The late Michael Small was one of the best composers for 1970s era thrillers, and 1971’s KLUTE was one of his best scores.  Never given an official soundtrack release, it generated only a 500-copy bootleg LP in 1977, a CD bootleg a couple of years ago and transfer of that released by England’s Harkit label in 2006.  As their Silver Age Classics release for December, FSM provides the first legit issue of KLUTE, adding ten tracks to the previous boots, and pairing it with an equally splendid unreleased 1970s thriller score, David Shire’s ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN.  Both are must-have soundtracks from two of the decade’s best composers.   As was Small’s penchant, the KLUTE score is a mix of minimalism and a kind of contemporary post-romanticism, blending a sultry trumpet love theme over an eerie percussive main title theme that features highly reverberated and processed bell, piano, and chimes; in later reprisals (“Phone Call Play Back”) Small adds an echoey female voice intoning in a manner not unlike that of Kryztof Komeda’s ROSEMARY’S BABY or Morricone’s BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE.  “Goldfarb’s Office” also resembles vintage Morricone giallo, with a splendid cimbalom playing the melody over a gentle undercurrent of swaying swings and piano rhythms; a cool GODFATHER-like vibe is added when the strings take the melody into a slow waltz. 
There’s also some cool late 60s/early 70s pop instrumentals such as “I Want To Speak with You” and “Walk to Casting Office” with lend a cool cultural/environmental vibe to the film’s period.  “Casting Office” features a bizarre assemblage of sitar, ethnic flutes, and other exoticisms to proffer a mesmerizing and intoxicating ambiance that enhances more nightmarish elements of Alan J Pakula’s unique murder mystery.  “Cable’s First Office” is a breezy pop tune, while “First Disco” and “Laguran’s Disco” (incorporating the song, “Take it Higher”) are pretty much what you’d expect it to be, electric source filler for discotheque scenes, although the rhythm section enhancement in the latter is quite persuasive and funky.  But all of these diverse elements congeal very nicely into a unified whole consisting of three primary facets, as Kyle Renick describes in his excellent and analytical liner notes: “abstract avant-garde thriller underscore mostly featuring piano, percussion, and voice; a melancholy jazz/rock ‘love theme’ spotlighting trumpet; and source cues for the various urban environments.”  This trio of motific elements contrasts and complements an overall sound design that is both uniquely 70s and uniquely fashioned to augment Pakula’s stylistic brand of post-noir contemporary psychological thriller.
Shire’s music for Pakula’s 1976 interpretation of Woodward and Bernstein’s chronicle of the fall of President Richard Nixon, ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN, is derived from similar cloth.  A minimalist score built on vague melodies and consistent rhythms, the score’s central motif is a four-note figure presented in rising scales which provides both depth to the story and an ongoing sense of heightening mystery.  French horn embodies the status quo – the government and the law as initially presented early on, while a chordal theme from clarinets informs the newsmen as they begin to investigate the corruption that will lead them to the top of the elements referenced by the horns.  The music is both elegant and discomforting as these elements fuse and engage in conflict; Shire builds the score in jigsaw like pieces, adding elements here and there and not revealing his complete thematic composition until the very end.  Listening to the score on CD is a revelatory experience as the score develops purposefully and compellingly.
Both KLUTE and ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN are outstanding scores and two of the milestones of early 1970s filmscoring.
   
Randall D. Larson - Originally published online at www.buysoundtrax.com in “Soundtrax” for Jan. 1, 2008. 
Reprinted by permission of Randall D. Larson.