For this second Narnia film, the composer has drawn on themes from the earlier one, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Predictably, many of the intricacies of the author’s thinking are omitted in favour of a Christian analogy as the film attempts to fathom out how Lewis’s allegorical tale illuminates the biblical story. The tone of this soundtrack follows suit. Darker in its intent to match the subject, the often deafening music signifies little else. Gregson-Williams’s tub-thumping score is driven by an agitato theme in the opening track upon which layers of percussion are added, including whips and anvils, as the action hots up. The most imaginative employment of these forces occurs in “Sorcery and Sudden Vengeance”, which achieves a spooky atmosphere in a more experimental vein. The sounds of medieval psaltery from featured musician Richard Harvey’s ethnic woodwinds offer a respite in “The Kings and Queens of Old” and return in “The Door in the Air”. The scene where the heroes are gathered outside Aslan’s How (tr 4) begins with trombones over menacing strings, expanding into a lyrical theme for choir with piano ripieno in more meditative vein, cut off, alas, too soon. The assembled choirs of Apollo Voices, the Bach Choir and Crouch End Festival Chorus add little more than an adornment to the orchestral writing. The CD concludes with four pop songs of which Regina Spektor’s “The Call” has a welcome jaunty step.