odinnhilmarsson

[odinnhilmarsson]

HOLD ON - MYKEL (A Music Video That I Edited)

Along with music, film is a big passion of mine. I like filmmaking and it's something that I'm often involved in these days. I've had to fill a lot of roles but I think that I have to say that my favourite part of the whole filmmaking process is the editing. Production shoots are stressful and because of the magnitude of people and efforts necessary to pull it off, so much can go wrong. And does. Always. With editing, it's a beautifully solitary process where you piece together this crazy emotional puzzle. I friggin' love it. It's the filmmaking without the pain of filming.

Recently I've been working for a company where I've been able to do some editing. This video is one that I'm very proud of and for a number of reasons. Not only am I generally pleased with the edit and how the story unfolds, I was able to suggest a dear friend of mine for the main part. Dan Wood is by far one of the best actors who I personally know and when the video was in development and I was asked if I knew any actors in London, his name was the first that I put forward. He deserves to be getting acting jobs left, right and centre and I'm glad that I could help get him one.

I hope you enjoy the video and the song. Something that also deserves a mention is that they're both about suicide, a very serious cause of death for far too many people. Awareness surrounding things such as depression, loneliness and debilitatingly low self-esteem is rising but still has yet to gain the recognition that it needs in order to prevent serious harm to those affected. Don't let yourself be dragged down a spiral and be sure to help anyone who's finding the days difficult.

Director: Paris Zarcilla (Sudden Black) Actors: Dan Wood (man), Saskia Marland (mother), Mia Turner (daughter)

[odinnhilmarsson]

A short while ago, in February, I did the music for a set of plays in Peckham London. The show was called Heartlines and was made up of six separate dualogues, all based around the theme of love and relationships. It sure was quite the proverbial hoot and to tell you the truth, it even had a few hollers thrown in.

The music was really fun because it was all done live and was made up of loads of different styles. I had a big stress when it was two weeks before the opening and I didn't have anyone to accompany me but this led me to meet Elliot Coombs, a very talented and ridiculously nice guy who was awesome enough to come and stay with me and do the show without us ever having met. Needless to say, both of us were relieved that the other was not into flayed skin. I do quite miss being sat with him in the balcony, surrounded by strange instruments such as leg bells, a toy accordion and a lone drum stick.

This song here is the final song of the show. The vocals and lyrics are by actor and writer Chris York, an old friend of mine from university. I put the chords together and gave them to him to write a song to and this was the result. We recorded this separately to the play, recording only the vocals meaning that I had to fill in the rest of the parts later. It's a bit shaky but only on my part. The singers (Chris and also Dan Wood, Paul Heelis, Stacey Norris, Abigail Rose, Lucy Farrett and Abi Unwin-Smith) all do beautifully and I'm very happy with how their parts came out in the mix.

I hope that you enjoy it and hopefully there will be a revival of the show in the future!

[odinnhilmarsson]

SHUGO TOKUMARU

One of my absolutely favourite and most influential artists of recent years is Japanese musician Shugo Tokumaru. His albums are an incredibly densely textured powerhouse and self-recording and self-mixing and you feel every world that he makes in every single one of his tracks. 

His latest album, In Focus? is out now and available here. This is one of the new videos to one of the tracks of the album and it involves some beautifully made stop-motion sequences. Stop-motion is fascinating and here is a very awesome twist on it.

I really recommend Shugo Tokumaru. Most notable tracks for me are Lahaha, Mushina and Parachute. He reportedly has over a hundred various instruments, including toy ones, that he uses for his recordings. He is a master of crafting fantasy and wonder with music. I look up to him highly.

[odinnhilmarsson]

Sion Clarke's amazing Batman cards. Beg him to get them actually printed and sell them off for his own illegal gain.

Find more of his awesome stuff at http://flyingcubs.tumblr.com/ and also http://theflyingbears.wordpress.com/ 

Here’s the second half of the Batman playing cards.

[odinnhilmarsson]

THIS IS FOREIGN

Solo piano. It was written for a girl called Roanne.

[odinnhilmarsson]

EDUCATIONAL VIDEO ON PROBABILITY!! EDUCATIONAL GOODNESS WITH MUSIC.

A very short while ago, the extremely handsome and talented Luke Malkin asked me to provide some music to an educational web video that he was making for the Virtual School (http://thevirtualschool.wordpress.com/). It was so much fun! In my line of music I don't get to travel between keys very often so it was great to bounce around. Plus I got to throw a glockenspiel around. Had to happen.

Like many new mothers on an endorphin high, I was pretty proud of what came out of me for this one. Also, you learn something from it which can't be that bad.

[odinnhilmarsson]

AMUSIA CREDITS SONG

This is the song to credits of my short musical comedy, 'Amusia'. It was made as part of my masters course in film production and it follows a young music student as he hallucinates music as though it is an original soundtrack to his life.

The film itself is a mixed success. It was great to make and great to watch once it was finished but naturally I can't kept help but pick out all the flaws that I wish I could correct. One thing I do like about it is this song or at least the theme in it. Glockenspiels are a shameful favourite of mine and I think they really bring out a sweet tone to the melody here.

I always feel like there's a bit of trouble in the mix, the glockenspiels are maybe a bit too forward or loud but I think it might be a song that further down the line I try to revisit and turn in to something separate from the film.

[odinnhilmarsson]

8-BIT VARIATIONS ON MOZART'S "EINE KLEINE NACHTMUSIK"

My most recent upload is this. It's something I started a long time ago by just playing with the melodies in the first movement of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. I programmed all the notes and what have you into my old DAW music-making program, using samples of violins, violas and cellos. But after a while I lost sight of it and didn't think it was going anywhere until recently I thought of a way to spice it up.

Now to my mind it still needs  a lot of work but I doubt I'm going to back into it again. It was a fun experiment and I've retrospectively learnt a lot from it but it's not one of those key songs that need to be perfect. Could do with a better timbral language (if that's even a phrase). Fuck it, it's just a laugh.

I'll no doubt try some 8-bit/chiptune stuff again and try and make it more real to the actual thing, I think that's where the entertainment lies. Until then, let's just wonder what things would be like if Mozart composed his song using gameboys..

[odinnhilmarsson]

"MOONRISE" - HOWLING MOON @ THE EDINBURGH FRINGE

The opening track to Heather Wilmot's play 'Howling Moon', performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2011. I loved the production and really enjoyed writing the music for it. This one in particular was especially fun. I came across the "howling" effect at the start completely by accident and if my memory serves correctly it was made by automating the frequency filter of the distortion effect on a synthesiser.

Download this song and others for free by going to odinnhilmarsson.bandcamp.com! 

[odinnhilmarsson]

Hello. My name is Odinn and I like making music and learning about the beautiful technicalities of music production. This feed will feature old and new music, tests, demos, completed tracks and failed experiments. I like to upload things semi-regularly and I love to hear what people think, whether it's good or bad! But god help you if you write it with poor grammar..