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Latest CD releases reviewed

ALEXANDRE DESPLAT Syriana Sony/BMG *****

After the critical success of The Luzhin Defence, Birth and Girl With a Pearl Earring, the award-winning French composer Alexandre Desplat boosts his flourishing Hollywood career with Syriana, his remarkable new score for the ambitious political conspiracy thriller. Combining spare melodies and sinuous polyrhythms with brooding orchestral strings, pulsing electronica and evocative Middle Eastern instrumentation (oud, santour and duduk), Desplat eschews traditional character and thematic approaches in order to create Syriana's taut atmosphere of menace and dread, particularly on Driving in Geneva, The Abduction and Trace. At once dramatic and lyrical - Father and Sons and Syriana (solo piano) capture both impulses perfectly - Desplat's score gleams with subtle intelligence and exquisite emotion. Syriana is easily one of the best scores of the year. www.syrianathemovie.com

Jocelyn Clarke