The Firm is a Dark Orchestral Suite that puts in music original pictures and troubling stories, which you will find in each individual song description.

Cheers, 

NOTE ===> The short stories for each chapter are in the songs. Clic on each song in order to read those captivating stories.

Music & Production: Syrel
Photography: Syrel

“This story is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.”

The Firm - Dark Orchestral Suite

Track 2 of the Album https://soundcloud.com/user-461764443/sets/the-firm-dark-orchestral-suite
Ascaridida.com is a Trade, Retail and Finance firm that has a footprint all over the world. The firm fortune was built on a pyramidal business model using the Ponzi scheme as well as complex algorithm to find how to influence the purchasing behavior of their customers. The scheme is so simple and so common that nobody care or see it anymore. Combined with a very aggressive marketing strategy, the firm simply could not fail considering that 80% of the customers just can’t understand complex Terms & Conditions. Who read the small prints anyway? Who would believe that no one ever get back a full return on their investment made in their yearly subscription while still paying for the goods and services ordered over and above the subscription. Ascaridida’s doctrine is “In Fraud We Trust” and it pays big money that end up in a fiscal paradise. Obviously the board of directors of Ascaridida Corp. perfectly understood the rice and the chess board story and the power of exponential growth as they are using it every day. Would you know why 3 clear pyramid and one dark pyramid?

“This story is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.”

Music & Production: Syrel
Photography: Syrel (1983)

The Firm

The Ponzi Scheme

Track 1 of the Album https://soundcloud.com/user-461764443/sets/the-firm-dark-orchestral-suite
Ascaridida Corporation is an international parasite firm operating in this grey area where you wonder if what they do is legit or pure organized crime. Ascaridida’s doctrine is “In Fraud We Trust” and it pays big money that end up in a fiscal paradise. The main theme of this dark orchestral suite sets the ambiance of this damning story. 
“This story  a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.”
Music & Production: Syrel
Photography: Syrel (1983)

The Firm Main Theme

Track 3 of the Album https://soundcloud.com/user-461764443/sets/the-firm-dark-orchestral-suite
The Firm has a very prolific pharmaceutical branch. It started many years ago when a colorful and buzzing crystal was invented by their chemist Brian Black aka Weissenberg. At that time cash was raining on the company but the firm had to stop that branding once the pharmaceutical business unit went on the stock market. With this well acquired expertise they now produce the most wanted opioid called the Pentanyl. Recently they started to produce vaccine, which generates revenue that greatly exceeds any possible expectations. They sarcastically called their new vaccine the Crysta Pentana. The suspicious thing about it is that everyone that had the new vaccine was so happy about it and wanted new shots over and over.  I guess it is due to the crystal manufacturing legacy of the firm.

“This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.”

Music & Production: Syrel
Photography: Syrel (1985)

The Crystal & Pentanyl Cook

Track 4 of the Album https://soundcloud.com/user-461764443/sets/the-firm-dark-orchestral-suite
The Firm manufacturing gem is the Silicon Island. Not only is it a fiscal paradise but also a semiconductor manufacturing pole on earth generating billions of dollars every month. The microchips produced on that island are the most performing in the world and can be found in anything such as phones, computers, cars, appliances, modern intelligent garments and even in those new and naughty programmable dildos. The Firm semiconductor market share is so great that they define the prices and can create a pseudo shortage in order to increase their price and thus their revenue. Recently an investigator discovered that the Firm had a suspicious relationship with the Totalitarian Republic of Nicha, which created the latest virus spread in order to disturb the world economy for the benefit of the Firm Ascaridida.

“This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.”

Music & Production: Syrel
Photography: Syrel (1983)

The Silicon Island

Track 5 of the Album https://soundcloud.com/user-461764443/sets/the-firm-dark-orchestral-suite
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the Firm Ascaridida had in 2019 the smart idea to have one of his laboratories in the Republic of Nicha to leak a virus in order to enhance his pharmaceutical businesses with new vaccines. Not only did it generate billions of dollars of new revenue but it also killed millions of people. The smart idea just backfired at him. Indeed, all his board of director and his own family died because of this virus leak. He is now alone to run this billion dollar firm having a footprint everywhere on the world. Will he be able to get The Firm back on its evil tracks in 2022? 
We shall see.
“This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.”
Music & Production: Syrel
Photography: Syrel (1988)
Music Note: French Horn line partially based on the French Christmas carol "The three shepherds".

The CEO Lonely Christmas

Track 6 of the Album soundcloud.com/user-461764443/sets/the-firm-dark-orchestral-suite

The Firm “Ascaridida “ hired a new Chief Technology Officer (CTO) soon after the Board of Directors has been decimated by the Stigma Virus. Gerald Rivian is a former military commander who did fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also has a degree in software engineering specialized in video games as well as a Master of Business Administration (MBA). He is known to be evil and relentless. He was mandated by the CEO of the Firm Ascaridida to start a new artificial intelligence division with the goal of creating robots that would replace all the politicians in the world that are either populist, stupid or ignorant. Apparently, the market is enormous in most country of the world and could create billions of dollars of new revenues. Gerald Rivian is known to never give up and he is ready for the challenge even if there could be numerous collateral damages such as the end of all populist political parties. Strangely, he knew every members of the Board of Directors before the decimation. Could it be that Gerald Rivian planned this decimation because they were all members of the Depublican Party?

“This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.”

Music & Production: Syrel
Photography: Syrel ("Geralt of Rivia", which kindly let Syrel do this portrait, is the fictional character and protagonist of The Witcher video game. The portrait was shot in Kraków on 2016)

The New Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

Track 7 of the Album soundcloud.com/user-461764443/sets/the-firm-dark-orchestral-suite

Soon after the decimation of the Firm Board of Directors by the Stigma Virus, the Firm hired a new Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Gilbert Weisselstein studied Finance and Math in Vienna. Using the 3 equations found by the physician Maxwellhouse, he found the mathematical proof that the less knowledgeable you are, the richer you can get even though you are stupid and lazy. Considering the Maxwellhouse equations “Power = Work / Time” also that having the right Knowledge equals to having the Power then that “Time is Money”, the resulting equation becomes “Knowledge = Work / Money”. Weisselstein using basic algebra isolated the money to get “Money = Work / Knowledge”.  At the limit if your Knowledge tends to zero the Money you get becomes stupidly infinite. Gilbert Weisselstein was the CFO of the Tremendump Organization before he moved to Ascaridida. Wonder why the totally ignorant president of the Tremendump Organization became a billionaire using basic fiscal felony.

“This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.”

Music & Production: Syrel 
Photography: Syrel (Portrait shot in Kraków on 2016)

Musical Note: Double Bass melody based on a A minor version of "Money" by Pink Floyd.

Algebra Note: The first equation is true and constantly used by engineers. The second argument is a politician dream and the third argument is a business fact. However, the resulting equation is a sophism. Albert Einstein famous equation E=mc2 is somewhat based on the four (4) equations defined by James Clerk Maxwell and Hendrik Lorentz. Not Maxwellhouse, the coffee maker ;o)

The New Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

Track 11 of the Album soundcloud.com/user-461764443/sets/the-firm-dark-orchestral-suite

This is my participation to the Score Relief 2022 Scoring Competition.
Video: https://youtu.be/FJPiw9gKvO0
Music: Syrel
Video: Four Of Wands Productions.

Soundtrack

I Catch You -   https://youtu.be/FJPiw9gKvO0

Track 8 of the Album soundcloud.com/user-461764443/sets/the-firm-dark-orchestral-suite
You can view the video on Youtube:  https://youtu.be/z9pPxH2Nxdg

The Firm CEO recently hired Aaron E. Must to work on two game changing industries. The first one being a worldwide network of car scrapyard and recycling. The second one being an electric car and Lithium ion battery manufacturing industry that would be dazzling the potential buyers with a bunch of useless features such as GreenTooth, a giant screen to view reality shows while driving and mostly a dummy pilot system that can crash your car should you want to suicide. Indeed, the environmentalists are making such a buzz around the greenhouse effect that most people wants electric cars, which would be fine if the electricity made in the world was from renewed energy but it is not. In fact, 70% of the electricity in the world is made burning fuel, gas or even worst … coal. One could ask legitimately, what is the benefit then since the electric cars already have twice the environmental footprint of a fuel car during manufacturing? Goooood question! Should it be better to use the public transport, a bicycle or even walk. Nevertheless, the demand for those cars is so great that people are ready to pay 3 to 5 time more for those cars then they would normally pay for a conventional fuel car just to have a ... clear conscience. Moreover, every old car will have to go to a scrap yard to be recycled. The market is huge and the consumers are blind and ignorant in front of the real facts and the Firm CEO knows it. Aaron E. Must is a part time asparagus farmer and full time electric engineer working at Y-Space to build an all-inclusive space resort bragging about having the first in space sand beach with a view on earth and its sunset. They do that just to prove to some beach bum moron that the earth is not flat. The CEO vision is to make huge money building a new electric car that would be called sarcastically the Cojonas model FU. He even created a new twisted credo for those two new ventures. “From the Grave to the Cradle”.
Guess what. He will succeed.

Music and Production: Syrel
Photography: Syrel (1986)

“This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.”

This music has also been used for the Heavyocity “Heavy Score Challenge” for which the goal of the challenge is to make the heaviest score possible.
You can view the video on Youtube:  https://youtu.be/z9pPxH2Nxdg

The Firm Scrap Yard Business Unit - The Grave

Track 10 of the Album soundcloud.com/user-461764443/sets/the-firm-dark-orchestral-suite

The nick name of the Ascaridida Firm CEO is the Orange Barron. He is a man of the old guard, typically doing business by bribing deciders, corrupting civil servants and providing falsified financial reports to banks and Fiscal Revenue Services everywhere his Firm has a foot print. His Firm was able to get huge infrastructure engineering contracts around the world not because they were the best or the lowest bidder. No, Ascaridida is well known to provide the best bribing package in the world, hence the Firm doctrine “In Fraud We Trust”. After so many successful years doing fraud, he now wants even more power. But mostly, he wants a way out to ensure his con man past will not catch him. He had this idea of becoming the president of his country, but how could he do that with so little political asset? He is using a vocabulary of only 77 words. No more. Each time he does a speech in front of a large audience he looks ridiculous and says stupid things. Indeed, he is good at creating alternate facts that most people would believe and maybe that would help. Who would believe someone like that could ever win the presidency. Today in his office, he is having a rough discussion with his directors, which are as con man as he is. The discussion will revolve around this dilemma. Should the Firm stop any illegal activities to become a legit company that can be on the stock market or should the Orange Barron become president of the country and get full presidential immunity to himself and his board of directors with the risk of being exposed to the press? That is a Catch 22 indeed, but hey, the turnout may be surprising.

NOTE: The ascaridida is a parasite that happens to have an orange colour. Strange coincidence isn’t it.

“This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.”

Music and Production: Syrel
Photography: Syrel (1987)

This music has also been used for the Score Relief 2022 scoring contest but with a totally different orchestration. 

You can view that video on Youtube: https://youtu.be/FJPiw9gKvO0
Or the music only: https://soundcloud.com/user-461764443/i-catch-you-httpsyoutubefjpiw9gkvo0?si=6f514864c8c149578018c4dfe4d07250&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

The Catch 22

Track 9 of the Album soundcloud.com/user-461764443/sets/the-firm-dark-orchestral-suite

Since the Firm new twisted credo is “From the Grave to the Cradle”, Aaron E. Must, the new director of the Electric Car business unit, has the mandate to manufacture the cheapest and most profitable electric car on the market. It will be manufactured using cars recycled from the Scrap Yard Business Unit in New Mexico and cheap batteries made in the totalitarian republic of Nicha. “Spit it out on the market as fast as possible” the CEO said. “Whatever happens, we will fix it later”. “Just put those stupid gadgets everybody wants in those cars such as GreenTooth, a giant screens to view reality shows while driving, a dummy pilot system that can crash your car should you want to suicide and it will sell like cupcakes”. Since it was also made in New Mexico the car was called sarcastically the Cojonas model FU. Shortly after it was on the market, the Lithium ion battery of the cars started to set houses on fire during the recharge at night. The cars would suddenly set on fire in parking lots for no apparent reasons. The worst was the battery would be set on fire after a car accident while the passengers could be trapped inside the car. It is never a good sign when a CEO smiles when everything goes wrong because it means he knows on whom he will put the blame and he did. “Aaron E. must resign immediately” said the CEO to the press. “I would have never approved such a bad design on one of my product and since he is accountable for this business unit he is the one to fire” said again the CEO to the press. However, deep in his mind he was thinking about his Firm doctrine “In Fraud We Trust”.

“This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.”

Music Notes: Some of you may have recognized a very disturbed version of Gary Numan “Cars” at 0:35 played by the Doublebasses and the Beatles “Baby you can Drive my Car” at 1:50 played by the strings in spicatos. Indeed it was used as a subliminal recall of cars in order to mesmerize you. However, if you can find where I hidden the “Crash And Burn” song by the Pat Travers Band you’re a king of the rock culture. Good luck ;o) 

Music and Production: Syrel
Photography: Syrel (1984)

The Firm Electric Car Business Unit - The Cradle

Track 12 of the Album soundcloud.com/user-461764443/sets/the-firm-dark-orchestral-suite

The Orange Barron (the Ascaridida Firm CEO) finally decided to run for his country presidency just after reading again Adolf Hitler’s book “Mein Kampf”. His doctrine “In Fraud We Trust” has never been so true. His admiration to Ken John-two, Voldimir Toopin and other dictators makes him dream of being the greatest dictator of all time. Guess what, he may soon appear one day in front of a church close to the Black House holding a bible over his shoulder as a salute just like Hitler did 87 years ago.  

“This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.”

Music and Production: Syrel
Photography: Syrel (1989)

Musical Note: This track is somewhat inspired by "Catch Me If You Can" from John Williams. This score was made entirely using Spitfire Audio (SA) ALBION ONE library except two instances of SA LABS plugin (Tape Orchestra: Strings Flautando  at 0:04 and Trumpet Fields: Coast Is Clear 1 at 2:20)

Latest News: This soundtrack was also used for the Spitfire Audio Bridgerton Scoring Competition. https://youtu.be/Jl1Tduyl8Y0

Running for President's Seat

Track 13 of the Album soundcloud.com/user-461764443/sets/the-firm-dark-orchestral-suite

The Orange Barron won his election for the presidency and the first thing he did was to change the constitution of his country to be dictator for the rest of his life. This way he can lie forever to the population about making his country great again. The second thing he did was to build a huge wall between his country and Mexikrenada and start a war with that friendly country, as he calls those, shitty countries. This way he thinks he could disturb the world economy to his benefit, improve his country patriotism and finally show his superiority like a little boy saying to the others “Mine is bigger than yours”. So he invaded the neighbor country with the thousand tanks his army had in hand. The tanks sent to invade the Mexikrenia are the highly obsolete FU-2 tanks(a sarcastic variant of the T-90 tanks). Since he is totally ignorant in military strategy and logistic, none of his generals told him that invading a country using tanks in the twentyfirst century is an outdated strategy since the Second World War. Indeed, a 80 thousand dollars hand held portable Javelin antitank missile can destroy a 4 million dollars T-90 tank from a distance of 2.5 Km without been seen. That is a shitty way to lose a lot of money isn’t it? 

 “This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.”

Music and Production: Syrel
Photography: Syrel  (Russian SU-100 tank shot in La Havane in 2008, Background, Jacques-Cartier Bridge in Montreal)

Musical Note: This score was made entirely using Spitfire Audio (SA) ALBION III ICENI library except 3 instances of SA LABS plugin ("Harmonic Flights: Sage’s Pad", "Harmonic Flights: Bowed" during the introduction and "London Atmos: Percussion" the kind of gun fire sound used periodically in the song)

The Orange Barron Goes To War

Track 14 of the Album soundcloud.com/user-461764443/sets/the-firm-dark-orchestral-suite

While the Orange Barron was busy on leading the war in Mexikrenia, the congress of his country made an investigation in regards to the circumstances of his election. Indeed, during the presidential election certification day a riot in the parliament suspiciously made the count change in favour of the Orange Barron despite the fact that he claimed during the campaign the opposition party would do such that this election could be the biggest fraud of the history. Indeed, some people noticed that the One Rublar Bill back side had the official motto changed to “In Fraud We Trust”. It was found that the newly elected president (the Orange Barron ) cheated his way into his seat by limiting the access to mailed votes, polling offices and even by excluding people of different religion, race or political affinity. Moreover, he bribed senior officials in order to create more votes in his favor. NATO on the other side found the Orange Barron guilty of Crimes against Humanity after killing millions of people during the war in Mexikrenia. Even though he declared himself the dictator of his country, the population and the authorities brought him on trial. He is now languishing in the most sordid prison of his country for the remaining of his life with no possibility to any pardon.

NOTE: The Rublar is the currency of the Orange Barron country and “In Fraud We Trust” is his business doctrine, which by the way is the same doctrine as the Ascaridida Firm and the Tremendump Organization.

“This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.”

Music and Production: Syrel
Photography: Syrel (Mr.P pictured in Slovenia in 2004 and the jail pictured in France in 2018)

Musical Notes: Music influenced by Erik Satie (but less static), Frederic Chopin and mostly Ludwig Van Beethoven as if he had access to a 97 keys Bösendorfer Concert Grand 290 Imperial in 1801 when he composed the Piano Sonata No. 14. The chorus is inspired by the orchestration used by Thomas Newman in Wall-E and EVE "Define Dancing" scene.

The Final Chapter

SYREL : C’est un algorithme de fiabilité symbolique basé sur la méthode des Cutset utilisées en ingénierie.

Mais sérieusement, Sy...rel était photographe publicitaire à Montréal dans une vie antérieure avant d'être ingénieur et maintenant compositeur et producteur de musique orchestrale, de bande sonore, de jazz et d'électro tout en profitant de sa retraite. 

SYREL: A Symbolic Reliability Algorithm Based on Path and Cutset Methods used in engineering.

But really, Sy...rel was an advertising photographer in a previous life before being an engineer and is now an orchestral, soundtrack, jazz and electro music composer and producer while enjoying retirement. 

https://soundcloud.com/user-461764443