Composer / Producer / Guitarist
Congratulations to Athos - brothers Anthony and Demetri Kastellani - on the release of their debut album 'To Know Where It's Going': a lush and transportive exploration of the brothers' Cypriot background - part ambient, part folk. I played a small part on a couple of tracks helping out with woodwind and brass arrangements and …
Have a listen to my latest track 'Omni', created using Spitfire's new LABS range of virtual instruments. I think it's both inspiring and very generous of Spitfire to release these high quality tools for free and I've written an appraisal of the instruments I used in this track below. It can be expensive business this …
I have been playing bass with experimental/trip hop outfit Venusian for over 18 months now and last Friday we released out first album as our current set up (but the fourth under the Venusian name). 'Ancestor' dropped on Friday the 13th April - as seems befitting of an act so steeped in gloom and apocalyptic …
My new band Neverbody has just put our first EP on Bandcamp, it's 3 tracks of instrumental guitar music with leanings towards math rock, classic prog, and post-rock. Have a stream below and please consider downloading supporting us if you like what you hear! Recorded and mixed by yours truly, with much credit to Tom …
I'm currently in the midst of one of those frustrating but exciting passages of time - one in which lots has been happening but it's not yet all ready for presentation - and my knack for taking on more projects than is wise reaches critical mass as summer arrives, and my music students go on …
I've been doing a fair bit of writing recently, but not much in the way of uploading. Unless it's for a commission or particular project, I tend to create a few pieces - either on the guitar, just on the computer, or mixing live and virtual instruments - and let them stew for some time to …
Last night I thought I'd try a short composition challenge that composer Eric Whitacre mentions in a video interview titled 'It's Not a Failure, It's An Invitation'. In it, he says that the requirements for this exercise are to write a piece that is: - Less than 60 seconds long - Contains only 4 tones …
Continue reading "Eric Whitacre’s short composition exercise"
New music in the form of live videos and an album, coming soon from my band Glossom! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkANCbJPHUI
I play the guitar in a 5 piece band called Glossom that recently went to Elevator Studios to record a live session on film. It was the second of two fairly long days over the weekend, but I found myself awake and feeling it was time to leave at 2:30am. We crammed into our sax player's car …
Continue reading "Glossom recording at Elevator Studios with Edwin Louis"
(Originally posted 1st May 2014)
Alex Cottrell 