For those of you who recently saw Maestro on Netflix, you got treated with tour de force performances by both Bradley Cooper as Leanard Bernstein and Carrie Mulligan as Felicia Montealegre Bernstein. In the film, Cooper actually conducted the finale to Mahler's Ressurection Symphony (No. 2), with a live orchestra. And he absolutely kills it.

Bernstein's performances of the Mahler 2nd differ wildly from other conductors (Cheers to you, Maazel). Bernstein, however, did popularize Mahler, so his interpretations gets special attention in my opinion.

If you wish to get a good-sounding dose of Bernstein doing Mahler symphonies, this recently remastered collection absolutely scratches the itch for good, loud, in-your-face classical music. Is there such a thing? Yes and it's as punk rock as a motherfucker.

If you can't get the boxed set, make sure to at least listen to the recordings remastered by Andreas K Meyer.

So pleased with The Place She Dwells and the response from the audience last night. 125 seat theater was packed. Lucky that I was able to be a part of the team for that film. Hanging with Maurice Moore is always a party.

Now? Celebrations!

Btw: Luna is always curious how unlit cigars smell. She’s not a smoker… :)

Original interview here.

---

What's your business, and who are your customers?

I compose music for films, and my customers are directors of films and, of course, the audience.

Tell us about yourself

I've been a musician most of my life. I remember being very young and roaming around the Eastman theater while a youth orchestra rehearsed Mozart's Jupiter Symphony. I was thrilled with the power of it. I picked up a guitar in junior high and kept going until I had a master's in classical guitar many years later.

Most of my music career was spent writing songs, educating, and performing, of course. I began composing music for films about five years ago, just as I was turning 40. I'm a late bloomer. It seemed right, and just my speed. The best part of scoring films is the challenge of capturing a story in music and weaving that throughout the movie in a relatable way. I love creating music that pairs smoothly with the visuals, performances, and stories.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I'm proud of the skills I've grown from scratch. Both modular synthesis and orchestration are vital skills for me, skills that took years of study to get where I'm at now, and I'm nowhere close to where I want to be. Other than that, I'm happy the films I've worked on were screened where they were, and they received the attention they did. It gets me excited for the future!

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

If something seems hard and it seems like I can get away without doing it, I just won't do it. But if I want to do it, I modify my approach until the dam breaks loose and I've got the momentum to solve it. It's all about the approach.

Like, I wanted to learn all the ranges, color-tone ranges, and transpositions of each instrument in the orchestra. I couldn't do that with my old set of memorization skills (aka, repeat it mercilessly). So I started to research the best way to memorize that stuff and found a better way (Loci method). Now, those ranges are stuck in my brain.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

1. Mind your stories and feel your feelings. The things you tell yourself need to be challenged and reshaped, and feelings that you feel need to be felt. Simple as that. I'm indebted to Cassie Parks for her incredible guidance here.

2. Nurture your skills. It's just fun getting better at what you're best at. I love studying orchestral scores and learning about new synthesizers!

3. Nurture your network. A life well-lived is a life full of good friends and colleagues. When someone pops into my head, I often reach out and tell them that. It feels right, no matter what profession you choose.

Fractal Magic is the fourth track off of Ambient 2022, Vol. 2.

Ambient 2022 Vol.2: One hour listening experience for work, mental engagement, and concentration. Perfect for study, cooking dinner, drawing, light vice expression, and interesting love-making.

Special thanks: Kirt Bozeman, David Hobizal.

Teleporter is the first track off of Ambient 2022, Vol. 2.

Ambient 2022 Vol.2: One hour listening experience for work, mental engagement, and concentration. Perfect for study, cooking dinner, drawing, light vice expression, and interesting love-making.

Special thanks: Kirt Bozeman, David Hobizal.

Ambient 2022 Vol.2: One hour listening experience for work, mental engagement, and concentration. Perfect for study, cooking dinner, drawing, light vice expression, and interesting love-making.

Special thanks: Kirt Bozeman, David Hobizal.

Stereotactic is the third track off of Ambient 2022, Vol. 1.

Ambient 2022 Vol.1: One hour listening experience for rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation. Perfect for reading, watering plants, small repetitive tasks that need to be finished only by you, and psychedelica.

Special thanks: Kirt Bozeman, David Hobizal.

Memories of Rain is the first track off of Ambient 2022, Vol. 1.

Ambient 2022 Vol.1: One hour listening experience for rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation. Perfect for reading, watering plants, small repetitive tasks that need to be finished only by you, and psychedelica.

Special thanks: Kirt Bozeman, David Hobizal.

Ambient 2022 Vol.1: One hour listening experience for rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation. Perfect for reading, watering plants, small repetitive tasks that need to be finished only by you, and psychedelica.

Special thanks: Kirt Bozeman, David Hobizal.

The Place She Dwells is a full-length feature film from Motivate Pictures, starring Sarah Niarkos and directed by Maurice Moore.

In the film, Rachel (Sarah Niarkos) suffers deep trauma after a horrific event tears her life apart. Refusing to go outside, she depends upon the efforts of Detective Pierce (Maurice Moore) to solve the crime that served as the catalyst of her distress and assure her future well-being. The lines between illusion and reality begin to blur as Rachael battles with her demons, home alone, while all those who occasionally visit don't have a clue how to help.

The Place She Dwells is a cunningly well-executed indie-thriller that demonstrates the dark depths we sometimes go to, even if we don't have a clue as to how to climb out of it. While this film looks squarely and soberly at the personal effects of trauma, it ultimately showcases the resiliance of the human spirit in times of immense duress and adversity.

Maurice Moore and Dave Wirth worked closely together on the music for The Place She Dwells. Equal parts layered Eurorack synthsizer sound design and felt piano with strings, the soundtrack plays to Sarah Niarkos' gutsy, deep performance as a woman who routinely tries to escape the immense grief and terror that threatens to swallow her.

I’m still pinching myself that Bandcamp’s editors took a listen!

Chilling ambient music with mournful tones and barren textures, perfect to score and abandoned cityscape.

Queen City Sounds just gave Evil Gima a wonderful review:

One has to imagine that Evil Gima conceived of the song and video for “IT/AM” in some sort of creative tandem. The sounds themselves suggest spaciousness and texture like the snow and water droplets depicted in the video. The piano figure drifts while plinks of metallic sounds like processed windchimes or stringed instrument plucking and slowly resolving drones convey a languid atmosphere. It’s like the analog of natural processes unfolding like the accumulation of snow depicted in the video as it forms and melts into water and fills into ponds then evaporates and the cycle begins again. It’s a little like an orchestral piece Anthony Braxton might have written around the turn of the 70s if he had access to a robust electronic palette of sounds. That organic improvisational way of arranging noises in abstract, conceptual fashion that made him a rebel then and a style outside orthodox music making that ambient music and abstract free jazz aficionados appreciate now.

Pulling disparate threads of sonic traditions, Evil Gima creates a cinematic experience with the audiovisual project “IT/AM”. In the Jorge Martinez directed video for “IT/AM” the trailing melodies of Evil Gima’s forlorn piano arc across an alive sound palate of evolving drones and mechanical, almost bird-like musicbox percussion. Fans of dark ambient or deconstructed neo-classical music will find a lot in “IT/AM” and Evil Gima’s work to sink into.

(The full review)

Interview by Piper Chen.

Directed by Jorge Martinez:

---

Listen to IT\AM & Evil Gima

Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music | Amazon | iHeartRadio | Deezer | Napster

---

Preorder Alluvion by Evil Gima

---

Advanced Press for Alluvion

“Listening to Evil Gima’s Alluvion is a singular experience. Its implacable currents of sound pull from two worlds. The first is a place mythic and terribly old, an ancient corridor where monsters lurk with the unknowable thing inside you. The other is an echo of our own voices, captured from some unimaginable future; deranged and waiting. It’s the only music I have ever heard that conjures the cosmic terror/wonder of the world unknown.

Evil Gima and Alluvion are a genre unto themselves, a separate universe from the familiar and predictable undulations of horror than can only speak to the surface of things. Alluvion peels you open and seizes that unfathomable reality within... then sets it churning.

Rejoice, human. Music is not dead. And you are called to obliteration.”

— Kirt Bozeman