The Moderns (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Trumpeter/composer Mark Isham's seductive, sinewy tone is the perfect accompaniment to the quirky romantic world of Alan Rudolph's movies. The director has used Isham's music ever since 1985's Trouble in Mind, but The Moderns is their mutual masterpiece. Set in the Paris of the '20s (or at least a modern, faux-French re-imagining of it) populated by fictional characters who rub shoulders with "Ernest Hemingway" and "Gertrude Stein," it's a movie about the nature of art--what is real, and what is counterfeit? Isham's score, mostly performed by a sort of hotel cocktail ensemble dubbed "L'Orchestre Moderne," evokes the ghosts of Django Reinhardt and Edith Piaf along with images of tinkling chandeliers and smoky bistros. The moody main theme, "Les Modernes," which features violin and Isham's muted trumpet, instantly establishes a haunting, foggy atmosphere you can't wait to get lost in. --Jim Emerson