Taken from their forthcoming mini-album 'Ellis' out July 8 on Erased Tapes.

Pre-order the LP/CD/DL here: www.erasedtapes.com/store/index/ERATP086
or from iTunes here: http://snip.ftpromo.net/ellis

For the first half of the twentieth century, Ellis Island stood as the gateway to America. For some twelve million people, it was their first encounter with the land they hoped to call home. 

Directed by acclaimed artist JR, ELLIS tells the story of one such migrant. Starring Robert De Niro, the film winds its way through the crumbling hallways of the abandoned Ellis Island hospital complex, now home to JR’s Unframed art installation. It’s a place that reverberates with the hopes and fears of those who passed through it, the echoes especially resonant today.

Entwined with the narrative is a score composed by Woodkid, performed and co-written by Nils Frahm. The delicate piano motifs of Winter Morning I culminate in a crescendo of strings, while the harmonium swells on the B-side are the foundation for De Niro’s narration: an encomium for those who shaped modern America. 

There’s perhaps never been a more fitting time for this story, with all the proceeds going to the Sea Watch initiative, a non-profit charity dedicated to the protection and rescue of civilian refugees. 

Following a screening as part of Nils’s Barbican Weekender, the ELLIS score will be out July 8th, the same week as America’s great federal holiday. It will be available via Erased Tapes as a mini album on CD, vinyl and in digital format containing a 12-page picture booklet.


IN THE ARTISTS’ OWN WORDS:

Nils Frahm: ‘The opportunity to work on JR´s fantastic short film ELLIS came through my good friend Yoann aka Woodkid. We agreed on recording the piano parts in my studio in Berlin and so it happened that JR and Woodkid were guests at Durton studio on a wonderful late summer day in 2015. We managed to record all the crucial elements that day. The music fell in our laps and melted with the images: a wonderful experience. The film has stuck in my head ever since; it moved my heart and changed my soul.

A couple of weeks later I had to cancel a trip to Brussels because of a terror warning; all events got cancelled and I stayed home, having an unexpected day off. I felt rather depressed that day, thinking that the Europe I knew was already gone. I sat down at the harmonium, listened to Robert De Niro’s voice and played for the rest of the day. The result is ‘Winter Morning II,’ the B-side of the ELLIS soundtrack release.

Robert says it all in 17 minutes. We are not facing a refugee crisis. We are facing a crisis because we do not embrace, we do not sympathise and we cannot give up fear. Art can encourage so I hope this project will help fight the fear in all of us.’

Yoann Lemoine, aka Woodkid:  ‘Ellis is my second collaboration with JR after the New York City Ballet piece for Les Bosquets. I initially wanted this piece to sound like it was recorded on an old piano that we found in the ruins of Ellis Island, in the restricted area that is not open to the public, where JR pasted the pictures on the walls for the film Ellis.

I had worked with Nils before and I wanted him to create a sound for this piano part that I composed that was extremely gentle and organic. I wanted the listener to hear the mechanisms, the breathing of the instrument. I wanted it to be imperfect, to sound like a ruin, a trace, an echo, the way the pastings on the walls seem to be ghosts, almost imperceptible.

After a few rehearsals, Nils stripped down my piano parts and we removed almost all orchestration around the piano. He then worked on the extended version that is his interpretation of my piece, with Robert de Niro’s vocals.

Because this film and this recording is historically meaningful, it was important for us to create this piece as an echo to the immigration situation in Europe, and decided to release it in support of Sea Watch.’

Ellis

Winter Morning I

Buy LP/CD/DL

Woodkid & Nils Frahm - Winter Morning I

Forest Journey

Thorn Head

Written by Marie-Anne Fischer for the Minim 'Space' album.

For licensing inquiries:
michael@harmonymusiclibraries.com

Links to the full album: 
harmony.sourceaudio.com/#!explorer?b=4317030
iTunes: music.apple.com/gb/album/space/1432362683
Spotify: open.spotify.com/album/6rrGIZztTjXoMxfEWGk0o7

Weightlessness

Aurora

Continuing the work I've been doing with my friend Hal Dickens, here is my orchestral interpretation of Hal's bittersweet piano piece "Soulmates", which is a piece of music he wrote for his novel "Jason And The Angel", available from Amazon. 

You can here Hal's original piece here : https://youtu.be/mXnJvUXzxK8

Hal's Channel : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcXq...

Soulmates

https://www.sonokinetic.net/products/instruments/ostinato-noir/?ref=scl
Multi-section Ostinato with a film noir feel
Ostinato Noir is designed to play rhythmic Ostinato chordal patterns for Strings, Woodwinds and Brass that work particularly in a Noir setting. With muted trumpets and horns, extended chords, warm woodwinds and velvety strings it has everything you need to add a Noir vibe to any composition.
If you’re familiar with the sister Ostinato libraries and our approach to ostinato recording then you’ll feel right at home with Ostinato Noir. The entire approach is different from our regular phrase instruments in that we recorded separate intervals for various rhythmic building blocks. After careful editing we combine these intervals through an intelligent script that builds them into chords in 5 different voicings and 4 inversions. The new inversion arpeggio controls create inversion patterns at the press of a key… a fast and easy way to build interesting sequences.
Ostinato Noir recognises and plays 12 different chord types, handling not only major and minor chords but also diminished, half-diminished, augmented chords and many more. There’s a full list documented within the user manual.
Not only does the engine build the chords based on the inversion you play in the chord area, but when you play in the harmonic shift area it will judge which inversion it plays based on the chord that came before it, the chord quality on the key you're in and the position of the chord you're triggering in that key. This ensures that transitions are smooth and harmonically correct, especially important to creating evolving motifs.
We have returned to the superb concert hall we employed for other Sonokinetic orchestral libraries and gathered a selection of some of the greatest (and most precise) players to perform for us. With three full orchestral sections at our disposal, we captured the full range of the instruments, allowing a wider palette of timbres within the Ostinato engine and playing up to 8 notes simultaneously. Although on the surface the interface looks the same as its sister libraries, Ostinato Noir has been completely rebuilt in the back-end to work more smoothly, allowing for multiple orchestral sections.
This library coexists alongside both our Orchestral Series and our Phrase-Based libraries, being recorded in the same hall, with identical mic positions and even utilising some of the same players. Our orchestral libraries blend seamlessly together. 
We, at Sonokinetic BV, are very proud to introduce Ostinato Noir to you and can’t wait to hear the amazing things you, our valued customer base, will produce with it.
Sonokinetic has established a name as one of the best value & quality sample producers and with this product we’d like to underline that statement. We stick with our unbeatable pricing module and high quality sampling.


We wish you the best inspiration and creativity.
With warm regards,

The Sonokinetic Ostinato Noir Production Team

Ostinato Noir Demo - Midnight Moon - By Marie - Anne Fischer

Commercial License: https://audiojungle.net/item/forest-of-myth/25052914

https://ianfishercomposer.com/
ian@ianfishercomposer.com

Forest Of Myth

3/15/19. The worst day of my life.

One year ago today, my life changed forever. For those who don't know, I am currently fighting ALL, a type of blood cancer, and today is my one year anniversary of being diagnosed. Even though it was a very tough day, if I didn't get diagnosed when I did, I would most likely be underground in a coffin right now. The past year has brought many hardships and lots of questions and pain but I've somehow managed to fight through it all. I owe everything to two groups of people: the doctors who saved my life and all of you reading this. The support and love you all have given me have brought me so much strength and keep me day after day from not throwing in the towel. Thank you. You all have no idea how much it means to me.

This song is a little thing I whipped up late one night. I hope you enjoy it. If any of you want it on streaming platforms, let me know and I'll upload it (if I do end up distributing it, I will not keep any money made off of it, instead I will donate it to the cancer center I'm treated at so it can go towards ending this awful disease). I know I haven't released music in forever but I promise new music and a ton of changes are coming.

I love you all. See you soon.

- Ben

31519

Electus - Stay Safe

Photo by Devon Janse van Rensburg on Unsplash

Drops

Download my music at Bandcamp, iTunes, Amazon, Google play. 
Listen to my latest tracks on Spotify and check out latest updates on facebook.
(links below)

Forest Journey

David Bowdler Music

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