Andrew Powell
@ The Avenue Online.info
Andrew Powell was born April 18, 1949 in London, England.
Andrew began his musical journey at the age of four when he began taking piano lessons. Later he would learn orchestral percussion, as well as the viola and violin. At the age of 11 he was writing scores for school produced films, which Andrew describes as, "15 minute shorts produced by the film society".
Following a period in Germany where he studied with composer Stockhausen, Powell returned to England to take a music degree at Cambridge. While there, he joined an electronic band called Intermodulation, who were pioneering the use of synthesisers. "That band was really kind of 'a live electronic'. The kind of things that people had spent years in the studio recording onto tape in the laborious ways that you had to do it in those days. We worked with people like Stockhausen and John Cage, and other composers."
Andrew’s early work with rock albums was on Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel's 1973 debut album. "I had worked on their first album and when it came around to their second album they wanted to produce it themselves. The record company said, 'we want to put you together with one of our engineers'. Alan was a very experienced engineer at this stage. When it came to orchestration, Alan said 'I've got a guy', and Steve said 'no, use the same guy as last time'". So, as fate would have it, "The Psychomodo" would be the first album Powell and Parsons would work on together, but certainly not the last.
The two obviously enjoyed working together and have worked jointly on albums for John Miles, Pilot, The Hollies, and Al Stewart.
Over the years, Powell has played many roles: performer, writer, arranger, and producer. Among his production credits are Kate Bush's first two albums, and the "Power" album by Kansas.
When Alan Parsons decided to begin the historic "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" album, Andrew would be called upon to play an important role. Andrew said, "At it's very early stages I was approached about this idea for this mammoth full-sized orchestra and choir. Straight away it was right outside of their writing field of expertise." Andrew's involvement shines through, especially on "The Fall of the House of Usher", a track which could never sound the same without him. On "I Robot" he would return to write "Total Eclipse", the only APP track not written by Parsons and Woolfson.
Powell would appear on every album, with the exception of one, "Vulture Culture". He also released an album featuring his orchestral interpretations of APP tunes on his 1983 "Andrew Powell and The Philharmonia Orchestra Plays The Best of The Alan Parsons Project".
In 1985, movie-goers attending the mystical "Ladyhawke" were to hear the equally magical soundtrack. The soundtrack was written by Powell, produced by Alan Parsons, and was performed by an APP alumni: Ian Bairnson, David Paton, Stuart Elliott, and Richard Cottle.
In 1994, Andrew joined Alan Parsons on Alan’s first post-Project album. In addition to arranging and performing on "Try Anything Once", he also wrote four of the songs. Powell also toured with The Alan Parsons Live Project.
More recently, Powell did arrangements for Elaine Paige and The Hollies.
For more about Andrew Powell, see Issue Two of The Avenue. =>>>>>>>>>>>
@ Wiki
Andrew Powell - musical composer, arranger and performer - was born April 18, 1949 in London, England of Welsh parents.
He began taking piano lessons at the age of four and later attended Kings College School, Wimbledon by which time he was also learning the viola, violin and orchestral percussion. He was writing music by the age of eleven and went on to studied composition with Karlheinz Stockhausen at Darmstadt in Germany before taking a masters degree in music at Kings College, Cambridge. While at Cambridge he joined an electronic music group, Intermodulation, with Roger Smalley, Tim Souster and Robin Thompson. He also joined, along with Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson, the progressive rock group Henry Cow.
After leaving Cambridge he performed as a soloist at the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, London. He later worked with several orchestras, including at Covent Garden and with the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Welsh Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra where he worked with Pierre Boulez. He had also begun working as a session player, as well as founding the group "Come to the Edge" with Robin Thompson and Morris Pert, which performed regularly with the Japanese percussion virtuoso Stomu Yamashta.
Andrew's career as an arranger began at this time and he worked with artists including Leo Sayer, John Miles, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, Donovan and Al Stewart.
He was involved with The Alan Parsons Project on several albums as arranger and composer, and followed Alan Parsons when the group broke up. He also made an orchestral album from The Alan Parsons Project's songs : The Philharmonia Orchestra Plays The Best of The Alan Parsons Project in 1983.
Powell and David Gilmour (of Pink Floyd) produced Kate Bush's stunning, memorable debut album The Kick Inside; he also produced with help from Kate her second album Lionheart.
Other artists he has worked with include Chris De Burgh, Nick Heyward, Michael Crawford, Elaine Paige, The Hollies and Kansas.
He wrote the soundtrack for the movies Ladyhawke and Rocket Gibralter and has been involved in a number of other movie projects as well.
He has conducted orchestras and ensembles all over the world, including the Philharmonia Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony, the Wellington Symphony Orchestra, the Bayerische Rundfunk Orchestra and the München Kammeroper - as well as the the Black Dyke Mills Band and Grimethorpe Colliery Band.
More recent work has included writing for brass bands including the Grimethorpe Colliery Band and the Parc & Dare Band; and the perhaps less accessible album "Stockhausen: Michael's Farewell, etc" with John Wallace. =>>>>>>>>>>>
Andrew Powell and Roland Fantom X6 - Ladyhawke Main Title
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