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Dancing Fantasy
California Dreaming - this time with synth and guitar. A sunny groove-sound like a musical summer breeze, melting electronics with jazz, New Age and lots of laid-back feeling. Chris W. Williams was born in 1966 in Germany. Favourite beach: Hermosa Beach, California. Apart from being a professional studio musican (keyboards) he is a sought after producer for dancefloor music. He also plays guitar and is a vigorous supporter of live and „hand-made" music despite him being an absolute wizard when it comes to digital sound productions. Because he is so competent with using the music-computer („it's a time saver") he uses the additional time and his „no-set-rules-approach" to come up with fresh an innovative ideas. Curtis McLaw was born 1958 in Germany. Favourite beach: Malibu, California. He owns and runs a studio, and is also a whizz-kid on the keyboards, playing guitar on the side and works frequently as a producer for a variety of musical projects from dance- and pop- and film-music. Through his numerous international connections to other studios and session musicians around the world, he has buildt up a great catalogue of sampled sounds. His worldwide network of „soundseekers" is constantly on the move and Curtis' soundlibrary now hosts all sort of things, from strange Brazilian tribal percussion-sounds to the noise of the cascading Niagara waterfalls. Their music was heard by pure chance by Innovative Communication's president Mark Sakautzky, when he was working in a different office of the building on a video project next to Dancing Fantasy's „Studio 1": „They were practicing so loud next door - you couldn't overhear them. And they were good, really good - so I walked in and offered them a deal right there!" While Curtis and Chris both have uniquely individual approaches to writing and composing, when they finally meet in the studio with their individually prepared conceptual demos, and then discuss the best use of instruments, sounds, titles etc., the result is always exciting. As McLaw and Williams state: „Our music is not electronically complex, pretentious or complicated. Our basic concept is different - beautiful music which is relaxing, which grooves and which above all is full of life, full of enthusiasm and the joy of living." On „Moonlight Reflections" it was their self-stated purpose to create and record a „musical love letter". They have indeed succeeded - „more than words can say".
NEW FROM 1201 MUSIC: 13 EVOCATIVE SOUNDSCAPES FROM PERENNIAL NAC CHART-TOPPERS, DANCING FANTASY SEA BRIGHT, NJ, February 5, 2001-What more appropriate name for this CD? Soundscapes, mood-painting in music-in a smooth, evocative style that could only come from Dancing Fantasy. The popular duo has staked out a permanent niche at the top of America's NAC charts, and for good reason. Few other groups can boast their unique blend of compositional skill, musical dexterity and sheer accessibility. For those who don't already know, Dancing Fantasy is the creation of two men, Curtis McLaw and Chris W. Williams. McLaw and Williams live and work in near Hamburg, Germany. Both are wizards in the recording studio, both know their way around the keyboard and percussion instruments-and both have a knack for making CDs that Americans seem to love. On all Dancing Fantasy projects, they write the songs, do the arrangements, lay down the percussion and keyboard tracks and supervise the recording sessions. Soundscapes bears their unmistakable stamp from first to last. As usual, however, they get some very skillful help from their friends-in this case, guitarist Bill Joseph Flynn, a longtime collaborator, and saxophonist York, an accomplished musician equally adept on tenor and soprano. Also aboard on this occasion is trumpeter Toshinori Kondo, whose lovely, wistful solo on"White Horses" is one of the highlights of Soundascapes. But then, Soundscapes is full of highlights. Consider the opening cut, "Dreaming Out Loud." It's a killer track that could serve as a model of the Dancing Fantasy style: atmospheric chords supporting an improvisational keyboard line, all of it layered over a gently swinging rhythm track. The song sets its mood with the opening notes and sustains it throughout. Another cut, another mood. The song this time is "On No Man's Land," a brooding, evocative piece reminiscent of the soundtrack music from Chariots of Fire or The Year of Living Dangerously. Flynn's pensive guitar work over a dramatic, insistent pulse could not be more tastefully handled. The same could also be said of his work on "Million Miles Away from Home" or "Into the Deep Blue" or "Feeling of Flight." Whatever the occasion, Flynn rises to it. He is, by turns, subtle, funky, pensive and, in "Feeling of Flight," lighter than air. Credit is also due to York's sensitive sax solos-his sinuous use of the soprano in "Around the World in a Day," for example, or his moody tenor on "The Sound of Colours," the CD's final cut. As always with Dancing Fantasy, one leaves Soundscapes wishing for more. Together, Curtis McLaw and Chris Williams have achieved something rare: They've developed a unique style-and they've kept it fresh year after year. More info:
An interview with Curtis McLaw is to find here.
Further projects with Curtis McLaw:
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