This soundtrack (along with Ry Cooder's for Paris, Texas and Ennio Morricone's for Once Upon a Time in America, to name two other examples) is the kind of music that CDs were made for. Some of it is so delicate, so quiet, that it could disappear underneath the rumble and noise of a vinyl LP. You'd never know this was the score to a comedy--even a gentle wisp of a comedy like Bill Forsyth's picture. Some of it could pass for Scottish- flavored ambient music by Brian Eno. "The Rocks and the Water" seems to rise up like the tide with electronic calls that suggest the music of whales or dolphins. The sound of the sea whispers behind several atmospheric tracks, but Knopfler's guitar is also featured up-front some of the more overtly melodic tunes. The overall impression is luminous and evanescent as the Northern Lights. --Jim Emerson
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