The Power of Music - Vol. 1

Music has so much potential. It has the power to effect and contribute to many contextual situations, be it Art, real world experience, TV or film.
I find it fascinating how music can interact with visual material and become one symbiotic entity; Effective individually but truly moving when experienced as one.
A little while back, I wanted to experiment and see if I could achieve this same level of creative mastery by taking existing pieces of media and writing my own music to them. I love expanding my horizons and taking on new challenges, and this task was certainly challenging! Working predominantly as a dance/Indie music composer, it was a slightly strange feeling stepping out of fast tempo's and quantised arrangements into music which doesn't even need a time signature. I feel it was a very healthy move and allowed me explore an area that was totally alien to me. It felt good, it was exciting, I was inspired...

The first piece of media that I took on was a time lapse sequence by director Shane Black; an incredibly talented photographer and videographer. Just check out his website, you will be blown away!
http://www.shaneblackphoto.com/

This particular piece of timelapse footage called ‘Adventure is Calling’ appealed to me in particular because of the fluidity of the camera movements and the precision capture of the natural light, both in the daytime and night time shots. Shane Black is an expert in this field and it clearly shows in his work. The attention to detail in the footage makes for a very immersive viewing experience, and speaks volumes about how dedicated Black is to his art.

I wanted to pay homage to this level of detail through my musical interpretation. In keeping with this theme, I used delicately plucked acoustic guitar and a lightly played grand piano for the main theme of the music. Through equalization, I put boosts on the high frequency range to accentuate the light fingering of the instruments. The drums were mixed to sound as if played in a large hall, to emphasise the grandeur of the landscapes throughout the visual sequence.

I designed the clock tick to fit with the tempo and time signature of the piece. It’s a subtle hint to the time lapse theme of the footage and provided a nice tonal addition to the track. The long drone notes of the lap steel guitar were the perfect addition to maintain a sense of eeriness throughout the piece. I wanted to make the viewer feel immersed, almost hypnotized, as they watched upon the incredible scenes of our World in motion.

Sit back, relax and take in the magnificence of the place we call home!
If you like my musical rendition and want me to share more of my work, please leave and upvote and give me a follow!

Big Love
Jack