The iconic American-born film director Stanley Kubrick’s use of music soundtrack as contrapuntal, and often incongruous to the screen images it accompanied, proved influential on the aesthetics of contemporary cinema. Much of what is represented here on a 4CD box set covers Kubrick’s greatest movies that, unsurprisingly, coincided with his best use of score. Not as well known for hiring original soundtrack composers, Kubrick preferred to source music largely from a classical or popular music repertoire. The exceptions here are Lolita (1962), written in the main by arranger Nelson Riddle which is anyway a pretty generic score, and Alex North’s stirring orchestrations on Spartacus from 1960, that are a box highlight. But it’s Kubrick’s use of the classical archive that was executed in fresh, often challenging ways. Everyone knows the opening of 2001: A Space Odyssey the juxtaposition of opening shot and the prelude of Richard Strauss’ ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ bringing a whole new meaning to classical music in film. Oddly, György Ligeti’s works used on the same film and Krzysztof Penderecki’s ‘Polymorphia’ from The Shining soundtrack are omitted, especially considering their importance as a factor in the wider dissemination of more abstract 20th century music. Then there’s the stark, chilling contrasts of hearing Vera Lynn’s ‘We’ll Meet Again’ over an Armageddon nuclear explosion in Dr Strangelove and Gene Kelly singing Singin in the Rain to a rape scene in AClockwork Orange launching a million neo-gangster movie torture scenes. There’s little jazz-related content to speak of: dance-band era crooner jazz by the likes of Jack Hylton and Ray Noble through to Trane’s ‘My Favourite Things’, Oscar Peterson Trio’s ‘Learning the Blues’ and Toots Thielemans’ ‘Try a Little Tenderness’ are among the few examples. Indeed, the selection of recordings here and the decent information in the sleeve notes is readily available elsewhere these days, and without their corresponding images, the compilation becomes a little abstract when actually listening through. Full marks though to él for bringing the importance of the soundtrack in Stanley Kubrick’s world to our attention.