Ray Lamontagne
8th Apr 2009
I get to watch a lot of films as part of my work. Ski films, bike films, adventure travel films, and of course, climbing films. It's one of the more fun sides to what I do. If I'm being frank, a lot of the photography, the action if you like, is a little bit repetitive. What often sets one film apart from another is its soundtrack. Ski films especially often strike a chord with me. Perhaps it's because there is more money in the making of ski films, hence producers and directors are able to spend more money on sourcing decent music. Perhaps it's just a simple matter of skiers having better taste in music.
Lately I've started jotting down tracks and artists (they are usually listed at the end of the film) with a view to trying to source them for my own collection. One song in particular hs haunted me ever since I heard it back in September last year. It was the first full track on a beautiful ski film called Hand Cut by Sweetgrass Productions. I met the filmmaker Nick Waggoner at the Banff Mountain Film Festival. He gave me a bunch of copies of the film and I watched it again and again, largely because of the track. It's called 'Empty' by Ray Lamontagne and blows me away every time I hear it. I did a little Googling this evening and have just bought the album Till The Sun Turns Black from Amazon for a knock down £6.78. I'm very excited. I'm even more excited to see that Ray is touring in the UK and even coming to Sheffield in September.
Time to track down a few more soundtracks...Most of the rest of Hand Cut was incredibly listenable to! The film won a special jury award at the Kendal Mountain Festival in November last year - largely because of its soundtrack I think. I can highly recomend it.