Ok, i admit it, I am jealous becauase I want one & they arent available/don’t work in New Zealand (yet) but this is pretty cool in a minimalist-sine-wave-music kind of way… fast forward five years & we’ll be running ableton LIVE on our phones…
Application & source code availabe here as well as applications for sending OSC to Max/MSP… hmmmm
If you have ever had to record & edit vehicle sound effects you will appreciate this ad for using fossil fuels in the best way possible (ie very fast cars) – tasty!!!
If you are a fan of the music of Sigur Ros then you probably already know about this, but I only just picked up a copy at Tower Records and WOW!!!!! Quoting from their own press release: “In 2006, having toured the world over, Sigur Rós returned home to play a series of free, unannounced concerts in Iceland. ‘Heima’ is a unique record of that tour filmed in 16 locations across the island, taking in the biggest and smallest shows of the band’s career. ‘Heima’ is a 97 minute documentary feature film featuring songs from all four Sigur Rós albums alongside previously unreleased material and, on disc two of the DVD release, a brand new song, also titled ‘Heima’.
Heres the trailer, but do your senses a service and go here to watch the high resolution version, the 1080p especially looks beautiful!
Through a very kind introduction and the generosity of many people, last week I was able to visit the legendary Toho Studios in Tokyo. As a big fan of many Japanese films it was truly an honour to visit a company such as Toho with such a rich history. More info at Toho Kingdom
Seven Samurai was made at Toho Studios in 1954
and Godzilla!
Yours truly, alongside Godzilla, at the entrance to Toho Studios
(and yes, its winter in Japan at the moment!)
Ditto, beside the Seven Samurai mural
A view into one of the 15 massive sound stages
The legendary Toho dubbing stage, with large scale Neve DFC desk and multiple ProTools systems. The acoustics in this room were beautiful – apparently the room was originally used to record the score (live to picture) for Godzilla!
This stream, which passes through the Toho Studios lot, was featured in Seven Samurai and is apparently very beautiful during sakura (cherry blossom)
Arigatou gozimasu!
Incase it wasnt obvious by my lack of posting, I am back in Japan on a holiday of sorts…. I am working remotely on a New Zealand project where I have to create a sound/music track for a Museum Installation which will play looped for the next ten years. Seriously: TEN YEARS! The track also has to be layered such that both the general background & specific elements can be mixed & triggered in real time by external interactive control… daunting? Yes, at first… but as with anything complex I had to just start by taking one small step, followed by another & slowly some sense is forming. At this stage I am just aiming to generate a demo stereo mix, which I can then break down into layers & elements…. & so far so good… much thanks to the Mac (& digital video) genius of Allan Honey I am able to access my entire sound library remotely while I travel and although I dont yet have a SoundMiner server setup, for now I know my library well enough to find what I need using AudioFinder
Anyway soon I will post a few sonic memorys from my time in Japan, including a visit to the legendary Toho Studios, plus some new recordings from my handy Zoom H2.
2008 is already a busy year. In February I head back to New Zealand to first attend
Soundsplash a brilliant reggae festival set on one New Zealand’s finest beaches (Raglan) and then back to work properly on two films.
The first film is a dialogue driven drama called SHOW OF HANDS, written & directed by Anthony McCarten and scored by Don McGlashan. The second film is called LAUNDRY WARRIOR and is quoted as drawing on “two great milieux, the Samurai movie and the Western”, starring Geoffrey Rush, Kate Bosworth and Korean star Jang Dong-gun, the film is written & directed by Sngmoo Lee and produced by Barrie Osbourne and Tim White.
And then it will be Christmas again! Well, almost…
