Album Notes

ABOUT THE MUSIC Castaway Clocks is comparable to the music of John Williams, Alan Silvestri, Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer, Randy Newman, Enya, and Yanni. Some of the tracks even sound similar to music you would enjoy while watching a live show at the Walt Disney World resort, or the Cirque Du Soleil. The compositions themselves are Hollywood-like, meaning this is the kind of music you would expect to hear while watching a movie in the drama and/or suspense genres. ABOUT THE COMPOSER Gerardo Betancourt (also known as Gee and Geebee) was raised "a child of television and cinema." He was born on September 9, 1974 in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, to a middle class home. Throughout his childhood, and into his early teens, he spent most of his time in front of a television screen. Drama, mystery, and science-fiction became his favorite genres. He also became particularly interested in black-and-white films such as "Casablanca", "Citizen Kane", "To Have And Have Not", "The Roaring Twenties", and "Key Largo", which today remain among his favorites. Though at that time he was already a fan of names such as Bogart, Bacall, Cagney, and Edward Robinson, his passion for film and story telling would only become apparent later in college. In early 1990, he moved to Orlando, Florida to further his education. He graduated from Winter Park H.S. in 1992, and was accepted to the University of Central Florida that same summer. While in college, he developed an affinity, not just for film, but for music, writing and design. These elements remained an intricate part of his life, becoming key in his ability to show others his vision. Five years after his acceptance to UCF, he graduated with a B.A. in Film (Motion Picture Technology and Computer Animation). In 2004, he wrote a children's book called "The Castaway Clocks Of The Castle At Northwind," and composed a score for it ("Castaway Clocks") which he self-published on-line and in-stores the following year. In July of 2006, his first film, "That One Moment" (a semi-autobiographical monologue of a man recalling and explaining an answer given to a friend in regard to a question about life), was accepted to the Los Angeles International Shorts Festival (L.A. Shorts Fest), held at the ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood, where it premiered. This film became a large stepping stone for him, as not only did it make him a public figure in the world of filmmaking, it also gave him a chance to show the world what really drives him in life. In February of 2008, he completed his second film, "The Hollywood Informant" (a black-and-white film noir production that delves into murder, deceit, and corruption in prohibition-era Los Angeles), which was produced in collaboration with Habit Forming Films and A.P. Stack. He currently resides near Beverly Hills, but is known to truly live in the heart of Hollywood.