SONOPEDIA Sound Design Competition Results

Blastwave FX has announced the winning composition of the SONOPEDIA Sound Design Competition (in collaboration with Post Magazine). It was designed by Weston Fonger.
What Academy Award winner Richard King had to say about Weston’s piece:

“[this piece]… gave me the strongest emotional reaction … It’s clear the sound designer was striving to tell a story – certainly an abstract one which the listener can interpret in any number of ways, but there’s a purposeful development to the sounds. The subtle moments are well done and pleasingly organic, with a very effective use of total silence in one transition, and the louder, denser sections retain their clarity. The sounds chosen stand out for their uniqueness and clarity and the mix is focused. Very good work!”

"Noitulove" by Weston Fonger by Blastwave FX

But this piece by Erik Reimers is what I like the most.
Academy Award winner Randy Thom had this to say about it:

“Designing voices for creatures and robots is probably the most difficult kind of sound design there is. [Bot vs Bee] had a nice narrative arc, it was funny, and I’m guessing the designer had to twist the raw sounds quite a bit to achieve the final result.”

"Bot vs Bee" by By Erik Reimers by Blastwave FX

[more here - via blastwavefx.com]
[postmagazine.com]
[Judges]

Computer Making Music on MAKE Magazine

Meet CCRMA, a group of musical makers who stretch the sonic boundaries by turning personal computers into an electronic symphony. Based at Stanford University, CCRMA teams composers, artists and acoustical researchers together to meld music with new technology and explore the outer limits of audio from playground-activated sounds to laptop orchestras.



[via makemagazine]

Brian Eno on UbuWeb Film

Brian Eno: 14 Video Paintings (1981 & 1984)

[availabe on dvd]

These video installations were produced by Brian Eno to be shown at various galleries around the world. Subsequently released on vhs and laserdisc, the two works are to the video format what his audio pieces were to music; ambient musings on the nature of the medium. They are non linear and have no obvious plotline or direction: 'video paintings' as the title suggests, drifting in and out of focus. The first piece on the disc is accompanied by Eno's seminal Thursday Afternoon, a beautiful single hour-long piano track, and the second piece entitled Mistaken Memories of Mediaevil Manhattan is set to tracks from 'Music for Airports' and 'On Land'. 'Thursday Afternoon' is probably the most accessible, with Eno using film footage taken of his close friend Christine Alicino and cutting it together intimately. It ends up playing a little like a nostalgic diary, a musing on the life or a person now departed. The second piece is less figurative, and features painterly shots of the New York skyline, clouds moving overhead and the colours drifting like a melting palette.

[watch video - via UbuWeb]
[direct download - mp4]

[thanks to babelrecords.blogspot.com]