Geoff Smith (music composer)

Geoff Smith (born 1966) is a British music composer, writer, and academic. Along with his wife, singer Nicola Walker Smith (born 1964), he has written and recorded several pieces of contemporary classical music as well as published the 1995 book New Voices: American Composers Talk about Their Music (alternate title American Originals: Interviews with 25 Contemporary Composers). His compositions have been described as "minimalist" and "pop classical"^[1] and he's been compared to contemporaries Philip Glass and Steve Reich.^[2]

Many of Smith's musical works take their lyric content from traditional English verse or English Romantic poets including Emily Brontë, John Keats, Christina Rossetti, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Elizabeth Siddal.

Smith is a former student of English composer/double bassist Gavin Bryars.

Discography

Albums

• Gas Food Lodging (Kitchenware, 1993)
• 15 Wild Decembers (Sony Classical, 1995)
• Black Flowers [credited to The Geoff Smith Band] (Sony Classical, 1997)

EPs

• Six Wings (Blissout/Fifteen Wild Decembers/Possess Me/Six Wings of Bliss) (Sony Classical, 1995)
• Six Wings of Bliss (Sound Factory Vocal Mix/Strings of Bliss/Sound Factory Vocal Dub/Voice in the Dark Mix) [remixes by Junior Vasquez and Ronnie Ventura] (Epic, 1995)
• Six Wings of Bliss (New Remixes: Factory Mix/Tribal Dub/Indian Summer Mix/Far Removed Dub/Ambient Dub Edit) [remixes by Junior Vasquez and Ronnie Ventura] (Epic, 1995)

Other Recordings

• The Garden [Nicola Walker Smith] (Kitchenware, 1991)
• Spaces and Places [Simon Emmerson] (Sargasso, 2009)

References

1. ^ Andrew Stewart & Dominic Pride (July 29, 1995). "Stressing Smith's 'wild' side". Billboard. pp. 1–2. "The 29-year-old Smith doesn't mind being labeled a minimalist, though he is much less sure about being categorized as a pop classical artist." 
2. ^ Matt Rowe (February 21, 2007). "Music Review: Geoff Smith - 15 Wild Decembers". MusicTAP. http://www.musictap.net/Reviews/SmithGeoff15WildDecembersCD.html. Retrieved 2010-12-11. "...in the ranks of masters like Philip Glass, Steve Reich..." 

External links

• Emmerson: Spaces and Places (via iTunes)
• Morning Concert: Nicola Walker Smith and Geoffrey Smith (from August 21, 1992)
• Selected music samples from Nicola Walker Smith's The Garden
• WorldCat record for New Voices: American Composers Talk about Their Music