A Living Soundtrack
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A Living Soundtrack

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"excerpt from Jambase.com JazzFest article"

As their name suggests, this NOLA band creates instrumental music that could be the backdrop for your
own personal movie – an adventure in the mind. ALS features head-to-head keyboards led by Matt Aguiluz,
who also plays keys and trumpet for local rock heroes Rotary Downs. I particularly loved their tripped
out electronica version of Debussy's "Clair de Lune." There's a new sound bubbling out of New Orleans
and it doesn't sound funky. Will the Big Easy be the birthplace of the next decade of rock? - Jambase.com


"excerpt from interview on NOLAFugees.com"

The operative word here is sound. Then it is subtly manipulated and not overwrought with glittery pretense, pure ambience blankets the ears. A Living Soundtrack is steadily
captivating ears around town with their eclectic, experimental
engineering of sounds. Marshall Flaig, Nick Lauve, Jenn
Gosnell and Matt Aguiluz are all about the music and nothing
but; they respectively instrument drums, bass/ electronic
effects, keys, and keys/trumpet . The resulting collective
impression follows suit with the moniker; these guys and
girl create a sound that could play to an everyday experience.
Cinematic and orchestral, A Living Soundtrack is introducing listeners to technically crafted compositions that reflect a fundamental affinity for the basic function of music. ALS's brand is highly impressionistic. The songs are quirky, catchy, unpredictable, sometimes tense, but most of the time, dancy. - NOLAFugees.com


"Live New Orleans Reviews by Jason Songe"

This is the next band. One of those bands that you hear, like Metronome The City or Antenna Inn or Ratzinger, where you to, "Thank God this band lives here." I know their avant electro pop is good, but the question remains: How will everyone else react to tit? And maybe that doesn't even matter now. This instrumental group is on a path to some very cool soundscapes either way. There's no way I would have thought this before I heard A Living Soundtrack, but "Thank God Matt (Aguiluz) left Rotary Downs" for this band. They're rockin' enough for the rockers and weird enough to appease the fans of Radiohead's more detached and electronic music.
The band consists of two synthesizer players, one drummer, and a multi-instrumentalist that switches between bass, a laptop and a synthesizer. The music was especially awesome when he would throw the bass into the mix, the intricate line stopping and starting before it should, which is exactly when it should. A Living Soundtrack brought a crowd to the show, which is pretty cool sonsidering this was only their tenth show. Why are instrumental bands making a splash? Is there a reason for it? I'm not a fan of instrumental rock, per se, but bands like A Living Soundtrack and Metronome The City are so interesting that they don't need vocals. - ANTIGRAVITY Magazine


"Best of New Orleans Blog"

Can a song be considered a living thing? The tracks laid down by A Living Soundtrack — a local instrumental quartet consisting of Rotary Downs alum Matt Aguiluz along with Nick Lauve, Marshall Flaig and Jenn Gosnell — seem to breathe, blossom and bloom rather than verse, chorus and bridge. Witness “Germination,” a disorienting cut off the band’s self-titled 2006 debut, whose four primary voices are an inquisitive acoustic guitar, a Massively Attacking bass-beat hammer, a nervy R2D2 computer and, finally, a reverberating Dr. Who synthesizer that quiets the crowd in preparation for the refracted third-act coda. It’s a lovely kind of auditory decompression sickness, the bends in frequency form. - nola.com


"Antigravity Show Review"

A Living Soundtrack live show is a little unearthly, an experience unto itself. The band, fairly new to the scene, has just a handful of live shows and one EP under its belt but, boy, are they something else. There’s something hypnotic about their music that draws people in, regardless of their music taste. The otherworldly sound is partially created though the layering of different sounds on top of each other. But A Living Soundtrack is much more then the sum of its parts. Their music sounds like the score to a trippy, European sci-fi film but rocks hard
enough to exile kitsch while luring people in like some ethereal call to prayer. Some of their songs are darker with a dystopian feel. Then, they pull a one-eighty and juxtapose the 2001: A Space Odyssey atmosphere with disorientating light airy sounds, electronic beats and eerie vocal loops. Be careful when you see A Living Soundtrack live—you can get completely lost in the sound. —Caroline DeBruhl - Antigravity Magazine


"Sunday Reading - Interview"

The road for A Living Soundtrack has been an unlikely and unusual one, even by New Orleans standards. Formed as a studio-only project prior to Hurricane Katrina, the group originally consisted of only two members. At the time, one eventual member of the band didn't even reside in North America.

"I was actually playing music and taking a graduate course on electronic sound at Goldsmith College in London when A Living Soundtrack was starting," said keyboardist Jenn Gosnell. "I came back to America because, basically, I got kicked out of Britain when my visa expired. A Living Soundtrack turned out to be my first band in New Orleans."

A Living Soundtrack began as a collaborative project between long-time friends Nick Lauve and Matt Aguiluz. The duo spent several years tinkering with arrangements of ambient sounds, mixing in elements of blues, jazz, and rock. With the addition of drummer Marshall Flaig, the group finally recorded and self-released their debut EP in 2006.

Since that time, the band has found their niche amongst a growing number of progressive indie-rock bands in the New Orleans area. These days, A Living Soundtrack can often be found performing alongside such artists as Black Belt, Smiley With A Knife, Meadow Flow, and I, Octopus.

A Living Soundtrack's members say that while their finished arrangements may sound fine-tuned, the end result is actually the product of erratic experimentation.

"The process of how we create our music is a bit different from how some bands do it," said Matt Aguiluz. "For the EP, Nick and I just kind of winged it and wrote it in the studio. When we're working on a certain song, it's always in a constant state of flux. We may add, change, and rearrange the elements a dozen times before we finally settle on an arrangement."

Countless hours spent in the studio may yield polished recordings, but the band is quick to point out that those recordings aren't always easy to reproduce when it comes time to perform live.

"Our live sets are a bit different from the studio stuff," said Marshall Flaig. "There are some things that we can do in the studio that we just can't do live. It's the same band, but people will see and hear a different band, depending on if they're listening to our record or if they're seeing us live."

"We kind of look at recording and performing as two separate disciplines," added Lauve. "To us, the studio is more about composing and arrangement. Performing is like a completely different element altogether."

To compensate for those studio tricks that may be impossible to reproduce during their live sets, the band compensates with a light and video show, as well as regular collaborations with other local artists.

"Zack Smith, who drums for Rotary Downs, provides the video elements during our live sets," said Aguiluz. "He's really great at what he does. His stuff really adds a new layer of depth to what we're trying to achieve."

Marshall Flaig added: "We also recently got a collaboration going with Fatter Than Albert's horn section, which has been pretty tight. Those guys will be joining us on-stage from time to time."

"We have talked about collaborating with Black Belt on a few occasions, but we haven't had anything happen as of yet," said Lauve. "Hopefully one day in the future."

For the time being, A Living Soundtrack is content to continue playing in New Orleans and around the state.

"Before we ever do a full tour, we'd just like to head out of town for quick weekend trips to hit up one or two cities at a time," said Lauve. "Here in Louisiana, aside from New Orleans, the shows we've done in Lafayette have been a lot of fun."

As for a follow-up to their 2006 EP, the group says that something may soon be in the works.

"Our last release came out in 2006, so things have been kind of quiet for awhile in that regard," Lauve said. "Hopefully, we'll be recording again by the end of this summer."

"The last record took 3 years to come together," added Matt Aguiluz. "We like to take our time and get it right."
- nopunks.com


Discography

"A Living Soundtrack - EP"

Photos

Bio

A Living Soundtrack started as an impromptu studio collaboration between two old friends that resulted in what would become the self-titled EP. As the duo continued to write music, a live band formed around the work and the current lineup of A Living Soundtrack was born. A Living Soundtrack has become a staple of the re-emerging experimental rock scene in post-Katrina New Orleans and the gulf south. The overall style is hard to describe since each song is fundamentally different than the last, yet sets are mostly seamless with only one or two breaks to address the crowd. The music has been described as very visual and textural, almost narrative of some elusive theme. Sets are frequently accompanied by a live projected video performance.