This sort of place is heaven to me. Hatch Show Print is a 125 year old letterpress print shop in downtown Nashville. It's been a few years now since I was there but I still remember the smell of it and the feeling of wanting to stay all day. Or even to move in. Americana, music, posters, cats, history: perfect.

images via http://www.ryman.com/HatchGallery.html

I wrote something in a previous post about my love of Werner Herzog's use of music in his films, especially choral music. He seems to be able to synthesise imagery and sound into a single creation in a way that very few films achieve. The Wild Blue Yonder is a film that really seems to divide people (it's won awards and also appeared on 'worst films of all time' lists), but the soundtrack is extraordinary. He also made a short documentary - 'Requiem in Space' - which shows how he worked with the remarkably diverse set of musicians - a Senegalese solo singer, a small choir of Sardinian shepherds and a Dutch jazz cellist - which the second two short clips are taken from.

This is a reject from the last film I was working on, which I've just rediscovered while deleting a load of old files. I've decided that I quite like the chords and am going to play around with it a bit more and see if I can salvage something. I'm toying with the idea of bringing in a very soft, muted brass band-ish element as it repeats. Might post back some ideas soon.

Walther Ruttman was an experimental German film director working in the 1920s and 30s, who originally studied architecture but became a graphic designer before moving into film. This short film is probably his best known work, and I'm currently playing around with writing a new score for a ten minute section of it.  

Another excerpt from 'Born Yesterday', and another section that I cannot seem to leave alone. The strings have given me nothing but grief and torment, although I'm slightly happier with the wind instruments. Again, will post the clip with visuals when I get round to it.

This is an excerpt from the soundtrack to 'Born Yesterday', a short film I made last year, comprised of old Super 8 footage from the 1960s and 70s. I'll post the clip with visuals as well when I get round to extracting it from the entire film. Although the whole thing is more or less complete, I'm still not completely happy with this; feel the organ needs work, the bass levels are tricky to get right and the overall mix is not quite there yet. So, still endlessly fiddling with it.

Gorgeous song, gorgeous band, gorgeous animation from Shynola.