Felicia's Journey
Danna offers a strange experiment on this score to Atom Egoyan's wistful and sinister film. He combines his familiar Celtic dirges, the nail-grating violins associated with Bartók, and some scattered traces of evil, backward-looping noises. Danna also (probably inadvertently) forges an under-explored link between New Age and the easy-listening style once referred to as "Beautiful Music."  Oddly, the most intriguing elements are the reverberant Mantovani-style strings, none of which is Danna's own creation. He instead takes them directly from old and uncredited archival library recordings. Still, there are some interesting moments, as heavenly and sentimental moods fuse with the dark and foreboding. Included are two songs by crooner Malcolm Vaughan and a brief a-capella rendition of "My Special Angel" by the film's star, Bob Hoskins (!).--Joseph Lanza