One of the centrepiece cues in the upcoming film A Near Miss - might have to take it down after the film comes out....
Music by Dominic Sewell
Music Programming Simon Passmore
Mastering: Thomas Gray

Near Miss

Dash to the Airport (from Near Miss)

"Dash To The Airport" from Near Miss (2024)

Submission for the July 2023 Ryan Leach Composer Competition

Art by David Frasheski

Goodbye / Into the Sunset

Parce, Domine,
parce populo tuo.
Ne in aeternum irascaris nobis.
————————————
Spare, Lord,
spare your people.
Do not be angry with us forever.

The 'Parce Domine' is a traditional Roman Catholic text for lent or a time of penance. This setting by Walker Williams for SATB choir and organ was performed by the HBA Kyrkokörer with Annelie Lockneman as conductor and organist.

Parce Domine

In this setting, the traditional American song 'Oh Shenandoah' is arranged with 'The Water is Wide', a traditional Scottish song. This recording features the HBA Kyrkokörer with pianist Annelie Lockneman.

Oh Shenandoah

The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is a faint thermal signal, detectable only by radio telescope, which originates from the very early universe, over 13.7 billion years ago.  At that time, the universe was small in size and extremely hot – filled with light and plasma like the core of our sun. As the universe cooled, the conditions became right for atoms to form, and this early light was free to propagate throughout the expanding space.  This is what we observe as the CMB, only now, due to the stretching of its wavelength, we observe it not as light, but as thermal radiation. The signal is almost, but not quite, uniform – the most perfect noise source found in nature, averaging at 2.725° above absolute zero. 

Within this noise, however, are vital clues to the origin of the universe, dark matter, the existence of multiverses and cosmic bubble collisions:

One method of analysing the signal is to compute the power spectrum of the signal across the entire sky, comparing temperature fluctuations from point to point to discern patterns and wave-like functions.  This analysis reveals a series of harmonically related peaks between distances of 0° to 2°, indicative of waves in the original hot plasma.

In order to experience these patterns, physicist, Dr. Matthew Kleban and composer, Dr. David Ibbett, have collaborated to produce a sonification of this data, collected by NASA’s WMAP probe. By mapping the parameters to frequency (multipole moment) and amplitude (fluctuations), a chord can be produced which reveals the underlying harmonic relationships of the signal. 

This sonification simulates the gradual emergence of this chord from total noise - a journey from the early universe to the present day - and goes on to increase the intensity of the peaks to allow the universal harmonies to shine out.

CMB Sonification - David Ibbett and Matthew Kleban

Ljós for Bb Soprano Saxophone and Electronics, premiered at SPLICE! 2017 by Justin Massey

Topp - Ljós for Soprano Saxophone and Electronics

This work is based on the story of the Cassini-Huygens probe; my goal was to use the science as a basis to tell a story, and to try to capture the emotions that Cassini’s images have brought into our collective imagination. The beginning and ending are modeled after specific elements in the story of Cassini, but the middle sections are more of an artist’s rendition than an attempt at a detailed portrayal of the mission. Much more information on the Cassini Mission, including images, art, and sound recordings (including the radio emissions that were my inspiration for the section at measure 33) can be found at the NASA/JPL website.

The Cassini Program was a joint effort between NASA, ESA, and ASI (the US, EU, and Italian space agencies); the mission goal was to gather as much data as possible about Saturn, as well as its rings and moons. The Cassini-Huygens probe was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on October 15, 1997, and arrived at Saturn seven years later in 2004. During the mission, Cassini gathered vast amounts of data about Saturn and its moons, particularly Titan, which was explored by the Huygens probe, and Enceladus, which has oceans of liquid water that could create conditions suitable for life.
The mission was scheduled to end in 2008, but two extensions, the Equinox Mission and the Solstice Mission, continued Cassini’s exploration until September of 2017. To prevent the possible contamination of Titan or Enceladus with microscopic organisms from Earth that might have been carried on the probe, the mission team decided to destroy Cassini by sending it into Saturn’s atmosphere. Before this final mission, however, Cassini embarked on its “Grand Finale”, a series of close orbits sending it between Saturn and its rings, maneuvers that were too risky to undertake earlier in the mission.
On September 15, 2017, in the final phase of the Grand Finale, Cassini entered Saturn’s atmosphere and was destroyed.

This recording performed by the UBC Symphonic Wind Ensemble

In Memoriam Cassini

5. The Eclipse (from "I Will Keep Your Light")

Ramsey Sadaka - 파도 (Pado)  Recorded at Roy Barnett Recital Hall with Ramsey Sadaka conducting, Carlos Savall on Bass Clarinet, Devon Atkinson on Trombone, Jesse Guo on Percussion, Melody Chen on Violin.  Recording Engineer was David Simpson.

Ramsay Sadaka - 파도 (Pado)

This is the sombre theme of Chelsea Xinyi Chen's short film "Reverie." The soundtrack won "Best Score" at the 2019 UBC POV Awards. It's been a joy to work with Chelsea on 2 of her films now, and I hope we can continue to collaborate in the future!!

Beautiful playing here by Melody Chen (violin) and Peter Krejcar (piano). Big props to Shiun Okada, who let us into the hall at midnight, set up all the gear and took care of the recording process for us. What a guy!

Photo by Ian Mrozewski

Goodbye / Into the Sunset

Michael Ducharme

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