Aurelien Atkins

To take some information straight from the Web site of this French producer/composer – this young artist from the north of France has been a fan of hip hop and a few other genres for most of his 20 years. He had a demo CD in 2006 and now offers Beyond Words (2007).

Be warned – this is instrumental music that the artist/composer himself describes as other. Some reviewers rave that his latest work “shows great musical and artistic maturity.” (Vacarm.net). Matthew Ralph writes, in tangzine.com, that this is the type of music to incorporate into your daily life. There are no words (maybe a few) but this might even qualify as napping music. There are some “droning dance beats” according to Ralph, along with piano and orchestral sounds that are suitable for “contemplative moments.”
This listener does enjoy some ambient or contemplative music. I find Atkins’ work a bit repetitious, but it is soothing, in a way that is hard to describe. Atkins states that he is much influenced by rap and some soul. Al Green is his favorite singer. Good choice! Danger Mouse comes up in discussions with and about Atkins as well. He also loves Kanye West.
Here’s a quote from the guy himself, “Movies influenced me very much for the dynamics of my songs, i’m a huge fan of horror movies and asiatic cinema, so cinema is one more small piece of puzzle that make my music.” [The lack of capitalization is most likely a result of French being this fellow’s native language.]

Aurelien Atkins on MySpace

Tags: indie, music, aurelien atkins, independent music, indie music