Oblivion - 2007

Oblivion was the direct follow up to Oscuro, and was composed & arranged from May to August, - completed for the FILM4 FrightFest at the end of August 2007.

With a further thirteen thematic compositions to tie in with the festival, - the pieces were initially more ambitious than the CD from the previous year, although things didn't necessarily work out in quite the way I had expected.

Oscuro was my first attempt at putting this kind of material together, - and it went down pretty well, so I thought I'd go all out on the weirder aspects of the material for the second CD.

I had been making notes and scribbling down ideas about possible pieces for the CD for about a month before writing and production took place, - and at the time, I was reading Vincent Bugliosi's book, Helter Skelter - which is about the events surrounding Charles Manson.

The first piece on the album was a very dark and paranoid tune. Harpsichords, pianos and bizarre strangeness, all of which was supposed to suggest somebody's descent into madness, - or possibly the protagonist's twisted enjoyment of the journey into psychosis, - which was the overall subject for the whole CD.

At some stage during the proceedings, the whole thing needed a bit of a charge to cut through the weirdness, so (probably because of the period and story of Helter Skelter) a piece came together called Bad Acid, which was basically an all-out 60's / 70's groove, with a big, fat, dirty bass-line, and some insane Goblin-esque keyboard solos to fire things up.

The concluding piece on the CD is called 'Pale Broken Cables', which features an operatic vocal performance by a friend of mine, Emma Brown - who has a beautifully emotive & rich cadence to her voice, and also a tangible vulnerability.

Emma features throughout the CD in various guises, as a miaowing cat, giggles, moans and groans etc, however her vocal on this piece was genuinely fantastic.

Typically, the tracks that took the shortest time to write were the ones that seemed to work best.

'Pale Broken Cables' netted a feature film, - and another piece - 'Fire In Zero Gravity' featured on two documentaries, which wasn't so bad after all.

As well as that, it did well on the internet, which was a surprise to me, considering the overall tone of the CD.

Recording and sequencing.

E-Magic Logic version 6 had since changed into Apple Logic Pro 7, and there were plenty of new features to confuse, annoy and bewilder - but also some pretty cool ones too.

Most of the earlier pieces had been written using pianos and keyboards, and then additional layers of samples and external sounds were included later on.

The later pieces were a lot more experimental, and were my first experiences using loops. Before that - I'd been completely against the idea of using a loop to create a track, which is ridiculous, because there's so much amazing and incredible stuff you can do with them.

All of the sample and loop libraries used on Oblivion were created by the amazing sound synthesist, Ian Boddy. I'd be totally lost without his libraries.

Oscuro - 2006

Story!

Oscuro was composed & arranged from May to July, - completed in August 2006.

It comprises of thirteen original instrumental pieces, soundscapes and dark ambient scenarios, tied together by a conceptual story of a little girl stranded in a weird dimensional netherworld of frightening magic, and bizarre situations.

This was the first album I had arranged and recorded by myself, because up until that point, I'd only ever worked in a band environment, or as a third party on other artists' work - although I had been writing similar material for a while.

The first completed piece on the album was Pays Des Miseres, - a 45 second piano intro which was actually written as the original demo tune, and I think sets the tone for the rest of the album, - as dark forces conspire and collude to manipulate our unwitting little protagonist into treacherous circumstances, and an uncertain future.

This album is really only half of the whole story, because there were stacks of things I had planned - but didn't get to do with some of the characters and settings, essentially because I ran out of time, and the pieces had to be finished by late August of 2006.

Recording!

Oscuro is quite a mixed bag, - weird sounds, watery guitars, electric pianos, field recordings etc, - all put together on Logic (version 6 at that time)

There is a lot of sequencing in there too, - which was mainly done in (Emagic) Logic Pro 6, however some of the parts were originally put together on a little handheld Yamaha QY 70.

I think one piece might also have Propellerhead Reason (version 3) rewired through Logic for some of the sounds.

Sequencing!

The first time I ever heard about sequencing was during some guitar sessions I did for a Sony PlayStation game, called Formula One.

In fact it probably put me off the subject for years, because at some point during the recording sessions, the engineer / producer Mike, suddenly declared 'we don't record anymore . . . we sequence!' - which I found very difficult to accept.

Years later - I began to understand the massive potential of sequencers, and bought the little QY 70, which was the perfect thing to learn about some of the basic applications.

These days, I can't get enough of it.

A full version of Oscuro with the missing pieces completed and restored is coming in 2010.

The Doha Tribeca Film Festival: Part 2

So the Doha Tribeca Festival 2009 is now finished.

By all accounts, it was an incredible weekend - and if the thousands upon thousands of beautiful photographs, and hundreds of pages of awesome reviews, news & information are anything to go by - something very special happened in Qatar this year.

In the last blog, I mentioned a collaboration with Jamie Riordan on the Zoetrope trailer for the festival.

This piece was broadcast across the globe, in just about every possible media, - and I must admit I would love to be able to find out how many different parts of the world it has played, and to whom - but unfortunately, that's something I'll really never know.

The audio design went through various incarnations before the final sounds were laid in, and originally the ideas for the music score were vastly different. However I think the finished trailer is absolutely appropriate in terms of getting across the energy and vibe of the festival.

I also think Jamie did a great job of directing, and the piece really speaks for itself.

Working on this really reminded me that the powerful chemistry and energy created by image and sound really can represent the language of the world.

So here's the longer version of the Zoetrope trailer for the Doha Tribeca Film Festival.

Until next time - over and out!

The Doha Tribeca Film Festival

For the past few weeks, I’ve been doing some work for the people over at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival, which takes place from October 29^th – November 1^st in Qatar

New York's Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) co-founded by Robert De Niro - joined forces with the the Qatar Museums Authority to announce the worlds first Doha Tribeca Film Festival which will take place this month in Doha, Qatar.

My friend Ben Robinson is currently in Qatar working with the organizers, and putting together various incredible media for the festival - and every now and then he gets in touch with a new piece of work.

This is fantastic for me, because I get the chance to work with him even if we are on different sides of the planet, and also because it’s a real honor to make a contribution to all the hard work Ben and company are doing for such an immense festival.

The first piece makes a little bit of history as the first short horror film ever from that particular region, and lasts just 60 seconds – but it’s a blast.

Directed by Noora Al Meadadi, It’s called Lunchtime, and you can see it here:

My contributions to Lunchtime are the beast / monster sound effects, some additional foley, and the overall music, but as you can see – the team out in Qatar have done a fantastic job.

Last week, I was working closely with Jamie Riordan on two official Doha Tribeca festival trailers, which will be screened on the TCM channel for the next couple of weeks, and on 35m across major cinemas throughout the Gulf.

This time around, my role was to put together an intense sound design and music score for the pieces, which combine live action, complex animation and intense photography, to produce some super-charged results.

More details about those next time, because official screenings take place some time over the coming week.

Have a great weekend!

Over and out.

Goodbye to FILM4 FrightFest 2009!!

So . . . September is here at last, which can only mean that this year's FILM4 FrightFest is unfortunately now behind us - but it's definitely not going to be a dim & distant memory for some time yet!

Stacks days of amazing movies, and rare guest appearances from a variety of awesome directors, producers, actors etc, - and some truly special movie screenings once again made Leicester Square shiver with anticipation, fear & fright throughout five days across the August bank holiday weekend.

Without doubt, my favorite moment of all was the chance to see An American Werewolf In London - in Leicester Square - with none other than John Landis himself in attendance, on a massive screen in the Empire Cinema.

The print was perfect, and the sound was LOUD!

There was also a screening of Paul Davis' immense documentary, Beware The Moon - which is incredible & essential viewing if you're a fan of An American Werewolf In London, and features some of the best and rarest interviews, out-takes, unseen footage & an unbelievably detailed study of the genesis of the film from concept to modern classic.

I can't wait to see it again!!

This year's FrightFest score went out nicely, and could be heard playing between the movies each day in the theatre. Despite some last minute duplication issues on the sleeves, the run of CD's sold pretty quickly. Since then however - a new run of hard copies has been put together, and is available for sale, - and it will also be available on iTunes, Play.com, Amazon etc for download within the next 3 or 4 weeks.

The previous FrightFest scores from 2006, 2007 and 2008 (see pic below) will also be available sometime in the next month on iTunes etc, either as full album downloads, or individual tracks, but there are still (very few) original copies of each available at the time of writing.

There probably won't be any further runs of those particular albums in the very near future, so if anybody is interested in acquiring one of the remaining CDs, then drop me a line on Dave@Two13.com

Music for the London FILM4 FrightFest 2009 - some of the pieces

Is there anybody out there?

Hello folks, and thanks for the emails & messages regarding the playlist of tunes this time around.

For interested parties, I've put together a few sections of the pieces for your perusal and perlustration - which are located in the little MP3 player right here:

Kicking things off this year is the full version of the FrightFest Podcast theme (without chattery teeth FX) - a piece which some of you should be familiar with if you follow regular inter-web transmissions from FF headquarters, - but there's also a pretty eclectic range of stuff from the weird & bizarre (Don't Wake Up & Beneath The Keep) to keys vs 6-string duals (Casting The Runes)

Something I wasn't aware of until recently was the existence of mythological bird / bat like creatures called 'gappes' in the labyrinthine maze of the London underground, and I had to consult the books for some verification of the details.

Taken from the London Underground Guide: Approaching trains sometimes disturb the large Gappe bats that roost in the tunnels. The Gappes were smuggled into London in the early 19th century by French saboteurs and have proved impossible to exterminate. The announcement "Mind the Gappe!" is a signal that you should grab your hair and look towards the ceiling. Very few people have ever been killed by Gappes though, and they are considered only a minor drawback to an otherwise excellent means of transportation."

So - forewarned is forearmed. Most people will be traveling to FrightFest X via the tube at some point, so I thought I'd pay some respect to these creatures, and feature them in one of the pieces.

There are a couple of other underground legends on the playlist, but I'll save those for next time.

Until the next blog, take care, stay safe & mind the gappe!!

Music for the London FILM4 FrightFest 2009

Is there anybody out there?

It's that time of year again, and the 10th anniversary of the London FILM4 FrightFest is almost upon us.

From Thursday 27th - Monday 31st August 2009 - the premiere festival of fright will be at it's new home in the Empire Cinema, Leicester Square - and with over 40 movie screenings, amazing guest appearances from John Landis, cast & crew of An American Werewolf In London, Neil Marshall, Chris Smith, David Hess - and many more, there's sure to be something for every discerning horror aficionado.

For the fourth year running I'll be composing a playlist of new material which will be aired in the theater between the movies throughout five grueling days of fear, fright, mayhem, putrefaction and petrification!

There's lots of musical experimental shenanigans going on so far, and I thought I'd dig a little bit further down to the roots this time.

The pace is up a little more than usual, and there are more stringed instruments, more greasy organs, thicker bass-lines, more layers of moogs and synthesizers, buckets of sequencing, - but still plenty of spook and atmosphere to keep things eerie, dark and contextual, - with the occasional voiceover here and there, and a hint of 60s vinyl too!

The 4 pieces completed at the time of writing are pretty diverse, with another 9 to go between now & the end of August, and the tracks will range from strange, cryptic, dark and moody, to all out retro rock fusion, and will hopefully reflect the good vibes and energy of the FrightFest.

The intro track is quite thematic. I wanted to start the CD with a live dynamic this time around, so it was time to break out a variety of guitars - and make a very conscious effort to strike the right balance between electric and acoustic to really give it a fuller and more authentic 70s movie edge. Of course, a piece like that wouldn't be complete without a manic solo trade-off between strings and keys to grease the tracks, and keep things rocking and rolling along.

I definitely wanted less synthesis and more authentic natural sounds on this collection, so I've been investing some quality time up front into recording a miscellany of stuff I found in the attic with a Rode NT-4 stereo mic and a couple of little Behringer C-2 condensers - and then twisting torturing & squeezing the results into weird sounds.

There's nothing more satisfying than hitting inanimate objects with something, recording the results and bingo! An interesting new sound is born.
So far I've recorded old broken instruments, fire, kitchen utensils, weather, cats etc etc - and I'm sure there'll be plenty more before it's finished.

So, if anybody's listening - the candles are burning, the valves are smoking and the speakers might catch fire at any time. 

Catch you next week for further info!

Boring gear list:

Mics: Rode NT-4 stereo / Behringer C-2 (pair)

Guitars & Amplification: Dean acoustic / Gibson Les Paul Standard / Bailey Electric / Engl Powerball / Laney Cabs

Pedals: Engl Z-5 / Boss Acoustic Simulator / Boss TU-2 tuner / Dunlop CFH Dime wah

Alesis stuff: MEQ 230 / 3630 Compressor
Behringer outboard: UltraFex Pro / V-amp Pro
M-Audio stuff: Black Box / Trigger Finger / FW 410 / Edirol PCR midi trigger
Apple Stuff: 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon / Mac Powerbook
Recording: Logic Studio / Audio Hijack Pro / Olympus LS 10