Dance Matters - Autumn 1999

Contemporary Dance Music Vol. 3 by Michael Price

Michael Price is a prize-winning graduate in Music and Sound Recording from Surrey University and is now a pianist and composer living in London. With an extensive background in contemporary dance, he has played nationwide for class, and as co-artistic director of DNA Dance and Music, composed the scores for ground breaking new productions like, "All the Garden Gold" and "Circadian Dances". For the last two years he has been working alongside film composer, Michael Kamen, on various major Hollywood projects including the forthcoming animation "The Iron Giant" for Warner Brothers.

This latest CD features lyrical solo piano playing mixed with rhythmic grooves, loops and soundscapes. He has mixed the solo piano with cutting edge sounds and techniques from the film world to create a CD which works well for class, choreography or just to listen to!

There are eleven tracks on the CD with a total running time of 57:15 minutes. He has included as a final track, the complete dance score, "Bare Feet at Breakfast", a beautiful piece lasting 11:20 in 12/8. Although predominantly piano-based, he is joined by guitars, bass, keyboards and percussion on many tracks. The beats per minute and time signature of each track is helpfully provided. The quality is high and the content would probably best suit Secondary dance students and above, either for class or for choreography. Michael Price helpfully says that the music can be used in public performance and is always keen to hear from anyone using his compositions in their choreography.

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