Alien Soundtrack Back For Major Second Helping

Alien was a movie that set the bar for sci-fi horror movie genre. For better or for worse it spawned three sequels and made a legend of the character Ellen Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo. It also featured a haunting soundtrack full of chilling themes that also became something of a standard for sci-fi horror. Good news for folks who would like to hear that soundtrack again, this time in its entirety.

Apparently someone at recording label Intrada was digging around the vault and found some old masters from the original recording sessions. The label is releasing the 2-disc set which includes the original 1979 soundtrack album (running time 35:44) alongside the complete original score (running time 57:04) plus more than half an hours worth of rescored alternate cues and bonus tracks all pulled together from these recovered recordings. Plenty of liner notes and written commentary are apparently included as well.

Why exactly this is being released now is a bit of a mystery to me. In a little over a year they'll be celebrating the 30th anniversary of the film, which will no doubt warrant a special collectors edition anniversary DVD release. That would be the perfect time to put the complete Alien score out on shelves. I guess early is better than never. To pick up your copy online (for the reasonable price of thirty bucks) head over to Intrada's site.