Fighting the Gravity (2017), Directed by Jon Beauchemin of the Motion Picture Institute of Troy, Michigan, is a post-apocalyptic satirical comedy about leadership and society in a post-war world.  Every year, Five Warlords...err, well you'll have to see, meet each year to discuss whatever things they need to discuss, which in this session includes a derelict space rocket, the ending of the world, and getting everyone killed.

The soundtrack for this film features a light orchestration featuring woodwinds, strings, some brass, percussion, and tiny amounts of synths with very dark satirical melodies to portray a world that, while technically in the future, exists for all-time.  Short staccatos help keep the dialogue in the center, while providing a fun and whimsical atmosphere.  There's a bit of everything in this film and soundtrack, so sit back and enjoy!

Fighting the Gravity - Official Soundtrack

The tracks I made for various games at Nordic Game Jam 2024. They all have a different feeling and mood for each unique game! The games are free to download and play: 
https://takunomi.itch.io/home-dungeon
https://anoukvanuffelen.itch.io/sheep-pool
https://bardkris.itch.io/cult-of-cat

Home Dungeon NGJ2024 Music

Watch the Video: http://youtu.be/4-nRsSU5R8k

Written and Performed by Blank Face Villain
Recorded at the Duderstadt Center by Alex Huryk
Mixed by Alex Huryk
Mastered poorly by Blank Face Villain
Inspired by "Dimethyltriptamine" by Jay Electronica, "Serenade" by Klassical, "'Emperor' Piano Concerto No. 5" by Beethoven

The Sloppy Seconds EP coming soon!

<a href="https://theartistunion.com/tracks/aad192?soundcloud_ref=description" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download for free on The Artist Union</a>

Free Download ?

Dimethyltryptamine Serenade (Klassical Jay Electronica - Live In Studio)

Inspired by Deus Ex: Human Revolution, this track takes the player through a factory in which a new race of cyborgs is being constructed from the remains of humans.

Reconstruction

“Barnstorming” was a bizarre fad of the 1920s, where skilled pilots would use old WWI biplanes to travel around the Midwest, landing in random farms.  There they would charge the locals for airplane rides, and perform thrilling airshows.  Much like traveling circuses, these barnstormers only stayed in any given place for a short while, and their arrivals were tremendously exciting events for the culturally and technologically reclusive farmer audiences.  These airshows were tremendously gripping, but were also excessively dangerous.  Some of the stunts they performed were barrel rolls, flips, dives, wing walking (walking on the wings of a moving plane), midair plane transfers, and even playing tennis on the wings of a moving plane.  Often these barnstormers were, naturally, injured of killed doing these stunts.  The strange and ridiculous juxtaposition of the exciting thrills and tremendous danger is the main impetus for this piece.

The music opens with a terrifying and visceral growl, signifying the engine of the plane starting up.  After taking to the air, we are abruptly introduced to some exciting popular ragtime music, soon to be joined by some jarring dissonances.  Quickly and with agility, we move from style to style, tempo to tempo, interspersed with exciting flips and stunts.  After a return to our ragtime theme joined by several other styles vying for our attention, we finally enter clear skies, and come to a glorious climax.  However, this does not last long, as very soon after our plane stalls, and we come crashing down to earth.

I have always been interested, fascinated, and tickled by polystylism.  From Ives to Schnittke to Zorn, I believe that the intrinsic humor in the incongruity of it is alone worth pursuing it for.  While I have always used such techniques in my music, with this piece I go all out.  I was aiming for a ridiculous mix of styles nestled somewhere in between Gershwin, Stravinsky, Mendelssohn, and Carl Stalling.

This work is dedicated to my nephew, Ethan Browne.


Barnstorming Season for Symphony Orchestra

SHADOWS OF THE STUDIO for Orchestra (2015) 
3333/4331/timp/perc[3]/pf(cel)/hp/str
[Performed by the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra, Elim Chan, cond.]

SHADOWS OF THE STUDIO for Orchestra is my musical tribute to the glory days of Hollywood's "studio system," a factory-like production setup that allowed for the efficient, speedy creation and distribution of quality motion pictures, thousands of which are now considered cinema classics.  This landmark era of filmmaking spanned from the rise of the major studios in the 1920s up until the studio system’s ultimate demise in the 1950s.  During that illustrious period, movie moguls like Carl Laemmle at Universal, Daryl Zanuck at 20th Century Fox, the Warner Bros., and Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer fame served as helms of production at their respective studios, reigning over a vast filmic empire the likes of which will surely never be seen again. 

As SHADOWS OF THE STUDIO begins, we walk through an old studio’s massive iron gates and into an abandoned soundstage, dust-filled and full of movie relics from days gone by.  Out of this dark, funereal texture, the music suddenly starts to build, the studio roars back to life, and we are transported back to the glory days of Hollywood, circa 1940. Once the ratchety sounds of a film projector click us into full gear, a lush, sweeping theme enters, something akin to what one might have heard in a classic Hollywood film noir score.  Our musical flashback is all hustle-and-bustle, in a sonic framework as clean and crisp as a motion picture produced by one of the “majors.”  As the composition continues, we take an evening flight through the Hollywood Hills, with filmmakers below still hard at work on the set, chic bars and nightclubs booming, spotlights flickering outside a premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, and of course that legendary white sign beaming off in the distance.  Eventually the music reaches epic proportions, and Tinseltown is at last restored to its former glory. But this grandiose reimagining of a lost era is little more than a dream, and after an explosive climax the piece gradually fades out to its ghostly conclusion, sending the studio back into the shadows of the past.   

In writing SHADOWS OF THE STUDIO, I hope to have in some way captured the energy and spirit infused in the films made by the great Hollywood studios during the Golden Age of American cinema.  It is my own personal homage to all the filmmakers who collectively realized the dreams of the studio.  

— Jules Pegram (2015) 

SHADOWS OF THE STUDIO for Orchestra (2015)

Recorded in Lyndhurst Hall at Air Studios in London, England, this is for my final project at Berklee Valencia for the Masters of Scoring for Film, Television, and Video Games.  This 3 minute score is timed to an original script with voice acting and sfx design, with no visuals or animation (for now).  Please enjoy the final battle between Aaron von Sigfreid and the evil Dragon Lord of Skaruh Ares!

Spell-Cast - FINAL MIX - London Air Studios June 12, 2017 Berklee SFTV

05 - Project Exodus

04 - Introductions

03 - The SIX Warlords

02 - The Beginning

01 - Motion Picture Institute Introduction

Scorbit Game Scoring Contest 2017 - Daniel Sottile

A script-synced demo for "Falling Stars" titled "Losing the Star".

- Strings - Cinematic Studio Strings 
+
3 Violin I, 3 Violin II, 3 Viola self-recorded with SD ML-2 (S-121)
- Elysium Harp
- Orange Tree Samples Evolution Modern Nylon
- NI "The Gentleman"
- EW Orchestras Gold (horns) + Cinebrass Pro
- EW Hollywood Choirs

Falling Stars - Losing The Star - Mock-up Demo

Composer of video game and classical music from Michigan.  I am a  graduate from the Berklee College of Music (2017), and I'm currently in Ann Arbor, MI working as a web developer!

05 - Project Exodus

Daniel Sottile

Related tracks