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Dustin O'Halloran - Lumiere (FatCat)
I must first thank Middleboop HQ for sending me this album to review. It has been a complete treat to listen to and, as you will read, you may want to get your hands on ‘Lumiere’ by the inspiring Los Angles composerDustin O’Halloran. The album begins like a prelude to a Shyamalan picture with the track ‘A Great Divide’. It is often forgotten that in the business there are exceedingly talented composer’s out there creating such great output and I, for one, am glad that FatCat records saw O’Halloran’s talent and decided to sign with him. Within the opening few bars of the second track ‘Opus 44’ it is evident that Dustin O’Halloran can effortlessly produce some emotive and evocative music. This man could literally be spoilt for work providing an innovative soundtrack for advertisements, movies, TV shows and even lives and it is not surprising to discover that his work has been utilised by Audi and the BBC in their endeavours. ‘We Move Lightly’ is a very onomatopoeic track as it conjures up images of a ballerina daintily plying her craft whilst practicing for an elaborate performance. I must be honest, I haven’t listened to such an clever album for quite a while.. The quality of music sharpens in the forth track ‘Quartet no. 2’. O’Halloranintroduces strings to his music and the standard is fantastic. The arrangement of the music is one of those incredible moving sounds that can make the hair bristle on the back of your neck. ‘Opus 43’ is as equally emotive and conjures up as much imagery as that of ‘We Move Lightly’. However, the emotion conveyed in this particular track
is one that is very sombre and deep. Once again, it is music that can easily find a home in either a documentary or film portraying moving scenes. I understand that I may be envisioning Dustin O’Halloran as a composer that produces music commercially however, it would be very wrong of me to cheapen him in such a way. It is my opinion that he creates music for pleasure but he also has to finance his work; it’s life. We are treated to strings once again with “Quintet no.1” where the violin matches up seamlessly with Halloran’s piano work. I would say the track is seamless and sublime and, as a musician myself, I find myself a little envious of his great ability to produce his work and make it sound as easy as can be. Onomatopoeia seems to be the word of today with me as I think the title of the next track ‘Fragile no.4’ is exactly as it sounds. This is mainly due to the sweeping strings and the deep and meaningful piano beat. The tracks fragility is further embellished by a harpsichord break in the middle that provides that extra edge to the sound. In ‘Opus 55’ we are simply treated to more of Dustin O’Halloran’s precise piano work and although it is not the most evocative track on the album, it does its job and takes away nothing from the talent and scope of the music. The album concludes with a sweet and gently piano and string collaboration which just serves to conclude all that this album has been about; the fact that in a world full of different musical genres, you should never neglect classical works because every so often your ears are treated to fantastic work like Dustin O’Halloran’s ‘Lumiere’. Author Barclay Quarton Created date 03/25/2011 - 00:05 Last updated date 03/25/2011 - 00:05
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