Thank you to everyone who worked on Symphony of Construction 2023. It was a blast and an honor to a be a part of! This is my submission. Checkout the full project here: https://www.paulvermeesch.com/symphonyofconstruction

Process and Interpretation of the Piece:
My process will vary from project to project, but for this project, I came up with a dramatic back story for the build, and I wrote music to accompany my journey as I let my imagination guide me.

Back story:
The build I received shows a single character alone on a planet full of exotic plants and vegetation, sitting on what I imagined to be a long-forgotten but incredibly advanced piece of technology. What does the technology do? Destroy worlds? Create portals for transportation? Who knows! But it is extremely powerful, and it COULD HAVE CHANGED THE WAR! That was many years ago. Now our main character might be the only one in the universe who still believes that her great great great great great grandfather developed a technology powerful enough to overthrow the empire, and not only has she finally discovered the technology on an unknown and unregistered planet, but she also plans to turn it on!

Part 1: Loss and the Forgotten Planet
Part 1 focuses on the world and the history of the main character's people from the main character's perspective. It builds on and off, bringing up themes that remind me of the empire that has now been ruling the universe for generations as well as the incredibly powerful square structure our main character seeks. I imagine the main character actively searching the planet for the square structure in this scene, and at the end of part 1, she finally finds it! I use dancing orchestral instruments to depict the planet's unique wildlife. I  use choirs in the orchestration because I imagined the world and technology to be ancient, with lots of history surrounding both. I contrast this traditional orchestration with a lead synth and dark synth textures to add a digital feel and reveal the loss the main character feels from her experiences with the empire. The darker orchestration makes me think of the corruption of the empire. The subtle doubling of woodwind parts with synths makes me think of a loss of innocence, the innocence that had once existed everywhere before the war but now seems only to exist in remote places like this distant forgotten planet.

Part 2: Destiny
After the main character discovers the structure, there is a pause of silence before part 2 introduces a very different mood. In part 2, I explore the main character's thoughts as she musters up the courage to turn on the device. She is scared because she doesn't know exactly what will happen to her when she turns on the structure and walks through the portal it creates, but her journey to get here has been very, very long, and she won't give up now! I picture her in a sort of trance speaking to the different people she believes she is doing it for, her family and friends who are ruled by the empire, her great great great great great grandfather. This scene is about her in a trance, building up the courage to activate the structure and enter the portal. The more intimate orchestration is her talking with her family, and the more intense moments are her believing more and more that this is her destiny. Finally, she works up enough boldness to activate the device. The structure comes to life, and after giving one last look back at the world, she walks through the portal.

Loss, Destiny, and The Forgotten Planet

THANK YOU PORTER! @porter-robinson
[https://twitter.com/porterrobinson/status/1042487652677771266]

+ Spotify:
[https://open.spotify.com/album/4tOnKWyTWAzWNgUvIThJLY]

via Proximity: 
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9YGkHVgJqE]

https://sanjaux.com

Trinity

I live on a busy Highway in a my hometown. This piece is crafted from field recordings of the highway over the holiday season and is the first experiment of a new batch of work to be exhibited in a new show in 12 months time that looks at the legacy of Luigi Russolo and his influence on my practice as a musician/sound artist. Have a safe night tonite and try to avoid dancing with too many cars! Look forward to all your music in 2019   Cheers  Mat

Traffic Dance New Years Eve

Composed for Digital Music Technology 1: Final Project. 

Assignment: Craft a 5min soundtrack meeting the following credentials:
- Scene A (0:00 - 1:05): establishing material 
- Scene B (1:06 - 2:45): abrupt transition w/gunshot FX + introduce bad guy material + include footstep/ambient sound FX + begin transition to Scene C by 2:35
- Scene C (2:46 - 3:57): accelerating action + introduce good guy material + begin transition to Scene D by 3:53
- Scene D (3:58 - 5:00): sparse and percussive + includes good guy and bad guy material

Craft A Story: The story  occurs in a mystical eastern city. Scene A is establishing shots of the city and gradually moves into the streets and eventually through a specific door. The door leads to the layer of a fiendish kidnapper who captures street urchins (orphaned children who won't be missed) for slave labor. In scene D, it's a stormy night. The villain's layer descends underground and he keeps the children in cages. But one night, one boy manages to escape his cage. He frees the other children and they make a break for it! In Scene C there's a rooftop escape in which the villain chases the boy. In Scene D, the boy swings across a wide street on a rope, as the sun rises. The villain attempts to jump after him and falls to his death. The children are free.

Soli Deo Gloria

Escaping Hajjaran

Arrival

@Owsey's Original
• https://soundcloud.com/owsey/owsey-thousands-of-summer-twilights-1

+ Spotify
• https://open.spotify.com/track/1vky6CX49QlHT3NedyYZic

via @JaronSteele's Bitbird Radio #060 Mix hosted by @SanHoloBeats
• https://soundcloud.com/bitbirdradio/bbradio60#t=31:39

via @NEONIXDUB's DubHub Casting Couch 010 Mix
• https://soundcloud.com/dubhubb/casting-couch-010-neonix#t=28:29

All remixes
• https://soundcloud.com/owsey/sets/thousands-of-summer-twilights

https://sanjaux.com

My winning entry for the Owsey remix contest!

Owsey - Thousands of Summer Twilights (sanjaux remix)

Arranged for a theatrical production of "Song of the Unicorn" adapted and directed by my friend Kathryn Humnick, coming to the stage in 2020. 

Full project: https://soundcloud.com/ian-spacek/sets/song-of-the-unicorn-stage

Props to my friend and fellow composer Josh DeMoss for contributing some of his musical/technological expertise.

Song of the Unicorn

Psalm 43: 5

Here is a set list of Scripture Songs intended to inspire memorization of Scripture. Enjoy! :) All glory to God!

ft. Joana Yany

Colossians 3:14

Composed for the 2020 Westworld Scoring Competition hosted by Spitfire Audio and HBO: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ7R54pSESc&feature=youtu.be

Soli Deo Gloria

Standard Issue (Westworld Scoring Competition)

Anderson .Paak - Burnin' And Lootin' ft. 2Pac
Prod. by Will
Download: https://hypeddit.com/track/pgjup7

Loss, Destiny, and The Forgotten Planet

Joshua DeMoss

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