#orchestra classic music studio

[sjwallin]

Dashing Vol. 5 from Navona Records, Coming Soon!

Dropping in just a few days on November 15, the fifth installment of Navona Records’ yearly holiday album, “Dashing”, will include a track from me! This installment of the series unwraps the spirited, uplifting, and grandiose qualities of classical holiday music, exploring new interpretations of mainstay melodies, sonic interpretations of snowfall, delicate carols, and more. Featuring an array…

[wingedballoonpeace]

[stephaunanu]

Music For Netflix Event. The Brilliant Composer, Chris Bacon conducting a live orchestra of the score he and the legendary Danny Elfman created for WEDNESDAY. May 11, 2023 Thursday Evening at Red Studios Los Angeles, CA.

[slyarte]

SlyArtË - Ἀταραξία (WORK IN PROGRESS)

NEW PREVIEW!

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Apashe - Lord & Master 2020

John De Buck is a Belgian-born Canadian musician. He was born in Brussels, Belgium and currently lives in Montreal, Quebec.

At the age of 19, he began studying electro-acoustics at Concordia University. After his studies he worked as a sound designer at Apollo Studio, where he co-produced the sound design for video games (Assassin's Creed, Watch Dogs, Far Cry) and the sound for Ubisoft gaming trailers. In 2014 he left the company as his own music started to kick off. 2011 he was signed by Kannibalen Records.

In 2020 he released his second album Renaissance – a mix of electronic and classical music. For this project the Prague Symphony Orchestra with 69 instruments was hired. Requiem, which won GAMIQ's Electronic EP of the Year, and Renaissance were produced in his first own studio. His music has been used in various movie and series trailers such as John Wick, Iron Fist, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Fast & Furious, and Love, Death & Robots Volume 3.

"Lord & Master" won Best Song at the 2022 Berlin Music Video Awards.

"Lord & Master" received a total of 53,4% yes votes.

[harrisonarchive]

On the cover of Muziek Expres, 1974.

“[T]he pressure I got under that year [1974] was ridiculous. I went through so many things: produced two other albums, Shankar Family and Friends, and The Place I Love by Splinter. And I produced an Indian musical festival, which had taken me years to get together, with 15 or 16 classical Indian musicians all playing ensemble, like an orchestra—which they never do. In India you see solo players or two performers with a tabla player. In 1974 I went to India, got them all together, they came to Europe, Ravi wrote all the material. It rocked. Then came my own album and this tour I had lined up. And I also met my wife [Olivia] around then. I wrote the song ‘Dark Horse’ in the studio with Ringo and [Jim] Keltner and I never got to finish it. I took this half-finished album with me to tour rehearsals in Los Angeles and got my voice blown out by singing all day long.” - George Harrison, Musician, November 1987 Q: “You met your wife, Olivia, at the end of what seems to have been a pretty low period for you personally – 1974.” George Harrison: “Yeah, well after I split up from Patti[e] [Boyd], I went on a bit of a bender to make up for all the years I’d been married. If you listen to ‘Simply Shady,’ on Dark Horse, it’s all in there —my whole life at that time was a bit like [laughing] Mrs. Dale’s Diary [a now defunct British radio soap opera].” Q: “Were you going down fast?” GH: “Well, I wasn’t ready to join Alcoholics Anonymous or anything — I don’t think I was that far gone — but I could put back a bottle of brandy occasionally, plus all the other naughty things that fly around. I just went on a binge, went on the road... all that sort of thing, until it got to the point where I had no voice and almost no body at times. Then I met Olivia and it all worked out fine. There’s a song on the new album, ‘Dark Sweet Lady’: ‘You came and helped me through/When I’d let go/You came from out the blue/Never have known what I’d done without you.’ That sums it up.” - Rolling Stone, April 19, 1979 (x)

[bbu-fan-blog]

Big announcement: get ready for a new Kickstarter! Orchestral edition!

"Billie Bust Up is an interactive 3D platforming musical with music composed by the legendary Daniel Ingram, best known for his composition work on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.  Taking inspiration from animated classics, characters sing and perform to the beat. Each song engages the player in a unique way, from catchy boss fights and villain songs, to chase sequences to rhythm heaven inspired segments. 

We are hoping to raise enough funds to record 20 minutes of live Big Band on 5 songs for the Billie Bust Up Game to replace the current MIDI instruments, and dramatically improve the impact of these final songs.

Stretch goals will allow us to fund a proper orchestra for all 14 songs in Billie Bust Up! Featuring one of the top film orchestras in the world in Nashville, Tennessee, USA at the famous Ocean Way Studios where Daniel Ingram, our songwriter, recorded all of the songs for My Little Pony: The Movie We have lots of fun and exclusive rewards planned such as prints, enamel pins and more! Sign up now to be notified when we go live."

(SOURCE)

Reminder that this goal is a want, and not a need: the game will come out regardless of the campain's success. It's just a way for the game's music to feel even more submersive.

So, if you're interested to support this new campain, click the link and sign with your mail address to be updated: when the countdown reaches 0, donations will start.

Be on the ready, then! 🩵

[scifigeneration]

Blade Runner soundtrack at 30: how Vangelis used electronic music to explore what it means to be human

by Alison Cole, Composer and Lecturer in Screen Composition, Sydney Conservatorium of Music at the University of Sydney

In June 1994 the late composer Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou – better known as Vangelis – released his soundtrack for the 1982 film Blade Runner. It would go on to become emblematic of his skills, with only a handful of soundtracks reaching a similar level of cult status.

Prior to this, sci-fi film scores tended to be characterised by orchestral sound palettes. For instance, John Williams’ 1991 Star Wars soundtrack leaned on the London Symphony Orchestra to communicate the vastness of a galaxy far, far away.

Vangelis, on the other hand, used an electronic approach to bring a subtlety and complexity that shifted the focus inwards. His ability to communicate deep emotion, alongside expansive philosophical concepts, was perhaps his greatest achievement with Blade Runner.

Missing pieces

Director Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner was adapted from Phillip K. Dick’s 1968 sci-fi novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – which itself was a thoughtful examination of empathy and what it means to be human. The emotional gravitas of the original story, along with Vangelis’ accompanying timbral exploration, created an aural experience that was new to sci-fi films at the time.

Vangelis began work on the score in 1981. He received edited footage scene-by-scene on VHS tapes and created live takes in his studio with his synthesiser collection.

However, the first official soundtrack was delayed some 12 years after the film’s release, due to what was reportedly an ongoing disagreement with producers.

When it finally was released, purists viewed it as more of an album than a soundtrack. They criticised it for not having much of the music used in the original film, and for including pieces that never appeared in the film, such as Main Titles and Blush Response.

While the 2007 version (a 25th anniversary edition) included some unreleased material, parts of the original soundtrack remain unreleased even today.

A symmetry between newness and nostalgia

By emphasising longer drawn out notes, rather than thick instrumental combinations, Vangelis thoughtfully taps into the atmosphere of Scott’s visual world to create something truly unique.

Early sci-fi movies such as Forbidden Planet (1956) and The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951) often used electronic instruments developed in the early to mid-1900s, such as the theremin and the modular synthesiser. While these instruments helped augment concepts such as aliens, spaceships and robots, they did this somewhat simplistically.

A more sophisticated perspective pervades through Blade Runner, which combines film-noir instrumentation with classical, electronic, jazz and Middle Eastern music genres.

Specifically, Vangelis leverages the different sound qualities of synthesisers – such as bright and airy, thin and cold, or dark and thick – to at once capture emotion and highlight the complex ideas in the film’s narrative. In the final act, expansive synths dominate as the film reaches an intellectual and emotional climax.

While the synthesisers lend an artificial timbre to the score, the musicality simultaneously communicates life and feeling. In this way the foreign and familiar became enmeshed.

The film’s retro costuming and brutalist architecture also set up an expectation for the soundtrack. At times, the score will meaningfully go against this expectation by delving into a more nostalgic sound. The track Love Theme is a perfect example.

Innovative takes

Vangelis’ innovative use of dialogue in the soundtrack also helped to translate the complexities of the human condition. The tracks Main Titles, Blush Response, Wait for Me and Tears in Rain all feature dialogue in a way that makes them feel like a part of the film’s DNA.

The soundtrack’s arrangement was also uncommon for its time, as it mirrored the action narrative sequence. Tracks 1 through 4 are mixed as a single ongoing track. Tracks 5 through 7 are separated by silence, while tracks 8 through to 12 are also combined into a single piece. While this technique is common in electronic composition now, it was unique at the time.

The films dark, fraught and sad dystopian themes are further highlighted through collaborations with Welsh singer Mary Hopkins in Rachel’s Song, and Greek singer Demis Roussos in Tales of the Future.

Today, the Blade Runner soundtrack remains the most beloved of Vangelis’ works by his ardent fans – and it continues to commands its place in the 20th-century electronic music canon.

[a-silent-symphony]

"Things have always been ****ed up." How death, cancer and a whole pandemic helped make Yesterwynde the most optimistic Nightwish album yet

Tuomas Holopainen was a teenage misanthrope. Growing up in the small Finnish town of Kitee, he had the regulation all-black wardrobe and the soundtrack to match. “I did not use to be an optimistic person when I was younger,” he says. “I loved black metal and all that. But I started to come to the realisation that things have always been fucked up, but we’re still going for the better despite the horrible things that are going on in the world.”

We’re sitting in a suite in an upscale Berlin hotel, as mid-morning traffic flows along Potsdamer Platz several storeys below us. Literally as we talk, unthinkable things are happening all around the world: war, abuse, torture, murder, wilful destruction of the climate. The grim realities of humanity in 2024, basically.

But right here, right now, all that seems a long way away. Not because Nightwish’s keyboard player and band leader is in epic denial mode, but because his band’s 10th album, Yesterwynde, is charged with emotion: hope, beauty, positivity and, yes, optimism.

It’s an unexpected choice on more than one level. Aside from the rolling catastrophe that is the 21st century, Nightwish themselves have been battered by turmoil over the past few years. Their last album, 2020’s Human. :II: Nature., was released during the first, intense throes of the pandemic, scuppering their plans to tour it. When they did return to the road in May 2021, it was without longtime bassist Marko Hietala, who cited a mixture of long-standing depression and disillusion with the music industry for his decision to leave the band.

On a personal level, things have been no less turbulent. In 2022, singer Floor Jansen revealed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer (she was given the all-clear following surgery). In June 2023, the singer – pregnant with her second child – collapsed with exhaustion following a Nightwish show in Finland, prompting the cancellation of two subsequent solo gigs. Amid all this, Tuomas’s father, Pentti Holopainen, passed away in 2021.

Other bands may have buckled under the battering of the last few years, but Nightwish – and specifically Tuomas as their chief songwriter – have taken a different path. Rather than wallowing in trauma, Yesterwynde pushes back against it. The 12-track album covers a lot of emotional ground across its 69 minutes, but the overwhelming sense is that, honestly, everything is going to be OK. “Yesterwynde has a very optimistic vibe to it,” says Tuomas. “It celebrates life and humanity and mortality. The important things.” 

Yesterwynde begins and ends with the sound of an old film projector starting up and winding down. It suggests a movie is playing out in between. What exactly that movie is, Tuomas Holopainen isn’t letting on. “It’s something different for everybody,” he says, smiling but evasive. Musically, Yesterwynde is everything we have come to expect from Nightwish, only more. One song, the hyper- dramatic An Ocean Of Strange Islands, features over 600 studio tracks and sounds like it. Another, The Children Of ’Ata, was inspired by the real-life story of a group of teens from Tonga stranded for 15 months on a remote island in the Pacific, and features five indigenous Tongan singers. Elsewhere, Yesterwynde features two separate choirs – one classical, one kids – and three different orchestras, all recorded in London’s prestigious Abbey Road Studios, naturally. There are no side-long epics – only two tracks, An Ocean Of Strange Islands and first single Perfume Of The Timeless, stretch beyond eight minutes – but it still feels bigger, bolder and more grandiose than anything else out there right now.

But amid the dramatic power and intricacy, there’s the emotional core that sets Nightwish apart from every corset-clad knock-off that has followed in their wake. That emotion is conveyed by both the music and Floor Jansen’s career-best vocal performance (as on the two other Nightwish albums she’s been involved in, the Dutch native is joined on singing duties by multi-instrumentalist/resident Brit Troy Donockley). Loss, grief, the existential fragility of humanity and the hope it inspires: it’s all there.

There’s one problem. Literally seconds before we step into the lift to go up to meet Tuomas, a rep for Nightwish’s label makes it clear that he will not talk about the death of his father. On the one hand, this is understandable, even admirable – privacy is a scarce commodity these days, and there’s something to be said for not laying everything out for public consumption. On the other, it’s frustrating – death and birth both play into the big, interlocking themes of Yesterwynde, namely the passage of time and the unfolding of history, and how both make us aware of our own mortality.

This is clearest of all on the album’s closing track, Lanternlight, a moving yet celebratory lament for those who are no longer with us. ‘Gone is the hurt, the wait / Gone is the warmth of day,’ Floor sings. And later: ‘To the meadows I go / I’ll be waiting for you.’ Tuomas won’t say whether it was inspired by the death of his father – “I lost something very dear to me a few years ago, and this song was born out of that emotion,” he offers opaquely – but it’s hard not to join the dots.

“The major theme of the album is time – going back in time, recognising your own mortality,” he says. “Connecting to the past.” The past seems appealing, given how shitty the world is at the moment. “Yeah, it is,” he concedes. “But it’s also incredibly good in many ways. And in many ways it’s better – the innovations of science and medicine, the child death rate... A small example: would you rather go to the dentist today or a hundred years ago? “I want to emphasise that I’m not immune to the bad stuff that’s going on in the world. I’m aware of it and I do everything I can to help. But I think it’s good for our mental state to recognise the good stuff. And I think that we have the chance as a species to survive and get together. That’s the core message, the essence, of Yesterwynde.”

Like so many things, Yesterwynde was born out of the pandemic. The seeds for the album were sown after the tour in support of Human. :II: Nature. was postponed due to Covid. “Suddenly I had nothing to do,” says Tuomas. “So I thought I’d better start writing songs for the next Nightwish album.”

For Floor, the experience of making her third Nightwish album was unlike that of making Human. :II: Nature. or its predecessor, 2015’s Endless Forms Most Beautiful. “It was different for me,” she says. “Not bad, not at all, but different.” It’s a few weeks after we met Tuomas in Berlin. We’re sitting backstage at Muziekgebouw, a concrete concert hall in the Dutch city of Eindhoven, where Floor is due to play a show in support of her 2023 solo album, Paragon, later this evening. She’s not alone: her eight-month-old baby daughter, Lucy, is here too, unknowingly sitting in on the interview and letting her mum know when she’s hungry.

Just like many things that emerged from the pandemic, Yesterwynde began in isolation. Tuomas began writing the songs at home in Finland while his bandmates were busy dealing with their own lives. The rest of Nightwish knew he was writing something, but they didn’t know what. “He didn’t email us saying, ‘This is what I’ve written today,’” says Floor. “He doesn’t like sharing snippets, he likes to share the whole thing. But we knew he was inspired.”

The first time Floor heard the new songs Tuomas had written was during Nightwish’s festival run in the summer of 2022, after touring had properly resumed. “Imagine us all gathered in a hotel room, everybody has brought a drink or two, or three, sometimes the minibar is emptied,” says Floor. “Tuomas would play us the music – we didn’t listen to all the songs at once, that would’ve been too much. He’d explain what the songs were about – he’d start off by telling us very little, letting the music speak for itself, but he’d start to go into the depths of what inspired him.”

At this stage, there were no vocals on the record, just piano melodies in their place. But Tuomas would sometimes sing along as the demo played. Floor made voice recordings on her phone to help her understand what the songs were about and ensure she could connect with the emotions in them. “I’m sure he hopes I never put them on the internet,” she says playfully.

Floor’s personal circumstances meant the recording process was different too. Her pregnancy meant she was unable to join the rest of the band at the campsite in Kitee they’ve used for several albums now to rehearse the songs for Yesterwynde. It also meant she recorded her vocals at home in Sweden, where she lives with her husband, Sabaton drummer Hannes Van Dahl (Tuomas was there for the sessions).

“I was pregnant, and before that there was the cancer, and then I had my baby and I was just really, really fucking tired, so I wasn’t there like I had been in the past,” she says. “The connection to the album is much less than it was before, because we haven’t been spending as much crazy time together as we usually would. That doesn’t mean I don’t give a shit – quite the opposite – but I’m still growing into what it means, and what it means to me.”

What song hit you the hardest the first time you heard it? “The last song on the album [Lanternlight] hit me the most,” she says. “When I heard that the first time – he explained what it was about, this song he wrote for his father – it went straight to my heart. It was so beautiful, even in demo form. I sat there crying.”

Even without the pandemic, the last few years have been a rollercoaster for Floor. There was her well-documented diagnosis with and subsequent recovery from breast cancer, followed by her pregnancy. It culminated in her collapse from exhaustion following a Nightwish show in June 2023, while pregnant (thankfully, both Floor and her unborn daughter were fine). Two solo shows were cancelled in the wake of the latter, though no one would have blamed her if she’d walked away from it all for good.

“No, no, I just had to quit for a couple of months,” she says, meaning the heavy workload. “Did I ever think of quitting for good? No, never.” Hearing her talk, it sounds like Floor is in a unique position: a key part of Yesterwynde, undoubtedly, but also someone with a little distance, who is still learning its deeper meanings. What does the album mean to her right now?

“To me, it’s a continuous awareness about the beauty of the planet we’re on and the positivity of us as a species. We get all this negative feedback about killing the planet and hurting each other, and all of that is unfortunately true. But there’s also a lot of beauty to it – humanity has achieved amazing things throughout history, and we should remind ourselves of that. That is sometimes forgotten in the speed of the life we live today.”

For all Yesterwynde’s against-the-grain optimism, Tuomas Holopainen is as aware as anyone of the grim realities of the world in 2024. That was brought home in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, when there were fears that Russia’s neighbour, Finland, could be next.

“Not fear, but an awareness,” he counters. “I haven’t felt afraid, not once, even though I live less than 10 kilometres from the Russian border. But we have such a good defence that he is not going to come after us.”

He seems equally unflappable when it comes to matters closer to his band. Earlier this year, original Nightwish singer Tarja Turunen – who was acrimoniously and very publicly fired from the band in 2005 – and former bassist Marko Hietala reunited to tour together and release a joint single, Left On Mars. If it feels like a slap in the face for Tuomas, he hides it well.

“Honestly, I don’t care at all,” he says. “It doesn’t move me in any direction that they have found each other. They can play and perform as many Nightwish songs as they want, it doesn’t bother me one bit.” Have you spoken to Marko since he left? ‘A couple of times.” Are you on good terms? "Yes. There’s no bad blood between us. His leaving was his decision. I was actually quite taken by the fact that in the first interview he gave after he left the band, he said, ‘Don’t anybody dare to put this on Tuomas. This was my decision.’”

You’ve talked about the passage of time. Do you miss the friendships you once had with Tarja and Marko? “I remember the best of times we had, with Tarja and Marko. I’m filled with nostalgia and warmth when I think about the latter half of 2004, for example, which was one of the best times Nightwish ever had, right after the release of the Once album and the European tour. It was just wonderful. But my life is in such a good place at the moment that it’s no more than a whiff of nostalgia.”

That sense of nostalgia is threaded through Yesterwynde, linking the past to the present. But what about the future? For Nightwish, that future seems to be tinged with a degree of uncertainty. In April 2023, they announced in a statement that the band would not be touring their next album – a huge deal for a band whose epic live shows match the grandeur of their music. That decision still stands today. Tuomas is insistent that there will be no live shows in support of Yesterwynde, though he politely but firmly refuses to reveal why.

“The reasons are personal, we’re not going to go into it, but it was something that had to be done for this band to continue,” he says, cryptically. “There’s no bad blood between the members, nothing like that. We just have to take a long breather.” Are there any plans to do anything around the album? A live stream? “We will have something planned, which is not playing music but something else.” Which is? “I can’t say, because we don’t know right now,” he says, unconvincingly. “But there are still things happening.”

Backstage in Eindhoven a few weeks later, Floor is equally unwilling to divulge the reasons behind the decision, though she seems to have a slightly different view of it. “The whole idea of not touring... it’s not mine,” she says. “I wish we could continue, but it’s a mutual decision. Everything with Nightwish, we’ve done with 120%, but if you don’t have the energy to do that, it’s better to take a break.”

Not having to tour for months on end does have its upsides. Tuomas says he’ll spend the time working on a new record from Auri, the side-project featuring his wife Johanna and Nightwish’s Troy Donockley. Floor will likewise use the opportunity to spend time with her family and work on her second solo album.

Both insist that the lack of a tour in support of Yesterwynde doesn’t mean that Nightwish are coming to the end of the road. Tuomas points to the fact that they’ve just signed a new deal with their label, Nuclear Blast, as “evidence there are going to be more albums in future”.

“I’ve seen a lot of reactions, people drawing conclusions,” says Floor. “Making an elephant out of a mosquito, as the Dutch say – making something much bigger than it actually is. It’s not the end of the band, I’m not going to leave, nobody’s angry at each other. There’s a lot of drama been added to this – it’s bad enough that we’re not playing, but there’s nothing more to it.”

In many ways, making such a monumental album as Yesterwynde, and then opting not to tour it, is a very Nightwish thing to do. This is a band who have always followed their own path, even – especially – when it’s flown in the face of popular trends. They’ve watched nu metal, the NWOAHM and the mid-00s emo scene rise, fall and rise again while their own career has followed an unbroken upwards trajectory.

But Nightwish exist entirely in a universe of Tuomas’s own creation. Ask him if he listens to Sleep Token or any of the crop of modern bands currently taking metal in interesting new directions, and he shakes his head.

“No. I don’t listen to music at all anymore, practically. I haven’t for 10 years. I enjoy silence much more these days. Maybe I had an overdose of it for the first 35 years of my life. I’ve heard of the bands you mentioned, but I don’t actively listen to music at all. Though I just heard that My Dying Bride are coming out with a new album. I’ll definitely check that out,” he adds wryly.

Earlier, he’d talked a little more about the imaginary movie that starts and finishes at either end of Yesterwynde. Or, more specifically, the one that runs in his head.

“It’s a very unique one,” he says after a moment’s pause. “I’ve come to realise how incredibly lucky we are to be alive. It’s ridiculous, the odds that we are all here. We should celebrate it.”

[wisteriagoesvroom]

playing pinterest roulette and seeing what AUs i can make up based on the pics (part 3 of ???)

Classical Music AU: Max is second chair at the London Contemporary Orchestra - a newer but well-respected group lauded for their fresh approach to music, marketing, and sponsors. Max’s meteoric ascent looks to continue with first chair Seb Vettel's departure, which is coming up in a year.

That is, until the LCO bring in a shock contender, Charles Leclerc. Leclerc is a traditionalist and highly marketable classical violinist, with a star-studded CV including the Paris Conservatory, and a star-making stint at the Berlin Philharmonic.

Charles's working style is also a problem. He's warm in a way that Max is not, understands music in a way that's fundamentally different to Max, and he builds an easy rapport with Vettel from the start (Max's jealousy has nothing to do with it.)

As the season winds on, Max and Charles continue to clash about everything. Playing styles (speed and correct interpretation), the relevancy of classical music (Max is all for moving the genre forward and bending the rules, Charles cares about deference to old ways), and even a loud argument in the caf about whose name gets to be written first in the program ("do not push me down the list", one of them says. The marketing team eventually agrees to write them both on the same line to reflect equal status).

This continues until the LCO asks them to work on a special project, composing a score for a new indie movie. It's both musicians’ first foray into cross-medium production, and the LCO thinks it wouldn't hurt if the soundtrack won a couple of awards too. Max and Charles reluctantly accept the project, knowing the first chair position is the prize if they can be the star contributor. It doesn't matter that there's only one first chair position, because each is convinced that they will win.

As they're heading to the studio for recording one day, Max asks to stop at his apartment to grab a hard drive that has some instrumental stems for a tricky piece they're working on.

While waiting at Max's doorway, Charles sees a loose sheaf of paper fall from a table. He walks over and picks it up.

Charles realises it's one of the earlier librettos he'd written while he was still at the Paris Conservatory. Not many people know about it - it was an experimental piece, from his earlier work, rough around the edges and vaguely embarrassing. He didn't even think anyone liked it, let alone heard it or went through the effort to source it.

Stunned, Charles tucks it back into the stack of papers on the table, only to see there are more relics from his early career. A pamphlet for a summer performance in Switzerland, a train ticket to Berlin for the same performance date that landed him in a review as a once-in-a-generation talent.

Max reappears in the doorway with his bag, and freezes. Charles stares back, and speaks first.

"Have you had these all this time?"

Max's blue eyes are cool, even as his face burns. "We have our differences. But it'd be impossible, not to notice you."

[sjwallin]

SHARDS: New Album and Score Collection!

If you’ve been following me on my socials you might have seen by now that I finally have a new solo album under Navona Records being released soon—on August 11!!! (Visit this link to see the collection of photo memories from some of the recording sessions!) As a companion publication, you can also get the official collection of musical scores of the works featured on SHARDS—complete with…

[iamred-iamyellow]

⋆ ˚｡⋆౨ৎ Good Luck, Babe! - [Part 2]

♥ prev | ao3 link | masterlist

♥ pairing: oscar piastri/carlos sainz jr 

♥ ballet au - enemies to lovers

♥ (none of the pictures are mine)

♥ warnings: swearing, drinking, drugs mentioned in passing

♥ a/n: no beta and its like 1 am I hope this is a decent second chapter lol

Music blared in Oscar's ears as he watched the trio from across the room. Time seemed to still and lights brightened in his peripheral vision making him a little dizzy. He stumbled forward as someone bumped into him from behind, the drink in their hand splashing onto the floor. They seemed a little too drunk to care. Oscar whipped his head around to see who it was.

"Sorry man," the unfamiliar person said. He walked away shouting across the room for a friend.

Lando spotted Oscar standing alone and gestured for him to hang out with them. He walked up to the group slowly with his arms crossed.

"Of course you're here," Carlos scoffed. "I'm going to need another drink if I'm going to be around you all night."

"Classic Carlos," Oscar spat back. "Getting too hungover to come into the studio the next morning."

"That was one time-"

"Okay," Charles laughed awkwardly, stepping between the two. "Maybe you two shouldn't be drinking around each other. Don't want you two to break something... or get into a fist fight."

"I would gladly watch them get into a fist fight," Lando piped in.

Charles rolled his eyes and threw an arm around Carlos, guiding him to sit with Max. They wandered off talking to a few other people they bumped into on the way. 

"You didn't tell me he was going to be here," Oscar turned towards Lando, crossing his arms.

"You didn't tell me you were so obsessed with him." Lando laughed.

Oscar scoffed in shock, "I- that's not-" he was speechless.

Lando smiled.

“I’m not obsessed with him.” Oscar spat at him. 

"This is the guy you've been yapping about, yeah? The one you don't like?” 

“The one I fucking hate,” he said firmly. 

Lando raised his arms in surrender, “Whatever you say.” 

“I need a drink,” Oscar mumbled, walking away from Lando. 

Oscar made his way to the kitchen, catching glimpses of people doing a variety of drugs. He grabbed himself a beer that looked expensive but tasted disgusting. He drank it anyway. Everyone in the house tried to scream over the music, letting the world hear their shit-talking. 

The music that played now was far too delicate for a large party like the one he was attending. Maybe Charles wished it was a more formal event, but knowing the dance community... everyone needed a night to unwind. Oscar didn't judge. The environment of ballet can be ruthless. He's been dancing for 20 out of 23 years of his life. He knows the dedication it takes, and not a lot of people get to make it to the top. As much as he hated everything that came with the art form, he couldn't help but love the dancing itself. The beauty of the ballet was addicting.

He hummed to the soft piano piece playing over the speakers. It felt like something he'd enjoy dancing to. He briefly tried recording the song on his phone in hopes to find it once he returned home. It was definitely hard to hear, but Oscar had a talented enough ear to block out the loud voices screaming in the video he took.

He continued to drink and examine Charles' house. It was a stunning sight, and he expected nothing less. There was a beautiful, antique grand piano in one of the rooms. Charles had been the pianist for their company's orchestra for a few years now. Oscar couldn't help but wonder if a piano like this one was something Charles dreamed of as a child.

Oscar sighed and walked out of the house to find some peace. He noticed Carlos alone as well, sitting on the far left side of the front porch steps. Oscar stopped in his tracks, debating whether he should just turn around or not. He glanced back at the overstimulating house and walked down the steps anyway. He took a seat on the other side of the steps, as far away from Carlos as he could possibly get. They sat there in silence, not looking at each other.

After a few moments, Carlos held the flask he was drinking out of for Oscar. Oscar grabbed it gently and took a sip, still not meeting Carlos' gaze. They passed the flask back and forth as the night went on and people began leaving the party. No doubt a dozen or more people were passed out in the house, but the sight of people catching cabs was their queue to leave.

Oscar

you can still drive me home right?

Lando

sorry mate I'm so fucking drunk right now

"Fuck," Oscar whispered running a hand over his face.

"Hm?" Carlos questioned.

"Lando was supposed to drive me home. I don't have a ride."

"Can't you call an Uber or something?"

"I'm kind of... banned?" Oscar said, hiding his face from embarrassment.

"You're banned from Uber?!" Carlos laughed. "I have so many questions."

"It's not funny. I have to ask Charles if I could crash on his couch now." Oscar crossed his arms.

"Don't worry about getting home. I'll call someone for you." Carlos said pulling out his phone.

"You really don't have to-"

"Too late. I already did." Carlos shrugged.

“You’re so drunk you’re being nice to me,” Oscar muttered after a moment and handed the flask back to him.

"Don't mistake this for us being friends or something," Carlos mumbled back.

"Oh no, I'm not. I still very much don't like you." Oscar said back.

"Good, because I don't like you either."

Oscar turned away with a soft smirk. He didn't want to admit the banter they've just shared was much nicer than their usual cutthroat encounters. The car came to get him within a few minutes and he left without another word said to Carlos. He wished Oscar would've said something. A soft "thanks" would've been fine enough. A "goodbye" would have sufficed as well.

They both tossed and turned that night, blaming their intoxicated state for their lack of ability to sleep. The conversation played over and over in both their heads like an annoying alarm.

They'd both forget about their shared moment by morning.

[goldnhourwrites]

HEARTSTEEL COLLEGE AU HEADCANONS

This phrase seized me yesterday and I have not been able to stop thinking about it. Who knows, maybe I'll write a fic :)

inspired by my experiences as a college student in the US!

Yone

Pre-med student with a minor in psychology

Does peer tutoring and notetaking for his biology classes

always doing work. being a pre-med student is so much Work All The Time. this is why Yone is always seen with coffee and dark circles under his eyes.

He manages fairly well for someone with so much on his plate - he keeps an impressively functional sleep schedule (goes to bed at 10pm every night, wakes up at 8am every morning)

Is an RA (resident advisor) for his dorm floor and tries to be a good resource for freshmen

Bikes everywhere, enjoys taking walks/getting outdoors for a break from studying

Likes to make and listen to music in his free time (which is not a lot)

Sett

Majoring in athletic training to be a sports coach

Student athlete on the wrestling team - spends a lot of time training and traveling to meets off-campus, so he's not around much until the off-season

Hangs out with the boxing club when he's not doing wrestling

Part of an all-men a capella group and enjoys singing/rapping

Joined a fraternity in his sophomore year because most of the wrestling team was on it and enjoys chilling with his friends in it

Casually bakes things in his free time and brings them to the wrestling team/his classmates/office hours/his frat brothers

K'Sante

Anthropology major, education minor - interested in becoming a teacher/professor and enjoys working with kids

Also a student athlete, on the powerlifting team

Part of a hip-hop dance group on campus and likes to choreograph

Involved in campus queer life and helps organize/run events

Takes voice lessons - used to play trumpet, but didn't have time for both in his schedule

Also part of a fraternity, enjoys the sense of community it offers and plays an active part in organizing/managing their social events

Seems like he's constantly busy, but always makes time for his friends and enjoys the feeling of being on-the-go

Ezreal

History major with a minor in classics (studies Latin/ancient Greek literature and languages)

Acts with a theater club in his spare time - loves musical theater and plays, especially Shakespeare

Hung out in the history/special collections section of the library so much he got a student job there

Loves wandering around campus to find cool, obscure places that he's probably not supposed to be in

Joined a debate team in his freshman year (Kayn was on it) (they hated each other)

Big on going to parties but can't handle alcohol so instead of getting drunk he goes back to his dorm and falls asleep at like 11pm

Aphelios

Computer science major with a minor in graphic design

Does digital art and traditional art; enjoys taking studio art classes when his schedule isn't full

Occasionally does game design and similar coding projects

In the orchestra and plays the violin!

Enjoys physically making things every once in a while - jewelry, paintings, etc. and often doodles in a sketchbook absentmindedly

Sometimes publishes his art and poetry in a student magazine under a pseudonym

Kayn

Political science or government major with a minor in studio art

Spends a lot of time in the woodworking/metalworking studios, partially for art classes and partially because he just likes hands-on projects

Plays electric guitar and was part of a student band for a while (the one he got kicked out of)

Likes parkour and rock climbing, regularly shows off his ability to climb up things that he definitely should not be climbing on

Member of a fraternity (but it's the kind that throws a bunch of parties and probably has illegal drugs)

Goes out to party every weekend and doesn't wake up until 1pm the next day

Skateboards everywhere and knows a bunch of cool tricks

Alune

Film production major with a minor in biology

Part of a fashion design club and does photoshoots for/with them

Does a capella and loves performing! Does musical theater every once in a while

Active in political causes on campus

Works as a barista in one of the campus cafés

Likes to roller skate around

i have a couple combined/group headcanons that i'll post tomorrow if i have time :3 this AU has grabbed me and is currently shaking me by the shoulders and won't let go

[shesthespinstersimmer]

Graduates (2)🎓

Billie Jang

Fine Arts Major / Alvin Ailey Scholarship / Foxbury / Ward Hall

Billie Jang is out here living her best life, you hear me? She got into the student corps at B Lab, has a yoga studio next-door to her dorm, and Kwame in her rearview mirror. Sure, she misses her parents, Baako and Anaya , but nothing brings them more pleasure than watching their daughter follow her dreams.

Kenya Tharp

Veterinary Medicine / Work/Study Program

Kenya has two things on her mind: vet, camp and her horse Shiloh. She’s looking forward to the veterinary program, but it will be a little strange being away from all of her high school friends and her cousin Shalom. Thank goodness for technology. Besides, she’s looking forward to spending time with PawPaw and Judge B. 

She’ll miss her mother, Ava and her mom’s boyfriend Al, but she thinks it’ll be good for those two to have a little time to themselves for a change. She won’t be surprised if she comes home to a sibling, she can tell you that much. 

Curtis Fernsby

Computer Science / Young Gamers Program

Even though he’s staying home, Curtis plans to take full advantage of what the campus has to offer; it’s only a bike ride away, after all. There are times he regrets not getting his own dorm, considering that his girlfriend Michiko will be at the Chopra House in Britechester, but they have plans after graduation.

On the plus side, he gets a little more time with his parents, Wallace and Miracle. And - now that his brother Cosmo is a little older, they can really have some fun.

Michiko Yamashita

Music Arts Major / Maestro Scholarship / Chopra House

Being raised by parents Yuna & Kengo, who are both rock musicians, it was a bit of a surprise when Michiko was drawn to classical music. She rocks out every now and then (in the shower), but appreciates the delicacy and strength of the classical genre.

She hopes for a long career with the orchestra, then maybe composing musical scores in her golden years.

She’s got plans for her and Curtis too - more on that later 👌🏾

Previous / Next / Beginning

[courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme]

Return to Oz (1985, Walter Murch)

02/02/2024

Return to Oz is a 1985 film directed by Walter Murch, an unofficial sequel to the famous film The Wizard of Oz directed by Victor Fleming and produced by MGM in 1939. The film earned an Oscar nomination for best special effects.

Several months have passed since the events of The Wizard of Oz, and Dorothy Gale is melancholy because she continues to do nothing but dream of her magical adventure, and that Uncle Henry and Aunt Emma don't believe her.

Later, Dorothy discovers to her horror the Yellow Brick Path in ruins and, running along it with Billina, finds the Emerald City, Grey, desert, largely destroyed and with petrified inhabitants, including the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion.

The film was produced by Walt Disney Pictures without the collaboration of MGM, or Warner Bros., the studio that currently holds the rights to the 1939 film.

The film's screenplay is based on L. Frank Baum's second and third novels, The Marvelous Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz, both sequels to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

George Lucas, Murch's friend and colle8, had to personally intervene, guaranteeing the studio that he would act as executive producer or even director in case of problems.

The soundtrack of the film was entrusted to the composer and musical writer David Shire, also know for numerous TV soundtracks, theater musical and for many films including Saturday Night Fever. The entire musical sequence from Dorothy's Theme to the Rag March of the final scene is accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra.

The Italian dubbing of the film was directed by Renato Izzo, Gruppo Trenta.

On home video, in Italy, the film was released in VHS format by Walt Disney Home Video in 1986. The DVD was released in 2013 in the Disney Family Classics series.

Writer Joan D. Vinge adapted the film's screenplay into a novel.

[nattaphum]

Latest updates on Man Suang

An entire orchestra was in the studio to record the soundtrack of Man Suang 😍

The musical director is "Khun Pizza - Trisdee Na Phatthalung", he’s considered a genius of music. The youngest Thai conductor in the world who has done a lot of cool work and has co-composed with many bands and also conducted classical concerts (source)

Two other countries added to the list of the foreign countries getting an official release of Man Suang in August: Laos and Cambodia

Elle India posted a new picture of Chat ❤️

The official standees of Man Suang are out 😍