I’m excited to share my latest score, for the Discovery television film Curisosity – What Sank Titanic? The film looks at what really happened on the ship, based on true accounts from the survivors, and is narrated by Bill Paxton, from the hit series Big Love. I had the great pleasure of working with the British Emmy-nominated production team Dangerous Films (Zodiak Mediagroup), and in particular the terrific music supervisor Richard Todman. The music is a combination of virtual orchestra, synthesizers and percussion, and features the young Montreal vocalist Fletcher Bryce. It is only playing on US television, and available on US iTunes, but it will go worldwide in 2012, the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.

You can view some video excerpts by clicking here

Next showings-
Sunday, Sept 04 Discovery US
Thursday, Sept 08 Science Channel

On iTunes US

I’m thrilled to share that the series I composed music for last year, CBC’s 18 To Life, will air in the US this summer, on the CW television network. CW is now the 5th largest network after the big three and Fox. 18 To Life will air in back-back-episodes from 9 to 10 pm, on Tuesday nights starting August 3. Read more here.

For the past few months, I’ve been composing music for a new CBC prime-time domestic comedy, 18 To Life. The producers and I decided early on that the music production and performances should not be too slick. I opted for some country-blues inspired music, along with simple jazz-blues riffs and rhythms. I bought or rented a bunch of great instruments for this truly fun project: national steel guitar (also known as a Dobro), harmonicas, a banjo, a late-70s Gibson Les Paul, a kazoo (!), etc. I also rely on software instruments like Spectrasonics’ new Trilian basses, RMX with Cajun and Jazz percussion/drum loops, AcousticsampleS‘ Kawai piano, SAM Symphobia and LASS strings.

Produced by Montreal’s Galafilm, the series will premiere January 4, at 8 pm.

Here are a few examples of my cues:

Close The Blinds

Down Home

Flirting On Bench

Kazoo Boogie

Refugee Hop

The Proposal

Award-winning composer Leon Willett offers his analysis of film scoring devices, complete with score and audio examples (Willett’s an excellent mock-up composer). This is a really great resource for composers interested in learning more ‘tricks’ of the trade. The composer also offers one-on-one courses in harmony, counterpoint, creating mock-ups and more. Click here to explore it.

An exciting new player has arrived in the world of sample libraries. Tonehammer, the brainchild of composer Troels Folmann and sound designer Mike Peaslee, offers very affordable, out-of-the-ordinary deep sample collections for the Kontakt virtual instrument. What is ‘deep’ sampling? Most of the instruments offer up to 10x round-robin, assuring that you’re always going to get new sound variations when you strike the same MIDI note twice. Furthermore, many of the instruments/objects were sampled in interesting acoustic spaces. This combination of real spaces and multiple variations adds up to an organic sound. These are truly musical sample collections. The ‘instruments’, of which there are far too many to list here, include sneakers, museum railings, bamboo sticks, whale drum, coins, hangdrum, bathtub, yells, marching band percussion, a sofa, etc. The official website features superb demos. For more info, click here.

I’m very busy these days on the soundtrack for a UK/Canada documentary on the crew’s role in the sinking of the most famous passenger ship of them all, and how this tragedy could have been avoided. The iceberg is also a key protaginist – so much so that I have composed my very first iceberg theme! Directed by Patrick Reams, and produced by Pioneer Productions and Handel Productions, this Channel 4 commission features a combination of drama, documentary and CGI footage. In writing for my virtual orchestra, I have been inspired by the music of Philip Glass, particularly the soundtrack to Notes On A Scandal.

Next month, I will be starting work on the soundtrack to a Sci-Fi/Muse tv movie entitled Rise Of The Gargoyle, featuring Eric Balfour. More on that in a few weeks.

Recently, I found out about US composer and inventor Raymond Scott for the first time. This has been quite a revelation for me, as I had never heard of his inventions, nor did I know that he was responsible for many of the classic Looney Tunes scores (he did not write music for the cartoons; Carl Stalling licensed songs like Powerhouse). A true genius who was a mentor to another giant, Robert Moog, Scott invented one of the early synthesizers (Clavivox), pioneered the use of a monitor over a keyboard for film/tv score work (Videola), and created a mysteriously complex sequencer called the Electronium, pictured below. You can hear many of his electronic pieces and read about his life in the accompanying book that is part of the set entitled Manhattan Research Inc. There is also a rich and fascinating website devoted to Scott, his music and inventions which you can visit here.

I’ve added a new page to this site, featuring audio examples of my soundtrack work. It’s one of the tabs at the top, just below the title of my blog. Don’t be shy, post a comment or two and let me know what you think!