Steps Ahead

Steps Ahead (originally known as Steps) is a jazz fusion group and the brainchild of vibraphonist Mike Mainieri. According to the liner notes of the group's 1983 debut album (for worldwide release), entitled Steps Ahead, "Steps began as a part-time venture in 1979 at Seventh Avenue South, a New York City nightclub." The group began releasing recordings in Japan as far back as 1980.

The first line-up of Steps in the period 1979-1981, as can be read on the live album Smokin' in the Pit, consisted of Michael Brecker (tenor sax), Steve Gadd (drums), Eddie Gómez (bass), Don Grolnick (piano), Mike Mainieri (vibraphone), and special guest Kazumi Watanabe (guitar). This double live album was recorded on 15 and 16 December 1979 at The Pit Inn Tokyo. A second studio recording was made on 17 December 1979, called Step by Step. Smokin' in the Pit was released in 1980 and awarded a gold record. The studio album Step by Step was released shortly after, followed in the summer of 1980 by another live recording called Paradox. These three albums (see Mike Mainieri's notes in the booklet of the 1999 cd release of Smokin' in the Pit) were the only albums released by the group under the name of Steps. In 1982 they learned that the name Steps had been trademarked by a band in North Carolina, and therefore changed their name to Steps Ahead.

From Hell

From Hell is a graphic novel by writer Alan Moore and artist Eddie Campbell, originally published in serial form from 1989 to 1996 and collected in 1999, speculating upon the identity and motives of Jack the Ripper. The title is taken from the first words of the "From Hell" letter, which some authorities believe was an authentic message sent from the killer in 1888. The collected edition is 572 pages long. The 2000 and later editions are the most common prints. The comic was loosely adapted into a film of the same title, released in 2001.

About the book

From Hell was originally serialized as one of several features in Taboo, an anthology comic book published by Steve Bissette's Spiderbaby Grafix. After running in Taboo #2–7 (1989–1992), Moore and Campbell moved the project to its own series, published first by Tundra Publishing, then by Kitchen Sink Press. The series was published in ten volumes between 1991 and 1996, and an appendix, From Hell: The Dance of the Gull-catchers, was published in 1998. The entire series was collected in a trade paperback and published by Eddie Campbell Comics in 1999; trade paperback and hardcover versions are now published by Top Shelf Productions in the USA and Knockabout Comics in the UK.

Two Steps from Hell

Two Steps from Hell is an American production music company based in Los Angeles, California, founded by Thomas J. Bergersen and Nick Phoenix in 2006. The company focuses predominantly on movie and trailer music, and has supplied tracks to films such as Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, and X-Men.

History

Two Steps from Hell was founded in 2006 when Thomas Bergersen and Nick Phoenix joined forces to write original music for movie trailers. Bergersen moved from Trondheim, Norway to the United States in 2003, along with Phoenix, who began composing in 1997, before moving to Los Angeles. The two formed the company in early 2006, and have composed music for over 1,000 major motion picture trailers.

Founding and initial success (2006-10)

Two Steps from Hell mainly produces trailer music, although recently it has also been used for television shows and selected video games.

Despite the company finding success for its music, the tracks were never officially released to the public until the May 2010 release of the commercial album Invincible. In addition to approaching Gold record status, Invincible became the first of several such albums to chart in the iTunes Top 100 Soundtracks. As of July 2014, Two Steps from Hell has published 8 public albums in addition to 20 demonstration albums, with almost 1,000 unique tracks in total.

Music

Music is an art form and cultural activity whose medium is sound and silence. The common elements of music are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics (loudness and softness), and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture (which are sometimes termed the "color" of a musical sound). Different styles or types of music may emphasize, de-emphasize or omit some of these elements. Music is performed with a vast range of instruments and with vocal techniques ranging from singing to rapping, and there are solely instrumental pieces, solely vocal pieces and pieces that combine singing and instruments. The word derives from Greek μουσική (mousike; "art of the Muses"). In its most general form, the activities describing music as an art form include the production of works of music (songs, tunes, symphonies, and so on), the criticism of music, the study of the history of music, and the aesthetic examination of music. Ancient Greek and Indian philosophers defined music as tones ordered horizontally as melodies and vertically as harmonies. Common sayings such as "the harmony of the spheres" and "it is music to my ears" point to the notion that music is often ordered and pleasant to listen to. However, 20th-century composer John Cage thought that any sound can be music, saying, for example, "There is no noise, only sound."

Peter-Paul Pigmans

Peter-Paul Pigmans (January 31, 1961 – August 27, 2003) was a Dutch gabber music producer, best known for his production under the pseudonym 3 Steps Ahead.

Born in Berkel and based out of Rotterdam, Pigmans' music is widely considered one of the most innovative specimens of the gabber genre; while many gabber producers favor raw force and little virtuosity when creating a song, Pigmans' music always had a strong technical side, and his songs often featured atmospherical elements, an unusual thing in the genre at the time. He was also known for his extremely wild live shows.

Pigmans was diagnosed with brain cancer in 1999. On July 18, 2003 in Zaandam at the Hemkade stadium, fellow Dutch producers organized a fundraising event for him where the cream of the Dutch gabber scene performed (for free - all income was spent on his treatment in hope of curing him) and paid respect to him. A couple of weeks later, he died. Two months later the annual Thunderdome started with a one-minute silence in his memory.