Over the past twenty-five years, Michael Brook has forged his own path, fueled in equal parts by scientific curiosity, the thrill of playing guitar, technical prowess and a fervent interest in music from all over the world. His creative energies and expertise have been tapped over the years by those who recognize Michael as, variously: a record producer; a soundtrack composer; an instrument builder; an inspired collaborator and player; and a solo artist possessed of a unique sensibility.
Michael was born and raised in Toronto, Canada and studied music at York University. In the early 80s he worked as an engineer at Daniel Lanois’ studio. He reflects, “From Dan, I got the sense that many things only happen in the moment, as music is being performed or written.”
At this time, Michael also met pianist Harold Budd and musical iconoclast Brian Eno. “I used to work a lot with Eno, and I think I learnt quite a bit of my approach to the studio from him… that it’s important to stay in touch with a kind of intuitive, emotional sense of direction.”
In 1985, Michael’s first solo album Hybrid, with contributions from both Eno and Lanois, was released on EG Records to great critical acclaim. That album remains among the ground-breaking works of the mid-80s.
“In a lot of ways, what I do is more oriented around sound than music, and my work is probably simpler than initial impressions might suggest — I pay a lot of attention to atmospherics.”
His second solo album Cobalt Blue (4AD Records,1992) also featured Eno among its larger cast of musicians; Live at the Aquarium (4AD,1993) appeared shortly afterwards, recorded at London Zoo, on the occasion of Cobalt Blue’s press launch.
Between his past releases and forthcoming disc, RockPaperScissors, Brook has collaborated with a long list of international talent including Pieter Nooten, Mary Margaret O’Hara, The Pogues, Bryan Ferry, Youssou N’Dour, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Cheb Khaled, Indian electric mandolin player U. Srinivas and the Armenian duduk flute master Djivan Gasparayan.
“Every time you work with somebody else, you learn something you wish you’d known before. I really don’t like working by myself. I get cabin fever!”
Another form of collaboration for Brook is film music. In 1992, he composed and performed the acclaimed score for the Academy Award nominated documentary “The Fires of Kuwait.” As his opportunities increased, Michael moved to Los Angeles, his current residence and the site of his new studio, La Lavanderia, in the hills above Hollywood.
Following work on the soundtrack to director Michael Mann’s 1995 film “Heat”, Michael was invited to compose the music for Kevin Spacey’s Albino Alligator, and the score for Paul Schrader’s 1998 feature Affliction.
“When you are working for film you basically have a patron, which is usually the director. They are an audience of one, and sometimes it is easier to please an audience of that size… sometimes…”
As a musician, Michael’s electronically-enhanced guitar may be heard on many films, including composer Hans Zimmer’s scores for “Black Hawk Down”, “Mission Impossible 2”, and “The Pledge”.
Most recently, Michael has composed the score for the hot-button, 2006 Al Gore global warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth, and produced the soundtrack, as well as contributed compositions, to the much lauded traveling exhibition, “Ashes and Snow” (with collaborators such as Lisa Gerrard).
On his new album, one can hear evidence of all of Michael’s experiences and skill sets.
Much of RockPaperScissors developed over time, taking in elements from his surroundings: “For me, composing is like going for a walk in an unfamiliar city. It’s an adventure: you go out the hotel, turn right and just see where each street leads you.”
“I started writing the songs for the album in 2003. The pieces all evolved in an exploratory way, in that there wasn’t really a plan. So the idea of collaborating with people just came as the music developed. I would think about adding an orchestra or having Claude Chalhoub play violin. Or, as it turned out, for the first time I thought to invite lyricists and vocalists to work on a solo record: it was liberating. And hard work!”
Michael and multi-instrumentalist/arranger Rich Evans (of Peter Gabriel’s band) even traveled to Sofia, Bulgaria on behalf of this ambitious project, where they recorded local orchestral and choral ensembles. Into the mix, Brook also introduced several singers: his former 4AD labelmate Lisa Germano; L.A. songwriter Shira Myrow; the UK’s haunting Ben Christophers; as well as the widely acclaimed Paul Buchanan of The Blue Nile. There are also extraordinary, posthumous contributions from Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Sir Richard Burton.
“There are a few familiar elements on the album but, hopefully, in unusual combinations. They seem to work together in quite a natural way. I was trying to evoke a sense of place, of different landscapes, of atmospheres. More than anything, RockPaperScissors is a kind of travelogue… and I hope the listener feels comfortable coming on this slightly eccentric journey with me.”

Flat 6 Music is run by David Nicholas, a British composer and music producer based in London UK.

He studied at the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance under composer Maurizio Malagnini (The Paradise, Call the Midwife) and arranger Audrey Riley (Coldplay, Muse, Foo Fighters). In 2015 David established Flat 6 Music by bringing together a team of composers, producers and songwriters to work on independent film, commercials, theatre and artist production.

'Ive written music for mainly tv professionally since 2011. Im lucky enough to have had lots of opportunity, some grasped, some squandered, and amassed 1200 TV shows spanning 80 countries.
This however is a giant mish mash of "does my bum look big in this?", The cat got stuck up a tree again, minute by minute world news, Olympic Games, trailer for big shows, back down to earth with tension for a make up or cookery show.
Its thankless stuff but its kept me busy, fed and respected for what amounts to a craft of sorts. If you want "in" to this industry, dont. Especially as Skynet is about to steal all the jobs, and aside from that, people like me, beating you to the punch with the latest Kardashian cue or theme to another crime show about more dead serial killers and their pursuits.
If however, you can conjure up music to serenade Mexican pigeons, in a japanese anime style, with accordians, machine gun sfx, with huge horns and strings, but somehow make it quiet, a little techno, splash of Russian Folk for good measure, your the person for the job bravo'.

Follow me here to be among the very first to hear new tracks!

"Music what helps to connect to your soul..."

Israeli-born composer/conductor Udi Harpaz started his Hollywood career orchestrating & arranging for popular TV shows such as "Little House on the Prairie", "Fame", "Cheers" and "Knight Rider", just to name a few.
In 1984 Udi was chosen to compose the music for the popular TV series "Airwolf" (CBS). Since then, Udi has been composing for numerous TV shows & movies including "Shell Game" (CBS), "Annihilator" (NBC), "Shadow of Obsession" (NBC), "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (Showtime) "Tim Conway-Funny America" (NBC) & many more.
Udi has composed for many animated TV shows such as "Digimon Digital Monster" (Fox), "Centurions" (syndicated), "Mr. T" (NBC), "Beany & Cecil" (NBC) & "Space Cats" (NBC).
In addition to his vast television work, Udi has composed the scores for numerous theatrical feature films including Hollywood Shuffle (Samuel Goldwyn), Running Scared (MGM), Ninja III (MGM), Naked Target (Frade) and The Whoopee Boys (Paramount)
Since 1992, Udi has been dividing his time between Los Angeles and Israel where he has recorded his symphonic scores for movies including Casper: A Spirited Beginning (Fox), Casper Meets Wendy (Fox) and Digimon: The Movie (Fox), among others.
For the past 8 years Udi has been working extensively for the music giant BMG (recently acquired by Universal Music Publishing), composing/conducting & producing over 30 symphonic CDs. This music has been featured on numerous TV shows including "Dancing with the Stars" (ABC), "America's Got Talent" (NBC), "Oprah" (syndicated), "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" (NBC), and "Inside the NFL" (HBO) among others.
Udi has also been involved as a composer and music director on a numerous stage shows, among them: "Night of the Sultans", "Masada", "Fantazi", "Glow", "Ali Baba & the 40 Thieves", "Aladdin", "Sisters Rosenzweig", and " Women Talk Women". On the dance show "Night of the Sultans", Udi had the opportunity to collaborate with Turkish musicians and record the music in Istanbul. On the musical drama "Masada", Udi traveled to Russia to conduct the Moscow Symphony Orchestra in a ten-day recording session. A year later Udi music directed and conducted "Masada" in a gala performance at the Schubert Theater in Los Angeles.

4-time Emmy® nominee, Gyom's eclectic music has been used in blockbuster movies, TV shows and commercials around the world.  Performed, tracked and mixed at M-Rose Productions Studios (link below)

FLAT 6 MUSIC is following