“We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.”

"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."

Happy Halloween!

The Great Dreamer

The title track for award winning short film "That Day (Den Dagen)" by Michael R productions. Performed by amazing singer Anine Stang.

Ser Du Meg Nå (feat. Anine Stang)

A musical diary entry about how it felt to spend three nights at Ramnereiret, an epic treetop hut in the most elaborate dragon style I've ever seen. Check them out at https://www.ramnereiret.no/

Three Nights at the Raven's Nest

Kára is a valkyrie, and her name means "the wild, stormy one". On top of the mountain Lauvdalsbrea, at the mercy of the elements - we truly felt her touch.

This piece of music is written to underline the breathtaking beauty of the Norwegian mountains where I grew up. But the mountains also have a sinister side, should you fail to respect the forces of nature. You feel the magnitude of the tall, snowclad peaks, and I attempted to capture this duality within this piece of music. 

I have known Karoline Gullberg for several years, and I knew that she would bring my ideas to the next level with her magnificent vocals. She is also able to depict the whole spectrum. From ancient, raw and unhinged to serene, beautiful and awesome. She is a pure joy to work with, and I will always treasure our friendship.

Lineup:
Vocals, Grunts and Frame Drums: Karoline Dahl Gullberg
Backing Vocals: Katarina Kjartansdatter Lembach-Beylegaard
Camera and drone operator: William Gilbu
Editing: Theo Hogben
Grading: Tina Høstland

Equipment used for recording and programming:
Mic: Shure SM7B with cloudlifter
Interface: Steinberg UR44
DAW: Steinberg Cubase
Reverb: LiquidSonics Seventh Heaven
Guitars: Levin Nylon String, Takamine Steel String
VST Strings: Cinesamples CineStrings Solo, East West Hollywood Strings Gold
VST Percussion: East/West Stormdrum 2, Cinesamples CinePerc
VST Woodwinds: Cinesamples CineWinds Core, East/West Hollywoodwinds

Kára (feat. Karoline Gullberg)

A track I made for a trailer a couple of weeks ago, an awesome project from Alf Martin Løvvold, the guy with the most awesome imagination ever! A huge thanks to Madeleine Ossum on violin and violin effects, and to Karoline Dahl Gullberg for vocals! You guys are incredible, and I am so grateful to be able to work with such talented and professional musicians! Link to the movie: https://vimeo.com/129346968

Dawn of the... stuff - Soundtrack

Remake of the previous track "Dawn of the... Stuff - soundtrack" re-imagined in a late 80s version! Never done anything like this before, so it was really fun to try something new! Hope you enjoy this as much as I did making it! If you want to check out the movie this belongs to, just follow this link! https://vimeo.com/130048412

Dawn Of The... Stuff (Betamax edition) - soundtrack

“Arquebus – Fagert er landet” handler om den unge telegrafisten Sverre K. Andersen som i mesteparten av okkupasjonstiden haddeansvar for etteretning og motstandsarbeid fra sin base på Eikås gård på Bjoa.

Arquebus - Fagert er landet

Trailer theme for the movie Arquebus, by Play film. Had a really good time making this!

Arquebus - Trailer

Track I made for a moodtape in a Norwegian Folk-music theme. Inspired by Gåte, Grieg and the Norwegian mountains. A huge thanks to Hanne Fuglø for a brilliant job with the vocals on this one!

Huldrtimen

Made this music for a VFX Breakdown by Gimpville! Mixed chinese/eastern music with classical film scoring, and had a really good time making this! You can see the breakdown here: 
https://vimeo.com/193852386

League of Gods (VFX breakdown)- Soundtrack

I have used some time on getting to know the new legato-engine that Cinesamples unveiled with the release of this absolutely amazing sample library. So now I present to you my first test of this gorgeous solo string quintet pack. It's called CineStrings SOLO, and I am so happy I bought this! A huge thanks to Cinesamples for once again amazing me with a product that blows my mind!

Expand (Cinesamples CineStrings SOLO - Test)

RDS - 220

Hverdagshelt Snippet

Eve is a tender and daydreaming person, that seems lonely and longing for something. I wanted to emphasize that part of her character by using a small and familiar set of instruments, the piano and the lone violin. Melodically I wanted the melody to seem sad and hopeful at the same time. Also longing for that "something", not really knowing what it is. A huge inspiration for this whole expression was the music of Sylvaine.

01 - Eve

This is the love-theme for the film A Most Savage Beast. It is seen from the perspective of our main character Eve, so it is in a sense longing for true love to become a reality, and not just something she is fantasizing about. Therefore I chose to have the singer 
Katarina Kjartansdatter Lembach-Beylegaard sing with as much breath as possible, and it made an almost haunting sound. Violinist and viola player Madeleine Ossum used only the edge of the bow so that she was able to produce this really beautiful and almost breathy sound from her violin and viola parts too. I also think the transition to Eve's main theme just became stunning after she made her interpretation of my music.

02 - Love And Loneliness

This is the part where our main character Eve is about to lose it. Katarina Kjartansdatter Lembach-Beylegaard did an amazingly eerie job on the vocals here, and it really captures the emotions that Eve is going through!

03 - About To Lose It

We return to Eve after a while. Her world has taken a turn for the more interesting, but also she has made some decisions that haunt her. I used the same theme with the violin, but asked the awesome Madeleine Ossum to embellish the melody to her taste to signal that the main character had a broader story to tell this time around. Also I combined it with what I called the "scheming theme" that goes on throughout the film. This theme is the main theme in pizzicato strings, that adds a more playful touch. Enjoy!

04 - The Daydream

At this point Eve truly shows a different side, and I felt like I was able to catch her duality in this track. Eve's main theme being torn apart by a carpet of beautifully executed dissonance in both the violins and the choir. Madeleine Ossum did an amazing job terrifying me, especially with the disintegration of the main theme, a part that was done ad lib. in the first take. The choir was done by Katarina Kjartansdatter Lembach-Beylegaard, and layering the 30-or-so takes of her gliding between notes gave me shivers. An amazing and really difficult task for any instrumentalist or vocalist that has been working on being in tune, and they both did it brilliantly! Thank you for making my vision possible!

05 - Show Yourself

The Kiss! 
This scene is overdone in every aspect. From the filming, acting and lighting to the grading, so I decided to follow it up with a love-theme that truly went all in. It begins with a short viola solo, to underline the dreamy setting that leads up to the kiss. When they kiss I decided to play the love-theme from the track "02 - Love and Loneliness" in all its glory. The violins and viola are played by the amazing Madeleine Ossum.

06 - The Kiss

Made some horror moods for halloween this year! Hope to at least creep one person out! 
Image credit: Tone Brandal

Halloween moods

Trailer music for the psychological thriller "Block Island" by The Reels on the Bus. 
Link to trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GdkoyyKemo

Block Island - Trailer

Trailer music for Italian Day Z server! Fast paced, scary, ominous and action packed! Had some help from the amazing Manuel Del Negro to make this into my first ever music video!! Super exited to share this with you all!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AijlpnnGUT8

All We Have

A friend of mine challenged me to arrange a nursery rhyme as an epic orchestral piece. I had a lot of fun with this one, hope you enjoy it! 
Comment where you figured out what melody was used as a starting point!

Artwork by Robin Smesland

Variations on Norwegian nursery rhyme

Original Soundtrack for the outro scene in the short film "Conversations With Friends" by Mari Ørstavik. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12338578/?ref_=nm_flmg_com_1

"Release" - Conversations with Friends (2020) Original Soundtrack

Original Soundtrack for a party scene in the short film "Conversations With Friends" by Mari Ørstavik.

"In Retrospect" - Conversations with Friends (2020) Original Soundtrack

I had some good fun making this piece! I challenged myself to do two things:
1) Finish the piece in 8 hours, from scratch
2) Take a nursery rhyme, and make it into an epic orchestral piece in the style of John Williams AND (by popular demand) Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings! 

This was unbelievably challenging but OH SO MUCH FUN! Hope you enjoy it!

Variations over Frère Jacques/Brother John/Fader Jacob

"I thought there might be a bar" is a short documentary by Simone Pusch about the British artist Jim Sanders in Moskosel, Sweden. It's a calm and beautiful story about Jim and the community of Moskosel, and this was my first ever attempt at approximating that "cold" Norwegian or Nordic jazz sound. Submerging myself in some flowing soundscapes and interesting detailwork. Hope you like it!

I Thought There Might Be a Bar - Original Short Documentary Soundtrack

I joined a contest to make a cinematic arrangement of a famous christmas song! I chose Silent Night, and asked Karoline Gullberg to come into the studio to sing. She answered yes, and I decided to take a journey through several diffent moods, four different styles of orchestral/hybrid music, and I had a lot of fun doing so! Inspired by Elfman, Shore, Williams, Two steps from Hell and Zimmer 😁

(not so) Silent Night - Cinesamples Holiday Contest

Norwegian composer scoring and arranging music for movies and commercials. If you need a soundtrack, just send me an email! 
The adress is aadne.lyngstad.nilsen@gmail.com.

If you like what you hear, like my page on facebook for updates! Hit the button below to go there :)

Ådne Lyngstad Nilsen - Composer

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