A lovely Facebook post about me and the work I did for the documentary Zanzibari High (now called Curse of An Addict - Zanzibar).

  

A new year has just started and all I would like to do is to wish you all a great 2014!!
May it bring happiness, good health and great achievements to all of you!
(I also hope it brings good things and to me too!)  :)

2013 has been a good year for me. It has been relatively successful and I certainly will remember it. Projects like Zanzibari High and Relevo have represented in their own way important milestones. The same I can say for my music being used on La Repubblica's website! 

All has been great and yes, I feel I've achieved something in the past 365 days. Now let's only hope things keep on going the way they are going (and I'll do the rest)!

Thank you all for your support in 2013 by the way! I'm really grateful for all you guys have done.

Here's a visual summary of the biggest events that took place in 2013. The music used is my Sentieri d'Autunno.
This is one of the best ways to say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new one, hoping that it will be better. 

Best.

Hi there!
I'm proud to announce that Relevo, an experimental short film that I had the pleasure to work on, is finally complete!

Relevo, which was written and produced by Aram Vidal, has been a wonderful adventure.  "Short" yet intense!
Relevo is a 9-minute film belonging to the drama and thriller genres that takes you into a journey about life and its cyclicity in particular.

Aram Vidal is a talented Cuban director and video-artist who produces beautiful short films, documentaries etc. (http://aramvidaldotcom1.wordpress.com/)
Aram is a also a very nice guy to work with; I've actually enjoyed collaborating with him very much. What has impressed me the most about Aram was the fact that he has made me feel at ease and confident since the very beginning of the Relevo Project. Aram never questioned my skills and one of the most common phrases he used was "I trust you". This has always made me "feel good", gave me great motivation and it actually pushed me to do well and try my best throughout the project. 
Relevo is also a good example of Aram's work. It's a powerful short film featuring great shots, progressive cinematography and a very interesting message. Its experimental disposition also allowed me to write my first hybrid score and to be a little more experimental with musical ideas, sounds etc. (Did I mention that this is a dialogue-less film?)

For Relevo I've written the music, the sound design and I've also dealt with the dubbing mix, therefore I had full responsibility of the sound department. 
Overall, I'm quite pleased with the results and so is Aram and the rest of the film crew (which is the most important thing for me). 

I've uploaded an excerpt from the film on the Music for Film & TV page, so feel free to have a look at it and say what you think!
Here is the teaser-trailer by the way...

I hope you enjoy it!

Golden Masks, one of my most recent piano tracks has been used in today's Il Mondo in un Minuto!
I originally wrote this little piano tune for a library music catalogue but then I thought of lending my friends at the La Repubblica a slightly different version of it; a more vintage and "black-and-white" one.

I think it works great! 
Apart from giving the fotoblog a rather nostalgic feeling, Golden Masks contributes to create a blend of interesting emotions due to the fact that it contrasts the mood of the pictures at some points. 

Hope you enjoy it! 

This had never happened to me before... and it feels great!

Last Thursday morning I started working on a few piano compositions to pitch for album of library music. The deadline was about 24 hours later,  Friday afternoon, so the pressure was quite high!
Anyway I came up with two compositions, the strongest of which was the one I entitled September.

When I sent the tracks to the production company on Friday morning I also thought of sending my September to my friends who work for the Italian newspaper La Repubblica inviting them to use my track for their media work if they had found it suitable. 
They must have liked it very much because they did use my composition as the soundtrack of their daily fotoblog, Il Mondo in un Minuto.

After only a few hours from its publication, the fotoblog of the 4th of October 2013 had reached more than 30.000 views, which was great although not something really unusual. 
What really blowed me away was the thought that the soundtrack of that fotoblog didn't even exist two days earlier!

This, to me, is something amazing and I feel so lucky to exist in such a great era when technology and the internet allow people, or artist in this case, to communicate and reach their audience so easily and quickly!
This obviously couldn't have happened a few years ago. 

So sometimes I stop and think to myself; what would I be if I was born 40 or 50 years ago?

Today's fotoblog on Repubblica.it features one of my favourite compositions amongst the ones I've composed this year. I'm talking about the prelude of the experimental/artistic short film Lust

The "Il Mondo in un Minuto" of today is definitely among the most effective fotoblogs that I've seen so far. There is something magic about it and that is beautiful. 

I objectively believe that the choice of the soundtrack was perfect. The music not only goes well with the images, but it also enhances their already strong communicative power. 
This is also due to the beautiful female solo that this composition showcases. The sparse vocal line and the singing style that the vocalist Stephanie Holt utilises really suits the pictures.
I just love it! Do you?

After nearly three months since La Repubblica started using my compositions in their fotoblog, my music is still being used in Il Mondo in un Minuto.
Yesterday, once again, they chose me and the track that was picked was The Way To Her Heart, my first attempt to combine the classical and the metal genres in one composition.
The section that has been utilised is the intro, which is mainly orchestral in the classical style. In my opinion the music goes really well with the images because it gives a nostalgic and melancholic feeling.

What do you think?

You know, I am really glad about what is happening to me thanks to La Repubblica and the lovely people working on the fotoblog. 
My music and I are getting significant exposure in Italy, which is very important for me. Il Mondo in un Minuto is in fact quite popular and has an average of 25000 plays per post, even though it does reach more! 
The Il Mondo in un Minuto posted on the 3rd of May 2013 for example has reached more than 81500 plays and it stands amongst the ones featuring my music!  (more)
This is just fantastic! The idea of knowing that all those people have listened to my music really makes me happy and it excites me very much!
Hopefully this will carry on and luckily it will lead to something more, such as exciting independent projects and good collaborations with talented Italian artists! 

Today's fotoblog on Repubblica.it.

Once again, my track The Pearl Earring; the Endlessness of a Moment has been used as the soundtrack for the top 10 pictures of the day!

Enjoy it!

Today's fotoblog on Repubblica.it, the largest circulation Italian daily general-interest newspaper, has a special addition to it!

My piano & strings track The Pearl Earring; the Endlessness of a Moment has been used as the soundtrack for the top 10 pictures of the day!

I hope you like it!

Lots of things have happened since my last post (yes, I know...) and this year seems to be a really good one!

It started really well, in the best way it could have started: me writing music for a film!

Since the start of the year I've written the music for a short drama entitled The Rose, for which I mainly wrote a piano& string score, and for a short film/documentary, with some drama in it, entitled Wonders for which I wrote some classical piano music (with some light oriental references in it) and also some traditional Italian music (yeah!). 

Whilst I was working on those projects I got introduced to an artist who was writing an experimental/artistic film inspiring from the legend of Jack the Ripper (so, a little bit of horror in there...) I eventually scored for his film too and I must admit that it's been a really nice experience. For this project, for the first time in my life, I visited the set when they were shooting the film, I helped out the crew and I was also involved in tough decisions about the edit of the film, which is entitled Lust.
From the music point of you, it's been really intense! I mainly wrote a dark romantic score, full of emotions and pain, all covered by a horror feel of couse! (You can have a little preview of the score here). For the soundtrack of Lust, I also recorded a dear friend of mine Stephanie Holt, a great vocalist, whose voice gives the score and the film that touch of humanity, beauty and authenticity that was really needed! 
(By the way, didn't you know?! Yes, a few months ago I bought my first condenser microphone! It's a Rode NT2 and it's great)

Finally, but not least, we come to Zanzibari High. Yes, I also worked on a film set in Africa! And this project is a "big one"! 
I was contacted by the director a few months ago (that was a nice feeling). I was mainly asked to do some sound design work for this film. However, at the end I ended up looking after the entire sound production of the film. :) For Zanzibari High, a documentari/film about heroin use/abuse amongst young, I created some sound design and some music, I recorded the voice over etc.  but my main job was to look after and clean all of the audio captured on set by the microphones (mainly outdoor). It's been a really hard and fiddly job but I'm very satisfied with the results. Then, it's been really useful for my experience.
I strongly recommend you watch this documentary because it's a really good one. It's not only a documentary, but it's also a film, and a story, that goes beyond the drug issue. (I'll post the link when it's out.)

The documentary has been submitted to some major festivals in US but it's not really complete yet because we would like to make it stronger and more powerful from the audio/sonic point of view. So, in a few weeks I'm going to come back to it with the director and write and/or edit the music.

Now getting ready for my 30th birthday, I'm having a little break trying to rest a little (the last 5/6 weeks have been really intense!). However I'm not just doing nothing.

Now it's time to do some networking, spread the word about my music, my latest projects and get some more work!
I don't deny it. My dream at the moment is to write the music for an Italian production, one of those beautiful Italian films that make you appreciate life and feel so much better! I'd love so much to be part of one of these films!

The hunt has started! Let's see what's gonna be next! ;)