Music Style Electro-acoustic Art/Rock Crossover

Musical Influences Certainly Mike Oldfield (and even 70s Vangelis to some degree), various progressive rock artist like Genesis and their ilk, some film composers like Danny Elfman and Christopher Young, and many other New Music artists like Nicholas Lens and Jocelyn Pook.

Similar Artists Mike Oldfield, Philip Glass, Brian Eno, Danny Elfman, René Dupéré (or so I've been told), and sometimes even Dead Can Dance.

Artist History John LaSala studied composition and electronic music at SUNY @ Stony Brook. His works there included "Tales of a Synthetic Winter," a ten-minute work for flute, recorder, and sequenced electronics, and a multimedia musical theater piece called Dimensional Rift with collaborating composer, Chris Torgersen. In 1999, John scored a dance theater adaptation of H. C. Andersen's The Snow Queen by macduffie/jones performance, which played in various festivals & venues across NYC, culminating in a six-show stint at the 2001 New York International Fringe Festival where he was awarded the festival's Excellence Award for Music Composition. The score has been released nationally on Lincoln Mayorga's TownHall Records. Meanwhile, continued collaboration with choreographer Angela Jones produced several smaller-scale works including "Angela Jones's Flying Circus," which premiered at the Lincoln Center's Clark Studio Theater. In 2002, John worked with fellow composer Charles Griffin on a score for the short film, "City Hall." A slew of future collaborations with both Charles and Angela lies somewhere between hoped-for and planned-on. John is a member of the American Composers Forum and sponsored by the Syntrillium Software, creators of Cool Edit Pro digital-audio software.

Instruments Lots of electronics and some acoustics (which usually get pretty electronically manipulated anyway). In the electronics department, I chiefly use Syntrillium's very cool Cool Edit Pro, a Roland VS-1680, and a Kurzweil K2500RS. In the acoustic department, I use all sorts of small percussion instruments (by design or invented,) occasionally my own voice or guitar, other people's instruments, and any other natural sound I find interesting.

Albums The Snow Queen - available from TownHall Records - music for dance commissioned by macduffie/jones performance

Press Reviews ¤¤¤ "LaSala's vibrant, eclectic score is always sensitive to the icy hot moods of the story, not afraid to sacrifice melody for dramatic thrust. It is also ravishing; a witty and lush marriage of romance and minimalism." -Doug DeVita, Off-Off Broadway Review speaking of music from The Snow Queen - Go to oobr.com/top/volSix/three/snow.html for the full review. ¤¤¤ "The music for this dance theater production of the H. C. Anderson classic is another example of LaSala's talents. Much of his music is of similar feel to Danny Elfman, Phillip Glass, and Rene Dupere. I don't like to compare this composer to another as he is likely to be an influence to others as well. I look forward to future composition from the professional composer." - LastSummer, mp3.com/lastsummer ¤¤¤ "It's obviously not solo keyboard music by any stretch" - John Schaefer, WNYC ¤¤¤ "Brooklyn composer crafts extensive instrumental soundscapes. Layered keyboards and dramatic digital percussion create tracks that are at times gloomy, quirky, and edgy." - Brolin Winning, Listen.com Review ¤¤¤

Additional Info If you download any of my music here (or anywhere), please, please e-mail me and tell me what you think! ¤¤¤ To commission a composition from me, contact Watercolour Management: wcm@composerlink.org

Location Brooklyn, NY - USA

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