Sarcofagus @ Dante's Highlights, Helsinki

I hadn't planned on writing about gigs into this diary, but last night I heard something so inspiring that I had to share it. I went to listen to Sarcofagus on their gig. I got a little more than I expected. Most of the set was made of their most known songs and they rocked through them well. The big surprise came at the end.

The show ended with a few guest appearances. The final two guests were a guy playing an electric kantele and a singer doing throat singing. Imagine the sound you get when you stack up a rough heavy metal background, the kantele playing distorted folk melodies, the throat singing bringing an air of ancient things to the mix. And to top it all off the keyboard player starts jamming with a 60's or 70's analog Moog synth over everything else! Talk about originality.

The Terror: Ice bound - finished

Just finished mixing the intro track. I felt it did not need any of the compositional changes I was pondering. So without further ado, here it is:

The Terror - Ice bound

Gear I used for this track:

DAWs and editors:

• Cakewalk Sonar 7
• Sony SoundForge 7
  

Samplers, instruments and effects:

• NI Kontakt4
• Sonar PerfectSpace
• Timeworks Equalizer
• Waves L3 Multimaximizer

Libraries and impulses:

• VSL Horizon Series Chamber Strings
• VSL Horizon Series FX Percussion
• Soniccouture Bowed Gamelan
• Cinesamples Drums of War
• Cinematique Instruments Bowed Psaltery
• Sample Logic Vuvuzela
• Sonivox Flying Hand Percussion
• Kirk Hunter Symphony Orchestra Diamond
• Cinematic Strings Monster Staccatos
• Project SAM Brass
• NI Kontakt 4 Library

• Sonivox Flying Hand Percussion impulses 

Yeah, I used Sample Logic's Vuvuzela library. Can you spot this much hated instrument there?

The Terror: The beast attacks

I started work on the main action cue of this project. This is where we get the Tuunbaq, the beast that hunts the stranded men, inside the ship. This is when they are hunted in their temporary home. This is where many of them die. It will be a brutal track without respite, without mercy. There are lot of drums and less melodies. It's more about panic and haste than coordinated action. This is where they scramble to survive.

The Terror: Ice bound

Just finished the first draft of the intro track of "The Terror". It sounds very cool even before mixing. There are still some things I have to think about though. Mainly the ending and the length of the middle section. Both are good, but I'm thinking that the middle could be a little longer still. So going to do some intensive listening for the next few hours. Of and the name of the first track is:

Ice Bound

The Terror: First notes and bars

I began work on "The Terror" album right away. Since it's one of my favorite stories I really didn't need to search far for inspiration. The intro track is about halfway done and it conveys very well the main elements of the story: isolation and freezing cold. Both of them ooze out of the novel. You'll never look at snow the same way after reading the novel. I'm hoping to convey that into the music as well. If the intro track had images to go with it they would contain a Luc Besson style moving camera that floats over the ice and snow towards two stranded ships.

New spec project

Chipping in with a simple cover picture post of a new project I'm starting (yeah, I know, maybe I should finish some of these spec projects for a change). I'll be doing some tracks inspired by a fantastic book by Dan Simmons called:

The Terror

Sippo and the funk - rehash

Yesterday I started to work on rearranging, reinstrumenting and generally pimping up the track "Sippo and the funk". Going add many new layers and changing the instruments to make the sound more cinematic and retro. Also going to make it really into a theme song from the current background loop style. Hopefully will get it done soon.