I’m convinced each and every day that Oasis clients do the best work in our industry. Of course I’m tickled pink when Oasis clients get signed to major labels or have their music featured on network TV
Ingrid Michaelson • Keep Breathing • Grey’s Anatomy
but as often as not we’re working in what’s called “the long tail”–in genres, niches that the mainstream may not even have considered. That is often where you’ll find the Oasis family creating great stuff and thriving.
In that spirit, I want to briefly shine a spotlight on a unique Oasis client and the work it does, which just blows me away.
Screen Archives Entertainment (SAE) is one of the largest distributors of soundtracks and movie music in the world. Just as fascinating, SAE produces exhaustively restored film music recordings under its own label, working with major studios, composer estates, and universities to preserve music that would otherwise be lost to deteriorating celluloid.
The seed of the company sprouted when entrepreneur Craig Spaulding opened a retail store with a sideline in eclectic music LPs. Spaulding cultivated soundtrack contacts across the globe and soon became known throughout the U.S. as the place to go for obscure and rare scores.
He sold the store, but kept SAE as a conduit for preserving rare recordings, focusing on pre-1960 Golden Age films with cherished soundtracks. Universities and studios soon came calling for Spaulding expertise in creating restorations that captured the excitement of each project — from the inclusion of the composer’s own personal notes to the finest mastering of the music, to the effective marketing of the final product.
Today SAE has contracts with composers, their estates or heirs, and major record labels to for these lovingly produced soundtracks for collectors, released in limited quantities.
The lure of these recordings is intriguing. Even if you’re not formally a student or collector of this work, it is transformative to hear these soundtracks as you go about your formerly mundane daily life. Nothing, for example, makes a morning commute more triumphal than hearing one of these classic soundtracks surround you on your ride. Just don’t be tempted to jump the gap if you see a drawbridge is going up–no matter how the music swells, I still suspect that only works in the movies, folks.
