Author: Alex Stoloff

A bit of blurb from the brief : the Pearl River Tower, now being built in Guangzhou City, is one of the first of a new generation of buildings that has the goal of “net zero” energy consumption. It’s called high performance architecture. High performance is the new buzz word in architecture, and the Pearl River Tower will be the first high performance super tall building on the planet. As architect Gordon Gill describes it “This is a new type of design process which combines the art of architecture with the science of performance”. Says Adrian Smith “The shape is directly related to the form. It looks that way because it performs that way.” I’m very excited to be working on this project, and to be collaborating with a new director, Jayashree Panjabi!

I’ve started work on a show for NHNZ called Secrets of the Lost Pyramids which will be aired on National Geographic. Really happy to be working with the folks from NHNZ again, they’re professional, quick, stick to schedules and even pay on time!

On top of that they all seem like real good eggs, especially the directors I’ve worked with, Steven Talley and Kyle Murdoch. Their tech staff are awesome too, and really on the ball. Shouts go out to Brad Phipps, Angel McNamara, and the hilarious Wayne Poll, as well as Suzanne Lloyd, the lady who keeps it all together. I’m also submitting some material to Channel 4’s new library CD that they’re producing in conjunction with KPM. I’ve heard from the BQ camp that the King Tut stuff I was working on last year which was meant to be aired on Discovery in Autumn ’09 isn’t going to be aired until the scientists involved publish their results.. Hope that’s soon, it’s a great show. Take care all!

There is a light snow falling outside my window as I write this.. outside my window here, in my new home.. Paris!

I’ve still got my recording studio running in Bristol but have set up a mini studio here as I wanted to come back to Paris and start a few new projects up. There is so much inspiration in this city it’s unbelievable. As my best mate Debs puts it “It’s like double doses of electricity coursing through your veins… it’s wild and on fire…” and I completely agree with her. Putting work aside for a month and a half but will be back on the wagon late Jan. time. Easy now!

The MMM shows for NHNZ are looking great! I’m super psyched about them. I’ll hopefully be putting up some of the tracks as soon as things calm down a bit.. got 5 projects on the go at the moment, and even though two of them (the King Tut shows for Discovery) will be finishing soon, it’s still a heck of a workload.. It’s cool though, I can survive on a few hours a night 😉

Just signed up for 3 new projects with Natural History New Zealand LTD. !! 2 of these are for the Man Made Marvels series and are all set in China.. they’re looking awesome so far… and the third is about a great China quake.

The MMM shows are for Discovery Asia and the China Quake is for an old collaborator of mine, Madeleine Carter at National Geographic. On another note, King Tut is almost in the bag but it’s been a hard slog. As far as personal projects go a friend of mine is planning to release some of my early work on his internet record label, so I’ll let you know about that when it’s all happening. Chin Chin!

I’ve been in negotiations with Rome based independent production company Brando Quilici Productions about composing for a 4 hour project for Discovery Channel which follows a new scientific investigation into the mummy of King Tutankhamun and his relatives.

The programs will be broken down into 2 shows of 120 mins. They started editing the first show in mid November, the second in January and have final delivery of the second show in June. This is a very exciting project to be working on and I’m already researching classic Egyptian era instruments and sounds from the Pharaonic period (post 3100 BC) such as harps, flutes and double clarinets. Here’s a great site that explains quite a bit about it if you’re interested : www.phmusic.gov.eg. I won’t be uploading any of these compositions til the programmes are all wrapped up so check back in the summer! In the meanwhile though, I’m still pitching for other films & documentaries, and continuing my own personal projects… a lot of which involve a nice young lady called Sarah who I met a few months back… Huzzah!

The John Parish 2nd World War session went very well indeed, and you can hear the results in the personal projects section of the music player. ‘German Girl’ is sounding like a pop classic, while ‘I am the Kite’ is a chilled out ballad, definitely one to relax to. We’re currently producing and mixing the tracks for our debut album ‘Think like your horse’ which will be released on vinyl format on John Stapleton’s Evil Kitty label. We’ve currently got pretty much all the tracks we need for the album, some of which you can check out in the personal projects section of the music player. I will upload any further developments on these tracks to the music player as and when they occur. Sweet!

John Parish, PJ Harvey’s co-writer/producer and well respected Bristol muso, is on board to produce 2nd World War’s 7 inch on Evil Kitty! We’re off to Toybox studios next week to polish off the release, which will then be on the shelves in your local record store sometime throughout the summer.Will let you know the release date as soon as I find out.