Composer Keith Kenniff has a knack for writing music that inspires. Keith Kenniff has many aliases. There's his electronic project, Helios. Mint Juliep is the band he and his wife formed -- that's a more drums with distorted guitars affair. Then there's Goldmund, where he plays delicate, sparse piano and adds subtle sound flourishes. None of these bands or monikers, however, hold a candle to the audiences Kenniff reaches in his other bands... or I should say brands. Facebook, Apple, Google, Starbucks, Coke, HBO, NBC, ABC, CBS. The list is MUCH longer. You've probably heard a piece that Kenniff has written on one of your various screens. If you've ever been sucked into a commercial with heart-warming visuals and a compelling story of someone beating the odds or baring their soul, there's a good chance that Keith Kenniff wrote the music. He seems to be the go-to guy for inspirational music. The 2015 Goldmund album Sometimes is full of subdued meditations. It has the calm sense of someone looking inward and, not necessarily being sad, but being okay with sadness. A great example is on the track "Getting Lighter." Kenniff recalls writing it on a whim, after working on another "rush job" piece of music for an advertisement. He had a little time to kill and, being a composer, decided to improvise on the piano. To hear (and see) more of Keith Kenniff's work, including that time Barack Obama used some of his music in the introduction video to his 2016 DNC speech, check out Keith's website: Unseen-Music.com.

Cellist Shannon Hayden installed the solar panels that power the recording studio that's housed in the farm that she built with her bare hands (with the help of her dad). Oh, and she also imitates the guitar sounds of noise-punk band Melt Banana with her cello... aaaaand she was once set on fire for being a better cellist than a boy. Yup. On her latest album, You See the World, Shannon channels her love of noise, traditional classical and textured drones into songs full of tension and release. Listen for yourself on the track "Accelerator." This episode of Music is Music is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Drivers in Los Angeles begin to feel their jaws tighten at the mere mention of traffic. One lifelong resident, however, used that hum of urban din to make music. Taking a cue from John Cage, composer and self-taught saxophonist Brian Allen Simon heard melody in everyday noise. He records under the name Anenon. His latest release is Petrol, which is where you'll find the song: Machines. From car horns to the underground parking garage at Walt Disney Concert Hall, this album takes you places (without ever having to step foot in a car). Your questions and comments are always welcome: @marcjsanchez

Most of us don't go around trying to imagine what sci-fi painter Moebius (aka Jean Giraud), a nudibranch (aka sea slug), and the film: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (aka the beginning of Hayao Miyazaki's feature animation dominance) might sound like as music. It's a good thing Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith isn't most of us. She decoded those visual references and uses them as the foundation for her newest album, EARS. The whole record lives in a bubble, dripping with enough dense greenery to make a vegetarian swoon. Each song is a tentacle, surviving both in the bubble and on its own. And on a throne at the center of the album, sits a Buchla synthesizer. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith had a chance encounter with the modular synth (pronounced BOO-kla) a few years ago that changed the way she thinks about and creates music. For her, the Buchla helped fill the void of a composer without musicians to play her music. The synthesizer is her orchestra. On this episode of Music is Music, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith talks about how she found the Buchla and how the ideas for EARS grew out of a fantastical world of color. Then, we'll get a glimpse into the bubble with the song, Rare Things Grow. Questions / comments / suggestions: @marcjsanchez

American composer Gabriel Kahane originally wrote The Fiction Issue for a 2012 Carnegie Hall commission. He reached out to his pals in the string quartet, Brooklyn Rider, and My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden to collaborate. All parties got back together to record The Fiction Issue in 2015, and it's the title track on the Kahane/Brooklyn Rider co-release. Worden and Kahane trade off singing duties on the six-parts that make up The Fiction Issue. What we know for sure is that coffee and donuts play a big role. The rest of the plot is a little ambiguous, but Kahane likes it that way. On this episode of Music is Music: find out why we should try rating music on the Goose Bump Scale. Oh, and you can also listen to the first two parts of The Fiction Issue.

To those who knew him, especially his piano students, Emilio del Rosario will always be Mr. D. He had a knack for helping budding, young pianists grow into confident, concert pianist. Case in point: 21-year-old Conrad Tao. Tao was introduced to Mr. D at age five and only studied with him until he was nine. But if you think about those specific years in a young person's life, that's when you learn your habits. That's where your convictions take root. That's when the encouragement of teachers can bring exponential confidence. And as Tao puts it, even though four years isn't that long, "when you're nine, that's basically half your life." In 2010, Tao was on a trajectory to becoming the world-renown composer and concert pianist he is today. That's also the year that Mr. D passed away. On this episode of Music is Music, Conrad Tao talks about his composition "A Walk (for Emilio)," a piece that imagines what it would be like to have a conversation with Mr. D if he were alive today.

Nate Kinsella records under the name Birthmark. On this installment of Music is Music, he takes us down the circuitous route that led him to his latest record, How You Look When You're Falling Down. Fun fact: all songs on this record were built around spur-of-the-moment drum beats (whoo-hoo!). This is his most upbeat batch of songs to date... and that's on purpose. Find out how moving to New York and dancing with abandon contributed to the sound and feel of the record. Then listen to "Sounds Can Be So Alarming" in all of it's, nearly, nine-minute glory.

Ozere is a group of musicians that Canadian violinist Jessica Deutsch put together back in 2012. It's also the culmination of Deutsch's world travels. And if you're wondering, the band's name (pronounced: oh-ZER-uh) is Yiddish for "lake," but that's a whole other story. Deutsch grew up playing classical violin. But even before her instrument ever came into the picture, she was blessed with perfect pitch -- her mother tells the story of toddler Jessica climbing up the family piano to always land on middle C. Deutsch began violin lessons at age 4 and continued until she was 17, when she went off to college in Vancouver. At that point, she decided that she needed a break. No more violin. No more music... until one evening. A local pub was hosting an ad-hoc group of musicians playing Celtic music. Deutsch stopped in and was immediately smitten with the freedom and joy she witnessed in the group's improvisational renditions of folk tunes. She wound up joining in a few nights later and many more followed. The violin was back in her life; although, it had turned into a fiddle. It was through these jam sessions that she learned about improvisation. And, as it turns out, having perfect pitch really helps when you want to jump in on a tune you've never heard before. From there, Deutsch set off to discover and devour new music from all over the world. She went straight to the source and traveled to countries where the music intrigued her. And it was easy to meet people as long as she had her violin in tow. When Deutsch landed back in Canada, that improvisational spirit and breadth of music from all over the world were key elements for the band she wanted to put together. Mandolin (Adrian Gross), upright bass (Bret Higgins) and cello (Lydia Munchinsky) all accompany Deutsch's violin in Ozere. Another key element, and one she hadn't planned on when looking for musicians, is voice. Turns out an old classmate of Deutsch (Emily Rockarts) was a perfect pairing. Being open to new ideas even like vocals led Deutsch to try out singing herself. So, she added vocal harmony to her bag of tricks. Ozere showcases Jessica Deutch's compositions -- a mix of written and improvised pieces. The band is equally at ease reading the notes she's written out as they are hopping in and making it up on the spot. Why not take a listen for yourself? This edition of Music is Music features the Ozere song "Anyplace." It's off the band's 2015 album: Finding Anyplace.

Take a close listen to Masayoshi Fujita's latest record, Apologues, and you might hear the rattle of plastic-beaded necklaces or the muted tones of a vibraphone smothered under a tea towel. Fujita has been toying with the prepared vibraphone since he moved to Berlin nearly a decade ago, and he has a good handle on how to bring out new and nuanced sounds. Although he's had a steady stream of collaborations with electronic improvisers like Jan Jelinek and a couple vibes-through-processor discs by "el fog," this is only the second release under Fujita's given name. In 2013, he gave us Stories, a mostly solo vibraphone effort with a couple tracks bulked up with cello and violin. On Apologues, cello and violin are back and joined by a bigger cast of characters. Accordion, flute, snare drums, horns, and clarinet all accompany the vibes. Calling these instruments "characters" isn't a stretch, when you find out that each song on this record comes with its own story. The instruments sometimes even served as inspiration for a scene. Case in point: "Swallow Flies High in the May Sky." Until recently Fujita had never heard the clarinet played in-person, and after an evening of clarinet-filled chamber music, he was so taken with the instrument that this piece emerged. Listen for yourself, and see what you think.

Roberto Lange grew up in South Florida, or as he calls it, "the capital of Latin America." It's a landing place for so many Spanish-speaking cultures -- think Columbia, Trinidad, Ecuador, and of course Cuba. Lange ingested the flavors of these cultures, then mixed them with the inescapable sounds of Miami bass music. The result is a project he calls Helado Negro. Until recently concocting Helado Negro songs was largely the job of Lange programing beats, playing keyboards and crooning (in English and Spanish). Occasionally he'd have a friend or two help out and give input and add an instrument or two, but it was mostly a solo affair. He recently decided to pull out all the stops and orchestrate a one-night-only Helado Negro performance as part of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra's Liquid Music series. 17 musicians gathered on stage to reinterpret Lange's compositions. Guest singers and acoustic instruments brought out new textures, some of which were remixed and reprocessed live, onstage. Lange called the event his "Island Universe Story (Cuentos del Universo Solitario). In this installment of Music is Music, Roberto Lange talks about the background and collaborations that went into making this special event. Check out the entire concert and an interview with Lange.