• Music

    Igor Vasilev Novogradska – Sisterhood Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

    February 25, 2022 - By 

    Igor Vasilev, working under the nom de plume Novogradska, has produced music in various genres, including darkwave (with Alexander Veljanov of Deine Lakaien), Mizar and his own solo work in electronic music.  He has also become a sought-after soundtrack composer.  This particular work, for the Dina Duma-directed Sisterhood, has an air of tension that would make it music appropriate for a David Lynch soundtrack.  There is an ominous foreboding in each track, which, to my ears, seems to be affected by everything from Hans Zimmer to easy listening music with a noir underpinning.  The highest compliment I can give this…

  • Music

    Atli Örvarsson – Wolka

    January 15, 2022 - By 

    Iceland is one of those countries who seem to produce musicians at an incredible rate in comparison to the size of its population.  Atli Örvarsson is one of a handful of gifted soundtrack composers to hail from the island nation, and is the first one I can think of who doesn’t originally come from the capital, Reykjavik.  He is now a Los Angelino pursuing a career in composition, and is becoming well-known for his scores. The standout track for me on this album is one titled Anka & Robert, which reminds me of a meaty slab of post-Industrial ambient.  The…

  • Music - Music Documentaries

    Alexei Aigui – 1000 Miles Till The Next Embrace EP

    September 13, 2021 - By 

    Our friend and noted composer Alexeï Aïgui was just featured here recently for his releases, Palimpsest and Alcohol, at the end of July, and it seems that he’s kept himself quite busy as of late, so we’re pleased to announce this EP, a soundtrack to the film 1000 Miles Till The Next Embrace, a documentary on tango directed by Irina Rubia. Alexeï has proven himself to be among the best of this generation of soundtrack composers, but there is one track which utterly stands out for me, the fifth track, titled Freeze.  It has a feeling of a post-rock composition,…

  • Film & Television - Music

    Gil Talmi – Unspooled

    August 12, 2021 - By 

    Thanks to my friend and Galego brother Andrés, I’ve come across a soundtrack composer and sound designer out of New York called Gil Talmi.  He has been nominated for an Emmy Award (presumably in soundtrack music and apparently fond of working on socially conscious projects. I’m far from a bleeding heart, but it’s good to see someone try to change the world a bit, a project at a time.  As for the music, it’s quite good, well-designed, and it holds up surprisingly well when compared to a lot of modern classical music, as well as progressive and electronic music.

  • Music

    Thierry Zaboitzeff – Séquences

    August 4, 2021 - By 

    As a cellist, bassist, composer and former member of Art Zoyd, I’d venture to say that Thierry Zaboitzeff needs no introduction.  However, what I didn’t know about him over these past few years was that he has been active making soundtracks. This particular one is for the movie Winds of Sand, Women of Rock, which is a film about a group of Tubu women traveling the Sahara Desert selling dates in Agadez, Niger.  The film looks fascinating, but the music is equally so, bringing to mind a lot of modern minimalist composers (the usual suspects, like Philip Glass and Michael…

  • Music

    TienYinMen – Between Clouds (雲峽)

    July 18, 2021 - By 

    TienYinMen are a collection of composers and musicians based in Hong Kong who release a lot of thematic soundtrack music played on traditional instruments and electronic instruments.  They have a healthy body of work to choose from, and I found this one to be the best out of a great lot.  I can see why they would be in demand for scoring TV programs as well as theater.

  • Music - Youtube

    Rettward von Doernberg – Night Drive

    March 27, 2021 - By 

    Because this isn’t a Bandcamp release, and because I should be exploring more sites so that readers can enjoy an ever-widening array of music, I am happy to offer for your ears a track by Berlin-based composer (and an alum from the Musician’s Institute in my home town of Los Angeles), Rettward von Doernberg. Though the headline in his webpage had me a bit worried, reading “Indian, Chinese, Electronica and Orchestra: Four Musical Traditions – One Piece of Music,” it turns out that Rettward has the skill to blend these traditions into a quite workable piece of music. I do…

  • Music

    Sublamp – Lianas

    February 8, 2021 - By 

    French imprint Eilean Records was a truly remarkable label with 100 releases of ambient and related musics.  I was going through my collection today and came across this album I purchased sometime in 2018. Sublamp is a fellow Los Angelino, Ryan Conner, who is a sound and video artist by profession.  This work, like all of his titles, is a record about an imaginary space, a soundtrack for a non-existent territory, if you will.  It’s a meditative piece perfect for headphone listening, and it’s one that I hope inspires you to dig deeper into Eilean Records‘ back catalog.