Breathing engine music.

I missed a post yesterday. It was a busy day. Part of it was spent listening to music for Bientôt l’été.

After a wonderful experience on our prototype project Cncntrc, I asked Walter Hus to compose music for Bientôt l’été too. Part of my motivation was that, next to being an accomplished composer, he is also an enthusiastic piano teacher. And piano teaching is an element in Moderato Cantabile, the novel by Marguerite Duras that provides for the initial situation in Bientôt l’été.

One of the peculiar things about Mr Hus’ recent work is that it almost always involves a monumental computer-driven Decap pipe organ. When I visited his studio yesterday, he just switched on the device and I was welcomed by a low throbbing sound coming from the biggest pipes of the organ that made everything in the small room vibrate. From there, the sound evolved into a fascinating surreal seascape with waves coming from the motorized breathing of an accordion, ethereal voices flowing in the wind, subtle piano tingles and amusing references to 70s synthesizer ambiance.

I was delighted to hear how evocatively he had captured the idea of a beach simulation running on the holodeck of a remote space station. I could feel the engine of the craft, hear the wistful sighs of the ocean and lonely cries of man and machine in empty space. I was pondering changing the entire game so everything in it would be triggered by the music alone. Because all I wanted to do was listen to it. But then we came to our senses and decided to mix the music dynamically in the game, as we did in Cncntrc -and The Path.

So even if all else fails, I feel the music for Bientôt l’été alone is sufficient justification for this project to exist. I’m looking forward to implementing some tracks in the game and seeing where the music leads the design and aesthetics.