Vincent - 10 minutes 45 seconds

Simple piano music written to calm a newborn baby to sleep.

This session was created for new arrival Vincent and his Mum and Dad Schirin and Steve.

I was thinking simple lullabies, the kind of thing a mother or father might whistle or hum to their baby while rocking them back to sleep. We learned early on with our own children that repetition is good for the child but less so for the adult. Children are often happy to listen to something or repeat the same behavior many times over before they get bored with it, great when they're on their own, but.....

---------------- Now playing: music2work2 - Vincent via music2work2

Last Chance - The Movie - It's About Hope

I feel like a juggler who is about to get his hands on his favorite ball; it’s still up in the air, I can see it, I know what it feels like and I know what I’m going to do when I’ve got it.[display_podcast] Last Chance is a short animated movie that tells a distinct and valuable story in a unique and provocative way. In direct contrast to the current trend towards realistic animated images – Last Chance is aiming for a more vivid impressionistic look. As Sami Nikki, the Director says, “There’s a small but healthy dose of social commentary, overall wonkiness, crazy colors and hopefully good fun.” [flickr-gallery mode="photoset" photoset="72157617932289919"] Sami and I got together in February and March this year to develop a working audio track for the movie – it was the first “visual” work I had done in years and I absolutely loved doing it. The last couple of months have seen my focus turn elsewhere but it is about to come back to the movie. The piano track and overall structure is mapped out – now it’s time to look at the next level of imagery and to start building in additional voices.

The piece you’re listening to is a development on the Last Chance theme. When I’m working on a track and I have an idea of the final structure – I like to just riff on it – forget the structure and just play around with it. I often find that in doing so I get a different perspective, an insight sometimes into how the piece can develop.

I’m posting this today to mark my intent to start developing the music again – I can’t wait for people to see the imagery – it’s very cool!

---------------- Now playing: Zoë Radio via wmbr - 88.1 fm

Identification - 14 Minutes 13 Seconds

Soothing Strings & Piano, written to assist information assimilation

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This was written to accompany a particular event concerned with identification.

Here is the reasoning:

Objective: Enhance the delivery of visual and verbal information through the creation of an auditory environment that stimulates the receiver's awareness without distracting them from the core message.

Target audience: Corporate / Government professionals

Environment: Tradeshow, busy exhibition hall, display booth

Having looked at the nature of the project, my instinct was to deliver something very calming. Having worked booths at trade shows, I know how busy and frenetic the environment can be; the very nature of a trade show means that attendees are receiving huge amounts of information in a short space of time.

The whole point of "background" music is that it is not the primary information, when reviewing the efficacy of a piece, it is important to be undertaking the kind of behavior that the piece was produced for. That's a long way of saying - be looking at the slides and think about what you will be doing when this is playing!

The piece is predominately string based which allows for longer continuous tones which in turn reduces the need for constant change and therefore potential distraction. Considered change is necessary however, to signal that new information is coming; say a change in a slide, or a verbal discourse, etc etc. To reflect this kind of behavior I adopted a piano 'motif" that appears throughout the piece.

The underlying construction of the piece is a gently ascending movement in a major key. Western ears associate this with positive, hopeful and uplifting outcomes.

At 14 minutes long, it should cover the amount of time that one individual will spend at the booth - also - it shouldn't be too annoying for the people who have to work the booth and hear it again, and again, and again......!!! I have a fear of coming back as an Ice Cream Van man and being sentenced to listen to Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" for a living eternity!

The piece is written at 61 beats per minute - "heartbeat" rate - calming. I wondered about this a lot - having a more up-tempo and dynamic piece can actually add to the energy of the environment and facilitate the information delivery.

I used a Korg Triton that has excellent piano tones and relatively good string tones - please note that there is a definite difference in quality between digitally produced and real strings. For music that has to stand alone - I would not use "synthesized" strings - however, for this kind of music I think it is very appropriate (let alone economically expedient!)

Identification is part of The Reader's Playlist.