Nicky Bendix

Cinematique music and live recording tips

2011-02-14T04:49:00.000-08:00

Cinematique music on synths, with performance notes.

Here's another take on live composition/improvisation using a complex synth setup.

The video shows the recording of the music for the Norwegian/Belgian artists Tone Aanderaa's new video "Melancholy of an Odalisque". It is an edited version (for time) - full version bellow.

The video has "peformance notes" that explains what is going on and how the setup works for this track. Hope it can inspire some new ideas or atleast be nice to listen to.

Here is a brief description in writing:

String sounds:

I use two layered string sounds. The first is the string sound from the digital piano I play on, the yamahy P-90, and the second is coming from a "Kurzweil Micropiano" module. The Kurzweil is transposed an octave up relative o the P-90 to give it a broader and more orchestral sound. If you follow the "performance notes" in the vid you will notice that I am using volumepedals to fade the sounds in and out and mix them to create crescendos and a general dynamic waves and expression. I allways liked the Kurzweil strings - they feel very "authentic" to me. And the strings in the P-90 are very playable and responsive.

But I think thee are two factors that are more important.

1. The weigthed keys of the P-90 lallows me to much more acurately conteoll the dynamics of the sounds than had I played it on a keyboard with "normal" synth keys. That is definitly important. To play on a keyboard that you feel responds like you expect it to.

Whatever instrument or sound you play you must learn to play THAT sound and THAT synth. What I mean is that the string sounds here work well becuase I play what makes them sound good. Had I gone in another direction it would not have worked. I feel that synths can take you anywhere musical - but each synth and each sound is only really expressive and musical within a rather limited area. So playing WITH the string sound and sticking to what works for that sound is more improtant than from wich keyboard or module the sound comes, I think.

The rest of the Sounds:

Synth Oboe, Korg 01w/fd

Bells arp. (faded in and out using volumepedal): Korg N5

Sea Wave sound (faded in and out using volumepedals).: Alesis Micron,

Extra controller:

Rolans Jx-10 functioning as extra midi controller to trigger the string sounds from the Kurzweil module alone.

All is also more or less decsribed in the video:)

Hope you enjoy it.

Nicky

Performance note version:

Full Version:

Her er musikken sammen med billederne:

Melancholy of an Odalisque

Tone Aanderaa | Myspace Video

"SPHERES" - Close encounter of the third degree captured in music.

2011-01-31T12:33:00.000-08:00

This video (seen below) is part of the album in progress named "Spheres"

The music on this album is an attemp to capture the experience, reality and feelings behind being taken aboard a Seraphic Transport, more commenly known as a UFO.
These are real, heavenly crafts that serve as vehicles for the work of the necessary, physical contact with certain human beings.
This contact is, offcourse, to most people who experience it a scaring and traumatysing event - but this is not due to the invasive character of the experience itself but due to our ignorance of the why's and how's. It is actually a beautifull, vital and very, very important task these diverse beings are performing, in perfect and close colaboration with the Angels.

The Album is still in progress and will probaply remain so for some time still. I have captured sopmething with the current recordings but I feel there are aspects that are not covered and also some refinements that needs to be adressed.

I have many thoughts about what this album might become or do - but I also have a general feeling that it is quite "out there" for most people. And due to the terrorfying nature of the expriences for the abductees I have little hope that it will find resonance in anyway in their lives too.

One thing might be to release it somehow someday together with other artists or scholars that study this same phenmenon. Mayby with some visuals in the form of drawings or paintings - We will see:)

I have studied this phenomenon for around 20 years and in many different contexts, be it direct reports/interviews or mythological texts or spiritual revelations. I have a very clear knowlegde of the precedings and the name of the different type of beings involved. and the nature of their functions and tasks. So personally I thought that I would not be so scared if I ever experienced contact of the third degree (I have experienced 2. degree contact). But once when I was resting on my bed I had a brief vision, not even of a full being but only of one half of a shadow of a being on a wall - and I got SO scared :D:D So much for me "being ready":)

I need to look deeper into the recordings and go back to my research of ancient texts and interviews with people who have experienced this to find the right titles and structure the whole thing.

But meanwhile the album-in-progress is up for your enjoyment:))
Any feedback is very welcome.

Peace and light

Nicky Bendix

Full album here (still in progress):

Synth Setup for improvising "A Galaxy Named Orvonton"

2011-01-29T16:27:00.000-08:00

A Galaxy Named Orvonton by Nicky Bendix

The beginning of the track is played on orange alone, up till the point where the piano sets in (Red). More infoon the what an how follows here:

OK, setup for the improvisation ”A Galaxy Named Orvonton”

This relatively simple setup illustrates very well the basic techniques for playing and controlling multiple sound generators at the same time, while still staying in full control in a hands-on, go-with-the-flow kind of way:)

First a describtion of the setup and then a short elaboration on the trick that makes this a very flexible setup.

Red: P-90, is playing the Piano sound that later is layered internaly with a string sound also coming fom Red. From Red there is a midi connection to Blue running on midi channel 1 and merged with a midi connection from Orange, also running on midi channel 1. These are merged into one signal in Blue (still channel 1) and routed to Green - more on that later..:)

Orange: Super JX-10, only functioning as a midi controller on this track. Feeds a midi signal running on midi channel 1 to Blue where it is merged with the signal from Red. And send to Green...

Blue: MCS-2 Midi control station, merges the midi signals from Red and Orange into one midi signal running on channel 1 and transmitting all note info to Green. Everything played on either Red or Orange will therefore go directly to Green.

Green: N5, recieving note-info via midi from Red and Orange and feeding those to its internal Arppegiator playnig a soft Electric Piano sound, with very soft attack and running a three octave cylce. The sound is transposed down one octave relative to the notes coming in, More later:)

Cyan: K1, sound module. Recieving note info from Greens internal Arpp. via midi, running midi channel 1. Playing a percussive sound in the original octave of the notes coming from Red and Orange, meaning one octave higher than the Arpp on Green, further seperating them and broadening the sonic picture.

Now the trick:

The fact that Red and Orange both feed the arppegiator on Green means that I can play the piano sound and improvise there while the soundmodules follow what I play AND I can manipulate the Arpp independently by playing on the midicontroller, Orange, without playing the piano sound at all at the same time.

If I play with both hands on the piano (Red) I get the full ”orchestra” and if I play with my left hand on Orange and let my right hand play lines on the piano (Red) I get a thiner sound because the pianos deep notes are not there. BUT the overall deep arppegiator sounds are still running like before and following the music, so you don't feel that ”something” is suddenly missing! And I can play on Orange alone and only get the moving, organic arppegiator cycles without any piano.

From Red there is a midi connection to Blue running on midi channel 1 and merged with a midi connection coming from Orange, also running on midi channel 1.These two signals are merged into one signal in Blue (still running on channel 1) and routed to Green where the notes played on either Red or Orange are fed to Greens.

The notes coming into Green are the fed to it's internal Arppegiator playing a 3 octave pattern using a soft Electric piano sound with a tweaked attack to make it smooth and soft. This sound is transposed down one octave relative to the notes coming in from red or Orange. This has the effect that the soft arpp from Green is ”heard” more because it is not in frequency conflict with what is played and send to it - and it gives a warm, calm feel to the whole sonic picture.

The Arpp infomation generated by the internal arppegiator in Green is send to Cyan, playing a percussive and clear sound one octave higher than Green. This sound has some delay effect also and generally gives some ”space” and sparkle to the track since it runs up three octaves higher than the notes played on red or Orange.

All in a day in the life - accidental music:)

2010-07-25T10:56:00.000-07:00

SO much of my music just HAPPENS when I actually intend to do something else. I have wanted to record a certain type of albom for years untill I found out I allready had....

This new track appeared out of nowhere the other night when I was trying something that just wouldn't come together...

I actually wanted to record an synthesizer instruction video for another track ("Dark Night of the Soul") but for some reason couldn't get the sounds right. Going through my sound libraries I stumbled upon this weird combination of sounds. This combination hit me and inspired a track that reflected my feelings about another project I was thinking about that evening. the youtube project "A Day in the Life" (I think it is called...). Thinking about the world and all thats going on in each persons life - such a broad and rich vision.

I recorded this and some more music that I am not going to use for anything. I am submitting a little video for the youtube project now. They don't want music but the do want what excites and inspires us and for me that IS music:) So I will send it on it's way and they will probably reject it. It's this recording + some talking and so.

"Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans" - I have recorded 12 or 13 albums now and I think I have only consciously created 2 or 3, the rest was concieved by "accident" or atleast without my active part in the planning proces. But the music of each album does run along certain unique lines that makes up each individual album - and no more music in the "feel" appears once an album is finished, more or less. :)) Funny stuff....

OK, here's the newest memeber of the "family" - "A DAy in the Life of the World"

Improvised on the evenig of the 24. of July, 2010

To Jude RE scary music

2010-07-24T06:27:00.000-07:00

Judes comment was this: "I love the Fuggles themes. It seems very hard to do scarey music and use tunes - of course Jaws is the classic here. Do you have any thoughts on scarey music to share with us after doing this? I would be very interested x "

I would love the debate a bit on this - everybody feel free to tip in.

First there's the obvious difference between frightning and scary. Something frightning might just be unexpected (a lightning, a loud scream etc.), scary is something deeper.

I think first of all that "scary" is a mood. We all know the effect of the children song being played and the whole scene is terrible scary. Same children song played in a different context (and mayby without the underlying sound-tension :) is not scary at all but cute or atleast positive.

What makes a sound or a mood scary is that it conects with us on a deep, subconcious level. It is a knowlegde of something to dread. This could be a primal survival-fear but I believe it is actually deeper and more spiritual than that.

First, to give an example. A typical effect is a deep rumble to create suspense and tension. This is playing straight intop the arms of our primal survival reflexes. If we heard a deep, violent rumble on a normal Wedensday afternoon when we where shopping for dinner, we KNOW we would have to be alert.

But moods are more subtle and engmatic.
Sound and music can produce moods and atmospheres. In a way sound and music "bottles" atmospheres and moods. We can get sad without music but music can evoke a mood that makes us feel sad. So music mimics reality by re-creating a mood from real life in sound. Sound contains infomation from real life situations and can re-produce the "mood" or "flavor" of these situations.

We are all different and have different reactions to lifes twists and turns. We have different emotional preferences and what seems tiresome and ugly to one person can seem beautiful and inspiring to another. And here's the interesting part. Sound can capture the nature/flavor of a reality situation and this flavor is the same regardless of the listners emotinal preferences.

Picture a scene where the hero saves the damsel from the hands of the evil protagonist. The music then potrays relief, thankfullness, love and joy. One person might respond with irritation and resentment over this cliche ending and this stupid, romantic music. Another might shed a silent tear and let the beautifull , emotional music flow through the heart (I know we are talking SOUND but the example is clearer with music and the principle is the same, bare with me for a moment:)

What is interesting here is that even though the emotional responses where different they both agreed on the content or message of the music. One resentet the emotional outburst, the other embraced it. But they both agreed emotionally on what it was. My point is that sound is the REALITY content of a situation, not the intepretation of it. Sound contains a sort of objective infomation about the reality in question, a blueprint, so to speak, that has a universal meaning.

I will get to my point now - my point does not apply to all kind of scary music, off course, but it is the way I go about it.

My point is that sound can evoke a blueprint of any kind of real-life situations to re-produce the "vibration" of that reality. What makes something scary is that we on a subconsious and soul-level are confronted with the sound-reproduction a situation that is truly scary and dangerous to us, would we be in the reality of that situation.
I have had different experiences in the borderland between the physical and the spiritual realm that where not of the positive order and they, like any other experience, have had a certain feel and mood to them. I have talked to people who have for example played "The Spirit of the Glass" and have had deeply upsetting experiences that could not be compaired emotionally with anything else they had ever experienced. But emotionally and subconsiously a person KNOWS that this is not a good direction to pursue - they KNOW they need to get away from this "mood". If you burn your hand on a hot plate yopu know you have to pull your hand back - if you encounter spiritual dangerously situations, you know you have to withdraw.

Sound can re-produce the reality of these experiences and let people explore and experience them without being put in direct danger. Sound is INFORMATION - It is KNOWLEGDE of reality. It allows us to explore reality through a safe medium. Sound and music can reflect even heavenly realms - infomation far outside the limits normal, human perception.

When used in movies, sound can put the viewer in a spiritual dangerous situation and the person will feel deeply scared and unsettled without really knowing why, because he will not have the personal experience to know what reality he is confronted with - unless he has had these experinces himself at an ealier point. But he instinctively, and on a Soul level, knows what it is, without being able to put it into the words of the mind.

Humans did not invent sound or music. We meely explored and discovered it and there is NO end to what we can discover :)

These where my thoughts - hope it somehiow adressed your question, Jude...:)
What do you other guys say?

All the best
Nicky

The Dark Night of the Soul

2010-07-24T05:39:00.001-07:00

I found RomanyWG's amazing photos about a year ago and was stunned. The richness of colours and the spectrum of light that these photos of abandoned Asylums and old Manors reflected was baffling. I have allways identified with this rustic look and soul of old, abandoned places that oozes history and I feel my music contains much of the same elements in terms of soul and aesthetics.
RomanyWG agreed to let me make a video using his images. This video is just a sample and I have forwarded it to him. If he dislikes it I will off course take it down again.

But at the time I didn't have a track that spoke the same language as the photos and I had to wait till it appearred. And lo and behold, after being sacked from "Milo's Journey" I had a couple of pretty "abandoned" days and dark nights and at the end I improvised half an hour of music of wich 10 minutes went into this video. Viola!! There it was! :)

What makes this track sit with the images is the "flying" arppegiator riffs going from left to right in the stereo field. The breaks open the moodyness and brings glimpses of light of blue and yellow and green into the music. THAT connects with the images. Eventhough the photos are of abandoend and old places the are FILLED with everykind of colour. Especially blue and green and yellow. Well, the yellow is mayby more the white light of actual light - but the feel is there.

Here is "The Dark Night of the Soul" - with RomanyWG's amazing photos.

"A man cannot serve two masters"

2010-07-24T05:13:00.000-07:00

So, a little update with many changes.

As some of you know I am no longer the composer om "Milo's Journey" - I honestly have no idea why. I never got a reason just a sudden mail out of the blue from Adan Garcia telling me that he had found another composr for the movie. I asked him why but he never replied.

I was very schoked at first - LOADS of hours and work down the drain.... but eventually I have turned it around to actually initiate a completly new and clearer direction for myself and my music in the future, starting with this blog.

The bottom line is that I will return to my primary focus of serving God, The Spirit and Music first and let whatever follows from that follow. I will focus my energies on direct service to the music I record instead of spreading out too much. In the past year I have tried this and that and the other in attempts to promote the music but with very little succes. Now I know where my heart and my strength lies and I will focus on that:)

I might use the music I have allready recorded for Milo as some kind of compositional demo. We'll see.

But I feel free, I feel happy and I feel focused - so let's get on with it!!!
:))

A minute a day keeps the deadline away...

2010-07-14T07:38:00.000-07:00

I wish is was so - unfortunatly I don't have the luxury of keeping this pace - but for the last two days I have composed and recorded very close to one minute a day - wich is generally what a composer can expect to manage in one day. Mind you, I have shaped the sounds and played and recorded everything too :) The next scenes are going to be scored faster (I hope...:)

What's new?

Well, the music for the scenes you can watch in this clip are actually vital to the score/movie. It sets the general boundaries and mood of the movie. And it introduces the second main charater, the "Teddy bear gone Angelic" Fuggles. I will elaborate a bit on the different aspects here:)

Boundaries and Mood

This is basicly defining what kind of universe we are visitors in. For example, How scary is Fuggles? How frightned does Milo get? Is is a childrens movie? Or a movie that explores the supernatural from the perspective of a grown up?? How dramatic should the movie be?

Milo is alone, he is deeply sadened by the loss of his parents, he is in a hospital, it's dark, it's evening and suddenly he hears something fall over and realises that there is somebody or something in the room with him.

This has been a tricky balance to find. And Fuggels theme would be the theme that set the stage. First I tried to create ONE theme for Fuggles - a theme that had it all - but it seemed I needed more. What worked was to create two themes for Fuggles. One for when Milo doesn't know what or who is there (but the theme should still, for the viewer, point in the direction of Fuggles) and one for when Milo sees Fuggles (his old teddy bear). I will get into the two themes further down in the blog, but the solution was to use the old "music box" cliche to bring us back to Milo's childhood but at the same time keep the viewer in the dark as to what is going to come next. A music box can be the prelude to a child or a motor saw maniac:). The tension is then nicely resolved by cancelling all sense of danger with the old, familiar sound of the acoustic piano - and on top of that playing a harmless, nice melody in D-major.

Wow, I can feel that there is SO much to tell - I think I recorded around an hour worth of music, that was never used, in order to get the right themes, feel and sound for these 2 minutes:)

I have (just for fun) attached a video with some scary music that was never used. This was part of a long journey that included recording loads of new music and sounds, and the idea was that the human voice would help open up the score.... well, eh, after spending half a day on it I realized I was, well, wrong... hmmm

Fuggles Theme x 2

Muic box theme:
To put it short Fuggles needed something to hint at his supernatural background. He is an angel coming to Milo in the form of Milo's old, favorite teddy bear. Adan and I agreed that somekind of elv-ish vibe would fit him. But the movie doesn't have the vibe of the elves to connect with too much "lord of the rings" feel in the music. So I wrote a theme (the music box) that is actually a bit celtic at heart (Especially if you notice the turn at the end when it goes back to the dominant a bit prematurely) and I played it with a shlightly distorted music-box sound. I thin k that did the trick. This theme will return later in the movie. Well, they both will.

Piano-theme
Here I needed something to show Milo's warm feelings for fuggles and to reflect all the good times they have spend together. After trying dozens of things it turned out a nice, warm piano-thing did the trick. I allways smile when I watch the place where Milo laughs - the music and movie goes really well together here, I think.
I play everything by hand. That has many disadvanteges but also some advanteges. Notice the little hesitation in the music when Fuggels raises his finger at Milo - This is the kind of "organic perks" that are thrown in for free when one is working "ecological":)

The next thing to come is the astroid/cosmic journey!!! I am looking forward to that one - Yay!!!!!

I hope you enjoy this little peek - many things can still change but I am working at a nice pace and we are well on the way.

Thank you for reading - and enjoy your summer:)

All the best

Nicky

"Milo meets Fuggels" - The two themes for Fuggles.

"Scary music"- version. This will not be used in the movie but it illustrates very well the corners one has to turn to get home in this buisness. It was good fun and it was necessary - AND I lost a lot of time :)

Scoring "Milo´s Journey" -talk on symphonic sounds and music

2010-07-05T12:59:00.000-07:00

Here I talk about combining synths and sounds to create a symphonic feel without merely mimicing a symphonic orchestra. Video sample of music and the animation clip together at the end of the video.

Scoring "Milo's Journey" . talk on sounds and music

Nicky Bendix MySpace Music Videos

The Journey of scoring "Milo's Journey"

2010-07-04T05:17:00.000-07:00

Hi, my turn to start a blog here.

I have decided to start my blog with a current project I am working on and that is to score the animation movie "milo's Journey" by Adan Garcia. The blog will be following the "work in progress", so the first blogs will have drafts for music and unfinished music. This will allow you to fololow the creative process and see how the music changes and evolves.

Adan Garcia has created a very touching and beautifull movie about the boy milo who's parents died in a fire where also Milo got hurt. We first meet Milo when he is recovering in the hospital after the fire. Suddenly Milo gets a visit from a strange creature called Fuggles. Fuggles is a messenger/angel coming in the shape of Milo´s childhood toy to take him on his last, fantastic journey before being re-united in heaven with his parents.

Thoughts About the Music:

The style pf the movie is very naivistic and in a way "cute" but the story is quite dramatic and very broad in it´s scope, both involving a supernatural being (Fuggles), a "last time" space trip and not the least an ending that places our main character right at heavens gate and beyond.

Adain and I talked about the feel of the music to be a kind of Harry Potter/Indiana Jones clone but without loosing the "simple" and "children movie" feel.

Plan for the Music:

There will be atleast two recurring themes, one for Milo (main theme) and one for Fuggles (coming in next blog). I am thinking that I will need one more theme to not over use the two first. I am guessing the journey will get it's own theme somehow - let's see.

About This Sample Video:

This is the first draft for the opening and first scene of the movie. It's a DRAFT - not the finished music:))

I have aimed at creating a slightly mysterious/supernatural feel without going too dramatic and magical. The music must have some foothold in real life since the fire and the death of his parents and Milo's sorrow is very much real.

Fuggles is also not magical, more supernatural and actual more part of the angelic family than the family of wizards.

Opening Theme:

The sound used for the main them (Glockenspiel/electric piano) is used to give the theme a dreamy quality. It's also a waltz to further enhance the airy side of the story. but besides that the main theme is actually a pretty straight forward minor melody, in a way it could be a Swedish folksong. Before the theme repeats it shifts between minor/major harmonies a couple of times and I bring in the choir too. this together takes the theme in a supernatural and dramatic direction. Otherwise it would be too plain.

The bridge from the main theme to the first scene is marked with a harmonic change where a minor chord is changed to a major and left hanging. this breaks the direction of the theme in an unexpected way and leads us in undefined and unexpected directions.

First Scene:

The opening music for the first scene is the high strings (I don't like the very obviuos sample loop of the sound so that WILL be changed:) and gives a sense of forboding.

Then it's pretty straight forward. Milo is sad and the music reflects that but also has a comforting feel to it. It's in E-flat major but moves around a bit. Notice the music during the fire flashback. This is the same "minor/major" chord sequence that was used in the opening titles. This underlines the life/death tematics and the severity of the situation/story but also hints at the supernatural.

Then Milo prays (looking out of the window). I especially like the delay in the music when the scene changes to a full view out of the window at the moon. had the music changed at the same time then the scene would have seemed "crowded" or "heavy".

Here milo gets scared and the story continues but this blog ends here:) More next time.

OK, thank you for reading so far - I allready have recorded drafts for the next scenes so a new blog is due to appear soon.

Take care

Nicky