Critical Acclaim for The Echo Falls

The Echo Falls debut was officially released on 11.17.09. The critical response has been overwhelmingly positive, very gratifying.  

Click here to read reviews from the San Francisco Chronicle, KQED Radio, East Bay Express, The Big Takeover, Electronic Musician, Examiner, Metromix, and many more.

Click here to purchase the CD....or search "The Echo Falls" on iTunes. 

Click here to join our Facebook group, and hear about upcoming shows and news. 

Thanks for your support!

The Echo Falls featured on NPR

The Echo Falls and Alex Mandel's scoring were featured this morning on San Francisco's NPR - KQED radio! 

Listen to the review here. 

Host Cy Musiker and San Francisco Chronicle Executive Datebook editor David Wiegand look ahead at the hottest tickets and most spectacular shows this coming week in Northern California.

Introducing...The Echo Falls

If you're reading this, you probably know I compose music for picture, including some Pixar short films. Maybe you heard my song that concludes "Trifles." 

Before I started writing music for films, I wrote songs, starting when I was about seven. My latest outlet for my songs is The Echo Falls. The Echo Falls is an acoustic trio - acoustic guitar, stand-up bass, drums/vibes - playing a blend of folk and rock songs. David Arend is a tremendous double bassist, who performs with the San Francisco Symphony and Mason Bates aka Masonic among others. Dave Brandt is my oldest friend, and a great percussionist. 

We just completed our debut album, and I'm very proud of it. Our album is not yet available for purchase. I invite you to visit our website, where you can download high-res mp3s in the meantime.

We've booked some shows to celebrate the completion of the CD:

Saturday, October 3

LA, CA

Hotel Cafe

7-7:45

$10

hotelcafe.com

Sunday, October 4

San Francisco, CA

Cafe Du Nord

8:30pm - 9:45pm

cafedunord.com

Jason Munn aka The Small Stakes is a great local artist who has designed elegant posters for everyone from Beck, to Death Cab for Cutie, to Norah Jones. He did our album art and a small (100) run of silk-screen posters for us (see above). We'll have those for sale at the upcoming shows while they're around. 

"Tracy" is complete

Three and a half years ago, I met Dan Scanlon. Dan told me about a movie he'd been working on for several years called "Tracy" about a children's TV host named Tracy Knapp.

A week later I met with Dan and Brian Fee, and Dan gave me his lyrics to "Imagination Train Station", a theme song for the imaginary TV show of the same name. The next day I wrote and recorded a demo. Fortunately Dan liked it, and he wound up using that "demo" version in the movie. (Special thanks to my son for having his toy train whistle laying around.) Dan did 60 seconds of brilliant 2-D animation to accompany the song, and has posted it here. After that, Dan invited me to score the rest of the movie.

Since then, on weekends, vacations, and evenings, Dan and I have been working on this movie. And it's finally done.

The first screening was held a couple of weeks ago, and hopefully it will get out there to film festivals so you can see it. Not only did Dan write, direct and act in a movie while holding down another full-time job, but it's a really good movie. I'm proud to be a part of it. Learn more about the movie at the Tracy Movie Website.

Strange 1970's Animated Kids Show Opening - watch more funny videos

Update: I've posted a couple of cues I did for the film: the Intro to the film, and the "Renaissance cue" which will make sense once you see the movie.... -AM

Scoring "Trifles"

Last week, "Trifles" premiered at Pixar. It's a 30 minute live-action drama directed and screenwritten by Pam Walker. Other than Pam, the crew, including the actors, was largely drawn from Pixar staff.

Seeing the final film still gives me chills. It was the second drama I've scored (after Violet) and it felt like a step forward for me.

Scoring and writing the song for this 30-minute film was quite an adventure over the past year. Working with Pam to find the heart of the story was a pleasure . Also, being asked to write and record an original song in a week was a thrilling experience - also the first time someone else (Pam) has sung a song I've written.

I'll also post score excerpts and the song in the downloads section. The film has been submitted to festivals, so hopefully some of you will have a chance to see it.

Update: "Trifles" will be screening at the Reel Women International Film Festival on March 28, 2009 in Hollywood. For more details, click here.

Another Update: I've posted the two songs I wrote for "Trifles" - Share Your Burden is sung by Pam Walker, who also adapted and directed the film. You can find them in the "Mandel Music Downloads" section. -AM

"Your Friend the Rat" wins an Annie Award

Last Friday, "Your Friend the Rat" won an Annie Award for Best Animated Short Film!

Jim Capobianco (writer/director), Nate Wragg (the amazing production designer) and I attended representing for YFTR, along with lots of folks who worked on Ratatouille. Our bus was late, so we didn't have time for dinner before the ceremony. I was so hungry, I started hallucinating....I thought I heard Sponge Bob Squarepants....but then I realized that actually Sponge Bob Squarepants was hosting the ceremony, and I felt a little better.

This was a great night for Ratatouille, YFTR and for Jim Capobianco, and I was glad I attended.

Me, Jim Capobianco, and Nate Wragg at the afterparty.



Jim Capobianco accepts the award for "Best Animated Short Subject" for Your Friend the Rat.

Scoring "Your Friend the Rat"

The Ratatouille DVD releases on November 6, and it will include an original short film called "Your Friend the Rat".

The film was directed by Jim Capobianco, and is Pixar's first 2-D short (there's some 3-D and even stop motion in there, too!).

75% of the score I wrote, performed and recorded myself, but the other 25% I wrote and arranged for a 16 piece ensemble that we recorded at the Skywalker Scoring Stage, engineered by the amazing Leslie Ann Jones. Michael Giacchino and his team handled the orchestration. Michael was a great inspiration and help throughout the session.

On the scoring stage:
Photo (L to R) conductor, Michael Giacchino, Jim Capobianco, Mandel


The next day, Leslie Ann Jones mixed the music, while they finished Ratatouille down the hall.



We returned to Skywalker a couple months later to mix on the Stanley Kubrick stage.

Photo (L to R) Ann Brilz (Producer), Mandel (composer), Tom Myers (Mix), Steve Bloom (editor), Jim Capobianco (writer/director), EJ Holowicki (Sound Design)