THE LONELIEST WHALE

Equus (+SSA)

This is a piece of music I recently wrote as the theme music for Erwin Brothers Entertainment's new animated logo. The piece begins with a scratchy. vinyl sound to match the old-timey-ness of the animation, which was created by my brother Isaac Botkin, and can be seen at this link: https://vimeo.com/172603911

Isaac's site: http://isaacbotkin.com/
Erwin site: http://erwinbrothers.com/

Erwin Brothers Entertainment Theme

Illinois Modern Ensemble, Stephen Taylor, conductor.  8 February 2017.
Sonic Illinois Festival, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

Cold Horizon, for chamber orchestra, grew out of a piece for vibraphone and piano entitled Cold, which I wrote in Paris in January 2001.  The basic musical ideas and icy, shimmering instrumental colors of Cold have been stretched out into a supple, continuously flowing, and dramatic form, and colored as if seen at twilight under a fading and distant light.  

In a sense, Cold Horizon explores resonance as a model or metaphor for developing musical gestures and forms.  Often resonance is used to create a sense of perspective, reminding us that music takes place not only in time but also in space. Musical lines that are slightly out of alignment shadow each other as they seem to echo in a reverberant space.  Similarly, rhythmic processes and subtle changes of orchestration create the illusion of musical gestures that approach or recede.  The opening of the piece, a quasi-Doppler effect, is one example.  Another typical idea is the filtering of complex harmonies into simple intervals, floating points of stability that form a thread of consonance woven across the span of the piece.  The use of quarter tones blurs the line between harmony and instrumental timbres to create a sense of depth and shadow against the well-tempered, “normal” pitches.

Cold Horizon has passed through a series of incarnations, beginning with an initial sketch premiered in 2002 by the Orchestre Lyrique de Région Avignon-Provence under Sylvio Gualda at the Centre Acanthes contemporary music festival in France.  The complete piece was premiered in 2003 by the University of California, Berkeley Symphony conducted by David Milnes, followed by a revised and expanded version performed by the Minnesota Orchestra at their Composer Institute in 2006 with David Alan Miller.  I revised the piece one last time in early 2017 for this performance, making some minor adjustments to its pacing, clarifying the orchestration and several harmonic details, and pruning back some pretentious complexity in the notation.

Cold Horizon (2017 Version)

Soloist: Benjamin Baker
Orchestra: Northern Chords Orchestra
Conductor: Jonathan Bloxham

Live at St. John's Smith Square, to celebrate Europe Day on 9 May 2017

Stranded for violin and orchestra

"The Waterfall Jump" from Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2017)
Music composed by Henry Jackman
Transcription & MIDI Mockup by Noam Levy
Mix & Master by Eugene Latsko

"The Waterfall Jump" Mockup (music by H. Jackman)

A re-score for the award-winning short documentary "The Time Machine" for CINE's Marvin Hamlisch Film Scoring Contest 2018.

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/4ASqHlkXey0Wh25NJOR7ED
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-time-machine-ep/1451410521

The Time Machine

Sampled in the same vein as Chapman Trumpet, but loaded with all the advanced features and improvements that you’ve come to expect from an Embertone release, Popelka Bassoon is sure to dance its way from the forest and into the warm protection of your composing arsenal. It's one of our most endearing instruments to date. <3

Popelka Bassoon - Alex Davis - The Cliffs Of Valingaard

Closure

Note: external reverb was used on this example. 

Website: www.performancesamples.com
Soundcloud: @performancesamples
Facebook: facebook.com/performancesamples

Vista - 25-minute speed-write with alpha - By Jasper Blunk

Website: www.performancesamples.com
Soundcloud: @performancesamples
Facebook: facebook.com/performancesamples

Vista - Reflections Through Glass - by Michał Cielecki

Composer from Athens, Greece, writing music for film, video-games and the concert hall. 

Feel free to follow, like, comment and repost.
 e-mail: john.konsolakis.sound@gmail.com

The Time Machine

John Konsolakis | Composer