Website Prologue by author R. Sebastian Bennett

      James Hill creates a beautiful and compelling array of musical landscapes—fusing genres, styles, instruments, and rhythms into intensely evocative compositions.  He is a  brilliant musician and composer.  Although James is a master on the piano, as well as a recording genius who takes advantage of tremendous new strides in digital music, he is perhaps foremost a trumpet player, and much of his music is punctuated by stellar and often haunting trumpet interludes or overlays.
      I had the good fortune that James wrote an array of musical scores to accompany various chapters in my novel, THE FINAL YEN.  These compositions both augment and mirror narrative dynamics, including joy, pathos, humor, gravity, and lightheartedness, which are embedded in the text.  Listening to these scores engenders a new level of emotional depth and resonance in the book, leading to deeply satisfying visualizations and emotional heights. 
      James’ musical investigations are simultaneously emphatic, profound, and nuanced— connecting emotional and sensory musical modalities of expectation, curiosity, exploration, pensiveness, and elaboration.  These modes are often punctuated by multi-dimensional, rhythmic heartbeats; harmonic, upper-register interplay; and delicate or emphatic piano voicings, many of which culminate in beautiful transitions towards a recollective, restorative mood.  

      With endless ingenuity and skill, James is able to incorporate a vast array of styles and unique instruments, fusing genres and creating new ones, including string modulation, deeply satisfying chord progressions, and emphatic (or sometimes ominous) bass lines.  His compositions have significant breadth, at times to the point of near incarnation of different parts of the universe itself—assembling and merging towards a center and finality.

      James’ music is both a primary expression and a most-worthy adjunct to other artistic creations or endeavors. His combination of musical sensitivity, insight, and technical expertise leads to an incredible ability to generate and engage with a multitude of forms, for an intensive and truly memorable musical experience.        Sometimes James intermingles sound effects, such as whale calls, human laughter, or trinkling water sounds,  into his compositions for an even richer and more textured listening experience.  At other times, his harmonies alone lead to pulse-racing tremolos of sound, often repositioned into an investigative or incisive sensory finale.
      There are certain beautiful and pointed experiences in life on earth that should not be missed, and must be savored….  The music of James Hill is one of these experiences. 
R. Sebastian Bennett