CARAVAN is the soundtrack to the documentary of the same name which follows the experience of two adolescent boys as they proceed through an arduous rite of passage. Filmed in Nepal and Niger (the home countries of the film's two subjects), CARAVAN is full of intense, alluring images, and keyboardist Tim Story's beautifully executed score evokes and heightens the film experience, yet is nuanced and complex enough to stand on its own.
Story has recorded for Windham Hill, and is known for his work on grand piano and his lush, synthesizer-dominated ambient leanings. Yet CARAVAN, with its strings, woodwinds, and percussion, is Story's most ambitious work. He carefully synthesizes Western, African, and Asian traditions, most noticeably in the juxtapositions of seemingly incongruous elements: swaths of electronics and chants by the monks of the Namgyal Monastery, for example. The music is never self-consciously dramatic, and it achieves an emotionally resonant impact by focusing on the emotional turmoil of the film's characters. This makes CARAVAN, in addition to its achievement as a stylistically unique and artfully crafted piece of music, quite beautiful and moving.