kieransmusicblog

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Music for Screen and Media Online Portfolio - 

Here is a link to my online portfolio featuring my compositions I have scored for various films/documentaries. Unfortunately, I am not able to publish the main score that I will be submitted for my Music For Screen and Media assessment as the film has not been released to festivals yet, however this will be submitted via a dropbox link.  

These compositional works are not to be marked as few of them were composed last year, but are purely a demonstration of my portfolio and growth as a composer. 

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Music For Screen and Media - Library Music

Since our lecture on Library music I have become very interested in writing Library and Stock music! 

Here is a link to my Pond 5 account where I have composed songs, textures, tones, percussion hits and drones and listed them for sale here. 

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Second video from my D33rfield rehearsal yesterday! 

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Yesterday myself and Kyle booked ourselves into the rehearsal rooms to begin to develop the live show for my D33rfield Live Event on the 22nd of May. 

We ran through 2 tracks (2140 and Something Calls To Them with Cat on Vocals)

The rehearsal went really well, besides some technical glitches that were to be expected for the first time playing together but we managed to get them all sorted due to the help of Marcus. 

During this rehearsal I was running the tracks through Logic Pro X, however for the Live Event show I will be using Ableton which I now have and am learning to use and having begins imported the stems into. 

I am happy with the progress so far and I am really looking forward to what the next two months brings. 

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Spend the morning work on some plans and timelines leading up to my D33rfield Live Event performance. 

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Soundcloud link to my Artist profile for Major Project where I am posting the demos for the EP. This is to get some feedback from the public but also just to start to build up a presence. 

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Major Music Project Lyrical Analysis - Sleep Token

A big inspiration for my EP project for this module is the band Sleep Token, especially in terms of lyrics content and atmosphere. 

Sleep Token are an ensemble which blend commercial pop music with progressive metal, interesting mix right? This balance and juxtaposition between pop and metal music is also expressed in the lyric content. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sErp9MCXLPs 

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This is the first complete track for my EP, Something Calls To Them -

There is still some work to be done to the arrangement and the layers of the instrumentation, but the content and sections I feel are strong enough and I am very happy with the result. 

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Deerfield EP Major Project - 

Continued work on the recent track I posted. Added a new pre-chorus section which I feel has one of the strongest melodies in the track which really adds another dimension to the track, as well as writing a chorus which i feel works really well. As it stands, the majority of the lyrics are just temporary, they are mainly there to get a sense of timing and melody. The theme is decided, just need to figuring out more interesting ways to convey certain messages. 

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New song idea I have been working on from today for my Major Music Project EP!

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Sound Design and Sound Library Task! - Music for Screen and Media Task (& personal)

I recently bought a Zoom H4N recorder, and this short clip of a track uses nothing but the sounds I have recorded outside while walking my dog, and in my kitchen! 

Sample used for Kick Drum - A lorry approaching, layered with another sample of me hitting a pumpkin with a big wooden spoon

Snare Sound - this actually just came from me walking through some leaves and then using Space Designer and some EQ’ing to make it sound chunky and resonant. 

Synth and Voice Pad - Sound of a waterfall that I imported into Space Designer, dragged back the dry, maxed out the wet. 

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Brammmmm Task - Music for Screen and Media

This is one of the first tasks we had to do for our Film Music module where we were asked to recreate Hans Zimmers signature ‘Brammmm’ sound. 

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Major Music Project ‘Elevator Pitch’

Elevator Pitch

I am making an electronic ep, which I will release

I would like to be marked on the content of the EP

Long Term Goals

Be a solo independent artist that continues to release EP’s and albums spanning and covering different genres as well as performing my material live, and hopefully be able to make a living from it.

·      Have a social media presence and being engaging to my audience

·      Release the music online using services such as Spotify, Apple Music, Band camp

·      Continue to release new material that I enjoy writing

·      Release the EP independently in record shops in my area (Derricks Music)

Question

·      Building up to the release of the EP, in order to get people interested in the release, would you say it’s better to post music teasers, or a full track for them to listen to?

3 Action Points 

If releasing music teasers, don’t just post and WAV file, create something visual to place the music over. This can make it more engaging and will add different interpretations and perspectives.

2 tracks into the EP, really focus and find out what I like about these tracks and why I think they fit what I am trying to create, explore the textures, feel, tonality.

Source independent record stores in my local area and possibly contact them enquiring how they handle independent artist releases and what genre they commonly release

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EP Artwork and Visual Aesthetic  - Major Music Project Research

As I have begun writing the material for my EP I have really started to think about the visuals of the music. What I mean by this is the type of aesthetic I want my music to give to the audience, and what I want people to see when they look for me as an artist. 

I am a huge fan of film director Nicolas Winding Refn and how he uses colour in his films which revolve around highly contrasted, very bold and visually stunning pink/purple colours. One of the main things I like about this choice of cinematography is that these colours have a juxtaposition between his storytelling, which is usually deals with very dark, urban and gritty themes.

Nicolas Winding Refn - Only God Forgives

ARTIST RESEARCH - TYCHO

One artist in particular who I particularly like, the music as much as the visuals, is Tycho. Tycho’s sound and image relies heavily on retro mania, ambience, and aesthetics, they’re instagram profile is actually a wonderful place for someone who has never listened to them to get a feel and a visual examination on their sound. 

The music I am writing is quite similar to the sound that Tycho have and they will no doubt have a significant influence over my sound, however I for my EP, I feel my sound gravitating towards a slightly darker, more atmospheric sound. Therefore, I have found a graphic artist on Instagram who does album artwork and his style I immediately thought fitted what visuals I wanted to coincide with my sound. 

I have already been in contact with him and he has agreed to collaborate with myself on this project. 

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Task 4 - Sound Map part 2

This is the second part to the Sound Map task where we had to create a graphic score that could visually reflect the sounds I had found in part 1. 

For my score I decided to use the stimulus of the lake at park campus, and these photos gradually reflect each different audio aspect that I could hear. 

I decided to use the approach of gradual development, rather than have everything happen at once, much like the Terry Riley in C performance where as the score went on, more elements would appear. 

I took various images from the internet that supported the sounds I wanted to have on display and then employed a few editing techniques in premiere pro.

First off, I decided I wanted to pretty much blur everything so it didn't seem as formulated and structured, then I used the cross dissolving technique where I essentially overlapped them to create the sense of development. 

This was a completely new approach to ‘scoring’ and although my example isn't perfect, it’s definitely an interesting concept and one that I may end up exploring in greater detail.