The David Shire

La-La Land Records and American Zoetrope proudly present David Ssire’s Apocalypse Now (The Unused Score): Limited Edition, a world premiere release featuring acclaimed composer David Shire’s (THE CONVERSATION, THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE, NORMA RAE) unused score to the 1979 classic Vietnam War drama Apocalypse Now , directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Shire’s musical take on the horrors of war, actual and existential, depicted in Coppola’s ambitious and psychedelic classic, is a riveting revelation – finally unearthed and restored for all to fully appreciate. It’s a fascinating and impressive find: a lost piece in the puzzle of one of the great works of American Cinema and an exemplary piece of early electronic music production.

Emirati composer Ihab Darwish has played music since the age of ten, with a passion for musical composition and expression. His music is strongly embedded in Emirati values and traditions, infusing classical, Khaleeji and oriental tones. Each piece is centered around profound human experiences, such as nostalgia for the past, love, pride, and strong bond to his beloved homeland. In this performance, he is joined on the stage by the Arabian Philharmonic Orchestra - a collection of passionate, professional musicians who are known for changing the face of traditional orchestra by blending classical western orchestral symphonies with innovative and contemporary compositions that reflect their global culture.

Every so often, a piece of music comes along that defines a moment in popular culture history: Johann Strauss' operetta Die Fledermaus did this in Vienna in the 1870s; Jerome Kern's Show Boat did it for Broadway musicals of the 1920s; and the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album served this purpose for the era of psychedelic music in the 1960s. Saturday Night Fever, although hardly as prodigious an artistic achievement as those precursors, was precisely that kind of musical phenomenon for the second half of the '70s – ironically, at the time before its release, the disco boom had seemingly run its course, primarily in Europe, and was confined mostly to black culture and the gay underground in America…

Every so often, a piece of music comes along that defines a moment in popular culture history: Johann Strauss' operetta Die Fledermaus did this in Vienna in the 1870s; Jerome Kern's Show Boat did it for Broadway musicals of the 1920s; and the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album served this purpose for the era of psychedelic music in the 1960s…