Blimey! Looks like Danny Mulhern’s at it again, boys and girls. The London composer has just announced a new album of bloody brilliant melancholia that was inspired by Stuart Gatt’s short film, “The Dead Sea.” The album — entitled Reflections on a Dead Sea — was recorded in collaboration with The London Contemporary Orchestra (you know, the chaps who worked with those blokes in Radiohead???) and highlights cellist Oliver Coates (you know, the guy who ALSO worked with RADIOHEAD??!???!!??), who even helped Mulhern co-write the opener “Ganfuda.”
Reflections on a Dead Sea is an extended and highly improvised score to Gatt’s harrowing story about Libyan refugees detained en route to Italy and is based on some original piano improvisations that Mulhern banged out for the film. “We discovered the sound that fitted the film best was extremely soft articulations, played so they were barely audible,” said Mulhern about the process. “It opened up a fascinating sound world that I felt could go beyond the film.”
The barren, orchestral arrangements of Mulhern’s “fascinating sound world” follow a slew of soundtrack work from Mulhern (as well as his cohorts on the album) — so yeah; it’s pretty damn cinematic. And conveniently, it’ll also fit snugly into the highly pre-orderable Bandcamp catalog of 1631 Records. Bloody brilliant! Snag a copy now on either vinyl or digital download, and check out the tracks “Libya” and “Libya (instrumental)” down below.
Reflections on a Dead Sea tracklisting:
01. Ganfuda
02. Captive
03. Night
04. Libya
05. Clandestine
06. Undercurrents
07. In The Hands Of Strangers
08. The Dead Sea
09. My Child’s Name Is Hope
10. Libya (Instrumental)
More about: Danny Mulhern, Oliver Coates, The London Contemporary Orchestra
