Sam Godin is a composer, sound designer, keyboard player and producer living in New York City. His original music can be heard frequently in the pop culture landscape and beyond: from film and television soundtracks (Artisan, Mirimax, NBC, HBO, PBS, Nickelodeon) to album releases and remixes (Polygram, Six Degrees, Triloka, Schanachie, Putumayo) to some of the most familiar national television advertising campaigns (Pepsi, Proctor and Gamble, Gateway). Over the past five years he has worked as a composer for some of New York and LA's top production companies (tomandandy, RK music, Dogmatic, Convergence) and ad agencies (DDB, Saatchi, D'Arcy, Bates). When working for television, film, and multimedia, his ability to craft music and sound design simultaneously can add greatly to the overall musicality of the score and also be a benefit to the producer with evolving needs.
As a keyboardist, he has toured the world performing and recording with a variety of musicians in many different styles. Through the early and mid 90s he played in over 1200 concerts with the Tribulations and John Brown's Body and had the opportunity to share stages with many top performers including Lauryn Hill, Carlos Santana, George Clinton, Dave Matthews Band, MosDef, Bela Fleck, Jimmy Cliff, Ziggy Marley, and Greorgy Isaacs. In Los Angeles, the Tribulations battled to become the first-place winners of "Soundcheck" a prime-time television special on NBC which pitted the band against over 5000 other U.S. entries (he was also awarded "Best Keyboardist" for the competition). From 1998-2000, Sam had the honor of performing with Mother Mallard, the world's first all-synthesizer ensemble. Led by David Borden, the group started in the 60s and influenced countless other musicians including Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk and ELP's Keith Emerson who also joined the group as a guest performer. Since 2002, Sam has been playing keyboards, electronics and laptops with Karsh Kale and Realize Live, a group which the New York Times described as "Indian on the top, Western on the bottom, and thoroughly tangled in between." He wrote material and recorded for the album Liberation (2003, Six Degrees) which was produced by the legendary Bill Laswell and went to #1 on CMJ's college radio electronic charts in the United States. Following the album's success, the group was invited to play in many top venues worldwide, including the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles with Paul Oakenfold to a crowd of over 16,000.
Other recent projects include commissioned remixes for Vas (Putumayo Records, 2004), Ryukyu Underground (Respect Records, 2004), Tanty Records (UK), and Krishna Das's "Breath of Heart" (Polygram/Triloka 2003) produced by Rick Rubin. Sam's remix for "Baba Hanuman" (as "Dubfarm") appears on the excellent "Earth n' Bass" compilation which also features tracks by Manu Chao, Peter Kruder and Babel GIlberto. A full-legth album of remixes and collaborations is in the works. Sam Godin graduated from Cornell University in 1997 with a B.A. in Theatrical Arts.
