Browsing Tag

Jeff Goldsmith

Jeff Goldsmith – Before Dawn: Stillness in Electronic Neo-Classic Motion

Posted on 2 September 2024

Ahead of the release of his This Beast EP, the award-winning Minneapolis film composer and sound designer, Jeff Goldsmith teased the reflective ambience to come with the unveiling of ‘Before Dawn’.

The instrumental score captures the beauty of the stillness before dawn breaks and the humdrum of modernity unfurls. The electronic synthetics reverberate around the softly plaintive keys which keep the momentum quiescently pushing forward through the layers of ethereal reverb which border on ominous as the single progresses reaches a subtle crescendo.

The track then winds back down through an installation of artfully composed neo-classic trip-hop, exhibiting Jeff Goldsmith’s versatility as a musician and engineer. His ability to beguile through electronic sound design fused with treated samples and evocative acoustic instrumentation has earned him several accolades in the industry.

When he’s not composing for the airwaves, he’s scoring soundtracks for horror and thriller films. His most recent project, This Beast, may be a departure from his industrial leanings, but for the sonic sanctuary it delivers, it is more than worth your attention.

Stream and purchase Before Dawn on Bandcamp now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Jeff Goldsmith – Tied to the Track: Melt Into the Darkly Ambient Melancholy

Posted on 15 November 2022

Following the resounding success of his former releases, the Minneapolis composer, musical sound designer and producer Jeff Goldsmith unleashed the lamentfully arrestive atmosphere of his latest score, Tied to the Track.

With the art rock nuances of Radiohead, the progressive feel of Fear of a Blank Planet era Porcupine Tree and deserty Josh Homme-Esque vocals bleeding into the darkly ambient neo-classic electronic arrangements, succumbing to the cinematic melancholy of Tied to the Track is non-optional.

Goldsmith started his venture into creativity aged four at the Suzuki Music Academy, where he learned to play the violin by ear. In 2020, he made his debut with the album, Vodu, subsequently followed by his poetically titled scintillating sophomore album, May You Find the Light Before the Devil Knows He’s Right, in May 2021. In addition to his solo work, Goldsmith scores for TV and film and works with a myriad of other artists, such as Austin Texas’s Sparta.

After hearing Tied to the Track, I know I will never stop turning to Goldsmith’s visceral sonic proclivities which innovatively amalgamate ambience with exultant ingenuity. He isn’t just one in a million, his presence on the airwaves can’t be quantified. I can’t recommend him enough.

Tied to the Track is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Jeff Goldsmith – ambient, narrative sounds with ‘Waiting Window’

Posted on 7 May 2021

Jeff Goldsmith is a composer, sound engineer, and producer based out of Minneapolis; ‘Waiting Window’ the first track from his forthcoming album ‘May You Find The Light Before The Devil Knows He’s Right’ – composed and recorded during the Covid-19 pandemic – is a dark, brooding, piece, semi-neo-classical, semi-industrial, and mainly instrumental. All based around field recordings and live samples from Minneapolis, it’s a mix of the avant-garde, elements of alt-rock mixing with a repeating piano motif, sampled ambient noises, and speech, all building slowly throughout the five-and-a-half minutes of the track. At times sounding like Phillip Glass or Mike Oldfield, others with dashes of the softer parts of Nine Inch Nails or Ministry, switching still to the Orb or Ozric Tentacles. It’s an entrancing, evocative mix of alternative, dark ambient, and auditory narrative soundscape.

You can catch the video for ‘Waiting Window’ on YouTube; find out more about Jeff Goldsmith and his work here.

Review by Alex Holmes