This film left a lasting impression on me, and the score is such a prominent part of that. Musically speaking this has kind of a small, indie vibe to it a la The Postal Service that grows more impressionistic and grandiose as the story unfolds. Working on music and sound simultaneously has a certain cathartic, all-devouring effect on me - there are some nifty integrations of the two - one example is the bedroom clock creating a 5/8 polyrhythm against the music. The original score for the film Somewhere used the twinkle effects from the animation to come up with the rhythm of its thematic melody. Somewhere, our limbs lost in the distance. It helped to elicit not only the vastness of space, but also the dark loneliness it can bring. I wanted to set the tone of the piece by creating long phrases, while at the same time embracing the silence between. I also played through Cat Astro Phi before I got started.
Spaceman was the first piece I arranged for this project, and I think that helped in conveying Spaceman’s vulnerability. This level music from the game Cat Astro Phi tries to evoke the innocence of its protagonist, who frequently succumbs to kitten mischief, and the increasing danger of his pursuits, exploring derelict space bunkers. A couple of times, I would select a piece to arrange based on the original-with no consideration for how it might translate to piano, and because of that this piece may have taken the longest to complete!īecause computer generated music is metronomically precise, I wanted to humanize it by breathing more "life" into the piece taking subtle liberties with time, while always respecting the constant underlying rhythmic pulse. Also wanted to focus on mixing groups of 2 over groups of 3 in different ways, much like the original did. With Win, it was important to capture the gradual build. I set out to create a closing track for my album Level, and knew I wanted something that was optimistic, and kind of frenetic in its energy.
This piece was heavily inspired by the music from the game Super Mario RPG. What followed was a long and fruitful collaboration - an open invitation for David to explore my catalogue and tackle what he liked, and a whole lot of back and forth as we refined and honed in on an eclectic set of piano arrangements. I was really taken by David's style, watched all of his clips and reached out to complement him and see if he might want to work on a piano arrangement. One day, I saw an Instagram video of someone performing a short snippet of 'Forgotten' from FEZ on piano. 'Disasters for Piano' is a collection of my works arranged (for piano) by David Peacock.