Together Apart, a new Australian song cycle: first look!

Nicholas Gentile and Lincoln Hall, a writing duo, are set to release the album for their song cycle Together Apart, and it’s bursting with talent.

Nick & Lincoln, as they’re collectively known, are both experienced performers. Nick’s passion lies with composition, conducting and musical directing, and Lincoln’s focus is on writing, filmmaking and directing – which means that a song cycle  they’re releasing with with music videos is the perfect intersection of their shared interests. They’re influenced, musically, by range of composers: Stephen Sondheim and Stephen Schwartz, James Horner and John Powell.

The duo have been writing together for about a year and a half now, and said “When we started writing it was all about discovering how our individual writing styles fused together. There was also a lot of trying completely different writing methods or musical styles to test the possibilities of the collaboration. Now we’ve found a unified writing voice.”

Together Apart, according to Nick & Lincoln, is made up of sixteen songs that look at “the connections we make in life, with family and friends, lovers and strangers. It includes a broad range of musical styles, from jazz to pop to music theatre ballad.”

“We found a common theme was developing through our songs – an interest in the various ways that humans connect,” Nick & Lincoln said.

“We wanted to share the songs we’ve been working on as one complete piece, and a song cycle felt like the best way to do that.”

The first step in getting the album together was recording three songs as film clips – the first, “Little Moments,” performed by AussieTheatre’s Erin James (Blood Brothers, South Pacific), is below.

The next two, released soon, will feature Ross Chisari (West Side Story, Man of La Mancha) and Bianca Baykara (In the Heights, West Side Story).

The album is currently being recorded in Sydney and Melbourne with over twenty singers and musicians. The next step, they hope, will be to present the song cycle live.

 

www.nickandlincoln.com