The Cinema Show
By Rory Callais
“Before we had any music written, we had these visual ideas of how things were going to be,” says
A Living Soundtrack
bassist/keyboardist Nick Lauve. “We just tried to make that happen.”
This is a fitting beginning for local electronic instrumental indie act
A Living Soundtrack, a group that mixes cinematic, experimental sound
with a video projector for live performances. “We had a screenplay with
very visual ideas for an album,” says Lauve, “and out of that came our
first EP.” That self-titled EP, five songs of swirling psychedelic dub,
was the product of Lauve and trumpet player/keyboardist Matt Aguiluz.
However, the band’s sound isn’t born completely from conceptual
inspiration. “The music came out of practicality,” says Lauve. “Matt
wrote music that can only be pulled off with computers.”
A Living Soundtrack is not unfamiliar to such disparate elements.
Where the band’s debut EP was a mostly electronic affair with acoustic
elements peppered in for texture, the addition of keyboardist Jenn
Gosnell and drummer Marshall Flaig has given the band a more dynamic
sound. The electronic sounds ebb and flow to the human rhythm section
of Lauve on bass and Flaig on drums, giving the music a soul often
lacking in music made on computers. Also, the meeting of the conceptual
and the practical also influenced the band’s instrumental nature. “It’s
easier for people to connect to it in their own way rather than
following words,” says Aguiluz.
The band’s duality doesn’t seem to be going away soon. “We want to
get involved in working on film and video game music,” says Lauve.
“Besides playing shows and releasing CDs, we want to be more holistic
in our approach.” The group already has the indie film Mythosis
on its resume. An art-house, experimental group making movie and
videogame music may seem to be indulging opposite ends of the aesthetic
spectrum, but A Living Soundtrack show that the conceptual and the
practical can come together to provide a soundtrack that is not only
living, but thriving.
Published September 2009, OffBeat Louisiana Music & Culture Magazine, Volume 22, No. 9.