Brian Returns to His Roots with “Classical Cinema” : Sonic Cinema

Brian Returns to His Roots with “Classical Cinema”

Posted by Brian Skutle Posted on May - 11 - 2020 0 Comment

I hope that everyone has been staying safe and healthy during this surreal moment in time during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you’ve been following along with Sonic Cinema, you know that I have been furloughed from my full-time job, and devoting as much time as possible to watching and reviewing movies. I also wanted to take this time to finish something I hoped to complete in 2018 to mark the 20th anniversary of my beginning to compose music. It didn’t go quite as I expected for technical reasons, but the work is done.

As of May 9, 2020, I have a recording of every piece of music I have ever composed, dating back to Fall of 1998 to July of 2018 when I recorded pieces for an employee’s short film, called “Jamie,” which you can watch below. The closing salvo in this endeavor was a 2002 trombone quartet I wrote during a brief moment of inspiration, and it actually ties in to this being something of a press release for my latest EP.

After I wrote “Ahsoka’s Theme” back in 2018 (which you can listen to below in the embedded video), I had the idea of a 3-piece EP with one common denominator- all of the pieces had cinematic inspirations. A lot of pieces of my have been inspired by films and film music, to be sure, but all of these have another thing in common- they all happen to be inspired by science-fiction films. In fact, my three favorite science-fiction universes of all-time.

First up on the program we have “Ahsoka’s Theme”. It was written in 2018, includes quotations of John William’s “Force Theme,” and is inspired by the character of Ahsoka Tano from the “Star Wars” Universe, specifically, “Clone Wars” and “Rebels.” Over the course of the decade from our introduction of the character to her development throughout both series’s, the character has become one of my very favorites from the world of a galaxy far, far away, and I hope this little motif reflects that love for the character.

Next, we come to “Lost Souls, Guided by Hope”. This was a piece for trombone quartet and electronics that I wrote in 2002, and is the piece I just finished recording this month. Unfortunately, you will not hear me playing trombone on this piece, but what you will here is a piece that, I think, plays into the ambient tonalities of the instrument, and how they fit ideally with synthesized sounds. “Lost Souls, Guided by Hope” is inspired by Andrei Tarkovsky’s “Stalker,” about three travelers making their way into a mysterious Zone, in search of a room that, it is said, will grant them whatever they wish. It is the spiritual journey that is more important in Tarkovsky’s starkly beautiful vision, as the travelers become engulfed in the Zone’s tricks, and come out enlightened. I’m looking forward to sharing my interpretation of that musically with you.

Finally, we come to the “Dawn of Man”. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because you’ll have hear some of this piece before, back on 2010’s “Beyond the Infinite: A Musical Odyssey” album. “Dawn of Man” was actually the first piece I wrote for that project, which was created as an alternate soundtrack to “2001: A Space Odyssey.” I wrote “Dawn of Man” in my composition lessons my last year at Georgia State, and you can hear- once it gets past the opening (written for “Beyond the Infinite”)- it goes into a more classical chamber music mode and form as the trio of flute, cello and marimba play variations and rhythmically complicated riffs on the main theme. This is the first time it’s been heard in its entirety.

I have other albums I hope to release in the coming years, but this EP, entitled “Classical Cinema”, is a good starting place, as it is about the past and present in terms of my musical output. You will be able to purchase it at my Bandcamp page on Tuesday, May 19. On Monday, May 18, however, you’ll be able to hear it. At 8pm EST that night, I will be doing a Facebook Live “concert” of the pieces from my office at home. I may even play a couple of other pieces for you. Check Facebook for more info.