Christmas tattoos?

I watched The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo last night. Overall, I was impressed and, after reading the first book and watching the Swedish trilogy adaptation, I felt the film held its own.. including the character of Lisbeth. Rooney Mara was amazing.

I loved the score for The Social Network, and was looking forward to hearing Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ take on Dragon Tattoo. What impresses me the most is their tendency to make every track their own.. not necessarily holding onto a particular theme. In the case of Social Network, the media ended up sticking to the simple yet effective piano idea from the track “Hand Covers Bruise”. My guess is that they’ll do the same with Dragon Tattoo.. perhaps using the intro theme “Immigrant Song” with Karen O (by the way, the title visuals along with this song are quite something..) or maybe “She Reminds Me of You” as I have a feeling that track leaked out first. NEVERTHELESS, some great tracks. I found that some of them didn’t fit very well in particular scenes, but by the second half, everything worked well. Percussion is key in this music, and sticks out at the same level of the film, while an haunting ambience constantly plays in the background. The Social Network’s soundtrack got me excited while watching the film… the Dragon Tattoo’s simply left me nervous yet curious. Perfect for the plot.

I’m home for the Christmas holidays.. in Toronto, Canada. I haven’t been here in a year, and after graduating from NYU and getting straight to work on several projects, I am enjoying a quiet break with friends and family. I always took the bus from NYC to Toronto, but this time I flew home. Seeing the city from my plane was an incredible experience. The sun caused the plane to cast a shadow on the clouds as we turned towards the airport. I really missed my home!

I wish you all love, warmth, and good health as we move into the New Year!

“We were born to die.” Lana Del Rey – Dec 5th

Last night, I witnessed Lana Del Rey in concert at the Bowery Ballroom. Her emergence into the music world is a bit interesting, and the media has had their fun of criticizing not only her songs but her name and image. Say what you want about her lips, what comes out of them is beautiful and at times intoxicating.

To be frank, her songs are all about love.. that topic will never get old, as love has many many faces and sub-feelings within itself. However, her lyrics paint a strong picture.. they’re not overly poetic.. they are what they are, and if you can connect to them, they are all the more powerful. If her lyrics paint the exact picture of your memories, you cannot help but get lost. And Lana Del Rey has been where most of us have been in terms of love.

“Video Games” is her most popular song so far, making tremendous success on YouTube (her visual approach is refreshing as well, taking vintage videos and splicing them together).. however, the girl must’ve sung that a million times to exhaustion, because I wasn’t feeling her way of singing it last night. However, her new song, “Born to Die”, was amazing. Love, struggle, and a bit of philosophy all meshed into one. It was a short gig, but her new album coming out in January is certainly on my shopping list.

Call her fake, call her manufactured if you wish… you cannot deny once you’ve been touched inside. Be sure to listen to Born to Die!

 

 

Elvis on the mind…

I’m going to hastily predict the future…

Every Christmas holiday, I will visit the Elvis mansion in Graceland. This is a budding tradition (I’ll admit, I’ve only been there once..) but even if I have to go by myself, it’s worth having that intimate moment around his life.

What makes Graceland so magical? Well, let me first say that those who don’t find The King very appealing will at least respect the construction of the museums around the mansion. In Graceland, you’re never sad… You can’t be sad. You’re not there to mourn his death.. you’re there to celebrate his life. You’re not there to cry when you see a video of his performance.. you’re there to smile. It’s really difficult to think about how his life was tragically cut short when you realize the incredible amount that he’s done in our world… for our world…

January 8th is his birthday. Will I see you there?

The Delay of all Delays!! – Part 1

I left this blog inactive for too long! Well, in those situations, I have to make up for it with a really long post… 500 words max. A lot has happened as 2011 rolled in.. leading to my graduation from NYU.

Firstly, I wanted to congratulate Patrick Ng on his film, Real Talk, was chosen as one of the King Award Winners at the 2011 NYU First Run Festival. The film went on to have its first screening Los Angeles back in June. More information on this short can be found here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1869644/

In February, I was chosen (along with four other NYC film composers) to take part in the ASCAP/Columbia Film Scoring Workshop. The workshop consists of four filmmakers working on their thesis short films and one filmmaker working on the Columbia Film Festival trailer. Out of about 20-30 candidates, it was up to the filmmakers to chose a composer they wished to work on their film with. After several weeks, all composers were able to record their scores with a 10 to 15-piece ensemble of their choice at Avatar Studios in Manhattan. I worked with Portugese director Simao Cayatte whose short film, A Viagem (“The Trip”), was chosen for the Cinefondation category at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. For more information on the short, check out this link: http://www.aviagemfilme.com/

Hmm.. what else? Well, I graduated from NYU in May! I met a lot of wonderful people in the program and enjoyed having several of my music played all around NYC during my studies. I’ve decided to continue living in New York and work on as many films as possible… and luckily, after graduating, I went straight to work.

What did I work on? Part 2 will explain. In the meantime, here’s a song by Hooray for Earth, a band I discovered recently… love em, and can’t wait to hear them play in a few weeks!!

Farewell to 2010!

November and December have been incredibly hectic months… when you’re writing music, finishing academic papers, preparing a concert, and completing PhD applications, the stress certainly gets to you. Thankfully, I’ve just begun my vacation and now have time to review all of my work this term.

Earlier in November, I recorded my third session at NYU with a string orchestra. The clip I used was from Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer. The film’s suspenseful moments propelled me to write a tense score, but without giving too much away. I will have the clip ready for viewing by January.

On November 21st, I along with six other composers presented new works at Le Poisson Rouge. The concert focused on music through storytelling, and I decided to base my piece off of a haiku by Natsume Soseki. You can listen to the piece below!

I’ve been working on several short films, one of them being Cold War Children (dir. Marcus Castillo) which is currently in post-production. I provided an eerie, tense score to accompany the film’s dark narrative/mocumentary about children being trained as terrorists in the United States. Below is one of the tracks from the score.

2011 will bring a lot of challenges. During the holidays, I’m definitely going to update the website bit by bit. Expect more music in the future! Have a safe and relaxing break!

Starting a new year!

September was so busy that I wasn’t able to put time in making a new post about entering my final year in the Masters Program at NYU! Emotions are heavy as many of us are preparing for the future, but at the same time I’ve made some new friends who are just starting the Film Scoring Program. The month ended by seeing one of the performances of Wagner’s Das Rheingold at the Metropolitan Opera! It was fantastic and had me thinking about the music and staging in the days following. Robert LePage did a fine job, although I was a bit timid everytime I heard a click as the 45-ton set moved (I found out later on that this was normal… hehe).

I have posted the full recording of my Takemitsu tribute piece, nevermind the rain (only the dream), onto YouTube! The piece was premiered at Merkin Hall and marked the first performance of one of my works in the United States. I am very happy with the performance and thank all the performers, Jonathan Haas, and Laura Jordan for putting the Takemitsu Project together. This Friday (October 8th) marks the 80th anniversary so I wish to commemorate this time by presenting this piece which was inspired by a truly wonderful composer.

October will be full of work and stress, so it’s best that I write this post now. I have many applications to write and exams to prepare for (GRE… gah!). I will, however, have a performance of my percussion piece, as the boy’s eyes opened…, by the NYU Percussion Ensemble at the Frederick Loewe Theater on October 28th at 8pm (more info on my website). Prior to that, it looks like my co-written electronic piece for the short film, A Trip Down Market Street (1906), will be played at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) on October 23rd at 1:30pm! More information about this event (part of the annual To Serve and Project festival at MoMA) can be found HERE. Any further information will be posted on my website in the days to come.

Thank you for reading! Stay warm!

New film cue and my film scoring projects over the summer!

This summer, now that I had a bit more free time (just a bit!), I decided I wanted to concentrate on expanding my film scoring portfolio by writing more mock-ups to existing videos. I began searching trailers for video games and found a beautiful Japanese video game called End of Eternity (American title: Resonance of Fate) by tri-Ace and Sega. The original music was nice, but I wanted to experiment with my own ideas and testing my way of solving problems such as tempo and rhythm when already having the film… and in this case, a film that has a lot of action and quick shots. It took a while… I’ll admit I was a bit slow in finishing the mock-up, but it’s finally done and posted on my website! You can view the video below. If you have any comments, be sure to post them in this blog entry.

In the last few months I’ve been working with filmmaker Elin Gronblom on her new short film, “Mr. Whiskers,” about a man named Mark who slowly comes to terms with the fate of his aging cat. The film is shot in a beautiful way, putting emphasis on nature and open space. The score comprises of live string quartet and piano which was recorded at one of the studios at NYU Steinhardt (Lara Michaels, violin;  Joelle Britt, violin; Eric Lemmon, viola; Frederick Chu, cello; Sergi Casanelles, piano). The music is very delicate yet evocative, placed carefully with shots of nature and emotional scenes. It was a nice experience to record a live score and I hope to do that more often in the future with even bigger ensembles! When the film is complete, I will post a short clip (or trailer). In the meantime, there is an excerpt on the main page of my website that you can listen to!

I’m also working on a short film, “The Others’ Ways”, by Devayush Chowdhary alongside fellow film composer colleague Matt Bukaty. I’ve written a trailer for the film, which is currently in post-production, and I hope to post it once I perfect it to its limits.

And last but not least, I’m now working on music for a documentary in Los Angeles addressing the issues of prostate cancer patients who do not receive proper treatment. There’s something quite special about writing music for documentaries in comparison to writing for films… I have yet to explain that sensation, hehe. I will post more about this project in the coming weeks.

So I watched Inception a few weeks ago in IMAX… wow! I enjoyed the film in general, despite some areas where the plot just could not hold together (I found myself semi-smirking at one point). Nevertheless, I decided to waive those problems and simply watch the film as a spectacle, which works in that respect. Hans Zimmer’s score was nice… nothing special when it came to the action scenes. I really liked his piano/string motive for Leonardo DiCaprio’s character and his wife… simple yet powerful and it really helped me hold onto the very last scene which again, had questionable plot issues. After that, what films can I watch for the rest of this summer?? I cannot wait for Harry Potter……… and TR2N…..

Take care, everyone!!

Bringing Film Music to Le Poisson Rouge!

In June, a few of my film scoring colleagues and I had the wonderful opportunity to conduct live performances of original film scores! We (Lydia Ainsworth, Sergi Casanelles, Elias Constantopedos, Shruti Kumar, and me) each wrote six minutes of music to whatever film we chose. The films ranged from early 20th century, to video game music, to current productions. We brought together six talented musicians (Sarah Carrier, flute; Rob Walker, clarinet; Patti Kilroy, violin; David Dunbar, viola; Rose Bellini, cello; Alli Job, bass) and had our works performed live while in sync with the film to give an experience of both arts. It was a wonderful evening full of eclectic musical ideas and I hope we get to present another concert like this again soon in NYC!

Here is a video of my part, playing original music to an excerpt of Roland West’s silent film, The Bat (1926). The video quality is poor because it’s so dark and far away, but the sound is not bad. I hope you enjoy!

It’s been VERY hot in New York lately… even getting outside is a bit risky. Right before the heatwave, I watched a nice performance of Xenakis’ “Persephassa” at Central Park. Percussionists and their instruments were either put on boats in the main lake or placed near the edge of the water. Click HERE for a nice article regarding the event. The weather was just right, and it was a great experience to watch these performers while listeners were able to follow around by boat!

I hope everybody keeps cool! At this point, I’m hoping my laptop doesn’t catch on fire. I will post again soon about some film scoring projects and maybe some future concerts I would like to attend. Take care!

A Night of Film Scoring

Thank you to all who came to the Film Scoring Concert last Sunday evening at NYU Steinhardt! Everything ran smoothly (I always get a bit nervous when technology and live performance are put together, hehe) and I was very happy with the result. It was a wonderful opportunity and the night included a variety of music including Tisch student films with a recorded score and songs written by my colleagues in the Songwriting class. I hope we have the opportunity to turn this concert idea into a regular program at the school.

Also, a live version of my Great Expectations cue can be found in the Film Music section of my website. The previous version was all done by samples while I was editing and mixing my real copy. I hope you like it! It was recorded at NYU Steinhardt, and the players did a wonderful job. I am working on a few other cues that I hope to put on the website soon.

This summer, I will be working on a few film scores by students from the New York Film Academy and Tisch School of Arts. I will keep you updated on their progress. Now that classes are over for the year, I can focus on many things that I did not have time for during the term. I am looking forward to interning at the NYU/ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop and Music & the Moving Image Conference in mid-May! Judging from the topics chosen, it should be a very interesting year.

My N.Y. Debut!

“NEVERMIND THE RAIN” – MY NYC DEBUT!!

Thank you to everybody who attended the Takemitsu Project concert last Thursday at Merkin Hall! I was very happy with the performance of my piece, “nevermind the rain”, and also wish to thank the performers (Manuel Laufer on piano, Laura Jordan on vibraphone, Katherine Redius on harp, Sarah Carrier on flute, and Jeffery Eng on tam-tam) for bringing my notes into aural existence and Jonathan Haas for conducting. It was a great experience, to have a piece of mine played in such an intimate hall. The concert in its entirely was wonderful, and made me love Takemitsu even more. An excerpt of the recording (which I hopefully will get soon!) will be posted on my website in the next week or two.

POEM I (FOR SOLO CONTRABASS) – UPCOMING PERFORMANCE!

The fun doesn’t stop there. My solo contrabass piece, Poem I, will be performed by Patrick Swoboda at the Frederick Loewe Theatre at 8pm on April 24th! Tickets are free, and if you’re interested, many of my colleagues will also have their solo-string pieces performed by NYU Steinhardt music students. More information can be found HERE.

Have a great week!!