Pat Metheny Group-The Falcon And The Snowman (1985)

The Pat Metheny Group's sixth album is actually the soundtrack to the film "The Falcon and the Snowman", composed entirely by Pat Metheny himself and his keyboardist Lyle Mays. For the recording of this album, in addition to Metheny's band comprised of Pat Metheny (electric and acoustic guitars and guitar synthesizers), Lyle Mays (analog keyboards and synthesizers), Steve Rodby (bass), Paul Wertico (drums), and Pedro Aznar (vocals), David Bowie also contributed vocals to the catchy song "This Is Not America", along with the National Philharmonic Orchestra and the Ambrosian Choir. In this work, Metheny gives keyboardist Lyle Mays a more prominent role, at the expense of his usual guitar sound, offering rather complex, ethereal arrangements with dramatic and haunting passages. At other times, we also hear the sounds that would permeate their subsequent albums, "Still Life (Talking)" (1987) and "Letter From Home" (1989). The grandiose choirs of the opening track, "Psalm 121", serve as an interlude for the orchestrated, string-arranged "Flight of the Falcon". With "Daulton Lee", we begin to recognize the Pat Metheny Group's signature sound, with its expansive and atmospheric passages. "Chris" and "The Falcon" share similar characteristics, the latter featuring a sublime vocal performance by Pedro Aznar. Meanwhile, the bombastic "Extent of the Life", the cinematic and dramatic "Level of Deception", and the intimate "Capture" reflect the great compositional diversity of the duo, Metheny and Mays.