Much like jazz, prog+movies is potentially a marriage made in heaven. It should have been combined much more often. And here’s 24 of the ones I could think of that I enjoy enough to reccomend.

I could easily have included some genuinely progressive Stelvio Cipriani, Ennio Morricone, Bruno Nicolai mm… titles but I’ll stick to "PA artists". I'm mainly interested in full scores and not collections of songs.

I should perhaps come back with videoes/examples and such... but haven't got the time right now. So for now I'll leave you with this lovely thing:

Body Love for being so stuck in the late '70s matrix.

Vangelis - Blade Runner

Tangerine Dream - Thief

Keith Emerson - Inferno

-About ten of these I haven't seen at all. I tend to like soundtracks as an approach to creating music in itself. Haven't heard/seen Kin, but will do something about that.

-Winning an Oscar is hardly an argument. That's like saying "remember Jethro Tull won a grammy for Crest of a Knave". Chariots of Fire probably does what it's supposed to perfectly, but as I haven't seen the movie it sounds like music composed for the olympic games opening ceremony or something like that (at least about 2/3ds of it). 

Anyway, I can't believe I forgot to include my one of my favorite combinations of moving images/music:

I know a number of Mogwai scores and love them, but I don't know this one. Ultimately I'll go with Thief ahead of Aguirre, but I don't know that many.

A great great underrated score is Bjork's Dancer in the Dark, although one might say that's not a score but rather a musical.

Selmasongs is underrated? I'm not much of a fan myself, so maybe.

Have you seen the film? Not sure whether this can be appreciated on its own - the way music is used in this film is very unique, something really special. Actually even Bjork's character speaking in the film is a force of nature.

Hi,

It's specially hard to compare some of these, with the really great ones like Maurice Jarre, and a couple of others who did some magnificent work all around. The better issue is that David Lean was not afraid of the music and in at least one film made sure that the music was one of the most important parts.

The other one I like, but it will hardly get a mention here, is Bernard Herrmann, whose soundtracks for some sci-fi films were super and really far out, despite some of them being really off kilter and strange in terms of the conducting and the instrument definition. And he did this even more on Hitchcock films, although Hitchcock was probably tone death since he never used the music properly at all, and I think it is one of his worst bits in directing. I imagine that someone that did the cutting was the one that found a way to use the music, or at least Mr. Herrmann adjusted a piece to fit the part in the film. In general, I find Mr. Herrmann not that great in Hitchcock, but maybe I need to listen to some more soundtracks from him. But I love his sci-fi soundtracks and it is a bunch of albums worth getting.

Saperlipopette! wrote: ... Chariots of Fire probably does what it's supposed to perfectly, but as I haven't seen the movie it sounds like music composed for the Olympic games opening ceremony or something like that (at least about 2/3ds of it). ...

I'm guessing that Vangelis found the shot about the chairs and that it was going to get cut up as not worth anything until he probably said ... wait ... save that until tomorrow! And he came up with the sound bits for it, that made it seem even better in the film. Regardless of the music, it is a good film with some very nice performances and worth the merits that it got. 

One strange note. Using music in film seems to be almost a standard thing for American and English film, although the French have tried (Tous Les Matins du Monde/Un Coeur en Hiver and many others about music), but I am not sure that the French did it as well. Italy is weird, specially as it is such a mecca of great music and an inspiration for so many bands that are very classically minded, but their film? Lucky to find one that has great stuff, although GOBLIN did well, but sadly, these are very good on the album, but not used as much in the films themselves. I would like to see a well done film with GOBLIN music ... but not sure it will be done in Italy where music in film seems to be incidental. Germany kinda starts and ends with Werner Herzog, and Popol Vuh, and the funny note that was given about Werner in his early days, when Florian had piled up many pieces of music in his closet and seems he told Werner to have at it ... and the following week, Werner comes running ... look ... I GOT A FILM! and he did a bunch of them in the early days with Popol Vuh's music! (There is nowhere any information about Florian ever putting together music for Werner at all! Which suggests that Werner used the visual ideas from the music to create a lot of his films, and the ending sequence in AGUIRRE, is the perfect example!).

Some Chinese films have used music well. Some Japanese films haven't at all, although a film or two always shows up with good music.

The only odd thing for me is considering these "progressive" ... since they really have nothing in common with the definition of the term, in my book, and in most cases the music was used simply to enhance the film, and I wonder how much of it is an actual part of the film, unless we are talking Ken Russell, and his use of music in so many films is out of this world and fantastic in many cases!

I am very big on soundtracks, and with many of those in my collection I have not watched the film and so it is the music itself I value and is not being judged based on how it was used in the film.  I voted Luccifer Rising, which I have seen, but The Wicker Man is my favourite of these based on my associations with the film (I love that film and a while back it was my most listened to soundtrack).  Not Prog by the way this site uses it, but more recently I have been very into The Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack.  

So many Prog artist and non-Prog artist soundtrack composers that I love.  I think it was Moroder's Midnight Ecxpress and Doldinger's Das Boot soundtracks that started me on collecting.  Mentioned by the OP, but I love Morricone  Of the more Hollywood type names, I love Jerry Goldsmith (the Logan's Run soundtrack is awesome to me) and John Barry soundtracks .  I love lots of Zbigniew Preisner and Michael Nyman.  And I like lots of John Carpenter ones.

One of my favourite films of the last decade is Under the Skin, and I want to mention a track from the soundtrack by Mica Levi.

Fora more moder n one, I also love Dan Jones (not the most original, which works).  This is the soundtrack for Louis Theroux's My Scientology Movie.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL6BNDevRPI" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL6BNDevRPI   I just love it.

Well, I'm very much into film, but I'm much less into soundtracks once disconnected from the films. I mean, a good film score supports the film but doesn't overshadow it, which often means to me that the soundtrack without the film looses - part of - its interest (at least, my interest). In my opinion there are not many soundtracks that can stand alone, without the film, and all of these mentioned are part of those. I could vote for Popol Vuh's Nosferatu, but I've attended live film-concerts of this film that easily exceed Popol Vuh's soundtrack...

In the end, I think that the best soundtracks are not made by a single artist, especially not a prog artist. There some great film composers, but that's another discussion. So, no vote from me.

That shouldn't affect your enjoyment of the music apart from the film.

Still, I disagree. Argento and Romero used their music effectively, with the best examples, naturally, being Profondo Rosso, Suspiria and Dawn of the Dead.

Claudio Simonetti's done a few scores on his own, and they all range from very good to outright spectacular, e.g. Opera, The Versace Murder and Il Cartaio (The Card Player).

Some of Rick Wakeman's scores should have been included in the poll, e.g. The Burning and G'olé!

A fabulous score, indeed.

But it's hard to watch that opening shot of Herzog's Aguirre and not vote for Popol Vuh...

Hi,

I only have about 12 or 13 GOBLIN albums and have been on them since 1975 or 1976 I think it was. In general, though, I'm not sure that I have enjoyed anything by Dario Argento, and it was kinda started at the time when horror material went to guts and gore and more gore and blood, and by that time I went out the door. I came up with a lot of HAMMER films, and they were more suggestive than they were bloody.

Claudio's version is more musically interesting for me, although I have not seen it used in a film as yet ... I keep looking for those films. Claudio's material, as well as Goblin, is, and has been, a very strong part of Space Pirate Radio in its 48 years.

At least Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me was a theatrical release.  I love that soundtrack as well and have been very into the cover album, Xiu Xiu - Plays the Music of Twin Peaks.  I actually play that more than the original music.  I wonder how many in PA realise that my avatar is a Twin Peaks reference?

I knew you were a Twin Peaks fan but didn't know that about your avatar. I must admit I've never even seen that show even though I've heard so much about it over the years. A case of not getting the channel back in the day. Hard to believe that these days but I remember not even being able to get cable here back in the day.

I read a quote somewhere that Hitchcock in the 60's asked Bernard Hermann to write something catchy. Soon after Bernard quit so I suspect you're right that Hitchcock was tone deaf. In this poll surely Vangelis wins. The music to Blade Runner is ground breaking, much better than the work he did in Chariots of Fire.

Guy Guden wrote: so Pink Floyd are outside of this one?  MORE (my favourite), LA VALEE, ZABRISKIE POINT.

I lika a song here and a tune there, but as full albums/scores I don't really enjoy any of them all that much. At least not as much as anything I actually included in the poll.

Guy Guden wrote: personally, I would suggest Colin Towns for FULL CIRCLE/THE HAUNTING OF JULIA.

One of my absolute favorite soundtracks, but this time I decided to include only PA-artists (one could argue Colin Towns should be in the PA-index based on Full Circle - but he isn't).

Oh dammit, where does that short-circuit come from? Pavlov? When I see "Nosferatu", I think "Murnau"... (and I even have seen that Herzog film...!)

Still, I think it is one of Popol Vuh's soundtracks that stands alone quite well.

Edit: It's a funny thing, and I'm more explaining it to myself than something else: I saw Herzog's film a long time ago (during my film studies late 80s, early 90s) and it didn't leave the same impression as Murnau's Nosferatu, which I've seen several times (up till rather recently), and several times with live accompaniment (not Popol Vuh, though). I started listening Popol Vuh's music only in the noughties, without the films, so - strangely - I associate this soundtrack more with Murnau's film than with Herzog's...

Hi,

Nice .. superlative!

I was going to add another bit on the early electronic soundtracks, which would be considered "progressive" a lot more than some material mentioned. And yes, Guy was the person that helped me appreciate so much of this stuff way back when, and his show just drowned (literally!) on soundtracks of all kinds! 

PF's MORE soundtrack is not appreciated for HOW it is used in the film, instead of having it all over as a normal film would have, and I think this is one of the things that most folks dislike about the music and its use. It doesn't sound as "good", but it makes the film more "real" and way better than we give it credit for. LA VALLEE is very wonderful to watch, although it is my thought that too much of the film is missing to help create a better story and use for the music. I have a feeling that it was meant to be just a "trip" film, with little story, but the studio thought that a story had to be there. Based on Barbet's take on the first film, a story was not necessarily needed, and it almost could be considered a documentary, which I think would have made LA VALLEE way better. ZABRISKIE POINT is nice, but I think that the stories about Antonioni, hurt and I think the studio added a story to what would likely not be a story, but just a life with some dope in it, and its enjoyment. Some of the music in it is very nice, aside from PF, but the film really hurts from its cuts and changes I think.

Nice to see you posting ... your talent and knowledge for these things is second to none!

PS/Sidenote:

Remember that in those days it was very cool and far out to experiment and improvise in most theater and a lot of films. The actors in LA VALLEE were almost all of them a part of English or French Theater, thus it is easier to think that some things are missing, and the film seems broken up in parts until they can assemble a "story" at a time when "story" was not as important in theater and film with all the experimentations.

I love the Cat People remake and the soundtrack (probably my third to get, and fourth was The Hunger soundtrack by various -- that was a disappointing purchase as it didn't have the full soundtrack -- was my first CD to purchase -- the Blade Runner soundtrack was also an early acquisition of mine, but I don't like the soundtrack or the film as much as I did in the 80s). I saw Runaway when it came out in the cinema, unlike Paul, I don't think it's a great film, quite fun, but I do like the soundtrack.   Mind you, I have only seen it once since it came out. Goldsmith also scored what might have been my fist watch on the family's VCR, which is Outland (it was either that or Midnight Express, think I saw both on the same night). 

Herzog's film's full title is Nosferatu the Vampyre.

Full Circle aka THoJ is splendid. Too bad it's painfully OOP.

Speaking of forbidden planets, the Roger Corman-produced 1982 horror SF gem Forbidden World (aka Mutant) has a vibrant electronic rock score by Susan Justin.

It's right on the cover. Herzog's title distinguishes it from the 1922 silent film.

2004 SPV remaster:

2018 BMG vinyl reissue:

Haha! Same reaction here. I pick up The Hunger and look at the titles. Half the album is classical from the film. Needs more of Michel Rubini's & Denny Jaeger's atmospheric electronic score! I bought it, anyway. Back then, I bought any electronic score that got published. 

Its a bit of a split album which might put a few off. You have the prog stuff like Mater Tenebrarum , Cigs, Ices etc and Tax Ride (through Rome) which is Emerson at his frenetic best. Then you have the traditional horror score approach (orchestration + piano) for the rest which, in my opinion, Emerson elevates. Love it all but like a lot of movie scores its disjointed and perhaps his next one Nighthawks was a bit more cohesive.

The "compilation" (by default) makes the "movie score," even if the film doesn't actually use all of the music on either album (the album that became On the Way to a Little Way was recorded before Nosferatu the Vampyre and not intended for use as a film score till Herzog learned of it).

Inferno is fantastic. The piano theme is immense. I definitely prefer it to Nighthawks.