The Beast's Lair

My first completed original composition. 
Written for my Father's birthday of 2015.

Admittedly, the climax is slightly reminiscent of Ravel's "Le Jardin Féerique", but I still think it functions quite well.

The length is slightly shorter than I would have liked, but then again this was composed in only a three day period.

Composed with VSL Special Edition in Cubase 5. Convolution reverb applied with MIR Pro.

Ciel Saphir (Sapphire Sky)

Here's a bizarre experiment made for my digital audio class (which basically has become a digital music history course). Our assignment was to design a system of graphical sheet music, then compose and draw a piece of music using our system, and finally enter the sheet music into an audible file via the computer. 
Since I was really lost as to how I should approach this, I gave myself a set of rules to follow during the compositional process. Because of its beauty and simplicity, I turned toward the Fibonacci Sequence and derived notes by linking summations of the sequence (up to the 21st summation) to the overtones of a certain tonality (for example, 13 would result in the 13th overtone; thus, (in say C) 13 would be Ab4*.  
However, the result was not so beautiful... nor simple...
The piece is split into 3 movements, each with their own tonality and objectives: Mov. 1 is in C and focuses on (a rather hectic) melody, following a single instrument (percussion is used for effect, however). 
Mov. 2 is in F and focuses on harmony using 3 instruments which were chosen by preference. The chords of this movement were derived by combining three overtones each separated by single values (e.g. 2, 5, 13 [which skips 3 and 8]. The results were surprisingly tonal, most chords being major or minor. Another surprise was that the 21st chord combination produced the dominant of the tonality for movement 3!
Finally, Mov. 3 is in G and focuses on both melody and harmony with the added element of timbre (instruments change roles almost every measure). Due to range issues, I couldn't use a method to distribute the instruments, so I orchestrated each measure appropriately to the material and with diversity. This movement begins with the last of the ascending overtones of G and goes in reverse to cadence on itself (although the last chord resolves on D, but that still counts).
Hopefully, my obscure explanation may give some insight into this experiment. 

Composed and mixed in Reaper using VSL's Special Edition. Convolution reverb done in MIR Pro.

The image in the top-right corner is a screenshot of my graphical score. Each color is a different instrument; on the bottom, the colors are mixed representing timbre.

*Equal-temperament is adhered to, however.

Dissecting Fibonacci's Artifice

This music was part of a student game project at my music and sound design college. Each student in my class was assigned to compose the music and sfx for a puzzle game project known as Project RUSH (and rightly so; we only had a week to do it while still having other assignments). 
The student creating the game wanted the music to reflect a crystalline atmosphere inspired by the Naica Mine and geometry like the Sierpinski Triangle. 
The game can be played here: http://rgarcin-gamedev.com/projects/nili/
The image is "Crystalline Forest" by KabaMaroudis on DeviantArt.
The game title, Nili, was chosen by the other student. It means "Azure" in Kannada.

Nili - Menu

Last night I was struck by a wave of inspiration and I finally completed this piece off a sketch I had made several months ago.
And so was born "The Dream of the Evening".
Enjoy!

Composed with VSL's full "Concert Guitar"
Reverb: Altiverb
Mixed in Reaper

I'm not a guitarist, so this maybe not even be possible in reality (especially since it is drop-tuned), but if someone would like to give it a go, let me know and I can make sheets or tabs.

Le rêve du soir (solo acoustic guitar)

!Please note the story of this game is a work of creative fiction and is not intended to be a anti-christian!

In an ancient time, God and his nine archangels had created our world as we know it. Upon the Earth, our creator was revered by its mortals--by humankind. 
However, acts of an unbearable horror that were suffered by the mortals and the unpunished had corrupted the spirit of mankind. A rebellion against God was inevitable. A man who no longer believed in anything forgot all that our creator had imparted to him.
Seeing with horror that mankind had become evil and vile, God decided to destroy His creation. To destroy humanity.
Lucifer, she, who loved all humans, who dared to put them on a pedestal, decided through compassion to warn the mortal Noah, and told him to prepare himself for the destruction of the world and of mankind.
God learned of this terrible betrayal and in an extreme anger, he decided to banish Lucifer from His Palace.
In her fall from the heavens, the archangel erupted within her feelings of anger, hatred and revenge, so that in a rage, she was determined to rise from Hell and to put an end to the folly of God...

This is the final video game project of my first year at ISART Digital for which I only composed the music. Due to time contraints, the game did not turn out as polished as one would have preferred, but the OST (minus one track that composed by the other student on my team) is, in my opinion, the best sounding work I have done this year. 
We had 3 months to work on the game, but because we were so busy with other projects as well, the bulk of the music was composed within two weeks. 

Composed with: VSL SE, Symphobia, LASS, Orchestral Essentials, and Albion. 
Mixed and programmed in: (shoutout to) Reaper (You are a beautiful piece of software and I promise you will get my $60 very soon. Highly recommended if you are a poor musician like me.)

Final Boss Battle - God

The Prix Mille Saisons is a short-story writing competition that takes place in Paris, France. A jury votes for their favorite submissions which then go to become part of a printed collection of stories. Illustrators and composers each create their interpretation of the story, and are accessible through QR codes found in the book.

Nul Sauvetage/Futur Fermée by Valentin Desloges is a story of six inhabitants from the small and isolated village of Folt-Troys, hidden high within the mountains. One day, a mysterious fog envelopes the village and changes everyone's manner of speech in humorous ways. The six form a group to part on an adventure to discover the source of the fog. Upon arriving at their destination, they discover that the author of the story himself is the cause of their troubles. To everyone's confusion, the author presents a kind of game show in which the reader must vote for their favorite character. After the group realizes the author is a threat to their existence, they attempt to combat him which begins to cancel out the real world and the fictional world. In order to prevent any spatial paradoxes from occurring, the author realizes he must stop writing the story. The novella then ends, leaving the reader to question the meaning of existence.

The collection can be purchased here: http://www.legrimoire.net/store/fr/romans-mille-saisons/246-tombe-les-voiles.html
The other composers' works can be found here: http://www.millesaisons.fr/prix-millesaisons-2018/liste.php

Music composed by me, Gaël Perrin.

Nul Sauvetage/Futur Fermée - Music for the Prix Mille Saisons 2017-2018

I was improvising one day and came up with some ideas that inspired me to make this become a full piece. It keeps a constant 8th-note pulse throughout its entirety and shifts in rhythmic accents, harmony and melody throughout; like that of dimensional shape being rotated, based on perspective, it changes appearance and the way we perceive it. 
The style is similar to that of John Adams "Phrygian Gates".
Piano VST: Keyscape

Dimensional Undulations

The main theme for a virtual card game that never made it out of production.
I had a lot of fun with this one and it was exciting for me since I've never composed this style of music before. I think it turned out rather well, considering.

Composed over the course of a week.
Instruments: Keyscape, VSL, Superior Drummer, Native Instruments
DAW: Reaper

Project: Card Game - Main Menu Theme

Track list:
0:00 — Awakening
0:39 — Forest Wanderings
2:28 — Darkness Vanquished
2:41 — Liff
3:05 — The Breath of Nature
5:57 — Remembrance
7:20 — The Depths of the Earth
8:33 — The Forgotten Forest
9:29 — Touch of Life
10:17 — In Bloom
11:05 — Song of the Forest
11:53 — ...And then, There Was Life

Here is the complete soundtrack for the award-winning student game, Líff.
I composed this over the course of a few months and worked hard to make each track as expressive and beautiful as I could. 
The vocal parts were sung by the gracious Norma Nahoun.
The only thing I wish I could have done better was the in-game transitions between the music. If the game manages to become funded for a full-scale project, then I will take the time to realize this technical aspect.

My work on this soundtrack was inspired a lot by the music of Takashi Yoshimatsu, particularly his "Memo Flora Concerto". If you enjoyed my soundtrack then I think you like his music very much.

VSTs: Keyscape, VSL, Albion, Symphobia, LASS
Composed and mixed in Reaper

Líff - Complete OST

This is my first attempt at the genre of Electro Swing. Considering that, I'd say it turned out rather well, although I couldn't help myself from adding an emotive piano interlude in the middle. Thus not only are the people swingin', but also their emotions outside of the party scene.

I'm also really happy with how the mix for this piece turned out. I feel I'm getting better with mixing for each track I release.

Composed in Ableton Live with a bunch of various virtual instruments including Project SAM's "Swing", Spitfire and VSL.
Composed and mixed over the course of 3 weeks.

Image credit goes to Frafi on 8tracks.com for an edit of Philip E. Morris' "I Got a Girl"

The Night's a-Swingin'

It's been a little while since I've done anything music related, and so I came up with the idea for this arrangement to keep my chops up.
I'm pretty happy with the result, but I feel the mix could be tighter/cleaner.

Arranged and mixed over the course of a week.
DAW: Reaper.
Virtual instruments used: 8Dio Taikos, Spitfire Symphonic Orchestra, VSL Concert Guitar, VSL Percussion, Spitfire Percussion
Image credit: Beautiful Dancer in a Red Dress by Anatoly Metlan

Asturias - Orchestral Flamenco Arrangement

Composer and Sound Designer for Games and Film

Gaël Perrin

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