This is the latest of my commissioned compositions, written to be played in Luton Library Theatre in February 2014 by two splendid pianists.

The piece is written for piano four-hands and is based around one of my favourite scales: the octatonic scale.

Enjoy :) 

Octaphrenia

So!

I challenged myself to write something new, and here it is: my first original composition in 7 years!

I was imagining grand-heroic-sci-fi vibes.

The album will be called 'Resurgence', and this is Part I 😋

Enjoy 🤙🏻

Resurgence

Ascendance (Part I. from 'Resurgence')

Here is Part II from my new album, 'Resurgence'. It builds on the themes laid down in Part I, but takes this character to a much darker place 👀

Eclipse (Part II. from 'Resurgence')

Fourth edit I made a few months ago- it's still not finished, but I thought I'd show y'all anyway ;) 

Doctor Who (Work in Progress)

So it's pretty much finished! I got bored so I gave up mixing properly! Enjoy!

Really need to invest in a better orchestral sound library!

(The previous version's ending was shocking and unresolved, so I sorted that!)

Something's Coming

So this is the final cut of the last version :) enjoy! 

Rappelant

Just a little arranging exercise I did recently. Based on Danny Elfman's Beetlejuice theme! Enjoy :P 

Beetlejuice

This is taken from a short film clip that I scored the opening to. It still needs some refinements, but overall I'm quite happy with it :) 

The clip (from the opening of Ghost in the Shell II) was particularly interesting to score because the visuals can be interpreted in a number of ways. My decision was to write a score that started with a build up of sounds and textures which then moves into a more instrumental section, ending with more sounds. 

The instrumental part raised a few issues, the biggest being that the whole thing is based on a simple one-bar ostinato, so maintaining interest was difficult. I got around it by layering up instruments and melodies in an interesting way, and not allowing the piece to climax too early. My reasoning for using a simple ostinato is because I felt this section is more structured and mechanical, with the body slowly being put together. The driving motion of the ostinato represents a kind of robotic and orderly undertone, while glorifying life by using the pure-sounding choir. I very much wanted to make this act of creating ‘life’ seem like a good thing. 

I actually had a lot of fun playing with lots of plugins in Logic while doing this clip, mostly in the opening music but also in the instrumental parts: before this, I had no idea how to create my own synth sound! The Ringshifter was particularly useful in the bass lines because it produced a throbbing sound, which was trying to emulate the feeling of being underwater (or in a robotic ‘womb’). 

Innocence (Film Score)

This piece was born from using this symmetrical octatonic scale: C Db Eb E F# G A Bb. I chose this octatonic scale because I wanted there to feel like a ‘home note’, but allow enough flexibility to be able to completely throw off the listener’s ears. The opening chords are the most prominent throughout the piece, acting as an anchor throughout the piece. 

My original idea was to have the tubular bells to play a note loudly, while another instrument crescendos into the same note from silence, allowing it to sustain longer than the tubular bell would allow. It quickly became apparent that this idea was not enough to 

In the workshop, it was suggested that the French Horn’s opening notes should be stopped, and I really liked the result. It made the opening even more uncomfortable and almost stings the ears with each stab. I then developed the ideas into something where each instrument bounces off another. 

Further on in the piece, the violin takes a more rhythmic part, driving the piece forward into a new aural space that was uninhabited before. The hardest part was actually stopping the rhythm that it set up, but in the end I decided to just stop it abruptly as this was the most efficient way of stopping it. 

 It was played in concert on 25th June 2013, where I shamelessly recorded it using my iPhone's awful microphone. It's not a great recording, but you get the idea! Also, the french hornist kept playing bits wrong and had some intonation issues- it's the player, not part of the piece :P

Scatter Tones

My most profound realisation has been in harmonising the cogs within my mind with the strings within my heart.

Conaugh

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