Roseland Featuring Azam Ali and Tyler Bates

Roseland is the union between virtuoso singer and songsmith Azam Ali (Niyaz, Vas) and accomplished film composer/producer Tyler Bates (300, Dawn of the Dead, Rob Zombie's Halloween). Juxtaposing ambient electronic textures with intoxicating vocal melodies and driving hypnotic rhythms, Roseland's music is the expression of a truly unique artistic collaboration. The two artists diverse backgrounds aided in creating this CD with it's lush atmospheric aural landscape comparable to watching a dark, insightful film in that it can stir many contradicting emotions like pain, bliss, sorrow, anger and surrender. While their music has been compared to Cocteau Twins, Siouxsie and the Banshees, meet Led Zeppelin, no likeness conveys the cinematic essence of Azam's haunting voice and evocative lyrics that reflect the sorrows of war, self-doubt, and the personal experiences and relationships which shape and mold our psyches. Tyler Bates: With more than forty film and television scores to his credit, Bates' inventive style has become the visceral cornerstone of projects including Zack Snyder's 300 and Dawn of the Dead and Rob Zombie's Devil's Rejects and his forthcoming fresh take on the horror classic, Halloween. Tyler spent his formative years in Chicago answering to his obsession with music. In 1993 fueled by an offer to produce his first film score, he returned to his native Los Angeles. While enjoying a steady flow of work on various movies, Tyler also began writing and producing music on the side with singer/songwriter Lisa Papineau which led to the creation of their project Pet. After creating a huge stir in Los Angeles, Tori Amos personally campaigned to get the band signed to a major-label recording deal with Atlantic Records. Even before the release of their album Pet had a platinum record to their credit for the song "Lil Boots," from The Crow: City Of Angels soundtrack album. After recording their album at Tori's hillside castle in rural Ireland, in 1996 Pet released it and began touring with bands such as Limp Bizkit, Helmet, Blink 182 and Luscious Jackson. But even with the success of Pet, Tyler could not ignore his passion and desire to write and record music on a daily basis so he decided to leave the group in late 1997 to focus solely on scoring movies. Now with a list of impressive credits and a very unorthodox distinctive approach to scoring films, Tyler is well on his way to becoming one of the most sought after composers in Hollywood. This fall Bates will begin work on Zack Snyder's much-anticipated film Watchmen and Neil Marshall's Doomsday. He is currently scoring Showtime's new dark comedy, Californication, which stars David Duchovny, and Liquid Entertainment's 2008 release of Rise of the Argonauts for the major video-gaming systems. Azam Ali: Born in Iran and a student in India from age four, Azam moved to LA in 1985 as a teenager. World-renowned for her voice that Billboard magazine describes as "a glorious, unforgettable instrument," Azam has released eight critically acclaimed collaborative and solo albums over the past decade and confirmed her place as being one of the most prolific, versatile, and gifted singers on the world music stage today. In 1996 Azam co-founded the "alternative world" music group Vas with percussionist Greg Ellis. From 1997-2004 Vas released four best-selling albums on the Narada music label. In 2002 Azam released her debut solo album "Portals of Grace" which earned her much critical acclaim throughout the world. Her latest project Niyaz the "world-electronica" group she co-founded in 2004 with Loga-Ramin Torkian and two-time Grammy nominee producer/re-mixer Carmen Rizzo has been hailed by critics worldwide as being one of the most groundbreaking of it's time. The album debuted at #1 on itunes World Music Chart and remained there for numerous weeks, and charted on Billboard's World music chart for four consecutive weeks, peaking at #12. Since the release of their debut album Niyaz have also become international touring artists earning them worldwide recognition. Azam's immense talent and ability to adapt her voice to any musical style have drawn the attention of many diverse artists and film composers. She has collaborated in studio and on stage with numerous artists like Serj Tankian of System of a Down, The Crystal Method, Pat Mastellato and Trey Gunn of King Crimson, Dredg, Chris Vrenna formerly of Nine Inch Nails, Ben Watkins of Juno Reactor, Buckethead, Steve Stevens, Mercan Dede, the world renowned Japanese group Kodo, Zakir Hussain, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, and Mickey Hart. Azam's distinctive voice can also be heard on myriad film and television scores including Matrix Revolutions, Godsend, Paparazzi, The Nativity Story, 300, Children of Dune, Earthsea, Dawn of the Dead, Alias, The Agency and Prison Break. Azam Ali and Tyler Bates met in 2000 when Azam performed on his score for the film Night at the Golden Eagle. There was an immediate synergy between the two which sparked an inspiration to begin writing and recording music together. The culmination of this visceral call they both felt is Roseland.