FSM: THE END OF A ERA

This morning, to the shock of all film music fans, Lukas Kendall, Film Score Monthly’s Grand Poobah, announced that in the spring of 2012, after releasing his 250th album, FSM will no longer be publishing CD’s.  You can read the entire announcement and comments from the fans HERE!

After reading the article and picking my jaw up off the floor I wrote the following on FSM’s message board.  I’ve tweaked the message a bit but this is the gist of what I wrote.

—–

Just like the rest of the group I’m in total shock!

I’m going to keep this short and sweet… I hope… but I just wanted to thank Lukas from the bottom of my heart for all of his support over the years! Since the label’s inception until about a few years ago, Lukas graciously provided me with CD’s for airplay on my radio show. Every three months or so I would produce an exclusive FSM show featuring the newest and most recent FSM releases. To be totally honest a good 90% of the albums FSM produced I wouldn’t have purchased but thanks to Lukas’ generosity I was introduced to some fantastic music that I would have never taken a chance on.

Mutiny on the Bounty was one of those scores and Bronislau Kaper was one of those composers that I had never heard of. But thanks to FSM’s lavish 3-CD set of music from that film it has become one of my all-time favourite scores. So much so that it now sits firmly at number nine on my all-time favourite film scores list.  This album is still available at SAE for $34.95.

NOW PLAYING: “Outrigger Chase (Album Version)” | Mutiny on the Bounty | Bronislau Kaper

Prince Valiant by Franz Waxman is another example. I had heard Charles Gerhardt’s fantastic suite on his Classic Film Scores of Franz Waxman album and loved every moment of it but I had no idea how masterful the rest of the score was. Prince Valiant is currently my number ten score of all time and it’s because of the FSM CD that it is where it is on my all-time favourites list.  SAE has this one available for $19.95.

NOW PLAYING: “Main Title” | Prince Valiant | Franz Waxman

I know could say more but the best thing for me to do is to just say thank you to Lukas and everyone at FSM and Screen Archives Entertainment for the magazine (print and online) and for all of the great CD’s they have introduced to me over the years.

Below you can see a few of the FSM CD’s that I proudly display in my collection!

Thanks again for everything, Lukas. You will be missed and all of the best in your future endeavours!