Sound Track One For M To W: The Realm Of Mother Nature & King Of Tokyo
Notes On
Sound Track One For M To W: The Realm Of Mother Nature
& King Of Tokyo
Both Sound Tracks One and Two were made specifically for dance films of "Tama Pro," a fascinating Tokyo-based art unit.
- "M To W: The Realm Of Mother Nature"
(Dedicated to Isabelle for beautiful German Christmas memory)
Tama Pro by Mitsuru Tamatsuka
Film Creator: Keisuke Sagiyama
- (TBA)
The tracks were made during the commotion caused by coronavirus. Mitsuru Tamatsuka requested us for two pieces of music for the dance work with one sheet of his drawing and notes describing its concept. That was the start of the project.
We are pleased to have had Gary Rees as a guest musician as well as for the poetry reading and mastering.
These (musical) themes were made between January and February 2020 but released later simultaneously with the dance films (in May 2020 for Sound Track One (ST1) and to be announced for Sound Track Two (ST2)).
FMT first created ST1, and later restructured and developed it into ST2 with Gary Rees. There is another version FMT and Gary originally developed from ST2, called "... With Poetry Reading."
Even though the music for the second film was completed then, ST2 and With Poetry Reading will be uploaded when the film is released (as of May 2020).
(TI comments:)
I don't usually have any music or albums that would be helpful when I create a piece, but for this time, I have referred to the soundtrack of Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence."
Other than the theme, the sound is like a combination of sparse phrases in a context other than the theme, and most of it was played by a synthesizer and a sampler, and recorded in analog multi-tracks (perhaps of 24 channels). The number of sounds is small, and it does not bring luxurious sound pressure such as Hollywood at this time, and is familiar with the image.
I tried to create more impressive sound and sound pressure by combining the metallic sounds of early digital synths with the percussion sounds of wooden instruments such as marimba, pad sounds of synthesizers, sampled sounds of strings and effectors.
Sound Track One For M To W: The Realm Of Mother Nature
https://youtu.be/QsIBR8XbXnQ
Recording tool (DAW): Studio One 4 Professional
Number of tracks: 56
Sound source: Presence XT, Impact XT, Mai-Tai, Mojito (All built-in sound sources of Studio One), TAL-NOIZEMAKER
Composition and Recording period:January 17 2020 - February 5 2020
(TM writes:)
At first, three motifs that I made were connected and developed into various forms. Motifs 1 (in 4/4 meters) and 2 (in 5/4) were merged polyrhythmically and Motif 1 was based upon a piece for a trombone and piano I composed at the age of around 15.
Track Data
Composition tool: MuseScore, Studio One 4 ProfessionalRecording tool (DAW): Studio One 4 Professional
Number of tracks: 56
Sound source: Presence XT, Impact XT, Mai-Tai, Mojito (All built-in sound sources of Studio One), TAL-NOIZEMAKER
Composition and Recording period:January 17 2020 - February 5 2020
(TM writes:)
At first, three motifs that I made were connected and developed into various forms. Motifs 1 (in 4/4 meters) and 2 (in 5/4) were merged polyrhythmically and Motif 1 was based upon a piece for a trombone and piano I composed at the age of around 15.
I intended to attach importance to the first chord of Motif 2, so that it should characterise the whole of this track, ie, Ab, F and Bb. If the key is set on Ab (though it's kept ambiguous), the chord consists of the 6th and 9th notes. Or, along with the first note of C in Motif 1, it could be said Bb sus4 on Ab. Whatever it interprets, the combination aims to symbolise atonal emotional beauty.
Sometimes sound tracks in general are made quite “modest” or “sidual” and we planned to make this as appealing as possible. Hearing TI refer to Ryuichi Sakamoto's work for "Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence," I also took his "Last Emperor" into account. I didn't adopt it musically as a matter of fact, but I just wanted Sound Track One as emotional as that.
We as FMT usually dilute the notions of melodies and harmonies, ie, the Western theoretical construction but have left the bassline and beat rather clear this time. But many of our past works were made more ambiguous. In fact, what do the 5/4 drums play for, if the diluted melody and harmony are played in 4/4? Also, this film series has no parts only for bass.
So, the series was designed to deconstruct the Western music (yet without being stereotypically orientalised) and to create complex beauty at the same time. It has many temporal changes, which the Japanese or African traditional music often has in their structures. So do Techno and Acid House.
Sometimes sound tracks in general are made quite “modest” or “sidual” and we planned to make this as appealing as possible. Hearing TI refer to Ryuichi Sakamoto's work for "Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence," I also took his "Last Emperor" into account. I didn't adopt it musically as a matter of fact, but I just wanted Sound Track One as emotional as that.
We as FMT usually dilute the notions of melodies and harmonies, ie, the Western theoretical construction but have left the bassline and beat rather clear this time. But many of our past works were made more ambiguous. In fact, what do the 5/4 drums play for, if the diluted melody and harmony are played in 4/4? Also, this film series has no parts only for bass.
So, the series was designed to deconstruct the Western music (yet without being stereotypically orientalised) and to create complex beauty at the same time. It has many temporal changes, which the Japanese or African traditional music often has in their structures. So do Techno and Acid House.
Gary added brilliant phrases to contribute towards the emotionality essential in ST1 as well as making the crucial motif in ST2.
(TI writes:)
When I was asked to create the sound tracks, I saw their past video works. At that time I was convinced that our work would fit their film work.
The reason is that our work has no overt context. And because they have no context, they can be switched, shortened, and chopped as much as they need to fit the movie.
In other words, it does not disturb the image and does not add any extra meaning to the image.
I definitely wanted to add music to the movie. The condition for accepting this request is that music requests from movie producers should not be accepted (for example, to create a track with such an atmosphere).
However, for our finished work, it was up to the movie maker to use it (or not) in the film no matter how it was used.
Before the creation, I looked at only the A4-sized production notes mentioned above, and I expanded my imagination from there.
Gary Rees first put a very melancholic phrase on the motif presented by TM, which we wouldn't write. When I put this on the TM‘s phrase, I was convinced of the success of this track.
This phrase is quoted in various forms (tones, phrases and key changes) from the beginning to the ending. I added the strings and harmony of the strings, which turned away from each other but harmonized with it.
And Gary created the phrase that led the next part, and the TM wrote the rhythm and corresponding phrases accordingly, and I harmonized them and wrote some strings phrases, and changed the phrase that Gary created. Ending part was added. That was enough. Studio One usually uses more than 100 tracks, but this time it only contains about half the sound.
In terms of mix and tone selection, I imagined a mixture of glass, metallic sounds, and classical instruments from both east and west.
The tracks were also limited to 4 minutes and 30 seconds, so the mixing process was faster than usual.
This track was supposed to be released when Film Two is. But filming was cancelled due to COVID-19 and eventually only the "sound track" was released in the extended play titled ”Landscape Painting" along with "King Of Tokyo (with Poetry Reading)" and "Look Of Clouds."
(TI writes:)
When I was asked to create the sound tracks, I saw their past video works. At that time I was convinced that our work would fit their film work.
The reason is that our work has no overt context. And because they have no context, they can be switched, shortened, and chopped as much as they need to fit the movie.
In other words, it does not disturb the image and does not add any extra meaning to the image.
I definitely wanted to add music to the movie. The condition for accepting this request is that music requests from movie producers should not be accepted (for example, to create a track with such an atmosphere).
However, for our finished work, it was up to the movie maker to use it (or not) in the film no matter how it was used.
Before the creation, I looked at only the A4-sized production notes mentioned above, and I expanded my imagination from there.
Gary Rees first put a very melancholic phrase on the motif presented by TM, which we wouldn't write. When I put this on the TM‘s phrase, I was convinced of the success of this track.
This phrase is quoted in various forms (tones, phrases and key changes) from the beginning to the ending. I added the strings and harmony of the strings, which turned away from each other but harmonized with it.
And Gary created the phrase that led the next part, and the TM wrote the rhythm and corresponding phrases accordingly, and I harmonized them and wrote some strings phrases, and changed the phrase that Gary created. Ending part was added. That was enough. Studio One usually uses more than 100 tracks, but this time it only contains about half the sound.
In terms of mix and tone selection, I imagined a mixture of glass, metallic sounds, and classical instruments from both east and west.
The tracks were also limited to 4 minutes and 30 seconds, so the mixing process was faster than usual.
King Of Tokyo
This track was supposed to be released when Film Two is. But filming was cancelled due to COVID-19 and eventually only the "sound track" was released in the extended play titled ”Landscape Painting" along with "King Of Tokyo (with Poetry Reading)" and "Look Of Clouds."
Track Data
Composition tool: MuseScore, Studio One 4 ProfessionalRecording tool (DAW): Studio One 4 Professional
Number of tracks: 80
Sound source: Presence XT, Impact XT, Mai-Tai, Mojito (All built-in sound sources of Studio One), TAL-NOIZEMAKER
Composition and Recording period: January 29 2020 - February 7 2020
(TM writes:)
As the title shows, not only this track but also this series (of three tracks) had a sub-theme of the city of Tokyo, Japan, the concept of "King Of Tokyo" is Tokyo’s waters. The city was a boggy area for long until the 16th century and after then rivers concentrate from around while waterways supply drinking water as well as defend the Castle.
Our intention is that the structure of "King Of Tokyo" (KOT) resembles that of "M To W" actually. But unlike "M To W", KOT is NOT structured in sets of phrases, which has even more temporal changes. Anyway, KOT consists of almost nothing new but only elements out of "M To W" instead.
The rhythmic sound like marimba continues from the beginning to the end in a three-bars pattern originally copied from the intermediate of "M To W". Later, the overlapped strings appear in a polyrhythm of 8-meters and 10-meters patterns, which were also brought from "M To W" in the same polyrhythmic structure. Many other phrases from "M To W" are used in irrelevant contexts. Gary Rees successfully added unique characteristics by putting new phrases upon these.
So, yes, KOT is, thus, a result of deconstruction and restructure out of "M To W".
(TI writes:)
I don't add much to this track musically.
I passed the data of MuseScore, which is the underlay created by TM, to Gary, harmonized the phrase he had returned, and organized it.
The mix was initially mixed with a hard cyberpunk image, but at the request of TM, we mixed in a fluid, elusive atmosphere with the impression of a water city. It is extremely restrained.
However, it took trial and error to get this “cloudy” sound. Studio One's extremely high resolution and clear sound quality make it difficult to create such cloudy sounds. It is made with a combination of several distortions and equalizers. At first, I used a cassette tape simulator, but it was unnatural (cassette tapes don't cause any obvious strange distortion that can be heard in tape simulators). In the end, for now, I have come to the conclusion that distortion is best suited to clouding sound in my music production environment. In this song, any sound is first passed through the Compressor and then created through the distortion.
King Of Tokyo (with Poetry Reading)
Track Data
Composition tool: MuseScore, Studio One 4 ProfessionalRecording tool (DAW): Studio One 4 Professional
Number of tracks: 24
Sound source: Presence XT, Impact XT, Mai-Tai, Mojito (All built-in sound sources of Studio One), TAL-NOIZEMAKER
Composition and Recording period:February 16 2020 - March 16 2020
The poems were what we cut up Emily Dickinson’s "I can not dance up my Toes" and " ‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers” selected and read by Gary Rees.
(TI explains:)
For my musical taste, I developed it in the "Poetry Reading" version. The sound I first imagined for KOT is closer to this version.
In this song, I adopted the cyberpunk flavor I wanted to do without hesitation. I wanted to listen to it even if it was a bit stale. For example, a song by Vangelis (the Blade Runner theme) is great, but too emotional for me. I wanted to create a cyberpunk soundtrack that wasn't so. Specific examples include hard guitar and synth sounds (which are sampled) and noise sounds.
In the first place, Gary gave me a demo track that reading a poem by Allen Ginsberg with his original track. His readings are reminiscent of those of beatnik writers such as Ginsberg and William Burroughs (you can understand it by listening to this track).
I wanted to do something like this, but I can't speak English that fluently. After listening to Gary's reading, I wanted to do it someday. And I was just convinced that I should do it with this song. I asked him to do so and he immediately sent me a file reading Emily Dickinson's "I can not dance up my toes" and "Hope is the thing with feathers". (Other poems were read aloud in part, but could not be incorporated due to copyright concerns).
And I've always been very interested in the literary methods of “Cut Up” and “Fold In”.
I'm not good at music that has a clear context (a very beautiful melody, harmony, and a feeling of moving emotions). Of course, I know that there is great music in it, but I stopped making that kind of music when I was about 12 years old *.
Sampling in Hip Hop and House music was also an interesting aspect of the development of music concrete, a cut-up in music.
In fact, previous works have also “Cut Up” their motifs. Once again, we have broken down the KOT motif, remixed it, and created some new additional phrases.
Finally, Gary dusted off the guitar after a long time, and I asked him to play a new phrase.
This is one of my ideal songs.
* Precisely, my composition teacher at that time stopped me. She said this to me.
"You guys are a new generation and you should make new music. There are so many great things in the music so far, so you don't have to create similar music. If you want to create similar music, just listen to or play it. However, in order to create new music, you must first learn how old wonderful music is created."
These are now my inscriptions.