New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ CineMedia Promotions) Screamworks Records, a new division of Moviescore Media dedicated to releasing horror film music, is releasing its second offering,
Nathaniel Levisay's score for Dawning. Screamworks Records founder Mikael Carlsson calls Levisay's music, "an original score that is one of the creepiest we've heard in a long time."
Gregg Holtgrewe's low budget genre movie Dawning has earned several prestigious awards, including at the Rhode Island International Horror Film Festival, Solstice Film Festival and Las Vegas Film Festival. It was called "One of the most original and terrifying horror films" (Planet of Terror) and a "psychological horror masterpiece" (All Things Horror Online).
Holtgrewe's vision for the score did not include other horror film scores. In fact, the film was temp-tracked with music from minimalist composer Arvo Part and avant garde icon Krzysztof Penderecki. Said Levisay, "His decision somehow put me in a different place psychologically."
"There are things in this film that are traditional devises," Levisay continued, "but they are only a springboard into a much deeper pool of psychological tension."
Levisay didn't write main musical themes. It was recorded with a live piano and smaller group in combination with some samples. "Some of the music was written traditionally and other parts were created in a way reflective of musique concrete."
Composer Nathaniel Levisay was mentored in composition and orchestration by Tony Award-nominated composer/arranger, Robert Elhai (Heat, Metallica S&M, Broadway's The Lion King), before moving to Los Angeles. There he worked with Warner Brothers Animation on the orchestral scores for such animated series and films as Superman, Batman Beyond: Return Of the Joker, Histeria!, Sylvester & Tweety and Animaniacs - and as a result went on to score the visual effects driven feature film, The Dreamless.
In 2002 - 2003 Nathaniel was in the process of co-creating a concert hall/multi-media orchestral work with composer Michael Kamen, before Kamen's sudden death. Levisay is one of three composers to have written a solo/orchestra work for world-renown cellist Andrew Shulman. Nathaniel's music has been heard at festivals around the world, in short films and features alike. He recently wrapped his score for the fantasy / horror genre feature Fading Of the Cries and The Gatekeeper, starring Ron Perlman and Lea Thompson.
Dawning takes place at a Northern Minnesota lake cabin where a brother and sister visit their father and step-mom. As the first night unfolds with uncomfortable small talk and tension, tragedy strikes as the beloved family dog is found mortally wounded. Almost immediately a stranger, potentially under the spell of someun-seen "presence", appears in the cabin and tells the family that he has come to save them...but from what? The man's arrival upsets what at best was only a tentative balance and the pretense at civility begins to crumble. Soon, their lack oftrust in each other and their inability to cope with any new pressure exposes their weaknesses and what the stranger has started, whatever is waiting in the dark may finish.
Breaking Glass Pictures presents Dawning available on VOD and DVD in June 2011. Dawning - Original Soundtrack from Screamworks Records will be available digitally and in stores on May 31, 2011. Also available from Screamworks Records is Jeff Grace's score for Stake Land. Future releases will include Heartless (David Julyan) and The Man Who Collected Food (Daniel Alcheh).
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