George Wallace: Portrait of a Creative Spirit
A New Way of
Experiencing Music
Merging the boundaries of ambient, tribal & organic electronic, George Wallace delivers a fusion of deep trance percussion, primitive atmospheres, and dream-soaked electronics into soundworlds of timeless tribal magic.
The body of his work explores the more melodic side of what has been called Ambient music - although the term 'ambient' itself is a kind of misnomer. While much of it is improvised, there is still an innate structure, and while not exactly 'jazz' (the fairly recent term 'Fourth-World' may apply) it's definitely not 'pop' music – the pieces are longform (averaging 8-10 minutes or so) instrumentals, but at times borrow from a more ‘songlike’ compositional style.
More than providing a musical backdrop to some ‘event’, George tends to make music which is the event itself. His soundstages often take on expansive and cinematic proportions. Over the years his iconoclastic approach to composing and recording has intrigued and inspired audiences, professional colleagues, and engineers alike.
George Wallace essentially places himself in a class all his own by creating refreshing, never-before-imagined combinations of musical genres and soundscapes.
An accomplished composer, performer, producer, and recording artist, Lancaster PA-based George Wallace is a master creator of visionary music and ambient soundworlds which speak of enlightenment and positivity to a planet which can really use it.
George grew up in Philadelphia in the ‘50s and ‘60s. He has been writing music of one kind or another ever since the age of seven. At age eight he began classical piano training, music theory and harmony – a pursuit which he abandoned after four years. By then the British Invasion, the Motown phenomenon, and the emergence of Brian Wilson (the genius behind the Beach Boys’ legacy) had captured his fancy and provided much early inspiration for his budding gift.
After majoring in composition and arranging at the renowned Berklee College of Music in Boston, Wallace put his versatility and prolific output on full display for what has become decades. His illustrious career includes a staff-writer position with Screen Gems, two albums released on CBS/Epic Records, the production of several planetarium soundtracks, a critically acclaimed three-record set of exercise music for children, a long history of live performance, airplay on numerous nationally-syndicated radio programs, and production of an ever-growing catalog of self-released full-length albums.
Spanning multiple genres, his creative output ranges from adult-contemporary message-based songs (with tinges of psychedelia, jazz and folk) to music composed for film, to soaring, progressive rock, and on into the world of magical, ambient soundscapes. The ambient pieces are generally synthesizer and guitar-driven instrumentals, often taking on expansive and cinematic proportions.
In places the music is calming - even hypnotic; at other times we are spellbound by powerful ensembles of tribal drums and voices, simultaneously borrowing from the celestial future and the primal past. Indeed, George’s creative world is a world of wild, dream-soaked sound, sometimes tender, always intense, of-and-for the spirit: quite literally soul music, offered as a bona-fide auditory happening, a wide-screen experience of exotic places and times well beyond this one.
Most recent to come off the production line is ‘Becoming’, a collection of new songs and cover versions of two beloved ‘60s classics. Wallace considers it a ‘sister album’ to his ‘Believing Mirrors’ from a few years back, as they both are comprised of songs from his personal Bucket List - a collection of covers and favorite songs from across several decades that never got the proper recording they deserved – if they’d been recorded at all.
Ever the restless Creative Spirit, he is soon to reset his focus again toward his ‘ambient side’ – where yet another project waits to be brought to life in the magical studio he has christened ‘AirBorn’. Plans are for a release by early summer 2023.
Especially in the ambient genre (for which he is best known), the irrepressible George Wallace has carved out a 'je ne sais quoi' all his own. In so doing, he’s discovered appreciative, admiring audiences from around the world who have been paying attention for a very long time.
