This update: April 27, 2005

This update: April 15, 2005 New compilation CD: "The Big Score" Quite unexpectedly, Capitol records has released a new compilation album of film music by Eric Serra. The CD resembles the "La Musique Des Films" CDs, but varies slightly on the selections. There is music from Dernier Combat, Subway, Le Grande Blue, Nikita, Atlantis, Leon, The Fifth Element and The Messenger. The CD is now available in French stores. Concerts Serra's announced concerts at the "Sunset" club in Paris are set for Friday May 6 and Saturday May 7. For more info about obtaining tickets, see: www.sunset-sunside.com/concert.php?club=sunset&month=5&year=2005.

This update: March 10, 2005 Deauville Asian Film Festival Lots of news on Eric Serra... First off, he's chairman of the "Action Asia" jury at the Deauville Asian Film Festival that runs since March 9 up to March 13 in Deauville, France. Last year he was the patron of Festival de la Chanson in Roquefort des Corbières. Bandidas Serra used his official web site to anounce the fact that he is working on a soundtrack for directors Joachim Roenning and Espen Sandberg. The movie is called "Bandidas" and stars both Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek. Luc Besson co-wrote the script. In the mean time, several newspapers and other media have confirmed what no one would doubt to begin with: Serra's music will also grace Luc Besson's new outing as director: the upcoming movie "Arthur". Concerts Also on the official web site are references to a few upcoming concerts. First in April (no date given yet), at the "Sunset" club in Paris, where he also performed late last year. Then later in May in Stavanger, Norway and also in Moscow, Russia! Start planning your vacations... As always, thanks to the wonderful Nina Czarnecki!

This update: December 1, 2004 Concert will include score adaptions Eric Serra's planned concerts on Friday and Saturday will now include adaptions of some of his most famous film scores... Along with the planned Jaco Pastorius tribute, the band will also play Weather report tracks, and newly arranged (for small jazz band??) pieces from Le Grand Blue, Nikita, Leon and Subway. The band will consist of Thierry Eliez on keyboards, Thierry Farrugia on sax, John Grandcamp on drums, Pierre Marco on percussion and of course, Eric Serra on bass. Wild EMI has stepped up promotional campaigns for a new girl band they have launched called "Wild". The five girls (from Britain and Serbia) sing a number of songs on their debut album, three of which were written and produced by Eric Serra. The album is called "Time" and should be getting released very soon. Released on EMI as 7243 5 57895 2 5 or for the UK and the USA: 7243 5 57911 2 2

This update: October 27, 2004 Serra performing jazz at small Paris venues It's supposed to be a rare occasion to be able to see Eric Serra perform live, but Paris, as it turns out, has been in for a treat lately and can in fact still look forward to more live appearances. As it turns out, Serra has been busy, playing at the "Le Baiser Salé" jazz club in the Rue des Lombards. The set was as follows: Eric Serra (bas), Thierry Eliez (keyboards), Stéphane Vera (drums), François Constantin (Percussion and vocals). There was no entrance fee. The musicians jammed at least on October 4, October 11, October 18 and October 25. A Dutch jazz lover wrote on his or her web log a short review, after spontaneously running into this performance: We went to "Le Baiser Salé" in the Rue des Lombards, where we saw and heard - in a tiny but chuckfull music hall upstairs - a jam session by Eric Serra, bass, Thierry Eliez, keys, Stéphane Vera, drums and François Constantin, percussion and vocals. The performances were great, but the music was a but too pop / disco for my taste, instead of jazz. Though some of the pieces known from the world of pop music where 'lightened' with some heavy jazz passages. We saw two audience members jam along, both on saxophone. The first was mediocre but the second was very good. As it goes, his name remained sadly unknown. The good news is that another chance to see Serra playing jazz live is coming up rather soon. On December 3 and December 4 Serra will play at the "Sunset" bar, another jazz venue, also to be found in the Rue des Lombards. The entrance fee for this performance will be Euro 22. Both nights will start at 10:00 PM. "Eric SERRA Quintet joue la musique de Jaco Pastorius...", The Eric Serra quartet plays the music of Jaco Pastorius. The venue's website explains that Serra wanted to return to The Sunset Club, because of the atmosphere of small clubs, the closeness of the audience, as well as for the sake of personal history: It was here in 1982 that he watched Pastorius perform. Pastorios of course, was probably most the legendary and influential jazz bass player the world has known. Find out more about him on his official web site at www.jacopastorius.com Besson returning to directing In the mean time, Luc Besson has reportedly started shooting material for the next movie that he will (finally!) direct himself. "Arthur et les Minimoys" is a fairy tale like story Besson wrote himself, which will be brought to the big screen combining live action and computer generated scenery. No confirmation yet whether Eric Serra will create the score, but if not it would be a first. So time to tune in. Here's the film's web site: www.arthur-lelivre.com Thanks to Nina Czarnecki!

This update: May 21, 2003 Interview in "Home Studio" magazine The May issue of French music magazine "Keyboards Home Studio" (n° 175-Mai 2003) includes an interview with Eric Serra entitled "Compos à l'Image". It deals with composing film scores and the technology in his studios. The magazine aims at musicians so it deals with a lot of technical sides of recording music. Thanks to Nina Czarnecki!

This update: May 14, 2003 Bulletproof Monk Earlier this month, Eric Serra's new score album was released. It's 60 minutes of non interrupted Eric Serra music, morphing between orchestral, new age and trip hop beat styles. The general style fits the Serra albums of the last years, but it seems to feel a bit darker, especially after the delightfully relaxed and chirpy "Decalage Horaire". The "Bulletproof Monk" album is available in the USA, France and various other European countries. A review can be found in the album section. Besson biography Later this month, an official Luc Besson biography will be released in France, and chances are that Eric Serra will extensively feature in this book because of their close friendship and famous collaborations. Time to start learning to read French, for those of us who don't!   Details remastered Goldeneye As promised earlier, here follow some details on the remastered version of Goldeneye. It's packaged a little differently, with different pictures and new linear notes in the booklet. The cover design is a little bit different and the CD is housed in a see through jewel box which looks a bit more modern than the original release did. The sound hasn't changed notably, so it doesn't really seem worth the while to buy it for that purpose. And as indicated last time, no tracks have been added (contrary to most of the other Bond score remasters in this series), so this one is for completist collectors only.

This update: March 15, 2003 Remastered Goldeneye CD Two weeks ago, on February 25, a newly remastered version of the Goldeneye soundtrack was released in the US, as part of a series of reissued James Bond Soundtracks. Some of these were mastered in the early days of CD, and really could use a decent new AD conversion, but it's hard to guess what should be updated as far as Goldeneye is concerned. It looks like nothing was updated as far as the track list is concerned, and at least the cover design is identical to the usual edition. More news when details arrive. This version is released on EMI Capitol 7-2435-41423-2-1. An earlier special version was released in the UK, being the same mastering pressed on a gold CD, which reportedly extends the lifetime of a disc. Well, at least it sells better! In the mean time, check out the web site for Bullet Proof monk, which seems to contain a few pieces of new Serra music, in advance of the release of the movie (and soundtrack album???). See www.bulletproofmonk.com/ Thanks to Nina for the web site alert!

This update: December 14, 2002 Bulletproof Monk and other news. Eric Serra will write the original score for the upcoming movie "Bulletproof Monk", starring Chow Yun-Fat. The film is being directed by Paul Hunter and produced by John Woo. After this soundtrack he reportedly plans to record a new solo album, because one should also be able to be independent. Let's hope this won't take as many years to materialize as RXRA did. Thanks to Nina. Additional thanks to Stefan Aalbers.

This update: November 7, 2002 "Décalage Horaire" album As planned, the new Eric Serra album was released in France, late last month. The CD contains 42 minutes and 51 seconds of music, all composed by Eric Serra, so do not be afraid of another Art Delicat or Wasabi like CD. There are two songs on the album, both sung by other artists: "I Will Let Go" by Malia and "Vas Adelante" by Clementine Ceralie. The rest of the tracks focus on the instrumental score containing synths, drumbeats, a string orchestra and some interesting relaxed harmonica playing. A full review can soon be found in the albums section. Strange enough, there is still no update on Eric Serra's official web site. Perhaps this CD is released with little promotional support. More news here, when it breaks. The album has been released on Warner's East West (yet another label!), catalogue number 0927-49394-2. Thanks to Antas for his help.

This update: October 18, 2002 "Décalage Horaire" album release The good news is that the new Eric Serra album, the score to the movie "Décalage horaire", is planned for a released in France on October 29. No details are available yet. Let's hope it will be mostly a score CD and not a song compilation with some instrumentals tucked in between... There are no updates about this album so far on Eric Serra's official site. Thanks to Stefan Aalbers again for the info.

This update: September 23, 2002 "Décalage horaire" website has clips from the score As anounced earlier, Eric Serra wrote the original score for the new French movie "Décalage horaire". The official web site of the film has a small section on Eric Serra and includes music from the film, as well as listenable excerpts from the soundtrack including two score track. Choose music in the site's bottom menu and you'll find your way. And browse the site for further music use. www.decalagehoraire-lefilm.com The movie is still scheduled for an October 30 release in France and Belgium. There's no sign of an upcoming soundtrack album release. Yet... Thanks to Stefan Aalbers for the tip!

This update: July 2, 2002 "Décalage horaire" to be scored by Serra? According the the Internet Movie Database, Eric Serra is going to write the score for "Décalage horaire", an upcoming French movie scheduled for an October 30 release. The film stars Jean Reno as well as Juliette Binoche. Of course, Serra's involvement so far is unconfirmed, but the IMDB has been right before! See us.imdb.com/Details?0293116 for details. Special thanks to Maciek Trembowiecki!

This update: March 12, 2002 "Rollerball" released!!! As announced in the March 1 update, the soundtrack to John McTiernan's film "Rollerball" was released today on the French market. Click on the artwork to the right for a larger scan. Finally a complete Eric Serra album because, contrary to the previous few releases, 14 out of the 18 tracks are Serra compositions from the film's original score. The other tracks are pieces by "Hardknox", "Rappagarlya", "Slipknot" and "Beautiful Creatures". The music is said to be quite a departure for Serra's usual style though, being described as "noisy", with lots of very loud electronic sounds. We'll have to wait and see what it means. The credits, for now, could provide some hints. A great number of sample CDs (percussion loops, beats, heavy noises, etc.) were used to create the music. Reportedly there are also parts with a rather middle eastern influence. A review will be added to this site's album section as soon as possible. Virgin . . . 07243 81216125 The album is decicated "To Ashani, Welcome to the planet". Tracks: 01. Eghnev 2:49 02. Letzgo 3:27 03. Body Go (Hardknox) 3:50 04. Kornovol 0:56 05. Kwinsky 3:45 06. Orora 2:00 07. Serokin 3:03 08. Koshmor 1:43 09. It's a Showtime (Rappagarlya) 4:16 10. Blootim 2:25 11. I Am Hated (Slipknot) 2:37 12. Shreflov 2:12 13. Reitnov 6:50 14. Oportu 3:14 15. Baroof 6:06 16. Enoff 4:06 17. Panchoff 2:00 18. Ride 3:08 Special thanks to Antas!

This update: March 1, 2002 "Rollerball" soundtrack to be released in France France is going to see the release of Eric Serra's soundtrack album to Rollerball. The film flopped in the States, which could explain the album was not released there so far. But the French won't have to miss out on it. Expect it to hit the stores by March 12. It's being released by Virgin France, unlike Wasabi and L'Art Delicat who were released on Universal instead. It looks like in addition to the score, the album will also contain a number of pop music tracks featured in the film, including work by Hard Knox, Rappagariya, Slipknot and Beautiful Creatures. Special thanks to Maciek Trembowiecki for the information!

This update: November 7, 2001 "Wasabi" details Displayed to the right is the CD's artwork of Eric Serra's new score for "Wasabi". The CD has been released in France a few weeks ago. Apparently, Eric Serra explained that this is his first fully symphonic score. No electronic instruments were used in this recording. On another topic, the credits in trailers circulating for John McTiernan's "Rollerball" remake confirm that Eric Serra is attached as original score composer. As often the case with trailers, they do not yet contain original music for the movie. Thanks to Antas and to Stefan Aalbers.

This update: October 20, 2001 New Eric Serra score on October 22: "Wasabi" Eric Serra wrote the original filmscore for a new French action comedy starring Jean Reno, directed by Gérard Krawczyk but written and produced by Luc Besson. The movie is expected to appear in French cinema's on October 31 and Belgian cinema's on December 12, but the soundtrack CD will be released next Monday, October 22. More info on the film's official website: www.wasabi-lefilm.com Or the comming soon database: www.comingsoon.net/movies/w/wasabi.php Thanks to Maciek Trembowiecki for the tip!

This update: June 14, 2001 Femme Fatalle: No Serra According to certain sources, Serra is no longer attached to the "Femme Fatale" project from director Brian De Palma. Apparently the man now considered or contracted for the original score is Patrick Doyle who worked before with this director on "Carlito's Way". Thanks to Geoff Beran.

This update: June 5, 2001 Promo The "L'Art (Delicat) de la Seduction" album was indeed accompanied promotion wise by a promo CD single. Probably out since long, but finally some details... The single is "Sex Machine", performed by Sacha, who's not as the name might suggest a pleasant looking female, but in fact a deep voiced bluess rock singer guy, on this track accompanied by the pumping rhythmic yet lush sounds of Serra's synths, bass and other music production devices. The single has one track, the cover of James Brown's famous song, in a 3:54 edit. Notice that there appear to be two versions of the Seduction soundtrack. The one listed on this site has 24 tracks, but the Sex Machine track lasts 8:05 instead of the listed 4:13 duration.. However, there also seems to be a version that has a 25th track, "Gourou De Secours". Interesting indeed. On another topic, the Internet Movie Database now lists Serra as composer of the original score for De Palma's "Femme Fatale". It could be another lead that he is tied to this film, and it could suggest he is doing more than just create pop songs for it. But on the other hand, the Internet Movie database is constructed by its own users, which makes it an interesting but not always so reliable source, when it comes to films that are still in production. Fingers crossed, and more news in this section when it appears. Thanks to Antas for the Sex Machine details and scan.

This update: March 29, 2001 Rumors: More upcoming music Top Hollywood director Brian De Palma (Scarface, The Untouchables, Snake Eyes) is working on a movie called "Femme Fatale" starring Antonio Banderas. Sources close to the production claim that, while someone else will create the original score, Eric Serra has been hired to create one or more pop songs for the movie. Note that Luc Besson's regular cinematographer Thierry Arbogast is also attached to the movie, while Jean Reno sadly had to back out of it earlier on (replaced by Peter Coyote). More news about this upcoming movie appears regularly at the Brian De Palma website at http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/. Thanks to Geoff Beran for the tip and additional information.

This update: March 23, 2001 New soundtracks!!! Finally, after a long period of silence there seems to be news on Eric Serra. First off there is a new upcoming soundtrack with album, composed 'with' Eric Serra. "L'Art (Delicat) de la Seduction" is the unusual title of a new French film directed by Richard Berry that, if all went well, is being released in France right around this time. The score, although it is being composed by a trio, being Sébastien Cortella, Stéphane Brossollet and Eric Serra, it is very much an Eric Serra product. It was recorded in his X-Plorer studio, he headed the artistic direction and produced the work that on some tracks that (deducted from sound samples) seem to very much bears his sound trademarks, in the slow but dramatic acoustic style that reminds of Leon or perhaps certain Goldeneye cues. But there are also more poppy tracks including break beats and some rap. Vocals on the album are performed by Sacha. The news was announced on Eric Serra's official site that has been expanded with an interesting section on the album including cover art, pictures from the film and the music recording, sound samples and much more. Visit it at http://www.ericserra.com Furthermore the Internet Movie Database lists Serra's name as composer with a movie called "Rollerball", a remake of the famous 1975 movie, this time directed by no one less than Hollywood action director John McTiernan (Die Hard, The Hunt for Red October). One of the stars of the film is French actor Jean Reno, best known of course for his work with French Director Luc Besson, forming a legendary trio together with Eric Serra for films like Subway, the Big Blue, Nikita and Leon (aka The Professional). The film is intended for release in the "Summer of 2001", and its trailer can be watched at www.mgm.com/rollerball/trailer.html, while the official web-site is located at http://www.rollerball.com/. Note that Eric Serra's participation in the score for this movie is not officially confirmed, but only listed on the Internet Movie database, where he is listed along with BT, who is also acting in the movie. Thanks to Maciek van der Lorenzo de Trembowiecki for his tips.

This update: May 16, 2000 Commercials Eric Serra composed the music for a series of 6 commercials that Luc Besson shot (or is shooting) for the French internet provider "Club Internet", the provider that also hosted the official Serra site for the RXRA album, and published interviews with both Besson and Serra in the past. You can view and listen to the first episode of the commercials at http://www.club-internet.fr/saga/. You can read more information in French about this at http://www.besson.qc.ca/. On another topic, a very rare promo CD single of Serra's "My Heart Calling" song (sung by Noa) for the Messenger soundtrack (Joan of Arc) has been released a while ago, without catching much attention. From anyone, it sadly seems.

This update: November 5, 1999 Limited edition As was the case with the Fifth Element, a limited edition soundtrack was released in France, besides the normal release. This version will only be for sale for a limited period, and is packaged in an interesting carboard box. It's larger then normal CD boxes, and gatefolds into two direction, with the middle holding the CD over some of the credits. The music on the album is exatcly the same as the normal edition, it is the packaging / artwork that differs. See pictures below. For now, on request a short description of the music: The work is very orchestral, there is very little use of synthesizers and also the percussion (still very prominent) is less pop, more orchestral oriented. Most of the music is calm, but brooding, very athmospheric, very effective. Many strings used in different ways, very well balanced. There are some tense moments in between the dreamy parts. The choirs have been used very carefully, never overblown. In short this soundtrack is very pleasant on the ears, very brooding, quietly moulding your moods. Excellent work. The American release of "The Messenger, the Story of Joan of Arc" has completely different artwork compared to both French editions, like "The Fifth Element" and "Leon" / "The Proffesional" who also had different artwork in different continents. In France the new official Eric Serra website is online now, with some of the best web artwork you can find. All texts are in French, but there are also images and even small movies. To have a look you'll need a recent browser (DHTML compatible) but it's worth the while. http://www.ericserra.com

This update: October 28, 1999 "Jeanne d'Arc" soundtrack released in France!! What, is this site still alive? Well, undead rather, and it will soon start of for real (yeah, right). For now the news that the "Jeanne d'Arc" soundtrack has been released in France. This Luc besson film about the legendary French heroine is called "the Messenger" in none French countries and of course Eric Serra wrote the score; a grand orchestral work with powerfull choirs. Thanks to Antas !!

Updated on May 28, 1998

Interview

It's OUT now!! Finally!

Update

It has only 1 track:

   1. Mr BCMG 3:43

Made by Rupert Hine & Serra / Writen & composed by Serra
Voice : Serra
Promotional item, not for sale.

More news on the releases soon!

Official Eric Serra site online!!

Another page about Eric Serra, which contains the lyrics and credit for the new RXRA album is located at http://www.mygale.org/04/zorgzf1/. Another site is Brazilian but will soon have an English translation as well is located at: http://mais.sul.com.br/asr/serra.htm.

Finally expected on March 28, 1998: Serra's first studio album "RXRA" Four years of waiting for the fans will finaly come to an end this month as his vocal oriented album "RXRA" (when spoken in French this reads like "Eric Serra") will finaly see the inside of shops and the ears of the public. One track was allready released on the Fifth Element studio album and made expectations very high. Here's a picture of the cover of the album.