Oscura — vintage Soviet animation vs sci-fi synth music Antiphon 2020-09-14 | *Video is not 1:08 as YouTube suggests, but 5 minutes long. A story made with scenes taken from 4 different Soviet era animations: Urok (1987) - Robert SaakyantsZerkalo Vremeni (1976) - Vladimir TarasovSrazhenie (1986) - Mikhail Titovkogda to davno (1990) - Galina BarinovaNo copyright infringement intended — contact me for takedowns. Original music produced for Camp Dune at Nerf Action Xperience.All music rights reserved.
Ulysse Nardin #FreakWorldTour / Sound Design & Scoring Antiphon 2022-08-11 | For the Singapore leg of the #FreakWorldTour. Favourite bit: the frantic synth part that drops in as the Colossus is headed to the city. It says "fashion" while fitting the mecha-cyber aesthetic.Render by White Label Studio SingaporeSound & Music by AntiphonAll rights reserved
Decomposing #003: Sci-fi towers: Reflections at Keppel Bay, Singapore Antiphon 2020-12-04 | Headphones for binaurally-recorded traffic. A quick shoot-sound-score experiment. The skeletal tips of these luxury apartment spires are straight out of a post-apocalyptic setting.
Rainforest Explorer Sound Design | Animal Planets Living Worlds Exhibition Antiphon 2020-08-25 | These sounds were created for the Rainforest Explorer. Users "snapped" photos of animals in hiding to trigger their walkout animations. Producing these was a lesson in acoustic zoology: researching what vocalisations sound like for a species, trawling libraries for dramatic and usable field recordings, then processing them to sync up with the animations. The mix, especially for the movement foley, is more forward than usual to cut through the chatter of the crowd. Not featured in this quick and dirty cut were the excellent thunder recordings from Spirit of Sound, with whom I have no affiliation. spirit-of-sound-effects.com/index.htmlElephant 0:01River Dolphin 1:19Black Crested Gibbon 2:20Colugo 3:20Green Hermit Hummingbird 4:12Jaguar 5:15Potoo 6:29Babirusa 6:57Red Tree Frog 8:13Capybara 8:57
AR Photo Booth Sound Design | Animal Planets Living Worlds Exhibition Antiphon 2020-08-24 | Visitors got to "pose" with these 3D animals. Being a bit larger than the Rainforest Explorer, I mixed the sounds so they would be more forward in the crowded show space and not completely drowned by laughing and chatter. The emperor penguins have the best call!
Arrangements for low-poly art - Animal Planets Living Worlds Exhibition Pledge Area Antiphon 2020-07-04 | I rearranged the biome music for the pledge activity station. It was the last section of the exhibition where visitors customised their own 3D animals and “sent“ them to a persistent animated landscape showing prior visitors' creations grazing and chilling out on a large wall. Kids could also fold origami animals, which were then strung up by the hundreds all over the area. I didn’t like the green-headed tigers so much. This footage is of a work-in-progress build of the 3D customisation tablet app, with music, animal sounds and transitions I'd put together for the station. The idea was to end the exhibition on a boppy note, citing the same biome themes they'd heard for the 2-3 hours they'd spent at the exhibition in hope the tunes would stick and remind visitors of these creatures worth fighting for. Listen to the Sea Ice biome music: youtu.be/ReOlRqaJu9oListen to the Coral biome music:youtu.be/UMOxqno-3pEListen to the Rainforest biome music:youtu.be/TzAHIm61T1g
Rainforest background music at Animal Planets Living Worlds Exhibition Antiphon 2020-07-04 | "Destroying a tropical rainforest for profit is like burning all the paintings of the Louvre to cook dinner."- E.O. Wilson ABOUT THE EXHIBITIONAnimal Planet Living Worlds ran at the Singapore Science Centre from November 2019 to March 2020. I was briefed by the team from Kingsmen Creatives to evoke "the joy of childhood." Our ambition was for visitors to leave with a fresh sense of attachment, awe and concern for these creatures and their habitats. I composed 7 pieces of music and provided sound design for the animal activations and interactives (save the submersible explorer). The original track was not sync'd to a video, as it is here, but looped in actual exhibition space. It was produced as a mono track and is remixed here in stereo though the environmental sounds remain in mono. I’d lopped off the other side during production. Oops! ABOUT THE MUSICThis was initially conceived as a 10-minute piece for a day-to-night interactive station at the start of the exhibition. I was to eschew fetishist musical tropes. No ethno-drumming, no ethno-winds, and certainly no tribal voices or hoots. Early sketches included a 5-minute night section where the instrumentation turned to jazz for inspiration, transforming the night scene into afterhours at a speakeasy as the noctural cast of creatures took centrestage. It was part early LucasArts, part noir. The textures and motifs here channel the playfulness and colour of the rainforest — rich plumage hopping branches; cheeky primates; bulbous eyes of reptiles dressed in 80's guitar hues. Listen to the Sea Ice biome music: youtu.be/ReOlRqaJu9oListen to the Coral biome music:youtu.be/UMOxqno-3pEListen to the biome music rearranged for the final fun pledge activity area: youtu.be/LZAvFtIZEL8SOUND DESIGN HIGHLIGHTS: ○ creating the whir of an agitated rhinocerous beetle flapping its wings with $2 notes and a non-prescribed use of up/downsampling ○ the weirdness of mimicking a lyre bird mimicking construction noise in its vicinity○ discovering wildly expressive animal calls — Emperor penguins FTWI retain all rights to the music, and would be chuffed to discuss licensing and usage. TO THE VIDEO CREATORS WHO MADE MY WORK SOUND BETTER, THANK YOU! Music colours the picture, and the picture colours the music. I am grateful for the royalty-free footage, courtesy of Pexels and Pixabay video creators.
Music for winter | Sea Ice background music at Animal Planets Living Worlds Exhibition Antiphon 2020-07-04 | " 'Harsh' to us is 'home' for them. Take away the ice and snow, increase the temperature by even a little, and the realm that makes their lives possible literally melts away."- Sylvia Earle ABOUT THE EXHIBITIONAnimal Planet Living Worlds ran at the Singapore Science Centre from November 2019 to March 2020. I was briefed by the team from Kingsmen Creatives to evoke "the joy of childhood." Our ambition was for visitors to leave with a fresh sense of attachment, awe and concern for these creatures and their habitats. I composed 7 pieces of music and provided sound design for the animal activations and interactives (save the submersible explorer). The original track was not sync'd to a video, as it is here, but looped in the actual exhibition space as ambient music which also included environmental sounds — wind, cold waves lapping.It was produced as a mono track and is remixed here in stereo.ABOUT THIS PIECEI encountered less friction producing this piece because of the popular aesthetic established for icy music by Spitfire Audio's Albion V Tundra. It's a palette frequently used in media composition, and while I was tempted to develop a different sonic vocabulary, early sketches convinced me that the glassy, gusty, frosty sounds were the right home for the composition. Here, a tinkly piano introduces a childlike theme (I imagined an arctic fox cub at play) and is later joined by some manner of snowy waltz. Listen to the Rainforest biome music here:youtu.be/TzAHIm61T1gListen to the Coral biome music here:youtu.be/UMOxqno-3pEListen to the biome music rearranged for the final low-poly fun pledge area: youtu.be/LZAvFtIZEL8SOUND DESIGN HIGHLIGHTS: ○ creating the whir of an agitated rhinocerous beetle flapping its wings with $2 notes and a non-prescribed use of up/downsampling ○ the weirdness of mimicking a lyre bird mimicking construction noise in its vicinity○ discovering wildly expressive animal calls — Emperor penguins FTWI retain all rights to the music, and would be chuffed to discuss licensing and usage. TO THE VIDEO CREATORS WHO MADE MY WORK SOUND BETTER, THANK YOUMusic colours the picture, and the picture colours the music. I am grateful for the royalty-free footage, courtesy of Pexels and Pixabay video creators.
Underwater music | Coral Biome at Animal Planets Living Worlds Exhibition Antiphon 2020-07-04 | "There's nothing wrong with enjoying looking at the surface of the ocean itself, except that when you finally see what goes on underwater, you realise you've been missing the whole point of the ocean. Staying on the surface all the time is like going to the circus and staring at the outside of the tent."- Dave Barry ABOUT THE EXHIBITIONAnimal Planet Living Worlds ran at the Singapore Science Centre from November 2019 to March 2020. I was briefed by the team from Kingsmen Creatives to evoke "the joy of childhood." Our ambition was for visitors to leave with a fresh sense of attachment, awe and concern for these creatures and their habitats. I composed 7 pieces of music and provided sound design for the animal activations and interactives (save the submersible explorer). The original track was not sync'd to a video, as it is here, but looped in the actual exhibition space as ambient music which also included environmental sounds of the deep — gurgling, bubbles, and subtle whooshes. It was produced as a mono track and is remixed here in stereo.ABOUT THIS PIECE Of the 3 biome tracks I composed, this is my favourite. The textures and themes were my attempt to transport visitors into undersea strangeness, a voyage through otherworldly seascapes, and a progression from deeper depths to shallower waters. The frequency distribution "brightens" towards the middle of the track.Earlier sketches were passed for various reasons. One of them was a low-frequency driven, cavernous sort of affair — a bit of a trope in film underwater scenes — that would also have reverberated across the entire exhibition hall. Listen to the Rainforest biome music: youtu.be/TzAHIm61T1gListen to the Sea Ice biome music:youtu.be/ReOlRqaJu9oListen to the biome music rearranged for the final pledge activity area: youtu.be/LZAvFtIZEL8SOUND DESIGN HIGHLIGHTS: ○ creating the whir of an agitated rhinocerous beetle flapping its wings with $2 notes and a non-prescribed use of up/downsampling ○ the weirdness of mimicking a lyre bird mimicking construction noise in its vicinity○ discovering wildly expressive animal calls — Emperor penguins FTWI retain all rights to the music, and would be chuffed to discuss licensing and usage. TO THE VIDEO CREATORS WHO MADE MY WORK SOUND BETTER, THANK YOU!Music colours the picture, and the picture colours the music. I am grateful for the royalty-free footage, courtesy of Pexels and Pixabay video creators.
Decomposing #002 - Overgrown is beautiful Antiphon 2020-06-07 | They haven't come round to trim the grass since COVID-19 measures snapped in place. Just as well — Singapore looks beautiful with random swathes of little blooms and green touseling over the edge of sidewalks. A makeover for a new epoch? I haven't had the stomach to jump back into work and coursework for the past 3 days, and these sprints from improvisational scribble to video shoot and upload — without sweating minutiae and quality — are therapeutic. - Daniel
Decomposing #001 - Blow this not safety gaskets Antiphon 2020-06-04 | To punch endless mouseclick tyranny in the face, I wrung a track out of some quick improvisational meandering while building a new template. If you like, the rules of decomposing are:1. No more than two edits or takes for anything. No tweezing details. Or being hard on yourself. 2. Master if you must but just to tame things that pose a threat to hearing3. The first 2 rules may be similarly decomposed. It all depends on how much therapy you need.4. The moment you feel like it needs to be Something, earth yourself again.5. It will feel unfinished. So be it.Video is the DAW timeline through a pixelart filter and slapped together with the music in the very premier iMovie. All in the spirit of the exercise!
Spitfire Audio | Westworld Scoring Competition | #westworldscoringcompetition2020 Antiphon 2020-06-03 | My entry for Spitfire Audio's Westworld Scoring Competition. Entrants scored this sequence from Westworld season 3 episode 5. Credits to Paul and Spitfire for putting this together, and HBO and the WW team for giving composers a stage and a neat clip to work with. Hats off to Ramin Djawadi for crafting a familiar yet unique palette for the official Westworld score. - - - - - - - -In this scene, Caleb trips on Genre, a substance that tints subjectivity with the hue and feeling of films. Gives them filmbrain. The original sequence had the Ride Of The Valkyries cut to it, which opened things up for interpretation: Apocalypse Now or later? Excerpts from notes, made vague in light of spoilers, proceed at your own risk:- Russian Cyrillic signage in combat past- Sequence as fractal of partnership- Inner dissonance, a history too checkered- What spin to put on, ahem, intertextuality (open to better terms) a la Valkyries? - Argh
NAX Zombie SFX, foley and voiceovers Antiphon 2020-02-22 | Sound effects, foley, and VOs for the animatronic and onscreen zombies at the first ever Nerf Action Xperience play centre. Nerf is a trademark of Hasbro. Sound design by Antiphonwww.antiphon.com
Austin Wintory Cover Antiphon 2019-08-29 | Gorgeous theme. This is from Austin's score for ERICA. playstation.com/en-us/games/erica-ps4This inspired me to return my attention to melody, melody, melody. I'd forgotten that a theme can contain a whole emotional arc. "Falling Upward" from Austin's score for Pode is a lesser-mentioned favourite of mine.
The Sky Ajar Antiphon 2019-02-05 | "Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape? If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can."- Ursula K. LeGuinOriginal music by Antiphon.Painting by Viktor Vasnetsov (1880)[CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia CommonsPainting animated by Antiphon.www.antiphon.com
September 2018 Music Demos: Cyberpunk forests Antiphon 2018-10-15 | In September 2018, I made music demos for these games in early development. These were not commissioned or solicited. I approached the creators. Here are excerpts! - DanielXenoforce (@mswiftdev)That hyperspace sequence. Those particle effects. Hammerwatch 2 (www.crackshell.dk)The teaser came with temp music, and the Foxtail Road track took me back to Ultima VI—a childhood favourite. The dungeon sketch was the best of the crop this time round. Griefhelm (@JohnnyLonack, discord.gg/3UhuhA) That tealish forest level. That nice rotoscope/motion-capture movement. Johnny was cool, venturing improvements on the track.Sundew (@TheSundewGame)Cyberpunk, and the promise of a more introspective, empathetic storyline. Yesss.
Griefhelm Music Demo — Atmospheric combat Antiphon 2018-10-04 | A minimalist soundtrack with a wooded ambience and adaptive aspirations. Griefhelm is a Nidhogg style duel platformer developed by Johnny Lonack. Demo music by Antiphon.indiedb.com/games/griefhelmdiscord.gg/NBMZ3Vwww.antiphon.com
Hammerwatch 2 Music (Demo) Antiphon 2018-10-04 | I wrote 3 pieces as a demo using the HW2 trailer: a heroic theme, a wander-in-the-forest theme, and a mysterious dungeon theme. The greenery and buildings took me back to Ultima VI — "Stones" and "Forest"!- DanielVideo owned by Crackshell. Music by Antiphon. This post was made for demo purposes only. http://www.crackshell.dk/www.antiphon.com
Telling the lead characters story in a song Antiphon 2018-09-13 | Dayna's realising she doesn't need affirmation from men—especially those who treat her like another notch on the belt. Josh and I wrote a song to mirror her story in a coming-of-age short. The brief? To channel Dionne Warwick in a 70's faux soul ballad. We dressed string and horn sections with subtle overdrive and removed modern detail to get a golden, yesteryear glow.The most important element in creating an authentic sound here is the voice. We worked within project constraints, and hope to rerecord the song with a real soul singer someday! MOONLESSYou're a swirl of colourSpinning round across the roomYour smile it parts the dancefloorEvery eye is watching youI lean in hear you say your nameYou pull me by the handHeels on checkered black and whiteFrail promise on your breathAnd without the sunThere would be no moonlightSimple but it's trueI disappear without youAnd without your loveLike fire and shadowSimple but it's trueI disappear without youI ask you if we'll meet againYou squeeze my arm and sigh"Tomorrow is still far, far awayForever is a haze."Now the night is endingIt's plain to seeYour gaze on everyone else but meThough you're the dream I neverDared to dreamI must awake and get you out of my headAnd without the sunThere might be no moonlightSimple but it's trueI'll learn to live without youAnd without your loveThe night will pass anywaySimple but it's trueI'll learn to live without youwww.antiphon.com
Using music to expand the meaning of onscreen action: Outland rescore Antiphon 2018-09-09 | What music do you imagine in a game with swinging swords, monsters and magic, and a hero fighting to save the world?I was looking for a different emotional context for our hero by pushing past the dungeon-like dirge that came to mind and asked instead: what if we replace dark with hopeful, broken with transcendent, violent with thoughtful?I began this track in a masterclass with the game's original composer, Ari Pulkinnen (aritunes.com), whose score features fantastic expansive atmospheres. - DanielCOPYRIGHT INFORMATIONOutland is a 2011 game developed by Housemarque, published by Ubisoft, and scored by Ari Pulkinnen. The game was featured with permission from Housemarque publishing. Gameplay footage by Jyrakos, used with permission.Original music by Antiphon.
Sound from scratch: Riot Games Creative Contest January 2018 Antiphon 2018-09-08 | The brief for Riot Games' Creative Contest asked sound designers to make something different from scratch without the aid of SFX libraries for a silent excerpt from Xayah and Rakan's teaser trailer.We made conceptual plans and then shot all SFX in our foley studio (OK, a repurposed bedroom). For instance, we used the lightest fabric—a linen shirt—for the smallest character's cloth swishes. Zed, the evil ninja overlord, got a large raincoat, layered with the deep whoosh of a corrugated cardboard stick.For Xayah's feather darts, we wanted a light but lethal sound. We tried a bunch of things: whipping bamboo flutes through the air, shooting pencils with rubberbands and blasting compressed air through a copper pipe before making the perfect prop—a cluster of boba straws attached to a 4ft branch, cut so wind would whistle through their cross-sections. COPYRIGHT INFORMATIONThe moving images and all places and characters are property of Riot Games. This clip is a sound design showcase. All audio by Antiphon. www.antiphon.com
