Composer/musician and mixer Elliott Hunt and his L.A. partner, Daniel Alcheh, scored an indie feature that premiered a few weeks ago as the headliner film at the Newport Beach Film Festival.
The comedy-drama shot in New York, East Fifth Bliss, stars Michael C. Hall, Peter Fonda, Lucy Liu, Brie Larson and Chris Messina.
Alcheh was called to provide the score for the first full-length feature of writer/producer/ director Michael Knowles of L.A.-based 7A Productions, with whom Alcheh has worked before.
The coming-of-age story is about 35-year old Hall who shares an apartment with his widowed father, Peter Fonda. He need a job but has no prospects, no focus. He finds himself in an awkward relationship with a former classmate’s young daughter. As his static life unravels it opens possibilities long overdue.
The music was recorded to picture “from top to bottom, with all live musicians,” at studios in Chicago and L.A., says Hunt. He mixed in 5.1 surround sound with Foundation Content’s audio engineer, Ryan Pribyl, who’ve worked on projects together for years.
Although there are no Greek characters or themes in East Fifth Bliss, the score is “a joyride of Greek-inspired music, and features more than a dozen extraordinary ethnic music soloists and world-class session players,” Hunt says. “I think we went through every bouzouki player from Chicago to L.A.”
The 3-year partnership of Israeli-born Alcheh and Michigan native Hunt is a blend of Alcheh’s classical training and Hunt’s immersion in jazz pop since he was in high school in Hastings, Michigan and ran his own professional recording studio.
Together the partners, who are both keyboardists, write and record music for commercials, features, TV trailers and compose pop songs. Currently, they are writing, recording and producing the first of on-going quarterly-issued CD and online music libraries for present clients “and anyone else who can use it,” says Hunt.
Some 40 minutes of music in many genres, and ranging in length from 30-seconds to 3.5 minutes, are being recorded by well-known musicians and singers, such asWill Lee, considered one of the world’s best bass players and Windham Hill label guitar virtuoso Danny Heines. It will be completed by the end of the month.
“This was a chance for us to be creative,” says Hunt of the library. “There’s some really amazing stuff in it.”
Phone for Hunt, who lives in Miller Beach with a view of the lake, is 219/938-8876; email. See www.alchehhunt.com.
