Six Cycles

Album review

British composer Matt Dunkley has been known as an orchestrator and composer of film soundtracks, with credits that include orchestration of the music for The Incredible Hulk. His Six Cycles, just 27 minutes long in total, are influenced by the moods and lengths of film music cuts; each one embodies a specific tone and builds over a repeated rhythmic figure in a big arc. The music is for string orchestra, with solo violin, cello, and piano. The result is a set of small pieces that bear traits of film scores, ambient music, and minimalism without being really classifiable as any of these: Dunkley moves away from the representation of action in film scores in favor of more abstract emotional states, avoids the static quality of ambient music, and inhabits a more personal, expressive universe than is usual with minimalism. It's an intriguing combination, nicely realized here under Dunkley's baton, that should appeal to those interested in any of the three genres noted above. The nearest comparison would be Ludovico Einaudi, who shares Dunkley's film music background, but sample Cycle 6 for a taste of the distinctive modes that give Dunkley's music its own flavor.

© James Manheim /TiVo