IndieGoGo campaign

This one's for all you gearheads out there. Strezov Sampling is currently running a campaing to crowdfund the sequel to their Storm Choir library (which is an excellent tool any creator of epic music). This is a library I've used in basically all my Epic North Music tracks. I've done my part to fund this, now it's your turn...

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/storm-choir-2

Until The Sun Rises

Strezov Sampling are a maker of excellent sounding libraries. One day I noticed that they we're holding a composing contest in which they tasked you to compose music to the picture on the left there. I liked the idea and decided to participate. My contribution to the contest is titled:

Until The Sun Rises

I downloaded the picture and started to look at it. I was drawn to the shooting little lights that clearly are going back to the tree as the sun rises over the horizon. To me they seemed to be going for shelter. What were they? Pixies, fairies, spirits of the tree? Is it possible they can't survive in the light and need the dark? What do they do? Are they playing, hunting, gathering? These questions came to mind and from here I began to work.

Flute. The first thing I dug up was the flute. And not one of the ethnic flutes I love so much, but your plain old ordinary flute. For me this required flute. It needed air, it needed to be light. Once I had the flute in it became clear that the creatures were playing. They were spirits of the night and their only worry was being caught by the sun.

And that basically the story I wanted to tell with this track. It spans the night from dusk till dawn. I has the creatures waking up and coming out, then they play. Finally the sun begins to rise and they hurry back to their safe home among the foliage before the sun kills them.

And the sun gets pretty close to it too. I wanted to end this in tension. And it does. The orchestra rises to a crescendo of chaos as the sun rises higher and it is doubtful if all the creatures make it back.

For me this was a nice departure from the epic landscapes of Epic North Music. It was really fun to just create something as airy as this. And hopefully this gives me renewed energy to tackle more of those heart stopping, epic action tracks again... Hint hint.

Gear I used for this track:

DAWs and editors:

• Cakewalk Sonar X1

Samplers and instruments:

• NI Kontakt 4
• NI Absynth5
• NI Massive
• Vienna Instrument Special Edition
• Spitfire Audio Albion
• Spitfire Audio Loegria
• Spitfire Audio Solo Strings
• Spitfire Audio Dulcimer
• Strezov Sampling Storm Choir
• Cinematique Instruments Upright Piano
• Cinematique Instruments Complex Environs Gecko Free
• Sonivox Flying Hand Percussion
• Sonokinetic Delphi
• MOTU Etno Instrument 2
• Soniccouture Pan Drum

Effects:

• Vienna Suite
• Minimal System Instruments Master Compressor
• Minimal System Instruments Master Limiter
• Variety of Sound Ferric TDS
• Sonar LP-64 Multiband

Highland Wars blog

Paul is creating music for Skyrock Games' new feature "Highland Wars". He's also sharing his creation process in their development blog. Go read it. Now.

http://www.highlandwars.com/2013/05/the-music-of-highland-wars.html

Epic North Music

This year started of pretty fast. I had had plans to be up and running with my "Sumeria" album, but it still standing and waiting for a release later this year. But the reason behind this tardiness is simple: we have been hard at work on something possibly very massive.

Paul and I we're drawn into a project not seen in Finland before. That project is called Epic North Music. In short it is an effort to create the most epic film advertising music ever imagined. And it is done with a fully finnish crew. We released our first album "Rising Storm" stacked with 19 earth shattering tracks on 20th of May and the reception has been phenominal!

Trailer Music World has already featured two tracks from our album; one from Tapsa and one from Paul. Both of the have gathered a good deal of listens during the first days so needless to say that we are really excited about the future. Now It's Time for the awesome guys at Time Films to go hard to work and get this project out into the big world!

I leave you with the two tracks featured on Trailer Music World:

Tapsa updated his personal website!

It's been coming for a while, but finally I had the time to update my personal website. Go and have a look!

http://enterthestudios.com/Kuusniemi/

Too much hypnosis

A while back the guys behind Kaiti Kink Ensemble asked us to remix tracks from their album "Under the Iron Sky". It took me a while to get my hands on this but I finally got other things out of the way. From the album I chose a track called "Too Much Energy" which is a pretty much an in your face electronic piece. You might want to give the original track a listen as well. Kaiti Kink Ensemble "Too much energy"

I decided to go in a totally different direction. Mysterious instead of blasting it at you. Ethnic instead of electronic. Laid back instead of pumping and raw.

I chose to base the remix on the hypnotic beating of a witch drum doubled by a normal frame drum. They beat a constant beat that makes up this tracks back bone.On top of them I layered a chilled jazz beat and and effected version of the original drum track. These loop on and on as I was going for a structure that is supposed to hypnotize you. So repetition, repetition and repetition.

I did the same thing with the lyrics. I chose a few passages that would repeat and repeat creating a sort of a chant with the various repetition coming in with different kinds of effect layers. An added vocal was a Tibetan monk singing. It gives the whole track a more mysterious quality.

For the actual instruments I chose an ivory flute and solo strings. They form the melodic core of the track. Solo cello leads the instrument section and the rest back it up with staccato lines. Though in the middle there's a bit where the flute and cello go on an acid trip and just swing away.

I am quite happy with the way this remix turned out. So give it a listen, or two:

Too Much Hypnosis (Kaiti Kink Ensemble - Too Much Energy Remix)

Getting up to speed with, well, a lot of things

Where the heck has this year gone? Today I feel like it's still the beginning of the year, but looking at the calendar reveals that it's almost December. And I've been very absent in my writings here. So I'll make a short summary of what has happened this year.

I'll start with a personal note to some how try to explain my absent minded writing. This has been a big year in regards to personal goings about. I started the year with my grandmothers's funeral. Then I started to plan my wedding which was in the summer. Then when autumn came we bought a new house into which I am just now starting to settle in. So with these things I have been rather busy. But onto Reveltone stuff.

I've posted a couple things here about my big mystery project which I said was going to be released this fall. Well, it got pushed back first to the end of November then finally to February 2013.

In Clear Sight has progressed to the point that the score is mixed (thank you Paul for the excellent work) and is being mastered by Erno. The first master is waiting on my desk for me to listen (which I will do tonight). So the movie is good shape.

I've been working on a few ideas lately. One of them is the idea of rebooting the "Sumeria" concept album which I didn't have much time to finish. I've re-concepted it and will start working on it shortly.

Also next week I'll have an interesting new track coming along. So stay tuned for more...

Anna Tallberg Kyr 2012

Anna Tallberg Kyr 2012 @ Soundcloud

Here's a wee bit of a thing I wrote with Teemu. It's another Kyr song for a young rider.

Living the quiet life

Yeah. Right.

Times have definitely not been quiet. I've been busy with two projects lately. The first one is the mystery project I've blogged and even shown you a video clip about. But I won't talk about that today and I'll focus on the other major thing taking up my time currently. I'm writing the score for a movie called "In Clear Sight".

"In Clear Sight" is a roughly 60 minute film set in Cold War Germany directed by Atso Pärnanen. It follows two soldiers on a surveillance mission of a Soviet military exercise. So, this one is right up my alley. We started talking about the music with ideas from Jerry Goldsmith's Rambo and the later addition by Brian Tyler. Also mentioned were Basil Poledouris' The Hunt for Red October and the Inception score by Hans Zimmer. From these stemmed several ideas we thought would be necessary for the score we were about to create.

The main theme of the score needed to be more human than military, so we chose to not have too many marching rhythms there. I've written a few different orchestrations of the theme, the main one having an acoustic guitar in the background and a duet of a trumpet and a french horn as the lead. The basic version of the theme is fairly simple, but it still has the potential to be really grand and big.

One of the big things in the film is the tension that is there as our heroes are operating behind enemy lines and spying on their activity. This we've chosen to create with synthetic sounds so we can create a slightly surreal feeling in it.

There is also a need for some action music in this film. The path we've chosen for the action music is more primal than your standard everyday Hollywood action score. It will be raw and big. Ok, maybe there will be some melody in there as well...

So, this is what I'm working on right now. I'll post some clips as soon as we're satisfied with the score.

27th of January

A simple video blog this time. Just check it out:

Don't forget me

I recently released a single track called:

Don't forget me.

Remembering things seems to be a little difficult sometimes? You tend to forget the little things, but we usually remember the big things, the important things. Important people. But what if we didn't? What if your spouse simply couldn't remember you? What if they really forgot who you are when you've left their side?

That is the feeling I tried to channel in this track. No loud parts, no epic percussions or brass here. This one's about the emotion.

This track is basically an evolving loop since the main melody the piano plays repeats itself through out the progression of the song. I chose this form because most of our days pretty much go along the same routines as the others. We don't usually even notice it and most of it is good for us. Routines aren't that bad.

I wanted to keep the feel of this track a little hopeful. Because maybe, just maybe, she or he will remember you when come home. That would be something to look forward to.

Gear I used for this track:

DAWs and editors:

• Cakewalk Sonar X1

Samplers and instruments:

• NI Kontakt 4
  
• NI KorePlayer
  
• NI Massive
  
• NI FM8
  
• Vienna Instrument Special Edition
  
• Sample Logic Cinematic Guitars
  
• NI Kontakt 4 Library
  
• Cinematique Instruments Bowed Guitars
  
• Sonivox Flying Hand Percussion
• Project SAM Brass
  

Effects:

• Vienna Suite
  

Chase

The elevator doors slide open. The first thing you see is that they're carrying guns. You don't wait to see more but turn and bolt back inside the room and towards the window...

Chase.

This one's set into the same story line as "Sunburn". This delivers even more of an adrenaline punch than the previous installation as I've upped the tempo and intensity quite a bit.

...The balcony. A quick look around. You turn and jump just as the door of the room is kicked in. The railing of another balcony, swing up, break the window, dive in. Bullets behind you...

I wanted this track to be more relentless in pace and sound. The beat drives on with force and only breaks for short periods before the release at the end. There's no time to breathe, no quiet moments of peace here. The beat makes sure your feet won't stop. Because if they do, you're dead.

...Yank the door open. Quick look around the hallway. Staircase to the right. You dash to it. Sounds from above, men rushing downward. Jump the first railing, a few steps along the wall, then another jump...

I also made the overall sound a lot harder. The sounds are sharper and more broken. I didn't want this to be as ambient as Sunburn, but rather be an in your face kind of track. The sounds will assault you and probably mangle your ears and nose a bit, but they're there for that reason. Because they are harsh. Because they will kick you. Because if they don't, you are going to die.

...You land and roll to an open door. A window there, the roof of a building visible there. It's far. But hopefully not too far. Your feet move, you gather speed. Jump. The window breaks. An eternity. Then the roof. You roll, and sprint for cover. Shooting behind you, bullets miss. A door. You open it, duck inside.

Gear I used for this track:

DAWs and editors:

• Cakewalk Sonar X1

Samplers and instruments:

• NI Kontakt 4
• FutureAudioWorkshop Circle
• Cakewalk RXP
• Synapse Audio Junglist
• u-he Tyrell Nexus 6
• HG Fortune Serenity
• HG Fortune Altair 4
• NI Massive
• Sample Logic Cinematic Guitars
• FM Future Loops

Effects:

• Vienna Suite
• Illformed Glitch 1.3
• Kjaerhus Classic Master Limiter
• Kjaerhus Classic Delay
• u-he Zebrify
• Variety of Sound Ferric TDS

Burning Jetfuel

I've been a wee bit delayed in writing this but here's my rant about:

Burning Jetfuel.

I started this for a competition on Audiodraft. The competition was for a World War II era aerial battle game and the makers wanted to have that style in the music. Well, this track isn't exactly what you might expect for that era. When I laid down the first pieces I noticed that this track got out of hand. And frankly I didn't mind.

I didn't mind because I started to have too much fun writing this. Everything just sort of fell in place as I went along. I didn't think about grand aerial battles, but my thoughts were more focused on the feeling of rushing through the clouds and smoke. So this is more about the adrenaline of survival than the violence of combat.

This track though orchestral in color is really more of a rock song. It's driven forward by a heavy bass and drums and the melodies are saturated with electric guitars. Don't worry it's still layered full with lush strings and big brasses.

And that's about all I've got to say about this one.

Another calling card

We did another calling card video. This time it's for Teemu:

Calling cards

(I've spent quite a lot of time this autumn thinking about our calling cards. I've tried to re-imagine what our cards should be like. I wanted them to show our sounds somehow (which incidentally is frigging hard when you're dealing with cardboard). The first thing I came up with was memory sticks. We got them printed and packed them full of music and sound design stuff (a whopping 11 hours and 28 minutes worth). 

But I wasn't really yet satisfied. I wanted to have something we could just easily give someone. For some reason I started to think of videos. They've usually got some sound and most people are kinda visually oriented.(Geewiz, film composers making videos with images and music... That's original.) But I gave it a shot and came up with this:

(And here's the music on SoundCloud)

Now, if we could only get our hands on something like this:

Come on Sony. Get that sucker into production so we can finally have our cool calling cards...

Sunburn

The sun shines brightly. The pavement feels rough under your running feet. Jump. Grab a drain pipe. Start climbing. Gravel on the roof splatters around as you jump on it. You move again, running...

Sunburn

Sunburn is a track started out as something else than a track. I originally needed a loop to fill out the background of a radiospot. For this I used about an hour but then the loop started to sound pretty damn good on it's own.

In the original loop I only had some atmospherics and the beat, which clearly were not enough for a ful fledged song. The biggest thing about the original loop was the lack of  a melody since it was not meant to have one. And that was the first thing I started to work upon. For the melody I drew inspiration from the soundtrack of Bladerunner. I kept it fairly simple so I wouldn't loose the atmospheric nature of the song.

...The sun light reflects of the glass and steel around you. Foot steps on the gravel behind you. They're chasing you. The roof ends. You jump...

After I got the melody down I started to work on the structure. I wanted to have this track rolling and not change too much, but still wanted clearly different sections as I imagined this to be the soundtrack of  a Mirror's Edge like video game level. I wanted to have some calming moments, some dramatic moments and some parts that rolled forward. And all the time I wanted to keep a good pace. So I imagined different kinds of situations you could get into and began to mold the section according to them.

...A railing. You grab it mid air. Fling yourself over it. A fire escape. Kick the ladder down. Slide...

After I had finished the structure and mixed the track I still wanted to mess with it a bit. I popped the beats and the melodies on different tracks in Sonar and started to mangle them with Illformed's Glitch plugin. I used it to create new drum fills and section changes. I used it to stop the beat, reverse it, retrigger it and just generally abuse the hell out of those drums. And then I did the same to the melodies. To top it of I intentionally forgot about making clean and smooth cuts between the effected parts and the clean ones.

...Head down the alley and back into the sunlight. A plaza, people there. Blend in.

Gear I used for this track:

DAWs and editors:

• Cakewalk Sonar 8.5

Samplers and instruments:

• u-he Tyrell Nexus 6
• Synapse Audio Junglist
• HG Fortune Serenity Free
• HG Fortune UltraSwamp Free
• HG Fortune Altair 4 Beta
• Cakewalk RXP
• NI KorePlayer
• Novakill Neokiller III
• Ummet Ozcan Genesis

Effects:

• Cakewalk z3ta+ FX
• Variety of Sound Ferric TDS
• Illformed Glitch 1.3
• MeldaProductions MEqualizer
• Kjaerhus Classic Master Limiter

rvltn @ IGDA 8.11.2011

We visited the IGDA event of November in Helsinki with really big plans for promoting ourselves to the Finnish game industry. Well, turned out that Supercell was giving out free beer and the bar was full. So we did whatever a reasonable person does: made a video of it.

A wee bit of a teaser

I wrote about a really huge project I'm working on a little while back. I'm really excited about this project and the work has started out really well but the thing is I really can't reveal what I'm working on until the autumn of 2012. It's a really BIG and long project. But I still want to share something.

This is what I've been mulling over the past weeks. This simple line of melody. Two and a half bars of notes. And hopefully I'm on the right track with it.

reveltone @ Facebook

This is just a reminder for those of you who haven't noticed it yet (I'm betting a lot you haven't...). We can now be found also on Facebook.

rvltn @ FB

Mush over there and like us if you like us!

Starting something big

Tomorrow. Tomorrow I will begin to write and design something big. Short but big and really frigging exciting. The concepts I've seen really are inspiring and I'm quite anxious to get work started. That's about all I can say right now.