LIVING WORLDS: AN ANIMAL PLANET EXPERIENCE
MUSIC, FOLEY & SFX
SINGAPORE SCIENCE CENTRE - MAR 2020
The original subtitle for the show was Vanishing Worlds. The creative team aimed to design interactives to showed the scourge of crazed capitalist consumption on the environment.
I was briefed to avoid rainforest music tropes like tribal drums and singing. Sketching led to a pensive acoustic guitar riff for daytime, and a noir-ish speakeasy jazz jam for the night.
Mental images of stumps dotting a scarred forest landscape inspired this rather dour track, soon rejected because of a change in conceptual direction.
The subtitle took a turn for the optimistic and the show was renamed Living Worlds. Here’s the rest of my audio scope:
Please remember I’m a composer/sound designer first, then a visual designer wannabe/hack. Thanks.
WRITING IS REWRITING / COMPOSING THE BIOME MUSIC
The biome background music was the biggest challenge. The broad brief was to evoke a sense of childhood wonder while conveying the “essence” of the biome in question.
I wanted each biome to have its own theme and variations for a specific reason: I hoped the music, lodged in memory, would remind visitors to act for the future of these habitats.
The melodies and instrumentation were tailored to characterise the “spirit” of these environs.
RAINFOREST:
lively, verdant — woodwinds, because their timbre evokes a sense of “breath”
energetic, with vibrant splashes of colour — pizzicato strings for the boppy main riff
Here’s the final version, re-mixed in stereo for the internet.
CORAL:
mystery, the deep — carried by the main motif, at first a slippery, slightly ambiguous affair, but when repeated later in lengthened form by the legato strings feels like a seafaring, nautical tune
swimming, waves — carried by rhythmic harps, whose timbre for me evoke a sense of the submarine
shallower depths — the frequency distribution of the track “brightens” midway, as a sonic symbol for surfacing
SEA ICE:
This track was the easiest to write because I love the use of whispering strings and glassy timbres for conveying cold, frosty and icy. Cheers Spitfire Audio.
It’s not an uncommon instrumentation choice, but I love how well it works and did not want to go traipsing for new alternatives.
icyness - Spitfire Albion Tundra, the virtual instrument that got me making music again; various glassy, crystalline patches from Heavyocity’s Ascend
isolation/desolation (in the sense that those environs are relatively inhospitable) - lone piano melody
the play of light on ice — the waltz-like section
PLEDGE AREA ADAPTATIONS
I adapted the biome tracks for the final low-poly pledge area, an activity station that allowed users to customise their own animal avatar and beam it in front of a giant projected globe as an abstract agreement to stand with the Earth through its climate woes.
ANIMAL CALLS AND SOUND DESIGN
Most of the animals in the interactives were rendered in 3D, which meant they would all need to be given voices by some sound designer.
I trawled field recording and licensed sound sites after researching the vocalisations required, chose the clips for their usability and drama, and then edited them to fit snugly with the motion and movement.
On occasion, usable recordings were not available or affordable. In those cases, I recreated the sounds best as I could. These included the song of a lyrebird imitating construction sounds, as well as the thrum of a rhinocerous beetle’s wings.
I performed and recorded all the movement SFX.
Sounds and vocalisations were mixed a bit more forward since I anticipated they would have to compete with the noise of the attending crowd.
AR Photo Booth
The animals here were bigger, projected so visitors could “pose” with them. Their sounds are, accordingly, a bit more dramatic and forward than for the Rainforest Explorer.