Varèse Sarabande is an American record label, distributed by Universal Music Group, which specializes in film scores and original cast recordings. It aims to reissue rare or unavailable albums as well as newer releases by artists no longer under a contract. The label's name was derived from combining French-born composer Edgard Varèse's last name with the musical term, sarabande, a slow Spanish dance.
Varese Sarabande roots trace back to 1972, with the introduction of a predecessor imprint called Varese International. The first LP release was Lumiere by Dub Taylor. Varese International Records was originally conceived as an avant garde classical label. In the years that followed, under the management of the founder–owners, Dub Taylor and Chris Kuchler, the label expanded its catalogue to include jazz, Classical and other genres of recordings. In 1977, Tom Null's Sarabande Records merged with Varese International to form Varese Sarabande Records. The early LP issues of the label were reissues of Classical recordings from the American Decca, Remington and JVC labels. The first film soundtrack LP album was released in 1978.
Varese (Italian: [vaˈreːze] ( listen), Latin Baretium, archaic German: Väris, Varès in Varesino) is a town and comune in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 55 km north of Milan.
It is the capital of the Province of Varese. The hinterland or urban part of the city is called Varesotto.
The town of Varese lies at the feet of Sacro Monte di Varese, part of the Campo dei Fiori mountain range. The town also looks over Lake Varese.
Varese, like the province, has a very high immigrant population owing to both its economy (many multi-national companies and the nearby EU institution JRC) and its location (proximity to Milan makes it an ideal place for the latter city's workers).
In 1859, Giuseppe Garibaldi confronted Austrian forces led by Field Marshal-Lieutenant Carl Baron Urban near Varese. Also, it was here where Alessandro Marchetti's Savoia-Marchetti SM.93 made his first test flights.
The town is served by both the state-run Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) and Ferrovie Nord Milano (TRENORD), both of which run high-frequency train services to Milan. In addition, there is a project under way to connect Varese with Malpensa Airport; this line would then continue past Varese to Mendrisio and Lugano in Switzerland. Construction of the Varese-Mendrisio section (17.7 kilometers (11.0 mi) long) is expected to begin in 2009.
Ramin Djawadi (born July 19, 1974) is a German-Iranian composer of orchestral music for film and television. Djawadi may be best known for his Grammy-nominated, guitar-driven score for Iron Man and for the TV series Prison Break, Game of Thrones and Person of Interest.
He was born in Duisburg, Germany to an Iranian father and German mother. After graduating summa cum laude from Berklee College of Music in 1998, Djawadi garnered the attention of Hans Zimmer, who recruited him to Remote Control Productions. Djawadi moved to Los Angeles and worked as an assistant to Klaus Badelt, writing additional music on The Time Machine, Basic, The Recruit, and the blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. He then collaborated with Zimmer, co-composing and producing the score for Thunderbirds and collaborating on Something's Gotta Give and Batman Begins.
He then went out on his own with Blade: Trinity, collaborating with The RZA for director David Goyer. This was the beginning of his relationship with Goyer for both film and television. Djawadi wrote the score for Goyer's horror thriller The Unborn, which was produced by Michael Bay. Further collaboration with Goyer was the hit television show FlashForward, earning him his second Emmy nomination. Djawadi also composed the Emmy-nominated main title theme music for Prison Break and the title theme for the related show Breakout Kings. Djawadi's ethereal score for the film Mr. Brooks earned him a World Soundtrack Awards “Discovery of the Year” nomination. His other scores include Deception, starring Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor, and Robert Towne's Ask the Dust.
John Powell (born 18 September 1963) is an English composer, best known for his scores to motion pictures. He has been based in the United States since 1997 and has composed the scores to over fifty feature films. He rose to fame in the late 1990s and 2000s, scoring numerous animated films, in addition to his live-action collaborations with directors Doug Liman and Paul Greengrass. His 2010 score for the film How to Train Your Dragon earned him his first Academy Award nomination at the 83rd Academy Awards. He was a member of Hans Zimmer's music studio, Remote Control Productions, and collaborated frequently with other composers from the studio, including Harry Gregson-Williams and Zimmer himself.
Powell was born in London. He originally trained as a violinist as a child, before studying at London's Trinity College of Music. He later ventured into jazz and rock music, playing in a soul band the Fabulistics. On leaving college, he composed music for commercials, which led to a job as an assistant to the composer Patrick Doyle on several film productions, including Much Ado About Nothing.
Jerrald King "Jerry" Goldsmith (February 10, 1929 – July 21, 2004) was an American composer and conductor most known for his work in film and television scoring.
He composed scores for such noteworthy films as The Sand Pebbles, Planet of the Apes, Patton, Chinatown, The Wind and the Lion, The Omen, The Boys from Brazil, Alien, Poltergeist, Gremlins, Hoosiers, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Rudy, Air Force One, L.A. Confidential, Mulan, The Mummy, three Rambo films, and five Star Trek films. He was nominated for six Grammy Awards, nine Golden Globes, four BAFTAs, and seventeen Academy Awards. In 1977 he was awarded an Oscar for The Omen.
He collaborated with some of the most prolific directors in film history, including Robert Wise (The Sand Pebbles, Star Trek: The Motion Picture), Howard Hawks (Rio Lobo), Otto Preminger (In Harm's Way), Joe Dante (Gremlins, The 'Burbs, Small Soldiers), Roman Polanski (Chinatown), Ridley Scott (Alien, Legend), Steven Spielberg (Poltergeist, Twilight Zone: The Movie), and Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall, Basic Instinct). However, his most notable collaboration was arguably that with Franklin J. Schaffner, for whom Goldsmith scored such films as Planet of the Apes, Patton, Papillon, and The Boys from Brazil.