I'd like to meet:
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Fellow Tsotsi composer Mark Kilian and I have finished composing the score for the new Gavin Hood film Rendition.
The film is being released in the USA on October 19th by New Line and stars Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep and Alan Arkin. It is a political thriller - produced by Steve Golin ("Babel") and filmed by Dion Beebe ("Chicago").
The score features Arab instruments (such as the duduk, qanon, ney, santur, violin and oud) against a bed of atmospheric strings, pads and drones. There are two featured vocalists - MC Rai and Marissa Steingold - as well as a driving, hybrid electronic/organic percussion element.
Mark and I travelled to Morocco in March 2007, where we recorded a handful of talented local musicians at Wolfgang Funk's studio in Marrakech. In August we recorded a 48-piece string orchestra at the Clint Eastwood Scoring Stage on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank.
Rendition is one of the Gala Presentations at the Toronto International Film Festival this September.
THE BIRD CAN'T FLY
Mark Kilian and I have finished composing the music for The Bird Can't Fly - a feature film by Dutch director Threes Anna . Threes Anna is a director/author/visionary who was the creative force behind Dutch theatre phenomenon dogtroep.
The film was shot in South Africa and Namibia in late 2006. The score is an ambient blend of flutes, harmoniums, dulcimers and other interesting ethnic instruments. Mark and I had a great time plucking, blowing, scraping, hitting, strumming and bowing whatever we could get our hands on.
We also featured World Music wind maestro Pedro Eustache on various flutes (including a one-of-a-kind ostrich ocarina!)
Watch this space for more news.
INTO THE LIGHT
I recently composed the music for Into The Light - a documentary that examines the AIDS crisis in Tanzania. I collaborated with the brilliant Kenyan artist Ayub Ogada . The AIDS/HIV epidemic is devastating many countries throughout Africa that are weakened already by poverty and strife.
Click on the banner to go to their myspace page & sign up as a friend.
Spread the word. Fight the fight...
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Zimbabwe-born composer paw?lee (aka Paul Hepker) has toured/recorded with Johnny Clegg, Shirley Bassey, Ice T and a myriad of beautiful and talented South African artists (Vusi Mahlasela, Vicky Sampson, Marcalex, Yvonne Chaka-Chaka and tons more....) In the mid 90's he had a duo called 'zelig' (with dyna-mite vocalist Gabriel) which came awfully close to signing with Palm Pictures. (Close but no cigar). A classically trained pianist and multi-instrumentalist, paw?lee lived and worked in South Africa as a musical director and composer - doing jingles, musicals and TV shows when not off touring the world. He 'movied' to HoLLYWoOD in 1997, where he now writes for film, TV and stage. In 2005, paw?lee co-composed the score for the Oscar®-winning film "Tsotsi" with Mark Kilian. together they are composing the score for "Rendition" - Gavin Hood's new film - due for release in late 2007. paw?lee has composed the music for numerous Discovery Channel series - including the wildly popular Alaskan crab-fishing shows: "Deadliest Catch" and "Deadliest Season" and the new, wild, wildlife series "Raw Nature" . He is representeded by ICM Talent in Los Angeles. Check the built in iPod® on the left of this page for an eclectic representation of paw?lee's musical efforts: World Music through Soundtracktronica and neo-Classical tunes going toe-to-toe and shoulder-to-shoulder with good old R 'n B and Pop. The songs that appear here have all been written/co-written and produced/co-produced by paw?lee. Some feature his unique, dorky vocalistics. Apologies for those ones! ;-) peace.love.light.
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Inspired by the photos buddies Gavin & Mark took in Morocco with their D200s - I finally took the plunge and updated my camera from the light & simple world of the digital consumer point & shoot to the heavy & complex world of digital SLRs. I am now the proud & stooped (not stoopid!) owner of a Nikon D200 with a fancy 18-200mm Nikon lens.Yeehaw! (Bonus: the new camera recognizes my dusty collection of old Nikon 35mm lenses...)
No doubt you can expect a couple of my early attempts to wend their digital way to the gallery below...
thunderstorm over los angeles
nikon d200 | griffith park | 2007
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tearducks for tessa
Photoshop | Thanks to Odilon Redon's "Les Yeux Clos" | silverlake | 2006
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TSOTSI OUT NOW ON DVD!
Tsotsi - which won the 2006 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film - is now available in the USA on DVD. The DVD has some great bonus material, not least of which is the inclusion of The Storekeeper, an incredible short film by director Gavin Hood. It also has alternate endings which should be of interest for those who have seen the film already.
For those of you who haven't seen Tsotsi - do yourselves a favour and buy/rent/borrow/steal it! I'm proud of the film, my work in it, and that of my fellow South Africans. (I composed the music for the film along with best friend and partner-in-crime Mark Kilian).
The soundtrack features the unique and incredible voice of Vusi Mahlasela , as well as songs by South African kwaito star Zola.
Click on Tsotsi's eyes to buy the DVD online at Amazon. Even better: go to your nearest Mom 'n Pop video store and get it from there. Actually, come to think of it - is there even such a thing? ;-)
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DEADLIEST CATCH GETS 3 EMMY NOMINATIONS!
The Discovery Channel show "Deadliest Catch" - (for which I compose the music) - just received 3 Emmy nominations: Best Cinematography for Nonfiction Programming - (Multi-Camera Productions); Best Nonfiction Series; Best Sound Mixing for Nonfiction Programming (Single or Multi-Camera).
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Music:
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Listen to my music using the ipod below or go to http://www.kekila.com/music.
Click on the picture below to go to my myspace music page...
Heroes:
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Dreamland by Joni Mitchell
CP: You have a fire image on the front of Dreamland...
JM: Oh, that's just George W. Bush burning down the world. All my paintings lately have been Bush bonfires. It's the same as the forest fire in Bambi, with the hideous white hunger.
(From the Trailblazer interview by Camille Paglia, August 2005)
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