Surreal Excursions in Non-Silence '03/'04
Music composed, performed and produced by Billy Atwell
This is not a soundtrack album, nor even a regular promo, but a CD presentation of music by composer and musician Billy Atwell. It contains various music – as Atwell says as the tag-line to the accompanying press release "I specialize in non-silence" – mostly performed and produced by the composer. Some of it comes from his score to the documentary film Secrets of Redgate.
Atwell is a very accomplished drummer in a variety of genres from rock to country and has studied Music for Film and Video at New York University and is currently studying orchestration and arrangement with Julliard graduate Edgar David Grana. With professed influences from Beethoven to Godflesh, Patsy Cline to Miles Davis, Atwell clearly has a lot to offer modern film seeking cutting-edge non-traditional approaches to scoring – think of The Dust Brothers score for Fight Club (1999) and you'll have a flavour of the musical inventiveness and mayhem on offer.
All the music on the disc is technically proficient and some is most enjoyable – 'The Scarlet Letter' from a Lincoln Center performance of "Saffron", featuring viola, piano and marimba is particularly striking, while a cue such as 'From The Ashes' is a forceful Gothic rock instrumental with powerful electric guitar. Other pieces, such as 'Abduction' I found simply repetitive and irritating, while I loathed the dance based 'El Rey Grande' so much I felt like destroying my CD player to make the torture stop.
Whatever your opinion, you can listen to the tracks contained on this promo, and many more besides at http://www.billyatwell.com/audio.htm where you can download the music and listen to each piece three times before deciding either to buy the music or delete it. An innovation more musicians perhaps should follow.
For more information visit www.billyatwell.com or ISL Public Relations
Gary Dalkin
[not rated]
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