''Spark of Being'' is a 3-disc box set of music written by Dave Douglas and performed by his electric band, Keystone. Written for the Bill Morrison film by the same name, ''Spark of Being'' was commissioned by

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

and released by Douglas's

Greenleaf Music Greenleaf Music is an independent music company directed by American trumpeter and composer Dave Douglas. In addition to recordings on CD, vinyl, and digital formats, Greenleaf Music houses sheet music and podcasts, as well as supporting tours by ...

record label in 2010.

Background

commissioned Dave Douglas to write a soundtrack for Bill Morrison's Frankenstein film.

Recording and music

The musicians were part of Douglas's established sextet known as Keystone. In the studio, Douglas encouraged improvisation, so that he would have enough material to edit for release. The music "makes use of the library of sounds at Stanford University's computer music department, which DJ Olive weaves into the live palette of keyboard, bass, drums and Douglas himself on trumpet".

Release and reception

The ''Spark of Being'' set was released by

on September 21, 2010. Greenleaf also issued the three CDs separately: ''Spark of Being: Soundtrack'', which was from the film; ''Spark of Being: Expand''; and ''Spark of Being: Burst''. The first was issued on June 22, 2010; the second was released on September 6 of the same year. All were released by

, which issued the set of 3 CDs ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

s reviewer wrote: "The combination of poetic suggestiveness, musical invention and instrumental brilliance is a marvel, and all the more effective for being understated." The JazzTimes reviewer wrote that "Douglas has composed tunes that could work with any instrumentation, and the samples are an extra flavoring – not a gimmick the whole thing depends upon".

Track listing

Disc 1: Soundtrack

# Creature Theme, 7:08 # Spark Of Being, 3:45 # Observer, 4:02 # Travelogue, 7:24 # Prologue, 4:27 # Tree Ring Circus, 6:29 # Creature And Friend, 2:56 # Is It You?, 2:43 # Chroma, 7:53 # Observer Claymation, 3:51 # Observer Animation, 1:02 # Split Personality, 6:21 # Creature Alone, 1:40

Disc 2: Expand

# Spark Of Being, 3:44 # Creature, 7:33 # Tree Ring Circus, 5:42 # Observer, 4:03 # Chroma, 7:42 # Travelogue, 7:56 # Prologue, 5:52

Disc 3: Burst

# Leaving London, 4:26 # Creature Code, 5:02 # The Growing Tree, 4:40 # Vitalism, 7:20 # Creature Discomfort, 8:08 # Split Personality Infinitive, 7:42 # Tree Ring Vamp, 2:14 # Travelogue (Complete), 7:24 # Leaving London Reprise, 1:58 # Creature Theme (Closure), 7:00

Personnel

* Dave Douglas – trumpet *

Marcus Strickland Marcus Strickland (born February 24, 1979) is an American jazz soprano, alto, and tenor saxophonist. He was born in Gainesville, Florida, and grew up in Miami. ''Down Beat'' magazine's Critics' Poll named him 'Rising Star on Tenor Saxophone' in 2 ...

– tenor saxophone *Adam Benjamin – keyboards * Brad Jones – bass *Gene Lake – drums *

DJ Olive DJ Olive (also known as The Audio Janitor; born Gregor Asch) is an American disc jockey and turntablist. He is known for producing music generally in the electronic genre, with strong influences of dub, and free improvisation styles. He is wide ...

– laptop/turntable

References

2010 albums Dave Douglas (trumpeter) albums Greenleaf Music albums {{2010s-jazz-album-stub