I have recently completed the sound design for this short video demonstrating the new augmented reality t-shirt app Zapparel. Zapparel makes clothing “come to life” when they are scanned using a smartphone.
The talented chaps at Yuva created this superb piece of motion design showing the “explosion of possibilities” when the app is used.
The sound design reinforces this feeling of explosive energy, featuring several layers of compressed hydraulic engine sounds underpinned with some weighty synth textures to give the impression of something huge bursting through.
This year’s Enchanted Forest show “Transitions” proved to be another huge success designed by lighting designer Simon Wilkonson and myself. The new location at the Explorer’s Garden offered several different paths and routes for the audience to explore and this inspired Simon and I to create a show with a similar sense of discovery.
The main event in the show was a 10 minute piece of music accompanied by a beautiful and vast lighting display in the valley. “The Valley” comprised of several contrapuntal pieces that could be heard individually or as a whole at the finale of the show. Depending on where you stood in the Valley you would experience a different combination of music and soundscape.
Portal
During the composition and creation of the music for Transitions I was assisted by Joshua Payne who worked on some of the sampled sounds as well as playing keyboards on the Valley piece and preparing sheet music parts for the musicians. I had mentioned to Joshua that it was my intention to use sampled singing bowls to create an ethereal feeling in the Portal section and he told me he had recently purchased one so he set about sampling various sounds from it. Some of these sounds were used, along with bells and chimes for the final piece I composed for Portal.
Zoetrope
The Zoetrope was a circular hedge row that acted as the entrance to the site. The hedge row was brought to life by a series of projected arrows rotating in a clockwise direction. I wanted to try to create a similar cyclical notion with the music. In keeping with having no fixed direction for the audience to move around the site I thought it would be interesting to mirror this with a piece that sounded “never ending”. Zoetrope travels through all 12 keys, continually inverting chords and changing harmonic structure giving it an unpredictable quality.
The sound systems were provided by DM Audio specified by the wonderful Marcin Buzcek – a man who is miraculously able to transfer my crazy ideas into actual physics. We spent some time on site adjusting positions and angles of the various d&b loudspeakers to get the sound just right. Marcin then calculated the various time delays between different sound sources and made the necessary adjustments to ensure that the entire show sounded in sync wherever your position on site. Marcin was also the recording engineer over the weekend we recorded the various musicians for the show.
Drone Henge
This stone circle area had various entrances and lent itself to an omni-directional sound piece. Due to it’s proximity to the main show I decided against anything rhythmic and opted for long droning notes. Given the theme of discovery throughout the show I thought it would be interesting to incorporate drones from around the world, including bagpipes, accordion, saxophone, cor anglais and didgeridoo.
Windchime Chorus
One of my favourite parts of the music for Transitions was the Windchime Chorus, which featured the beautiful voice of Anne Lothian. This piece was installed within a small wooden pavilion situated in the heart of the Valley and acted as a moment of calming peacefulness within the show.
Oh and anybody wanting a musical souvenir of their Transitions experience can download some of my music here.
Photographs by Julie Bee used with kind permission.
I recently did a sound design for Macbeth (also known as “the Scottish play”) at Cottiers theatre in Glasgow, directed by Lawrence Crawford for inTheatre. The show marked the 400th anniversary of the Shakespeare classic.
The Cottiers building (originally a church built in 1865) has the perfect atmosphere for the Scottish play and stunning acoustics.
The droning soundscapes I created were based around the sound of oil drums, treated and looped to become endless textures. They were layered to create a moody backdrop that could shift between a single tone and swelling chords. I was keen to have a contemporary feel to the music so I worked with jazz saxophinst Michael Butcher who improvised various harmonic phrases on top. I had fun playing with some interesting echo effects as he was recording.
Macbeth Preshow Soundscape – an overview of the various soundscapes in the show.
The soundtrack was brought to life by the Glasgow Gaelic Musical Association (conducted by Kenny Thomson) who I recorded singing various chords and phrases. Eilidh Davies of the GGMA is also a wonderful clàrsach player and I recorded some of her beautiful playing for the preshow music and banquet scene.
The theme for the “weyward sisters” was based around a little celtic melody that actor Anne Lothian had been humming in rehearsals. Anne has a beautiful voice and the effect of her voice multitracked through “endless” reverb was quite ethereal.
The Enchanted Forest: Force of Nature took the Events Grand Prix as well as picking up Best Cultural Event.
The show, with lighting design by Simon Wilkinson and sound design by yours truly was met with critical acclaim last year as well as attracting more than 20,000 visitors.
I am currently adding the finishing touches to my soundtrack for the 2011 Enchanted Forest show “Transitions”.
Following the success of “Force Of Nature”, lighting designer Simon Wilkinson, (who beautifully illuminated the forest last year) and myself have brought our creative minds together once again to bring you this years’ show.
The new location at The Explorer’s Garden in Pitlochry offers a different Enchanted Forest experience with different levels and vantage points to enjoy the show.
This year Simon and myself wanted to create a show that had an element of discovery, where the audience could explore their surroundings and the light and sound could transform the space before them in new and exciting ways.
One of the various pathways within the valley.
The musical pieces I have composed are different interpretations of a theme I developed earlier in the year. Although they will be installed at various spaces and distances they play in counterpoint with one another creating a different experience as the audience explore the site.
The music for this year’s show has benefitted greatly from the input of Joshua Payne, my assistant sound designer who worked on many of the recordings for the soundtrack including accordion, didgeridoo, tuned glass bottles and Tibetan singing bowls. Joshua also played keyboard and piano parts in the main piece.
As well as a variety of interesting sounds including foghorns, bells, drones and bagpipes the soundtrack this year features an attractive mix of musical performances including voices, cello, violins, flutes, saxophone and tuned percussion.
Saxophonist Michael Butcher in a recording session for Transitions.
In the meantime here is a collection of excerpts from the music from this years show…. without giving too much away I might add!
I recently did the sound design for Dead Man’s Cell Phone, directed by Stasi Schaeffer for The Arches.
Sarah Ruhl‘s superb play explored our obsessions with mobile phones and how they dominate our lives.
One scene contained a sequence described by Ruhl as a “cell phone ballet”, where a movement piece is performed to a collage of snippets of mobile phone conversations.
The director and I agreed there should be a musical element and I thought it would be interesting to create this entirely with mobile phone sounds. I made various recordings of the tones from a Samsung mobile phone and then sampled them so they could be played musically. I used reverb and echo effects to create space and distance within the piece. I then mixed in various recordings I had made of the acting company, which I treated to sound like phone conversations.
Here is the Cell Phone Ballet:
The Cell Phone Ballet. Photograph courtesy of Avril Scott
Gary Owen‘s superb play comprised of three monologues depicting a variety of times, places and memories. Sound was used heavily throughout the piece to help create these atmospheres.
One soundscape represented a journey – in both a literal and metaphorical sense. In keeping with the drone-like quality of the rest of my soundtrack it seemed that the sound of a vehicle mid-journey would have a suitable quality.
The EXS24 Sampler in Logic Pro.
I used a recording of a Fiat Punto on a motorway and sampled a few seconds of the engine sound. I then created numerous processed variations which I could layer. Using an “endless” reverb effect allowed the textures to decay over a long period of time, creating a stylised representation of an on-going journey. The harmonic quality in the soundscape was created by pitch-shifting different sections.
Gary Owen‘s fabulous play is set in small town Wales and tells the story of one particularly eventful Saturday night, through the eyes of three different characters. Despite being gritty and violent in places the play also drifts into the fantastical and ethereal and it is my intention to harness this heightened sense of reality in my sound design.
Crazy Gary’s Mobile Disco is directed by Leann O’Kasi and opens at The Tron on Tue 24th May and runs until Sat 28th May.
The show, performed by Tron Skillshops, examined what society would be like if there was no individuality and all young people were identical.
Barcodes became more and more significant as imagery in the piece, which was reflected in the superb set design by Peter Screen.
It seemed only fitting that the sound design should incorporate the beep of a barcode scanner.
This soundscape was made by sampling a barcode scanner sound and playing it back at different pitches.
These sounds were then re-sampled and processed in various ways including delay and pitch shifting. The processed sounds were then layered up to create texture and movement within the soundscape.
The pad and drone textures were created in Logic softsynth Sculpture.
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