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Headless
The transformations for HEADLESS were done from multi-track recordings. Each of the CD tracks is constructed round discrete fragments from individual tracks from the sessions for the Greek band recordings. This allowed for a lateral reconstruction from the Greek recordings: often, a CD track is comprised of drums from one Greek band track and clarino from another, and so on. Through this, different tonalities and harmonies were created, often by extending harmonically what modulations occurred through collaging and overlaying discrete components from the orginal recordings.
Most of these individual track fragments from the original Greek band sessions were remixed in 'dub' mode at the Media Arts studio. These fragments were then taken back to Gelatin, and sampled and placed in extended linear form to make up the prinary backing for the CD tracks.
Spatialization and timbrel enhancing were completed through waveform editing and MIDI manipulation. Then on top of these textured beds the rest of each CD track was composed, often using analogue synthesizers to symbolize the drug-induced quasi-hallucinatory sensations of the character Ari in the film Head On. Some drum patterns were totally rewritten at this stage, using original fragments fo snares, hit-hats and kicks, but then re-editing them to reflect the club environs within which Ari undertakes much of his late night hedonistic revelry.
Paradise
Most of the tracks for PARADISE are typical of Philip Brophy's way of working: a series of sampled fragments and textures are generated and transformed through MIDI modulation into 'performed' incidents which shape themselves in musical ways. For example in track CRASH: a recording of a cup rubbed across a ceramic floor tile is loop-edited and diffused into a texture and selectively played across a keyboard to reveal the inner tonality of the sound's resonnant quality; this is combined with the sound of close-miced gong taps, performed similarly but with keyboard sensitivity transforming the filtered quality of the sound; and finally recording of a kettle whislting is pitched high and overload with itself to create a phasing effect, which is then performed across the keyboard in a manner akin to a flute. The finished piece accentuates all the original textures without employing computer plug-in effects which usually drown the original sound in noticeable synthetic modulations.
This approach is applied in two ways in PARADISE. Firstly, to recorded textures (as mentioned) which relate and fuse imperceptibly with the sound design of the film and to a variety of mic positionings for extended guitar performances (eg. track OIL). Secondly, to samples taken from 'light classical' recordings - deafeningly rich in their high-quality and bordering on the melodramatic. In this latter case, the resultant tracks (eg. track TABLE) are drained of their kitsch affects and in place become a series of lush abstracted soundscapes - simultaneously archetypal yet noticeably distended and contorted. In both cases, the essential, primary characteristics of the source sonic material is retained and adhered to in the various acts of sampling and transformation.
Anyone Home
Philip Brophy’s score for Anyone Home is based around a series of recordings of drums and guitar. Each recording is a single live take, working to a time-frame of about 6.5 minutes, following a series of general directions for building-up and building-donw the drama of the music at set time points across the 6.5 minuites. (As indicated earlier, the score was conceptualized and composed before seeing the final video by Rosemary Dean; the second half of the score’s original recording was used for the final video.)
Each recording is is built around a specific placement of two microphones to create a stereo image of the instrument concerned. However the resulting stereo track is then assigned a specific placement within the quadraphonic playback space. With the guitar tracks, a first mic was placed extremely close to the where the string was being strummed, while a second mic was placed extremely close to the resonant body of the guitar. With the drum tracks, a first mic was placed extremely close to the top skin where the string was being tapped, while a second mic was placed underneath the roto tom to pick up the lower-frequency resonnance of the drum. The close-micing was integral to capturing the sound, as both the guitar and the drums are performed with fingers alone, and at a near-inaudible level acoustically. So the microphones are picking up a quasi-microscopic perspective of the rumbling drums and vibrating strings.The Pining Tree
The Pining Tree instrumentation is restricted to a re-edited sample bank of Rhodes electric piano sounds on the ASR-10. Extended reverb effects processing is employed to diffuse the harmonic tones of the Rhodes' samples.
The whole score revolves around one melodic sequence of chords, which is then repeated twice during the film. This chord sequence is wholly improvised while watching the film, complete without looking at where hands were being placed on the keyboard. The concept here was to create music that simply and purely 'co-existed' with the images - in much the same way the woman in the film seems to simply 'exist' in a hovering disconnected state.
This sequence commences at the first point where it was gauged that there was a thought being formed in her head. The sequence was then performed played until it was sensed that her head became emptied of thoughts, reflections and sensations, just as she is going to sleep. This same sequence was then repeated across an image-sequence where the outdoor tree and its mystical/fatalistic power became more prominent in the story's action. This repeat allowed the score to represent equally the tree's energy in relation to the woman, as well as the woman's relation to the tree. In accordance with various Japanese folkloric tales, she becomes susbumed within a natural entity (in this case, a tree), so the music becomes 'subsumed' within them both. The improvization of chords to her alone allowed this transposition to occur, rather then having to write two separate chord sequences.
Whispering in the Dark
Comprised of two key musical sketches, the score to Whispering In The Dark was composed without watching the picture edit. However a visual study of the performers’ momentum – evident through Lynn B. Williams’ direction – provided the rhythmic template for these sketches.
By working ‘away from image’ rather than ‘to image’, the score was generated by self-contained pieces of music rather than cues. When placed back against the image, their occasional and fluid synchronism gave a sense of the characters’ detachment from each other and their world, plus it suggested the transience and confluences of everyday life swirling around the two characters’ momentary interactions. This ‘de-dramatized’ idea of musical accompaniment is typical of composer Philip Brophy’s general approach.
The two sketches are comprised solely of voice and drums. Philip employed extended vocal technique, variable mic placement and additional digital processing through waveform editing for his vocals. The drums were closely miced and were all hit with fingers and/or hands, so that the skins of the drums are as audible as the transient impacts and resonant tones of the playing.
The two sketches (each with their own set of internal movements) totalled about 7 minutes and were doubled to equate the length of the film – literally. The pieces were left as they were originally composed – complete with a few seconds silence between them – and then copied and placed again. Due to the internal rhythms of the pieces being so comprehensively based on the energy of the performers’ physical presence and momentum, the music ‘breathed’ with them as integrally as the performers breathed with each other. In a round about way, the original idea of ‘breath’ became even more integral to the resulting sound design – but now forming the core energy pulse of their interaction rather than a textural sound effect placed atop their depicted action.Maidenhead
For Maidenhead, a detailed sound score (see here) breakdown was written up and used as the master plan for developing the 'sense of space' for each of the environments Alices passes through. Comprised of natural sounds (interior sfx recorded by Philip Brophy; exterior sfx recorded by Philip Samartzis & Jennifer Sochackjy) and processed through the ASR sampling workstation, theses passages retain their acoustic aura while conveying a 'trans-worldly' sensation.
For about half of these sections, musical elements were seeded within the consructed acoustic environments. 'Seeded' means that some of the sound effects were performed with pitch or rhythmic patterning so that a harmonic suggestion grew from within the acoustic environment. This technique Philip has noted occurs often in Japanese film scores, where sounds and musical motifs are allowed to float through and beyond scenes, as if wind or water currents are governing their placement rather than authorial inscripture. Thus, components like distant planes, screeching breaks, heart beats, magpies, alarms start to function more musically than acoustically.
Only The Brave
See here for a detailed account of the musical themes and recording proceeses used for Only The Brave.
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