The Door in the Floor | Marcelo Zarvos
an emily blunt review

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Bluntly speaking? Brazillian composer Marcelo Zarvos' score for The Door in the Floor is first and fore most a haunting sensual work. His notes hang for extended beats and dramatically hover in the mind creating a sensual, almost foreboding journey via sound.

Here, as the solo pianist, Zarvos' piano is allowed to relish in the instruments darker side. He makes it cry a bit with a kind of musical snow flurry, drops of light melancholy, throughout. Violins hint to something deeper behind the soulful notes. They drift in and out adding mystery to the music, as a cello and harp join in the baroque tale they seem to be yearning to tell us.

The cd's track titles are all tied into the film and certainly do not express the real vision behind the song. For example by track 11 the instruments moods seem to have swelled into a stately dance one might stumble across between forest fairies, but it is titled, ' Eduardo Gets Fired.'

Of course these snapshots of sound were commissioned for accents to celluloid by a studio and therefore are named as such. But each piece stands firmly as an individual work worthy of repeated indulgences. In fact so elegant is the work, they sound more like a collection of excerts from a exquisite unfinished symphony begging to be completed, then background music one hears without hearing while watching a film.

The music has lots of plucking and soft creshendos, all seamlessly guided by conductor Peter Vronsky. And all 17 tracks are simply beautiful. Its star is the piano down in a style not often allowed - slow and unrushed.

The Door in the Floor's soundtrack is a musical treasure wrapped around a film. It is original and a most for any instrumental enthusiast. Buy it