BACKGROUND:
Gayle Ellett has been composing and producing music for over 35 years, and has performed on more then 90 CDs. He has extensive experience in a wide range of fields, including film and TV soundtracks, award-winning CDs, commercials, art installations, animation, music libraries, computer games, educational websites, and numerous corporate applications.
In Brad Pitt's feature film "Year Of The Dog", Gayle Ellett's acoustic music creates a beautiful and traditional old-world mood. Recently he has composed music for numerous film projects such as "Get Smart", "Kiss The Bride" (with Tori Spelling), "The Devil's Muse" (Directed by Ramzi Abed), "Out Of Left Field", "Combover", "Los Gringos" and many others.
He has created music for more then 35 differernt television series, including “General Hospital” and "Knock First" on ABC, "Swingtown" and "Rebecca's Garden" on CBS, "Next" and "Exposed" on MTV, "The Osbournes Reloaded" on FOX, "Bad Girls Road Trip" on Oxygen, "House Hunters International" on HGTV, "Surfer" and "Powder" on ESPN, "Clark Howard" on CNN/HLN, "Strange Sex" on the Discovery Channel, etc, as well as soundtrack music for TV shows airing on PBS, Bravo, The Movie Channel, The Movie Channel 2, Outdoor Channel, Halogen, Showtime, Showtime 2, Showtime 3, Showtime Women, Showtime Family, Universal HD, TLC, EchoStar, EWTN, the TBS Super Station, and numerous networks overseas.
Grammy Award-winner Michelle Shocked hired Gayle Ellett to create and manage the all-acoustic "Topanga Mountain All Star Band" to perform on stage with Michelle, as her back-up band. He hired all the players and oversaw the rehearsals. On stage with Michelle Shocked he played Greek Bouzouki.
He has also worked on a few projects with two time Grammy Award-winner Alfonso Rodenas, at his private studio in Malibu.
Gayle Ellett has created many charity fund-raiser CDs such as "After The Storm" (which raised $40,000 for HABITAT FOR HUMANITY) and "Topanga Music Of The Mountains". He has produced numerous award-winning albums, receiving such accolades as ROLLING STONE Magazine's "#2 Independent Album Of The Year" and BILLBOARD Magazine's "Critic's Choice Award". Owner of Firepool Records and HC Productions.
He plays a wide range of instruments such as: electric & acoustic guitar, bouzouki, ruan, quirquincho, bulbul tarang, jal tarang, oud, koto, dotara, gimbri, dilruba, rababa, swarsangam, tumbi, bugchu, gopichand, cumbus, suling, harmonium, mizmar, shehnai, mandolin, flute, ocean drum, Tibetan singing bowls, piano & organ & analog synths, guitar synth, Theremin, upright bass, and other instruments.
Many of these exotic sounds can be heard in his all-acoustic ensemble FERNWOOD. Working with master sitar player Todd Montgomery and producer Wayne Yentis, FERNWOOD creates beautiful pan-cultural music with a strong cinamatic feel. They have released two CDs so far "Almeria" and "Sangita". Their debut release "Almeria" was chosen as "#4 Album Of The Year" by John Diliberto at ECHOES.ORG. They also have a live recording on the compilation "Still Echoes" with Al Di Meola and others. FERNWOOD can be heard regularly on National Public Radio - NPR.
He is one of the founding members of the internationally acclaimed Art-Rock group Djam Karet, which has released 15 CDs so far, and has received great reviews and awards in hundreds of magazines world-wide, including Rolling Stone Magazine's "#2 Independent Album Of The Year" and Billboard Magazine's "Critic's Choice Award", PULSE Magazine's "# 6 NEW AGE Album Of The Year", and "#2 Album Of The Year" in Electronic Musician magazine, among others. They recently head-lined a three-day Progressive Rock festival, held on the beach in France, called The Crescendo Festival.
GUITAR PLAYER Magazine (June 2008) described Gayle's music as "Wonderfully melodic, expertly layered, masterfully interwoven, luscious yet rootsy."
GUITAR PLAYER Magazine (March 2011) described Gayle's music as "Skillful and evocative playing, majestic orchestrations, odd time signatures, and showcases their contributions to the progressive rock oeuvre."
He has also recently recorded tracks on CDs by members of King Crimson and Peter Gabriel, The Lovin' Spoonful's Randy Chance, EcoVillage (a Swedish Psychedelic band), RadioSeed, Sejdman, The Nihil Project (an Italian Psychedelic band), Zachary Crocker, CCA (a Progressive band), Djam Karet, Ukab Maerd (Electronic), Herd Of Instinct, Hillmen (Improvised Jazz), and with his own ensemble FERNWOOD. And his Experimental Music album was described as "The 'Apocalypse Now' of field recordings" by Progressive World. He has sold his music in a wide range of styles including Traditional WORLD music (available from any country), Acoustic Contemporary-Folk, Jazz, Progressive, Deep Electronic, Soundtrack, Hard Rock, and other styles.
If you google "Gayle Ellett", you'll find him mentioned on more then 25,000 websites (he is the only "Gayle Ellett" on the Internet).
AWARDS:
"#2 Independent Album Of The Year" ROLLING STONE magazine
"Critic's Choice Award" BILLBOARD magazine
"#2 Album Of The Year" ELECTRONIC MUSICIAN magazine
"#2 Album Of The Year" GAGLIARCHIVES
"#3 Album Of The Year" SEA OF TRANQUILITY
"#4 Album Of The Year" ECHOES.ORG
"#4 Album Of The Year" ELECTRONIC MUSICIAN magazine
"#6 New Age Album Of The Year" PULSE! magazine
"Top 10 Album Of The Year" DEEP LISTENING magazine
"Top 10 Album Of The Year" EXPOSE' magazine
"Top 20 Album Of The Year" PROGRESSOR
