In collaboration with animator Jason Bergeron, this piece was composed with no visual aid, as this process took place in a specific manner. As most composers usually depend on some kind of visual aid to compose their music, meaning that a piece is usually composed as an accompaniment to an existing video for example, this composition was done before the video itself. We chose to compose this piece so that we could submit it to the Cinesonika 3 festival, a festival that serves to celebrate the soundtrack, and is specifically designed to bring together film, video and sound design.   With this in mind, I put heart and soul into composing something that would bring eclectic, colourful and various imagery to the listener. 

This imagery was then interpreted by Jason, through a process I helped with. We simply chose two paint colours and painted on a few sheets of paper, including as many textures and forms to choose from as possible. Afterwards, Jason used these images to create bits and pieces, which then served him to interpret and convey the imagery heard through my composition.  You can view our short film at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fUc5dd52fU

After submitting to the festival, we got news telling us that our piece had been chosen amongst many submissions, to participate in the festival! You can visit the Cinesonika website to view the other submissions we competed along with at http://www.cinesonika.com/films3 . 

We did not win the Golden Earwax this time, but there will certainly be other festivals and contests to come, and this was certainly an exciting journey!

Amongst a Sea of Scratched Orient

This was a collaboration done with Camille B. Bertrand, a third year animation student at Concordia University. 

When I first saw Camille's work, I knew this was going to be a really exciting journey, because I had never composed anything for a charcoal animation, even less an animation filled with voice, more specifically, an emotional confession... This work had so many good things to it, and I was really excited to have it all to myself, as a foley artist, a sound designer and a composer... A real treat! 

I first began by recording Camille's audio all over again, since she had done so herself, but the quality really was not what I was looking for. The gear I chose to record the voice was a portable field recorder, more specifically the SONY PCM D50, a pricey gem, but well worth every penny!
We simply used one of the soundproofed studios in the Visual Arts building at Concordia, as I was no longer a student and did not have access to the Electroacoustic recording studios. In this quiet space, I made sure to close all the lights, in order to avoid superfluous noise, as there is always a noise-floor, no matter where one records. I simply sat in front of Camille and held the recorder at a reasonable distance from her mouth, and coached her into the mindset to read her letter. As this was an emotional text, we had to make sure we recorded more than a few takes, simply because you always need to make sure you will have enough material to work with, in case you need to take snippets from a take and insert them into another, for example. 

After recording the text, then came what I felt was the most difficult part: the composition... Camille had chosen me as her composer, instead of partnering with a student who actually studied orchestral composition... Why? Because she felt her animation was too intimate to have a whole orchestra play a piece to accompany the delicate message her work was meant to convey. At first, I composed a few piano melodies I felt were appropriate, but always ended up doubting what I had done... After having attempted this too many times, I opted for another method, and began with the strings layer of the composition... Finally, I was able to compose something that was really palpable in terms of emotional grasp on the listener... It was then that I finally turned the piano snippets to accentuate the camera movements seen on screen, which worked out beautifully in the end... Moreover, one must not forget that this work was built around many layers of sound and I could not afford to leave one in the shadows. The voice was our main focus, while also having to let the music shine through. With this in mind, I had to orchestrate a mix in which each layer got its main role, while also acting as a support to all the others. In fact, the foley was one of the last items to join the mix, but also one of the most important, since our dancer's movements would not have been as effective or colourful if the foley had not been there to reinforce its power. As previously mentioned, I found the composition part of this work to be most challenging, but I must admit that the foley for the dancer was also an intricately detailed and difficult picture to paint... Why? Because Camille had previously filmed this dancer, and used the live video to inspire her charcoal animation. However, this process did not include any audio, which meant that I had to orchestrate everything from scratch... It was only after many hours of observation and taking notes that I began to understand how I would go about recording the foley. I used a double-layered skirt for the 'swish' movements, while the steps were each separately recorded and edited, in order to realistically weave into the dancer's performance. This took the most time and the most patience, but the end result was amazing.  Having done ballet for many years, a very long time ago, I vaguely remembered how light a dancer should be on their feet, but I was able to recreate these movements and implement them into the piece, without any problems. 

The entirety of this piece was fashioned and recorded from scratch, while the mixing, the editing and everything else in terms of sound, was also only done by myself. 

You can watch the entire piece (animation and sound) by visiting this link  
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8-mYujQ_7asSTdvOFhGOHY4cHc/edit?usp=sharing

Last, but not least, this animation was featured at the 2012 Ottawa Animation Film Festival!!

Enjoy, and thank you for listening!

Original Score for Regrets by Camille B. Bertrand

A piece composed entirely out of one ten minute recording of my coffee machine working its magic! It originally was composed as a ten minute piece in 5.1 channels, but in order to share this with everyone, I condensed it into a stereo piece, while also making it shorter, in order not to lose the effectiveness of its colour and character through time. 

You can find an explanation of my creative process on my blog found at http://mzlaliberte.blogspot.com 

Thanks for listening!
Enjoy... 

Aphotic Dose

The image is an original sketch by Jason Bergeron, amazing animation artist!

This work is my entry for the 2014 'Countdown to the Apocalypse' sound design contest by Blastwave FX. It contains breathing sounds that were directly downloaded from Public Domain recordings available on Freesounds.org, while all the rest of the sounds are my own original creations and recordings. 

Enjoy the spookiness!

Vegan Snack

This is a piece I composed to accompany ex pixar animator Rodrigo Blaas' animation called ALMA. The original sound design was not done by myself, but by Tom Myers and David Hughes, while the original music present in the animation was composed by Mastretta.  What I did was try to keep as much of the original and untouched sound design in the background and I composed a piece conveying my vision of the events happening in this wonderful animation! You can find the entire creative process and details about this piece on my blog found at http://mzlaliberte.blogspot.com

Thanks for listening!
Enjoy...

Creepy Dollz

This is an Electroacoustic composition created with the use of Pure Data patches that I built entirely from scratch with filters, white noise and oscillators...
You can find the complete details about this piece and the creation process on my blog found at http://mzlaliberte.blogspot.com 

Thanks for listening!
Enjoy...

Your Dissonant Voice Blinds Me

This was composed to accompany a video commercial about Ice Pear Wine. You can find all the details and watch the complete video on my blog: http://mzlaliberte.blogspot.com/

Thanks for listening!

Ice Pear Wine Composition

This composition was created for a video game trailer. More specifically, I created and edited my own version of the Alice: Madness Returns game trailer and composed an entirely new track for this trailer. 

You can read about my entire process and watch the video on my blog found at http://mzlaliberte.blogspot.com 

Thanks for listening!
Enjoy... 

A Dark Sound for an Obscure Game

This was one of my final pieces for my multi-channel composition class inside the Electroacoustic program at Concordia University. I am very proud of this composition, because it came completely spontaneously to me and practically composed itself. I had only one idea in mind, and that was to use the simple act of stretching a sound to the maximum it could go to without getting distorted. The results I obtained were wonderful, and I even ended up having small details that appeared that were not meant to, but add to the piece in so many ways. This was also originally composed in 5.1 surround, and I chose to upload it this way, since it sounds as good like this. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for listening. 

The Comfort of Ignorance

I realize that sometimes the path you are meant to take can be preceded by what may seem to be many grand and difficult journeys of the heart and mind... But I continue walking this path, because I know at the end of it will be what I've been looking for this whole time.....



Difficult Journeys of the Heart and Mind

As a person, I am full of sunshine, full of life, laughter, but most of all full of ideas! I studied Electroacoustics at Concordia University in Montreal, and am chasing my dream career of becoming a professional sound designer! I am constantly exploring and reading about anything sound related, always filling my mind with new ideas! I make sure to always be working on a few projects, so I can continue pushing myself, because we are NEVER done learning! Abstract composition, sound for animation, foley recording, field recording, you name it, I love it. 

I am just a girl with a dream, a big talent, and I am constantly working to be recognized and hoping I can earn my place within the difficult industry that is sound, and I know I will one day, just watch me, or even better, follow me, listen and share my work !!!

Emily Laliberte