Arhythmia Productions, KSP

So here we are in the new year and I’ve been extremely busy, which is a great thing. I just had a recording session that lasted most of yesterday through last night and having another big session for a new project this evening, the NAMM convention opens today and things are really gearing up!

We are pleased to announce that my audio post-production company, formerly a music production company known as Nistades Music, now called Arhythmia Productions, KSP will be opening shortly. It’s a result of long, continuous planning and coincides with our move to our new studio facility in the prestigious Hancock Park area of Los Angeles, which occurred several weeks ago. We are finishing up the final touches on the studio as we speak and as I’m working on several projects. The official site for AR Productions is under construction and more information will be posted when it is up and running. A teaser site has been uploaded via my nistades.com host site, but soon we will be re-hosting the AR Prods official site with its own domain. We will be opening formal studio services along with the launching of the AR Productions site. More will be posted soon.

I’m currently in production on a web series, a short film and producing an album for an up and coming artist, Tim Hayn, who is simply amazing and has been great recording together in the studio. We are also in talks with several more productions that may start soon. More to come later, most likely to be updated on the AR Prods site.

I’m afraid that’s it for now. Back to mixing….

Happy New Year!

Quintessence: a post-apocalyptic setting of the elements

Yesterday was quite a day, I’ll tell you. It started quite harshly when I woke up to find out that I had fallen asleep on the couch, which was quite horrible and left me in a lot of pain, as my couch is one of those couches that are very comfortable to sit in and possibly even lay in for a while, but never good for a while night’s sleep. So, being in a lot of pain, I rolled down onto the floor at about 7 in the morning, or so.

I woke up again to a phone call and realized it was already almost 11. So I got up and did my daily email checks and then went in to the studio to finish up the draft on my new post-apocalyptic piece Quintessence. The past few days have been a whirlwind of projects and events.

A few days ago, a percussionist friend of mine from Thailand contacted me to ask for some input on a new project they are working on right now in Thailand. He has his own amazing percussion ensemble and they were preparing for a new performance in early 2009. Their theme this year is the four elements, one that so many have approached before. So he contacted me asking for some advice and input on putting together a ‘four elements’ piece that is original and striking. After bouncing around some ideas with him, we decided that a 6-movement piece would be good, starting with Aether (as the pure origin), branching out into the four elements and ending with a sort of recapitulation of the piece.  I suggested the name ‘Quintessence’, the fifth element as plato called it, as our connection between all the elements was to be this one, pure element. He loved the idea, but it wasn’t until after our conversation, as I started drafting some ideas, that I came up with a unique solution. The catch to this whole project is that it will be performed by an all-percussion ensemble, with the exception to some synths and an electric guitar, that was optional.

My solution came to me just before I realized that I might have finally lost it, as it was to create a piece about the four elements set in a post-apocalyptic world. The idea being that it would be an interesting concept to explore our perception of these elements after an event of that calibre as well as this concept lending itself to our medium of performance as lots of drums/percussion and electric guitar and synths will not seem out of place in a post-apocalyptic setting whereas they would seem out of place if we were attempting to create a more ‘traditional’ orchestral-type piece.

Anyway, I had told them that I would draft some ideas for them and see what they think. My piece, Quintessence, is about 15 minutes and includes all the themes and ideas for the elements as I percieved them in our new ‘post-apocalyptic setting’. It’s actually very exciting and fun to explore what these could ’sound’ like in a world like this.

I am in the middle of orchestrating the piece right now and it proves to be a very exciting process even though I’m adding some more sounds than just percussion and guitar, but then that’s the beauty of arrangements. It’s always exciting to hear a different version of something you wrote, although this piece was written with their use foremost in mind.

Anyway, there’s an update. We’re also in the process of preparing the launch of my new music library and a bunch of other projects so stay tuned!

Right….back to writing now!

BØRRE Official Trailer to be released worldwide 11.27.2008!

The official trailer of the Norwegian psychological thriller, Børre, is finally complete and will be released worldwide 11.27.2008! That’s tomorrow-Thanksgiving!

I have tried to write about my experiences on this project for my blog, but ironically, it has taken me three unsuccessful days to do so. I’ve been under a lot of pressure lately with various events happening all at the same time and now finding out that the political situation in Thailand has now resulted in the two main airports in Bangkok being closed down is not helping! I just read on CNN today, the various details of what is going on in Thailand and things are not looking good. Two bombs went of Wednesday morning, one at each of the airports. Several were wounded and the country is simply diving into more chaos.

At the moment, I’m preparing for the launch of the BØRRE official trailer tomorrow and getting geared up for a new British short film about the London undergound bombings in 2005, which is being directed by Harry Burnett-Rae, a dear friend and fascinating director with whom I had a chance to work with while he was here in LA earlier this year.

Here is all that I could type up about my experience working on the Børre trailer. I will find time to finish it a little later when things have cleared up a bit:

“The journey in working on this project has been most rewarding and unique. I approached the writer and producer, Kim Dillevig Aas after having seen the teaser trailer for Børre on Facebook. It was very cool and spine-chilling and I was extremely impressed so I explained my interest in the project to him. And surprisingly, he was interested in having me on board as well and mentioned that he would be in town (Los Angeles) in a couple weeks. So I informed Ken of this exciting project and started looking for new sounds and toys to sample especially for this project.

A couple weeks later, Kim arrived, as expected, in LA and we had our initial meeting at my studio in West LA. I was really blown away by the images and cuts he had assembled for me, but he had wanted to cut the final version of the trailer to my score. So I had a bunch of images and scenes to referrence and I started immediately. It was a very exciting process as I had been really inspired and had discussed some potential cuts with Kim so that I could create my score accordingly. That day he took a photo for his production blog on the film and it became my favorite photo of me in my studio!

After several days, I came up with what I thought was good, blending sound design with a cold, chilling orchestral taste. I brought Ken in and showed it to him and together we crafted a mix of it that really shaped the score and added an eerie edge to it.”

Finding Dante

For the past several days, I’ve been at work on a large scale symphonic poem based on a poem from Dante’s La Vita Nuova. The specific poem is Gentil pensero che parla di vui (XXXVIII). The approx. 15 minute-long piece involves a full orchestra, choir and two solo sopranos as the core of the piece and alternate between various ensembles; starting from a single string note to solo cello and choir, with the sopranos to full orchestra and choir, to just soprano and harp. Ken, my engineer, and I are also brainstorming production on it and are coming up with new and interesting production techniques.

It really has been a big journey of discovery in finding Dante and his voice within the piece, the poem being so passionate and beautiful. The two sopranos will resemble the two battling forces within one’s heart: the soul (representing logic and reason) and her amorous passionate heart. Finding that voice, that sound that can represent Dante musically is a tough but very enjoyable journey and although I’m still about less than halfway through, there is something there that can be discovered.

Having just come back from an interview for UCLA Extension, I’ll probably hop on the couch for a bit and then get back to orchestrating this work of passion.