Preservation Sound

In the later part of 2015, Nathan Halpern and I wrote and recorded the original score to a new documentary film called OUT RUN.  OUT RUN premieres next Friday April 8 at the Full Frame Doc festival in Durham North Carolina.  Directed by Emmy-nominated filmmakers S. Leo Chiang and  Johnny Symons, OUT RUN tells the story of the Ladlad political party.  In the words of the Full Frame curators,

“Ladlad is the only LGBT political party in the world, and their charismatic transgender leader Bemz Benedito is running for Filipino Congress alongside two other LGBT candidates. Eighty percent of the legislature in the Philippines is elected by geographically defined voter districts; the other 20 percent consists of candidates from issue-oriented parties who campaign nationwide to represent marginalized minorities like farmers, women, and workers. The Philippines is a primarily Catholic country with a complicated relationship to LGBT issues. While Catholicism considers being gay a sin, many villages have drag beauty pageants, and beauty parlors are social hubs for a highly visible LGBT population who are tolerated as long as they don’t cross certain societal boundaries. Ladlad, taking their name from the slang word for “to come out,” tests campaign strategies: Do they defy the conservatives in power by expressing their authentic selves, or do they suppress their flamboyance to win over the most voters?”

The story is modern and dramatic, the backdrop of Manilla and its surrounding regions is colorful and dynamic, and we tried to reflect these qualities in the percussion-and-guitar based score that we created.  For anyone interested in election politics or LGBT issues, the film is a must-see.

Interested in music production? Well, there’s a new 8-hour TV miniseries that you will want to know about. It’s called Soundbreaking and it’s an amazing documentary about the history and craft of music recording. Nathan Halpern and I wrote and recorded the original music and title theme for the series. We previously worked with show creator Jeff Dupre on his award-winning Kehinde Wiley doc and we could not be more thrilled to have been a part of this incredible new program. Aside from an enormous depth of rare archival materials, the show features over 160 new interviews. The first EP will debut at the 2016 SXSW Film Festival.  I will post broadcast times/channels when available. 

The 2015 Open Studios at the American Fabrics Arts Building will happen November 14 + 15.  The address is 1069 Connecticut Avenue, Bridgeport CT.  Ample on-site parking is free.  I will be there with a big pile of used+vintage hi fi and pro audio gear from 2PM – 5PM on Saturday and 10AM – 1PM on Sunday.  Stop by, say hi, and relieve me of my chattels.  We will also have lots of clothing and some records and books for sale.

Since my shop is no longer in that space, I won’t have component-level stuff for sale (tubes, transformers, raw speakers, meters, ETC) unless asked to bring it??? So if there is something of that sort that you need, and you will def attend, pls just LMK in the comments section and I can bring some (if I have what you want,,,).

Two Roads beer samples and the big WPKN record sale will be parked right outside our door, #310. You don’t want to miss it!  It is a super fun event – there are a lot of great artists in the building who will have their studios open – including a couple of sound-installation pieces – and this is just one of three major studio-buildings in BPT that are participating.  Good clean free fun.  Admission is free to all events.