Another little experiment in lo-fi hip hop. Nothing more, nothing less.

"boston nocturne" samples a crap-ton of stuff. The beat and rain are remixed from Michael Jackson's "Stranger in Moscow," the opening is from James Brown's "It's A Man's, Man's, Man's World" with the opening piano glissando from the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back," and the main track sampled was the main title theme from "Night School" by Brad Fiedel.

Shoutout to Looperman user Xenius99 for the beat on "looking out," as well as users Retrowave and black808 for the beats used on "keyboard surfin"

keyboard surfin

looking out

boston nocturne

Greetings everyone,
So I was going to release this on YouTube, but I just couldn't wait. This is my first ever sonata, sort of. I labelled this ode to the little heritage railways of Wales a "sonatina" due to the length. This piece clocks in at just under 9 minutes, so it's nothing to special in length. However, it does feature four movements, and is penned in the wickedly cheerful key of A-flat Major. I loved writing this piece for it presented be an opportunity to merge my love of railways found in the United Kingdom, and my craft of composition. So I hope you all enjoy this little piece that marks a large step in my life as a composer. The image included is an image of the Talyllyn Railway's Number 3, "Sir Haydn," at Abergynolwyn in 1992 by Gillett's Crossing.
Thanks for listening,
Jake C.

2017-18

Piano Sonatina No. 1 "Rheilffyrdd Bach" in Ab Major, Op. 8: IV. Padarn: Rondo

Piano Sonatina No. 1 "Rheilffyrdd Bach" in Ab Major, Op. 8: III. Ffestiniog: Scherzo

Piano Sonatina No. 1 "Rheilffyrdd Bach" in Ab Major, Op. 8: II. Wyddfa: Berceuse

Piano Sonatina No. 1 "Rheilffyrdd Bach" in Ab Major, Op. 8: I. Talyllyn: Allegro

Greetings everyone,

This EP I'm dropping is the product of my unending obsession with synthwave music. These three tracks are, in my mind, are what happens when I become exceedingly invested in a genre. It may not be the sound you expect, but it certainly a sound. "Neon Sonata" was actually my first attempt at the genre, that I collaborated on with a friend of mine. I've been keeping it under wraps because it was the piece that kept finding myself in a state of perpetual remixing, trying new things and adding a somewhat acoustic element to the mix. The recording of "Phantastique" is a reprogrammed version with some fine tuning, and a generally less harsh mix. "StarRide" is my stab at fusing my love of both synthwave and chiptune together, creating essentially marrying the two in a synthpop style. Feel free to download this and share it around, I would be extremely grateful.

Happy Holidays, and thanks for listening,
Jake C.

Neon Sonata - EP

StarRide

Neon Sonata

Hello,

Dug up this little arrangement from 2016. I loved the show Thomas The Tank Engine as a kid, and one of the first things I learned to arrange were themes from the show written Mike O'Donnell and William "Junior" Campbell.  And that is precisely what's here: two themes I remembered from the program orchestrated in a holiday style. The mix is really reverb-heavy, and when I can find the file, I will probably tweak it because back then, production was not my forte. But for now, hope you all enjoy this little glimpse into my early work.

Merry Christmas & thanks for listening,
Jake C.

Christmas Across the Island

Based on this gem of a Bond song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwbEuzJCnqI

Greetings everyone,

Pulled off one of my favorite songs in electronic form. I've been working on this track for a few weeks now.  I am a massive John Barry fan and I thought trying my hand at giving this cool Bond song a sort of Isao Tomita treatment would be a fun experiment. I think it came out well, and I hope you do too.

Thanks for listening,
Jake C.

Diamonds Are Forever Remix

Hey everyone,

Swinging back over to the hip hop sound, but bringing in more chiptune elements than in "Keep it Movin." Don't know quite what to say on this one other than the length surprised me when I was done, and I had quite a bit of fun programming this one. Let me know what you think, and I hope you guys are digging my ongoing exploration of different genres.

Thanks for listening,
Jake C.

Plug N Play

Greetings everyone,

Sorry about going silent on this front. Have been really busy on school work at the moment. However, I thought I'd share this little cover I did of one of my favorite cues from the original "Resident Evil." Fleshed out the orchestration to include both a traditional and electric piano, as well as add some harmonies which I quite like. I hope you guys enjoy this as well, and rest assured that there is more music to be made as far as I am concerned.

Thanks for listening,
Jake C.

"Meeting Rebecca" from Resident Evil

Greetings everyone,

So it's been a while, but I come bearing a neat little development. Not only am I live on Bandcamp (https://jacobcalta.bandcamp.com), but this chill, swinging little track is taste of the summertime vibes I want to lay down on my debut LP. I haven't a title yet, but this is a cut I plan to open the album with. Kick back, relax, and have a listen.

Thanks for your time,
Jake C.

Sunset

Greetings,

Here to prove that I am indeed still writing music, just not as frequently as I'd have hoped, mainly with me getting adjusted to college and the workload there. But here are two short scores from two short films.

The first, "A Dream," was for a school project where we were tasked to make a short in the style of Chris Marker's "La Jatée" by using exclusively still photographs. My group and I came up with the idea of doing a strange dream. I scored the film accordingly with a blend of piano, vibes, and synth bells to create a misty quality that contributed to the atmosphere of the short.

The second, "Ripe," is a suite of three short cues from a horror short film I helped make. It was made in a rush for a 48-hour film festival. It is a silly, pretty poor, but terribly amusing little cannibal flick centered on the menace working his way into the life of a pregnant woman. Since we focused on the baby a bit, I decided to score the film with a blend of harps and bells as a way to evoke feeling surrounding infancy. That's all I've got for that one lol.

I am enjoying a healthy career scoring for a few friends and peers, so trust that I will have more music in the not-too-distant future. And I haven't forgotten about the album. :)

Thanks for listening,
Jake C.

Ripe

A Dream

Hey everyone,

Decided before the end of the year to try one more thing: vaporwave in the plunderphonics vein! Grabbed some of my favorite 80s deep cuts and set to work to chop them up and mess with. I did use some of my synths to add to the soundscape and smooth out any rough patches. Wrote more original parts for "Heaven's Hawks" (which tested by transcription skills) than for "さよなら," which only needed some cymbals to iron out my cuts. Hope you guys dig another one of my musical explorations.

Happy New Year!
Jake C.

さよなら

Heaven's Hawks

Greetings everyone!

So it appears that I do still write music lol. Just wanted to share this demo with you all, and get your thoughts on these themes/motifs I whipped up.

This was also my first time making something with Logic Pro!

Keep it cool,
Jake C.

Demo - 9/5/20

Not gonna lie, I think I'm going to use SoundCloud exclusively for demos and stuff, until I get a big project going again. I come bearing a small, slick little track I made for a school assignment, couldn't get enough of the clavinet riff I wrote and the whole piece I orchestrated around it that I had to share! Not sure what genre it exists in, but I dig it, soooooooo yeah. Here you go!

Thanks for listening,
Jake C.

Groove Demo - 11/1/2020

A novice composer, aspiring filmmaker, and devoted cinephile.

Jacob Calta

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