Neverwas (soundtrack)

Philip Glass' score to the film Neverwas is the fourth release from the Philip Glass Recording Archive. Neverwas, a movie starring Sir Ian McKellen, Aaron Eckhart, Nick Nolte, Brittany Murphy, Jessica Lange, William Hurt, Michael Moriarty and Alan Cumming is a fantasy-mystery with a bold, playful and fantastical score by Philip Glass. Neverwas (2005) - the first feature film from writer and director Joshua Michael Stern - never received wide distribution and has largely been forgotten, but its beautiful music certainly deserves to be widely heard. The 53-minute Glass score, composed the same year as the composer's celebrated soundtrack to the Oscar-winning "The Hours", possesses some of Glass's most accessible and heartfelt music. The conductor and pianist is long-time Glass associate, Michael Riesman.

Weaving together fantasy and reality, past and present, Neverwas is an enchantment-filled, life-affirming tale about a young man who discovers that his childhood fantasyland may really exist. Zach Riley (Aaron Eckhart) is a successful psychiatrist looking for answers about his father's troubled past at the Mill Wood psychiatric hospital. His father, T. L. Pierson (Nick Nolte), author of a wildly popular children's fantasy called Neverwas, struggled with manic depression that ultimately led to his suicide. Among Zach's patients at Mill Wood is a man with a poor connection to reality, Gabriel (Sir Ian McKellen), who seems to know a lot about Zach, his father and the land of Neverwas. He also meets a woman (Brittany Murphy), an ardent fan of the Neverwas story and its author, who may have a hidden agenda. Zach must get to the core of the origins of Neverwas before he finds the answers he's looking for.

Premiere recording of original motion picture score by Philip Glass, Neverwas.

Weaving together fantasy and reality, it's an enchanting, life-affirming tale about a young man who finds out his childhood fantasyland may really exist.

The playful and fantastical film score possesses some of Glass's most accessible and heartfelt music.

All-star cast of Neverwas features Sir Ian McKellen, Aaron Eckhart, Nick Nolte, Brittany Murphy, Jessica Lange, William Hurt, Michael Moriarty, Bill Bellamy and Alan Cumming