While progressing through this project, it's always been my goal to have THE most comprehensive collection of Epcot soundtrack compilations possible. Unfortunately, there are several pavilions, with a few tiny yet significant pieces of the "puzzle" I just can't seem to acquire. Such was the case with The Living Seas up until a few weeks ago when I was gifted two amazing soundtracks one of which was the the last piece of the puzzle for the pavilion, and the other a massive mind-blowing upgrade.
One of the most elusive scores in Epcot has been the original United Technologies preshow to The Living Seas that ran from the pavilion's opening in 1986 until 1999. Written by Richard Bellis, this is my favorite arrangement of George Wilkins' Living Seas theme. Few today even remember the accompanying visuals, but that will change very soon 😉. This score and narration for this show has surfaced and carefully restored and rebalanced for this compilation!
The second and more important revelation has been all six surround sound tracks from Paul Gerber's magnificently mysterious film THE SEA. The previously best source was a mono track taken directly from the audio rack in the pavilion's show control room. As a result (and for reasons more complex than you want to read today) you could hear the BGM bleeding over into the movie, especially in the quieter moments as well as several imperfections and blemishes that were just too difficult to remove.
None of these are problems anymore because (after a full week of cleaning and mixing this 7-minute film) you will now hear THE SEA in higher quality than ever before! And perhaps even more impressive, these separations allowed me to construct a complete Instrumental Suite of the film allowing you to enjoy Patrick Gleeson's score in isolation.
In addition to these major discoveries, I've also upgraded several tracks and added the audio from two more films shown in Seabase Alpha. This is also the FIRST Future World Soundtrack Series album you will not only Hear but SEE! As the Animated Atlas of the World, Jason of the Deep and Suited for the Sea films have been added at the bottom of the playlist all of which were taken directly from the source Laserdiscs and feature my upgraded sound mix for each.
So I welcome you to "Try to Imagine" once more a complete journey through THE LIVING SEAS!