In Depth: Mud Water

This musical excerpt features samples from a recording of 'Petrushka', composed by Igor Stravinsky.

The Mud Water Project was a multidisciplinary theater project bringing together turf dancers, ballet dancers, music and spoken word artists. Utilizing acting and improvisational dance, while exploring real human emotions and life experiences, the project sought to give the turf dance community opportunities to share its stories, art, and truths in a concert-style setting and to audiences often beyond its reach.

This was my first opportunity to write music to be danced to - it was fun to attend the rehearsals, observe and learn from the dancers and let their creativity inspire my work.

More info about the project can be found here.

In Depth: Disasters for Piano

'Disasters for Piano', by David Peacock. Artwork by Nicolas Menard.

'Disasters for Piano' is a collection of my works arranged (for piano) by David Peacock.

Links: Album, Sheet Music Book, Free PDF

One day, I saw an Instagram video of someone performing a short snippet of 'Forgotten' from FEZ on piano.

I was really taken by David's style, watched all of his clips and reached out to complement him and see if he might want to work on a piano arrangement. What followed was a long and fruitful collaboration - an open invitation for David to explore my catalogue and tackle what he liked, and a whole lot of back and forth as we refined and honed in on an eclectic set of piano arrangements.

Track Descriptions

Win

Rich Vreeland, on the Composition

This piece was heavily inspired by the music from the game Super Mario RPG. I set out to create a closing track for my album Level, and knew I wanted something that was optimistic, and kind of frenetic in its energy.

David Peacock, on the Arrangement

With Win, it was important to capture the gradual build. Also wanted to focus on mixing groups of 2 over groups of 3 in different ways, much like the original did. A couple of times, I would select a piece to arrange based on the original—with no consideration for how it might translate to piano, and because of that this piece may have taken the longest to complete!

Augustine Gonzales, on the Performance

Because computer generated music is metronomically precise, I wanted to humanize it by breathing more "life" into the piece; taking subtle liberties with time, while always respecting the constant underlying rhythmic pulse.

Spaceman the Vulnerable

Rich Vreeland, on the Composition

This level music from the game Cat Astro Phi tries to evoke the innocence of its protagonist, who frequently succumbs to kitten mischief, and the increasing danger of his pursuits, exploring derelict space bunkers.

David Peacock, on the Arrangement

Spaceman was the first piece I arranged for this project, and I think that helped in conveying Spaceman’s vulnerability. I also played through Cat Astro Phi before I got started. :3

Augustine Gonzales, on the Performance

I wanted to set the tone of the piece by creating long phrases, while at the same time embracing the silence between. It helped to elicit not only the vastness of space, but also the dark loneliness it can bring.

Somewhere, our limbs lost in the distance.

Rich Vreeland, on the Composition

The original score for the film Somewhere used the twinkle effects from the animation to come up with the rhythm of its thematic melody. Working on music and sound simultaneously has a certain cathartic, all-devouring effect on me - there are some nifty integrations of the two - one example is the bedroom clock creating a 5/8 polyrhythm against the music. Musically speaking this has kind of a small, indie vibe to it a la The Postal Service that grows more impressionistic and grandiose as the story unfolds.

David Peacock, on the Arrangement

This film left a lasting impression on me, and the score is such a prominent part of that. I wanted to cover the entire score chronological to the plot. The approach we took was to preserve much of the original while adding more pianistic tendencies where it felt right.

Augustine Gonzales, on the Performance

One of my favorite pieces written by Rich, and David did a wonderful job with this arrangement. You really get a sense of the story arch from the original film and score. Special attention should be given in the opening 5/8 to not add accents as if playing in compound (3/8+2/8) meter.

:D

Rich Vreeland, on the Composition

This was going to be the theme for Groggnar, a big lovable monster from the game Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake, but I found it worked pretty well for that game’s protagonist and his whole core group of monster friends. The backbeat chords kinda gave the original a quirky quasi-reggae vibe.

David Peacock, on the Arrangement

This arrangement is what I’d imagine a mixture of Art Tatum, Bill Evans, and a bit of Duke Ellington might have done with it. This was one of the games I enjoyed completing while experiencing the music as “research”.

Augustine Gonzales, on the Performance

As a classically trained pianist, this piece was a lot of fun to play because I rarely get a chance to channel some of history's greatest jazz pianists. It’s important to have a rhythmically solid LH so that the RH can have a natural loose/free melody.

Scent of Betrayal

Rich Vreeland, on the Composition

This song from Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake originally came out of a jam with my friend Neuman back in the fall of 2011. We briefly formed a band for the sole purpose of playing one show. We practiced for a few weeks, played the show, and then permanently disbanded. It was fun!

David Peacock, on the Arrangement

Continuing with the jazz-influence, this one has a more somber and lethargic feeling to it’s original. Lots of jazz harmony used here.

Augustine Gonzales, on the Performance

The lilting jazz-like feeling throughout the piece made it pleasurable to record. Remember to tune your ear to always be aware of all the inner voices. Thinking like a small chamber ensemble (ie. string quartet) helps.

Prologue

Rich Vreeland, on the Composition

You encounter a mysterious force and the journey begins. This piece was initially an attempt to update The Solar Prime Elite (see my album, Deorbit) for inclusion on the album Rise of the Obsidian Interstellar. It proved difficult but ultimately worked out as the prologue for the album, albeit in an abridged format.

David Peacock, on the Arrangement

Translating this one was a challenge. Finding a way to interpret arpeggiated synth chords into something one person can play on piano was a great exercise in creatively approaching the material.

Augustine Gonzales, on the Performance

Performing this piece reminded me very much of Impressionistic composers like Debussy or Ravel, especially when playing the "water-like" arpeggiated figures. Well articulated fingers coupled with a refined use of pedal help to create these glossy sounds.

Death

Rich Vreeland, on the Composition

I originally came up with this melody on my Aunt's upright piano during a Christmas break. Then I recreated it with basic chord accompaniment using the keys on my laptop, while on a bus, headed from Boston to Hartford. I definitely tried to tap into the 80s horror mystique a little with the arrangement. Subsequently, this piece was used in the temp score for It Follows and ultimately became a big inspiration for that score.

David Peacock, on the Arrangement

Death was approached from a modern take on the romantic era. We chose to have the piece start minimally and gradually build to a romantic and drama-filled climactic moment.

Augustine Gonzales, on the Performance

I found it important to remember that there can be drama, even when it's pianissimo; it only makes the climax at the end that much more exciting.

The Outlaw

Rich Vreeland, on the Composition

Part of a split electronic EP called West, this piece started with a Spaghetti-Western inspired guitar lick, which became the central motif of the song. Hearing it translated to piano was a bit odd at first, but I think it projects a fresh perspective on a similar idea.

David Peacock, on the Arrangement

Instead of a guitarist loosely playing through this theme, we have a pianist. The arpeggiated harp-like runs came about when I was enjoying the chord progression, and became a recurring motif in the arrangement.

Augustine Gonzales, on the Performance

The opening was quite a challenge because it was originally written for an improvised guitar. It was not about trying to recreate the sound of the original instrumentation, but to make it sound like it was meant to be written for solo piano.

Title

Rich Vreeland, on the Composition

The Title track from It Follows, this was directly inspired by Death from FEZ, and Ennio Morricone. Morricone scored many Westerns and Horror films - what if he scored a Horror Western ?

David Peacock, on the Arrangement

This piece was an exciting addition that existed only after I’d see the film It Follows. It was exciting to be arranging a piece that was relatively new to everyone at the time.

Augustine Gonzales, on the Performance

Knowing this is from a thriller, I couldn't take a straightforward approach to interpreting this piece. The challenge was to create multiple "false climaxes" and immediately release the tension to give the listener relief — just like watching any scary movie.

Ninety

Rich Vreeland, on the Composition

This song was written to match the 90-second gameplay loop of the mobile game ZONR, has an accelerating tempo and lots of harmonic twists and turns to make it feel adventurous and increasingly frenetic. Fun Fact: ZONR’s developer went on to help develop Crossy Road.

David Peacock, on the Arrangement

This one is short and simple, and ends up being ninety seconds long like the original. I had this one sort of mirror the original by gradually slowing down and getting softer instead of speeding up and getting more stressful.

Augustine Gonzales, on the Performance

This was a fun one to record because the performance had to last 90 seconds. It almost felt like playing the game during the recording session. I wish I had a secret to how we achieved this. My only suggestions is try it out a couple times with a stop watch and learn where you need to either speed up or take time. Most of all, have fun with it!

Forgotten

Rich Vreeland, on the Composition

In the game FEZ, the musical elements from this track take on a different form depending on where you are and what time of day it is. The original soundtrack version is edited down to incorporate portions of each - a lower register for the day, and a higher register for the night. Certain scale notes are altered slightly to give each time of a day a subtly different vibe.

David Peacock, on the Arrangement

This arrangement goes between sparse sections and brief moments of motion. I wanted some sections to really mimic the original with the long pads; allowing the piano strings to reverberate a bit. There is a shorter 15-second version of this floating around social media from before this project existed.

Augustine Gonzales, on the Performance

Much like the other pieces from FEZ, this is about creating space and tones that sound organic and otherworldly. When playing slowly, the challenge of a pianist is that we are limited to the length of which a note/chord can be sustained. Always listen and think about where a chord is coming from or going to and match the tone accordingly.

The Thief

Rich Vreeland, on the Composition

I wanted to take the typical Thief archetype from games and change it a little, by portraying the character as more of a romantic, who longs for a loved one and has a greater purpose beyond the dungeon walls of the game FAMAZE.

David Peacock, on the Arrangement

This arrangement proved to be a challenge to retain the romantic sadness The Thief carries, and needed multiple revisions to uncover the right feeling. I think we landed on it, in the end, it just took a while to get there.

Augustine Gonzales, on the Performance

You really get the sense of loneliness and sadness in this piece. I wanted to respect that, while not coming across as overly sentimental. It’s helpful to think of this piece in longer phrases so it can maintain its “flow” throughout.

Nature

Rich Vreeland, on the Composition

This song was written using a single synth sound, so it proved to be a nice piece for translation to the piano. Because the game FEZ leans heavily on its night cycle, this piece features two distinct sections. During the day, critters scurry here and there, going about their business. But come nightfall, they come out to dance. The first section is a bunch of overdubbed improvisations, a tempo.

David Peacock, on the Arrangement

The introduction to this arrangement was created by mimicking and improvising over the original improvised opening. I played around with using the fibonacci series to guide the length of sections. This arrangement formed in the shortest amount of time, with the fewest revisions, I think. I really enjoy Augustine’s performance of the ‘musical bug’ ornamental phrases at the end.

Augustine Gonzales, on the Performance

If I had to pick a favorite of the album, this would be it. The overall effect of this piece always leaves me calm and relaxed. Remember to keep your hands soft and let the melody “play itself”.

The Last General

Rich Vreeland, on the Composition

I originally wrote something else for the West region’s boss fight in Hyper Light Drifter, but it wasn't working. The creative director guided me a bit with this, showing me a boss fight from Dark Souls with a giant wolf that had a large, melancholy quality to it. I used that as inspiration to write something that attempted to evoke a 'fallen hero' quality.

David Peacock, on the Arrangement

This arrangement came about because I was playing Hyper Light Drifter and could not get past the West boss. I nearly ruined my controller in frustration, so I decided pause the game and channel that energy into playing the boss' theme on piano. I did eventually beat him.

Panacea

Rich Vreeland, on the Composition

I came up with a sequence of ideas at the piano and recorded them in a somewhat lo-fi manner, with a field recorder. The general structure and ideas were there, but the specifics were always a bit blurry, and that allowed me to tinker with the form and the details of the performance over the course of a 10 - 15-minute jam. Afterward, I edited this down into a more listenable form, a six-minute track and the closer for Hyper Light Drifter.

David Peacock, on the Arrangement

We worked back and forth to make this transcription the most accurate, without becoming too distracting or complicated. The choice to remove bar lines was to help facilitate the free-flowing performance style. Because of the expressive nature of the performance, I wrote this out by hand entirely before being engraved digitally.

In Depth: Gunhouse

Gunhouse was a very unique and fun project for me. I set out to create a soundtrack primarily using loops. I was inspired by a conversation I had with my friend and colleague James Primate about a talk Darren Korb gave about his work on the game Bastion. That soundtrack contains a lot of premade loops. There is sometimes a stigma associated with using loops ... I think sometimes its use is characterized as a form of laziness, but I thought it would be a really fun and interesting challenge to try to create a bunch of music that was almost entirely based around these sound files. I wanted to see how far I could get using premade assets as a primary source of inspiration. It turns out it's a great way to not only work quickly, but to flex creative muscle and do strange aesthetic things. There are many artists who have discovered the benefits of this way of working. My friend and colleague David Kanaga is working on a game currently that is made up entirely of prefab assets from the Unity store, and it is one of the most bizarre and entertaining games I've ever played.

From Nothing to Something

One of the real boons of this creative process for me was how quickly I could get interesting musical ideas going. I would listen to loop after loop, using the same sort of vetting process I would use to design synths or produce tracks made up of original samples.

Track Descriptions

Gunhouse

This one had sort of a game show meets arcade vibe that seemed to work well as a title screen. Farfisa type organ ended up being one of the sounds I used repeatedly in the soundtrack. That and harmonica.

Children's Sport

This tune has some looping phrases of a Chinese stringed instrument (can't remember which one) that I autotuned to have less note changes. I used these as a framework for a lot of the compositional choices which was quite a fun exercise. I harmonized with the part using pulse waves, and created entirely new melodies using that melody. The three-part organish solo at the end of the loop is also in a way inspired by that original looping phrase.

These Skulls are Really Mad

This is probably my least favorite tune on the soundtrack. It's more of a pensive, puzzley vibe.

General Supplies

This tune was actually a reject submission from the game 'Beatbuddy'. I think I wrote this after coming back from a Disasterpeace tour in Mexico. I met Baiyon there, the electronic artist from Kyoto and I was inspired to try to write something more groove oriented. While it's not particularly loop focused (though there is some stuff from Stylus RMX), the light, funky vibe turned out to be a solid fit for this soundtrack. The bass sound is a NES-style pulse wave and a picked bass in unison.

Today's Commotion

Fun fact, this song has a loop from the Omnisphere library in it that you can also hear in one of the Bit.Trip Runner games ... I noticed it almost immediately when browsing through the library and thought it would be fun to add it anyway and try to make it sound different. This track also features a real fun harmonica solo.

I was inspired by the general vibe of 'Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp', by Peter McConnell, from the Psychonauts Soundtrack.

Took to Misdeeds

This song was originally called 'Wizard's Tower. I wrote it around the same time I wrote the music for 'Rise of the Obsidian Interstellar', but never quite found a home for it. Originally it had more of a prog-rock instrumentation, so I went back and made it a bit more electronic and weird.

Hale and Hearty

This was the first tune I explicitly wrote for Gunhouse. I really wanted to write something groovy and weird that would get you moving. This was before I settled into the more loop oriented approach, and was focusing more on production and vibe. Those elements definitely carried over.

Eat Your Vegetables, Punks!

This one really ventures out into different geographic territory. Cuíca (Brazil), Mbira & Axatse (West Africa), Didgeridoo (Australia), all come together to make a fun feel good jam.

My first exposure to cuíca was on the Paul Simon song 'Me & Julio Down By the Schoolyard'.

Decent Spirits

I definitely had dreams of George Michael's 'Careless Whisper' and the 'Sexy Sax Guy' meme from YouTube, where a fella just shows up in random public places, riffing on the melody from aforementioned song. It was fun to experiment with saxophone, since I almost never do. I also experimented a lot with throwing delay effects on the whole track to get some pretty weird pulsing effects. One of the techniques I developed for this soundtrack, was harmonizing and mimicking the looping phrases with 8-bit sounds to flesh them out and give them a bit more of a gamey personality.

The Other Kind of Fork

Brandon, the lead developer for Gunhouse wanted me to make something with gamelan instruments. I happened to have some gamelan loops and the rest is history! I found combining real world instrument sounds from around the world with old electronic sounds created a fun vibe that suited the game well. This tune also has trombone runs, a string section, a crazy pentatonic distorted harmonica solo, speak and spell sounds, and some NES-style pulse waves.