On any film or visual media project, the importance and vitality of accompanying soundtrack music cannot be underestimated. Music speaks volumes when there are no suitable words to express elusive, intangible emotions, and extends action and furthers moods in a way dialogue or physical action simply cannot. We invite your consideration of composer/pianist William Linton’s Piano Sketches on any appropriate current or future film project you may be working on.
On Piano Sketches, William Linton takes the listener on a journey of the heart and mind; through musical landscapes with piano compositions both imaginary and impressionistic. Linton’s work has received high acclaim from his peers. In a review of Piano Sketches for Solo Piano Publications, Kathy Parsons said: “All of the songs are beautiful and evocative. The [music’s] complexity lies within the free-form style and powerful emotional content. This is truly an outstanding solo piano collection.” Bill Binkelman of Wind and Wire also remarked, “Linton displays a masterful command of nuance as he gently plays in an impressionistic manner. This CD serves as a perfect soundtrack for remembrance.” Concert pianist, Kevin Asbjornson simply called it, “hauntingly beautiful.”
Unlike more episodic, strictly-for-soundtrack compositions, the album is not merely a mechanism for emotional manipulation, but an independent, passionate entity. Over the course of Piano Sketches’ nine tracks, Linton's remarkable sense of lyricism and melody shines brightly. These songs are the perfect accompaniment for afternoons spent remembering past regrets, lost opportunities, and maybe devoting a little time to future dreams as well. The album’s lead track, “The Harvest”elicits a feeling of repose and reflection. The more minimal, melancholy notes on “November Rain,”capture an oddly comforting sadness. “Purple Desert”uses the silence between notes to evoke the wide expanses of the desert landscape. On “A Path With Heart,” a delicate piano introduction opens out into a haunting melody, both optimistic and achingly sad at the same time. Linton proves capable of classically inclined works on the final track, “Clearing Mist,” which strongly recalls the work of Mozart or Liszt.
William Linton has been composing instrumental music of various genres for nearly twenty years. His keyboard experience began as a child, with his grandmother's piano and a 19th century pump organ. William would play for hours at a time, working with the timbres and moods that the old organ produced. His work has been featured on several nationally syndicated radio programs, such as National Public Radio’s Music from the Hearts of Space.
The subtle, highly contemplative nature of Linton’s compositions make his music ideally suited for a wide scope of romantic and dramatic situations; for those moments when music serves to advance or color the action in a way dialogue cannot. Whether on an intimate or grand scale, Piano Sketches is romantic scene-painting of a high order, from shimmering autumn leaves to the lonely tracks of a deserted railroad station. Though a romantic, bittersweet undertone remains very consistent throughout the album, it never falls into a well of the romantically mundane and repetitious. To that end, Linton aims for something remarkably similar to Gabriel Yared's romance work on a film like The English Patient or Message in a Bottle. For more information on William Linton, please contact ________.