Imaginary Album The Children of Loki

This project was ultimately started to push myself in the writing and recording of sounds or short musical sounds bites.
I've developed quite a keen interest in incidental music.
"Music used in a film or play as a background to create or enhance a particular atmosphere."
In some cases its harder than it sounds..! 
It becomes a battle and puzzle of wills of which comes first the Chicken "Footage" or the egg "Music."
How do you go about writing a piece of music to fit what your actually watching?
Is it going to flow with the footage, is it going to make any sense, should it make any sense?
Should I write real time to the footage and soundtrack & score as the footage unfolds?

Needless to says each piece out of the four presented there individual problems.
This has been a very "Sound" project and one I'm sure I will continue to explore.
Perhaps in time I'll work on a second Imaginary Album and see what emerges...

SoundCloud Link
YouTube Video Link

Sorry about the ad running I will try to sort that out, it shouldn't be there!
But someone is claiming that "Nosferatu" is theirs even tho its out of copyright date as far as I know!

lOki 

Art Installation Hourglass Hard Boiled Ambient

From time to time there are a few people that have the balls to contact me and ask if I might make them one of my more abstract or avant-garde art looking videos.
A couple of months ago one such person did contact me and sent me a piece of their music in the style of ambience.
Ambient tracks can be somewhat of a nightmare when producing a music video, due to the fact that an ambient track can last anywhere from ten mintues to hours in length!
You think I'm joking...Trust me ambient is very easy when composing to simply get lost into.
Your music and your mind become the living dream of soft atmospheric melodies.
Here's a little copy and paste of the email I received from the creator of the music "Hourglass"

"Ok this is 9.30 long...really sorry, however you have great filling skills
i'm sure...
This is called Hourglass btw feat poet Matt Lovegrove, Matt is very dark."

Huh...! 9:30...! Dam girl... Dark...Good...
I've produced videos before now of this length, but the editing and time factors are huge.
When dealing with such mountains I always look for the quickest way to climb and use what I'm given to construct my video.
Hourglass + Eggs + Boiling water = Video.
Althougth I did admittedly have to chop a minute off the end of the track and gentle fade, due to the time frame of the eggs boiling.
There was no loss to the music itself, because of the repetitive nature of the style of music.

Natraully I can't resist adding my little strange black and white character that pops up now and then in such videos as this one. 
He is this rather bizzare blend of a Japanese horror character with a twist of Marcel Marceau.
He has appeared before in a few other videos such as Holding Cell and the Kraken videos.
I used some interesting looking effects this time round and played about with green screen by simply spraying a small canvas green and overlayering footage onto that green canvas and finally turned it to black and white. 
Totally cost to make this video was £36 or roughly $58 and six eggs...!

On a final note it was said not that long ago in a comment that some of my work had the feel of an "Art Installation"  Which I thought was rather lovely and so I have selected a few video's that I have made over the years and made a new playlist on YouTube called "Art Installation"
I hope at some point you get to go through them and have a watch...
Please vist the Soundcloud link on the YouTube video itself and support the artist and his music.
And please share on any media site... Every little helps new artists ideas and concepts get noticed.

YouTube Video link

The art of Toking

A set of three video based around smoke & smoking.
Naturally this isn't going to get much in the way of taffic on YouTube.
It's a little bit too arty-farty and I sometimes feel myself being somewhat
disappointed over this.
Although it was nice to read a comment about the music I wrote for the piece.
Most tend to forget I actually write the music as well produce these odd videos.
I guess at the end of the day it really doesn't matter that much, its just another
video that goes into a folder and filed away.
And I just move forwards onto the next idea & project...
It is strange how Kathleen Dawson or Kitty D has come out tops, out of everything
I made here on YouTube over the four years.
She is funny though...
YouTube Video Link

FAKE BEANS ON TOAST - added Robin Williams sauce

Uhm... I held back for a while before writing anything about the sad passing of Robin Williams.
I understand the outpouring of heartfelt tributes over Robin's death, but personally I thought it might be better to wait and actually find out if there was a little more to it all.
And sure enough, a few days after his death, we found out that Robin was in the early stages of
Parkinson's Disease.
Naturally, and as we all know, Robin was indeed a very funny man and like most great comedians, here was truly the humbling sad clown, suffering from a range of disorders from drug addiction to alcoholism & depression.
I dare say that these years of highs and lows, the good times and the bad, more than likely paid
some contribution to Robin's diagnosis of early Parkinson's Disease.
It's difficult to say what triggered Robin's final decision that day to take his own life. Was it the depression, or the simple fact that the world in which we live has simply gone to the dogs and what's the point anymore!
All I do know is that Robin wasn't alone in his struggle.
Millions upon millions of men, women, and children suffer from depression all over this tiny little
planet.  And the mere fact that even if you have it all, that really doesn't matter.
Depression doesn't take that into account.
I wrote this very short piece many years ago while suffering my ongoing battle with depression,
drugs, and drink:

"Illness is nothing more than an infected misprint
A twisted tainted pattern
That knows not time nor person."

Tony Hancock
Peter Sellers
Spike Milligan
Ruby Wax
Stephen Fry
Lenny Bruce
Richard Pryor

The fact of the matter is that Robin isn't the first well known celebrity to take their
own life over or through depression, and he won't be the last.
The story will generate and snowball communication about the illness, but sadly another news story will take its place in a few days' or weeks' time, ie, boyband found smoking drugs or US sends in the troops, etc... which in itself is very, very depressing.

Please keep talking and keep being honest, not only to yourself but to your friends and loved ones. Depression is a lonely empty road... so lonely that not even tumbleweeds dare roll by.

Robin Williams RIP. You were never alone :(

Dr Who THE MASTER

Don't get me wrong I think Dr Who is an out standing Sci-Fi fantasy T.V. show.
As a kid from the 1970s Sci-Fi and T.V. was a dream come true.
But I never rated the character of Dr Who...!
Now the The Master... Now thats a character... A character I work jump through hoops to play.
I love the wicked madness, its almost like there are three personalities.
The GOOD the BAD and the LOST CHILD OF TIME...

The art of good conversation with Stella

Today I will mainly be talking with my good friend Stella!
The art of good conversation...is very much alive...