Benedict Roff-Marsh releases his 80th album of original music.”Unmade Movies” explores the idea of what musical themes for imagined (yet somehow hauntingly familiar) movies and TV shows might be like as seen through the mind of the composer.
Benedict’s style of music is not easily popped in the rigid genres so prevalent today. There are elements of New Age, Soundtrack, pure Classic Electronic Music with elements of Berlin School and even Prog Rock. It sounds like as a composer, Benedict simply uses all the parts swimming in his brain and lets them out as they will. The result could be infuriating if you insist on defining your music by genre tag alone, or liberating if you simply accept the paths that his stories go.
“Music is a form of healing,” says Benedict. “It doesn’t have to be about whales or dolphins; so long as it engages our humanity and lets us see into the depths of the universal consciousness (God if you will) then music is doing its job.” He sees his music about being a way to bring harmony into everyday lives by connecting us with our imaginations. The use of pure synthesis more often than not is to help us to lift off from our overly rigid ideas of reality, to let ourselves reconnect with the universal consciousness. These are his stories.
Speaking of stories, these are the notes attached to the tracks on his website. Use them or find your own.
1. Bring My Boy Back – is that typical, overly-dramatic, telemovie where a woman rushes around trying to get people to take her seriously whilst her child is missing.
2. A New York Night – should seem big and brash like “Staying Alive” but this is more of a Woody Allen affair built around subtlety and those nuances unique to certain large cities.
3. Girl From Peking – aims straight at a re-imaging of the 50’s style of love story with an exotic twist.
4. Swords for the North – sounds like lots of action but sadly most of it happens with Kings & Barons endlessly shouting at each other between flapping of bed sheets. TV Soapie wrapped in Fantasy garb. Gotta be a hit.
5. Montana Mountain Man – is pure 60’s style Cowboy romance but made in the 80’s for TV. A guilty pleasure either way.
6. Space Station Five-0 – ran for only one season before being axed in favor of a cooking show. Was all but forgotten for 10 years but suddenly the Retrowave kids think it is the
bee’s knees.
7. Walther – an old TV gumshoe with a worn face but a solid heart for justice & right; as
well as his spunky driver, Hollywell West.
8. Father Time – A Romantic Comedy that fails to have any funny moments but is still incredibly touching. Probably based on a book written by someone like Annie Proulx and
is really about the woman’s relationship with her deceased father (which leaves the men all rather irrelevant, but thankfully very good looking).
Benedict is a completely (and somewhat fiercely) independent musician who uses his website along with Bandcamp, and to some extent YouTube to present his vision to the world. His view is at times on the idealized, poetic side with strong hopes for a perfect world, then on others a grim view of humanity being a dystopian disappointment. His acknowledgment of both sides is unusual in modern marketing terms as usually only the pretty side is shown these days. “Unmade Movies” may bring reminders of Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, Jarre and similar artists, but is still a unique work, worthy of the time to get acclimated as it helps you to find peace in this world by reaching out to the other.
Official Album Page: https://benedictroffmarsh.com/2018/08/14/unmade-movies/
Website Home: https://benedictroffmarsh.com/
Bandcamp for Sales: https://benedictroff-marsh.bandcamp.com/