seeing which version you prefer'.

Sadly, the only absent element on this release is while both the opening and closing Keff McCulloch arrangements of the Doctor Who theme are included, the full-length edition composed in 1987 is not added here; indeed, it has still yet to have an official release on any soundtrack. This is a slight personal nit-pick only brought about by the rather definitive nature of this soundtrack, and should in no way take away from the value of this set, which celebrates the splendid work of Mark Ayres.
BLOGTOR RATING 8/10 
Thanks to Silva Screen

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