Every electronic musician is eventually advised, by helpful
neighbors or well-meaning relatives, to look into doing
soundtrack work. Along with being the most obvious
recommendation ever, it is also the most naive as making music
for the movies is the desire of just about every musician and so
competitive as to be achieved by only a select few. From the
seclusion of his studio, Jeff Greinke has been making music for
use in film, dance and performance art. The album
SOUNDTRACKS (67'13") compiles six commissions which are
fully realized ambient works in and of themselves. This album
may, at first, come across as somewhat uncharacteristic of
Greinke's more well-known output, concentrating on the gentler
side of his creativity. But Greinke brings to these projects his
own unique sound and personality, especially in the darker
moments. These pieces are more than just a catalogue of
textures and processing systems. His music has always been
about ambience, climate and mood; compelling through its
subtlety, and as a soundtrack composer, Greinke is off to a good
start. The works on SOUNDTRACKS are all custom tailored and
specific for each project. Video drafts were composed against.
The music then went back and forth between Greinke and his
director until reaching an accord. Overall, these distinctive and
original works are haunted by vague references to other great
independent soundtrack artists and 20th Century composers,
but consistently manages to dwell at the fringes of this obscure
genre and well outside conventional standards. Unlike many
soundworld pieces, here the composer is fully in attendance
during every moment. Each movement precisely nudged, paced
and drifted into areas prescribed by a visual counterpart. The
centerpiece of this album is the epic "Oil and Water" (26'45"), a
somber piece of beautiful harmonies and elegant timbres which
slowly disintegrates into discord. Becoming a dark and moody
meditation on slow and churning change, the track portrays an
invented dreamlike environment - a place in the wild conjured by
Greinke's cerebral and electronic atonality. Passing on through
the subdued tones, the arc of this sonic journey rises to brighter,
friendlier terrain.. to a pronounced awakening. The mind has
corridors surpassing material place and travelling this piece,
and this album, is wonderful, even without the visual images it
has been created in union with.

Tune in to STAR'S END this weekend for music from
SOUNDTRACKS by Jeff Greinke

For more on Jeff Greinke access the: STAR'S END Profile

-

The album SOUNDTRACKS will be released in Philadelphia on
Saturday 11 September 2004 when Jeff Greinke plays live at the
Gatherings Concert Series. Complete details available at:
http://www.thegatherings.org

-

STAR'S END broadcasts every Saturday night/Sunday morning
from 1am-6am (EDST) on:

88.5fm WXPN Philadelphia, PA
88.1fm WXPH Harrisburg, PA
90.5fm Worton/Baltimore, MD
104.9fm Allentown, PA

and live on the web...

-

Chuck van Zyl
Host of STAR'S END Ambient Radio
http://www.starsend.org