NeoKitsch

“Artist at Work” – NeoKitsch ambient and glitch music

Nov 232009

This is a short film I made about 8 years ago. It shows the artist Jamie Boyd at work in his studio in London. At the time, I was very interested in revealing as much detail as possible about the environment and the subjects within, but used shots so close up and awkwardly framed, that it made it difficult to get a clear view of the location and action as a whole. Recently, I decided to composes the music for this short film, and this is the result. It uses guitar feedback noises, recordings of wind up toys and door creaks, and instruments such as the Theremin.

Introducing the new album by NeoKitsch – “Klaatu’s Theremin”

Music 3 Responses »

Sep 302009

NeoKitsch is very proud to release yet another Sci-Fi fusion album entitled “Klaatu’s Theremin”.

This album was produced after the studio decided to invest in a collection of vintage, hard to find synthesizers such as the Roland TB-303 Bass Line Synth, Moog Rogue Analogue Synth, Yamaha CS10 Analogue Synth, Moog Etherwave Theremin and the Roland TR 707 Drum Machine. It came about after having produced an enormous amount of music for film and television using computer software and modern electronic and acoustic instruments. These methods of producing music, although successful in their own way, created a strong yearning for NeoKitsch to move in the opposite direction, and seek out vintage Analogue sounds of the 70′s and 80′s. Some modern machines such as the Elektron Monomachine were used, although arguably, the Elektron machines are very vintage sounding. They model their sounds on synths of the past and use the SID chip in the Sidstation. The SID Chip was one of the first sound chips to be used in a home computer and was used in devises such as the classic Commodore 64.

Many contemporary artists who create electronic music enjoy a modern approach to the old analogue synths of previous decades. Musicians and groups such as Autechre and Aphex Twin had inspired so many musicians to search far and wide for those unmistakable, unique vintage sounds, and create something new.

The name of the album, “Klaatu’s Theremin”, is based on the alien who visits earth from the classic 1951 film, The Day The Earth Stood Still. The original movie had a breathtaking musical score composed by Bernard Herrmann. Although it may be considered to be slightly dated for today’s standards and is often a victim of spoof, the score, which featured the Theremin, inspired NeoKitsch to produce a modern album with echoes of the 50′s Sci-Fi ‘Red Scare’ era.

NeoKitsch had experienced some new challenges with the new set of equipment, as the use of Midi technology was no longer possible with some instruments which predated the existence of Midi. This had allowed the music to take a more spontaneous and improvised approach. The result can be heard in a few extracts of the album in the media player below.

You can download the album or purchase individual tracks from iTunes, Amazon mp3, Napster, Rhapsody, emusic, and other leading stores. There is a link at the bottom of the post to direct you to iTunes.

Piano Music

Instruments, Music 3 Responses »

Sep 192009

Over the years, many filmmakers have requested NeoKitsch to produce piano pieces for their productions.

The music uploaded to this particular blog entry is called Piano Glitch. It was commissioned by a filmmaker who was making a particularly personal film in which he was exploring the sensitive subject of cancer, and the final stages of his mother as she was documented towards the end of her life. The task of composing a title sequence for the film, which was to be screened at local cinemas to friends, family and the local press, proved to be a little more complicated than anticipated.

The filmmaker attended many meetings at the NeoKitsch studio. The music needed to be redrafted several times for numerous reasons, such as the piece being far too depressing, too upbeat, or cliché for this style of documentary. The director was often in mixed minds about how he wanted to represent his mother’s last days of her life. He knew it was to be a positive film about the strength and bravery his mother possessed, but nevertheless, as NeoKitsch had pointed out, if the music were to be confident sounding, the subtext of what at the time appeared to be an agonising struggle, would smell of irony, and as it was a personal project attempting to be as truthful as possible, we all decided to settle for a piece which described how his mother was feeling and the people around her. With her approval, and the final go ahead from the director, we settled for the piece you can hear now.

The music is a bitter/sweet melody, which is surrounded by glitchy crackles and stutters, which helped describe the images of flickering, abstract medical machinery.

You may or may not agree with the atmosphere of the music for a subject as sensitive as this, but it was well received by the friends, family and community of everyone involved, and that seemed to be the only important accomplishment at the time.

You can download the full version of “Piano Glitch” from iTunes and other leading stores.