Oracles in Sepia - a short film score / audio-visual work

Elektronauts Our Music
#1

Hello all,

I was lucky enough to be selected as one of 8 artists to complete a commission for ‘Oracles in Sepia’. It premiered on 22nd Oct.

Here’s the published film:

https://youtu.be/RZ9vG_uW-48

More info on the project from Compass Presents:

We are living through a moment that will reframe the past and the future. A moment of suspension where everything has been thrown up into the air and not yet landed. Despite a sense that everything is new, an exploration of our visual history reveals scenes that feel familiar. Have we been here before? What have we learnt? What comes next?

That is for you, and our oracles, to decide.

Created by Compass Presents & Trago Studio, supported by Arts Council England, using archive footage courtesy of:
East Anglian Film Archive (EAFA) / Yorkshire Film Archive / North East Film Archive / Film London / The Box Plymouth / Northern Ireland Screen Museum Collections & Archive

More info on my work:

This is a work in four sections which flow seamlessly in and out of each other to form an 8 min 23 sec piece.

80% of the sounds you hear are made with four synths - lots of custom sound design. From persistent repetition to monumental block chords, the tiny sounds of nature awakening to screaming alarms and fat basses – tortured analog electronics provide a rich array of sounds to listen out for. I’ll often just set things recording, and then spend sessions working the controls of my equipment, giving me material to chop up and utilise throughout the piece, before further manipulating sounds working with analog tape and effects. The remaining 20% of sounds are me playing piano – recorded using the same upright that I practiced on as a teenager 20 years ago – and bassoon.

Lastly, I added further visuals: there are clips of me working with synths and playing acoustic instruments, all with overlaid projections, manipulation of the footage to match audio cues, and a series of video synthesized responses to the audio, which were overlaid onto the film to provide further textures, colours and movement.

Equipment Used:
Studio Electronics - Boomstars SE80 and SEM
Novation - Peak
Soma - Lyra 8
Elektron - Digitakt and Analog Heat
Empress Effects - Zoia
Source Audio - Ventris
Critter and Guittari - Eyesy
Korg - Stage Echo SE-500
Yamaha - MT-400
Digitech - Digidelay
Welmar - Upright Piano
Heckel - Bassoon
Sontronics - Aria and 2x STC-1s

4 Likes
#2

Here’s the published film:

2 Likes
#3

I enjoyed this! I think your composition worked really well over all, you obviously have a good feel for pacing and identifying visual events that can be enforced through sound. The part that starts in the cinema when the puppet takes off the 3D glasses was fantastic - i’m assuming that sound was ripped from the lyra!

I didn’t really like the shots of hardware and your playing in this context, it just seemed pretty jarring and like it was a suspension of the narrative and flavour the piece was trying to create. I felt the same about the blockier audio-visuals that were super-imposed; I found them distracting rather than supportive, if that makes sense.

However, I really liked the subtler effects, the oscilloscope type visualisations and the rainy straight lines in the last part of the piece, I think they felt more part of the environment. Overall I think it was very well executed, you obviously have a knack for visual composition and i’d be interested to see more of your work! The first part was quite reminiscent of the American minimalists and reminded me of Koyaanisqatsi.

1 Like
#4

Thanks for watching and for your feedback Merv! Part of the commission was to try and have some of me and my process in there, hence dropping a few bits and bobs in. I’m glad you could notice the subtler visual details though, I was worried they were a little too subtle! And the lion in the cinema is my favourite bit too :slight_smile:

It’s worth checking out the rest of the project and other artists responding to the same piece - last week was a ballet dancer, and over the coming weeks there are a bunch of other performers too.

And do please come and find me on YouTube to see more of my stuff!

1 Like
#5

That’s interesting, it definitely contextualised the music; it’d be interesting to see how it’s perceived by non-electronic musicians. I think part of why it jarred me is the sudden differences in video quality and colour palette. Will definitely check out the project, looks really cool! Where did you find out about it? I’ll check out your other vids for sure :slight_smile:

#6

I can’t remember where I found out about it - advertised online somewhere - there were about 250 applicants I believe. I enjoyed the process, it was fun to work with so much archive stuff!