Freddies Song

Some very good friends of mine, Bristol-based band 'Levi Valentino' have released a charity single to help raise money for the Wallace and Gromit Appeal in memory of Freddie Hussey, who tragically died last month. 

Freddie, just three-years-old, was hit by a trailer while walking along Parsons Street in Bedminster, with his mother Donna. 

Dan Wilde, a friend of Freddie's family and LV's main song writer, was inspired to write a song about Freddie, and subsequently asked me if I could record and produce it for them. I was very humbled by the request and worked with Dan and singer Dean to produce a memorable track for a great cause.

Freddie's family were moved by the song and gave their blessing for the track to be released in Freddie’s name, with all proceeds going to Wallace and Gromit Appeal at Bristol Children’s Hospital. 

The song has already broken into the Independent Singles Chart Top 20 and has been downloaded nearly 500 times in less than a week. 

To support this great cause download Freddie's Song via iTunes or Amazon.

Read more at: http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Freddie-Hussey-Band-raising-cash-memory-Bristol/story-20629228-detail/story.html

Secret Film Project

Over the last 3 or so months I've been collaborating with my partner in crime Mr A Ball on the score for an independently made film, that is, in a word... stunning. Original, fresh, nostalgic (for some) and all incredibly well executed… the superlatives could go on. I'm sworn to secrecy until this hits the waves, but I can only say it has been an absolute pleasure to work on. 

The score ranges from bit to epic, from tense to the traumatic, from electronic to orchestral and back. From the opening credits, the anticipation grows and boy does it pay off. Perhaps more importantly, at the heart of it all lies a poignancy that will resonate beyond measure.

My undying gratitude will forever go out to Alex, who scored the majority of the film, but who brought me in to score a few scenes, and of course to Director Chris Landy, who is unquestionably destined for big things.

Unfortunately, it is likely that the film will not hit the internet for quite some time, due to the restrictions placed on film festival submissions, but when it does - the word 'viral' comes to mind, and I don't mean the type that crawls down your throat and makes you cough. In the meantime, talk of private screenings are stirring (more on this to come) - plus Alex and I will be making the soundtrack available for purchase, with bonus tracks and other remix goodies included. watch this space…
Current Mood: Excited 

2013: Year in Review

Wow, it really has been a while since I last posted any news, but better late than never couldn't be any truer in this case.

2013 has certainly been a tale of two halves. I've seen quiet times and busy times, but definitely inspiring and exciting times in amongst the chaos. In total I have worked on two short independently made films; a trailer for a horror film that went to the cannes film festival; pitched for a few TV commercials; and very excitingly signed to a newly established Brighton based music publisher Matchstick Sync. On top of everything, I was fortunate enough to play on stage once again with the GOTHMAG orchestra, at one of Bristol's most iconic venues - The Bristol Old Vic. For the first time since leaving university, things genuinely feel like they are heading in the right direction. 

2014 promises much for the future; an incredibly promising film I have been collaborating on will be hitting the film festivals (can't say too much at this stage); additionally I will be making some exciting updates to my studio and performing live at the Bristol Louisana on April 17th in support of my good friends Levi Valentino; plus on a personal and more exciting note I will be marrying my partner of 6 years, Emma, in September! 

Thank you to everyone who took interest in my work this year, I wish you all the best for 2014. 

"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible."

T.E.Lawrence

"The Haunting of Harry Payne"

I was recently asked to co-score a trailer for a feature length British horror film by fellow composer, Alex Ball. I've always wanted to write music for something as deliciously dark as this is, so it's certainly a massive ambition of mine fulfilled and for that i owe many thanks to Al for bringing me onboard. Click here to watch!

http://www.harrypaynefilm.com

A Fistful of Morricone

Hi all, really should have blogged about this sooner, but better late than never as they say!

So, last November it was brought to my attention that a well known musician to the Bristol scene was looking for musicians to be part of a themed event called 'The Greatness of the Magnificence', run since 2000 by the brilliant Jesse D Vernon. Jesse was organising a repeat performance of his 2010 project, where TGOTM played a night of the great film composer Ennio Morricone's music, best known for his scores for Spaghetti Westerns such as the Good the Bad and the Ugly and a Fistful of Dollars.

A few months and practices on, the performance happened just 2 days ago on the 23rd of Feb at St George's Hall, Bristol to a packed crowd, and was just one of the best live shows I've ever had the pleasure to be a part of. Along the way I got to meet some truly wonderful people and my personal and infinite thanks must go to Jesse for giving me the chance to be a part of such a great project, he is a real credit to the Bristol music scene. We will be performing the set again on the 29th of April at the Cube Cinema in Bristol, so do come along if you can!

A very kind live review of the event was published in the Bristol Evening Posts Saturday Paper, which I have attached to the bottom of this post. Read away!

S.J.Hazell

The Cube Orchestra

Hey reader/listeners and a good old giggedy to ya (sorry, been watching way too much Family Guy recently). So, The Cube Orchestra, who or what are they might you ask? My journey to finding them was an interesting one, allow me to divulge..

May 30th, the last night of the Brighton Festival, at Brighton Dome .. a friend and I attended a STUNNING live music and film project, developed in Bristol by musicians Adrian Utley (Portishead) and Will Gregory (Goldfrapp), in which a large eclectic musical ensemble provided a re-written score to a classic silent movie 'The Passion of Joan of Arc'. Having never seen or heard of such a project before, I was left completely breath taken at the scale and complexity that must have gone into it, twas amazing. Check out this review.

Feeling infinitely inspired I thought to myself, what if I could do something like this, but perhaps on a smaller scale... 3 months later, back in Bristol having returned from Uni, I decided to seek out other musicians to potentially help form such a project. Eventually, I met up with a chap through facebook, Ed McGregor, a unique live-remixing electronic guru, who told me to check out the Cube Orchestra (thanks Ed!).

A week later I met up with the Cube Orchestra (CO); an ever changing line up of various musicians, who get together every Wed evening at the Cube Cinema and go improv crazy.. and, who, every so once in a while perform live improvised (mostly) film scores(!!!). Within a week and a half I was performing with the CO in front of around 30 people to an old silent German film called The Holy Mountain, and I have to say it was one of the most amazing live performance experiences I've had to date. A day later, through links with the CO, I was providing horroresque background music for a local storyteller and discussing writing some music for an animator who I met through another musician. For any musicians reading this, this really does prove that networking is a vital key towards finding work and opportunities. If any more performances are coming up, I will be sure to let you know.

S.J.Hazell

Killing Bill Gates...

Hmm, perhaps I should firstly begin by explaining the title of this post... fear not my good men and women, I do not intend to kill Bill; last time I checked my name was not Uma Thurman, and I was certainly not as hot.

So, Killing Bill Gates is in fact the title of a play that will be performing throughout Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August. Earlier this month, I was lucky enough to be asked by director Josh Vince, of Mechanical Tiger Productions to create 3 instrumental tracks for the play.

With my recent move back to Bristol, I enlisted the help and compositional skills of my good friend Daniel Weismayr, who teamed up with me to write the music. Both Dan and I would like to thank Josh for taking us on board for the project and we wish him and his team the best of luck for the festival.

Other news aside, I have posted a few new tracks on my soundcloud profile, check them out!

S.J.Hazell

Scoring endeavours...

Hey readers (or should that be listeners?), hope this message finds you well.

Busier than a hybrid beaver bee has been the best way to describe my recent endeavors, as I have approached the final week of my Ba(hons) degree for music composition at Northbrook (where has the time gone!?). The best part of this has seen me writing music for two amazing short animated films, created by students at Bournemouth University and the Arts University College, also in Bournemouth. The first project was a 3D animated short, 'Own Little World', which has now appeared online; a link to this can be found under the visuals section of this website. The second project was a hand drawn 2D animated short 'Delighterful', which won't be online for a little while due to the University terms, but both films are heading out for festival entry around the world, which is a prospect I am extremely excited about.

It was a privilege to have been part of two fantastic projects and it was a great experience scoring to picture. I would like to wish both teams who worked on the animations well, with regards to the festival entry. Additionally, I would like to thank Benjamin Riehl (Co-Producer) and Thomas Kelly (Director of Own Little World), and James Oriel (Producer for Delighterful) for having given me the chance to work with them.

I would also like to thank Mike Pailthorpe and Andy Calin for their advice and guidance during the creative process of my scores.

S.J.Hazell

Updates...

Hello readers, thought it was time for an update..

So, the last few months has seen my work dragging me around the place like demonic possession. Sighs of relief met the final sentence of my dissertation last week, which allowed me to embrace the task of scoring for two exciting student animation films: more details on this in the coming weeks. Also recently, my track Latin Sweep was used in a promotional DVD by Northbrook College, promoting apprenticeship courses, which you can view under the visuals section of this website.

Two months remain of my final year at Northbrook College, and I'm looking forward to stepping out into the big world to pursue a career in composition for film and media. Already have a few projects lined up, including the continuation of my choose your own adventure project: Aenigma.

On a personal note, I recently saw a great horror film called Insidious, definitely worth checking out for all you horror buffs, and it has a truly chilling score to boot written by one of my (now) favourite horror composers, Joseph Bishara.

S.J.Hazell

Chooseco...

Hi all, cool bit of news to report here,

I was recently contacted by Kathleen, a marketing associate from the company Chooseco, who were the publishers for the original choose your own adventure novels. Kathleen had stumbled across my idea for a choose your own adventure musical whilst searching online and confirmed that it was the first she'd encountered of its kind. This was really kind of Kathleen and very encouraging to hear, big thanks to her for contacting me.

My current adventure, Aenigma, is on hold for the meantime as I'm currently working on various other projects and assignments at Unversity. The idea is that I will continue to write and produce music for this in the near and long term future, with the intention to create new adventures beyond Aenigma, for all my listeners.

S.J.Hazell