Pop star Shakira and New Zealand songwriter Opetaia Foa’i of the band Te Vaka are among the music talent signed for upcoming Disney Animation Studios features. Shakira, who voices the character of Gazelle in the March 2016 Walt Disney release Zootopia, will record original songs for the film’s soundtrack, it was revealed by the studio at the D23 […]
John Debney will compose the score for the Mel Gibson-directed Hacksaw Ridge, starring Sam Worthington, Vince Vaughan and Andrew Garfield in a tale of a WWII American Army medic who refused to kill people and became the first conscientious objector to win a Congressional Medal of Honor. The Lionsgate release is due out in 2016. Debney received […]
The 5th Annual Transatlantyk Film Festival held in Poznan, Poland wrapped to critical acclaim. The festival — founded by Oscar-winning composer Jan A.P. Kaczmarek to gather creative professionals in his native Poland — celebrated film and music, August 7-14. Opening night featured the world’s first tribute concert to honor the memory of composer James Horner, whose June […]
Capital Records today drops a global digital release of “Music From Love & Mercy,” a collection of 13-tracks from the summer feature film about “the life, love and genius of Brian Wilson” that will be released to CD September 18. Songs include “One Kind of Love,” which Beach Boys co-founder Wilson wrote specifically for the film, as […]
Shota Nakama is a producer, guitarist, composer, and arranger, best known as founder of the Video Game Orchestra. Born and raised in Okinawa, Japan, Shota’s passion for music grew when he discovered the work of Beethoven, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. After playing with some local ’70s and ’80s rock cover bands as a guitarist, he began […]
GE’s “Ideas Are Scary” just happens to be this writer’s favorite bit of commercial storytelling — packing all the hope and inspiration of a Steven Spielberg film in two minutes or less. The spot, which debuted last year, has been in and out of rotation, and there’s no way I’d launch a website even remotely associated with commercials and not […]
Eric Hutchinson is about to reach a new level of global exposure, thanks to Microsoft’s decision to use his tune in the campaign for Windows 10. While the Los Angeles-based artist has enjoyed considerable success, releasing five LPs, two of them distributed by Warner Records, and the current release, Pure Fiction, sold through the U.K. based Kobalt Music […]
Benji Hughes, who has licensed volumes of songs for commercials, has been described as “the best songwriter you’ve never heard of.” Hughes just announced that he has signed with Durham-base Merge Records after years of shepherding his own material to market a one-man Brill Building, in December alone he released three albums). He’s worked with T Bone Burnett and […]
The Cristal Baschet is an acoustic musical instrument belonging to the friction idiophone class. The vibration of its individual elements produces tones by means of friction. At the heart of the device are metal rods are embedded in a heavy plate. To each metal rod is attached a glass rod. The glass rods are stroked […]
A musical about Apple founder Steve Jobs is coming to Los Angeles, courtesy of the Santa Fe Opera. The show, with music by composer Mason Bates, is scheduled to open in 2017, and will focus on Jobs’ entrepreneurial activities as well as his private life. Bates, who is also a successful electronic DJ, will collaborate […]
