The Making of… ‘Canticum Mortis’

Gothic Hybrid is proud to present ‘Canticum Mortis’. Spine-tingling, organic trailer cues teeming with voice-based signature sounds. We spoke to Sigurd Jøhnk-Jensen, João Gabriel Rodrigues, Amadeo Lopez & James Brown III about how they went about composing these eerie vocal focused hybrid trailer tracks. Get the insight below!

Did you have any specific musical inspirations for your track, something from the trailer/movie world, or even elsewhere perhaps?

SJJ: Well since this was a vocal focused album, vocals of course is the obvious. But a lot of organic recordings for percussive elements, and sound design built the foundation to build the vocals on.

JGR: Not really. When the whole idea of the project lies in the premise that being creative and coming up with new sounds is of the utmost importance I just let myself go and see where it leads me.

AL: From the first time I knew this was oriented to thrillers the inspiration came from a trailer that I love which is the official trailer for “Pet Sematary”.

JB: Nope! Just wanted to make a slightly creepy pulse track!

At what point did the vocals come into play during the composition process, did they inspire the other musical elements of the track or were they added once the bones of the track were complete?

SJJ: I always made sure to have some cool vocal elements ready, to inspire the compositions.

JGR: The vocals were the absolutely first thing I’d come up with. Messing about with the samples, processing them and finding new creative ways to have them sounding unique was the most important aspect of the entire production. Once I was happy with that I could then move on to turning everything into an actual track.

AL: At the beginning, I just wanted to make a clear pattern with the selected vocals and then add the other elements.

JB: The Vocal Pulse heard throughout was the first thing I designed for ‘Disquietude’. It was designed from previously-sourced female vocals. After most of the first draft was at a good spot, I then added additional vocals for flare.

A question on the technical side, what were the important instruments in your track? And can you reveal any specific tools that really suited this style?

SJJ: No specific instruments, as most of the work was done with organic recordings, processing them into what can be used as an instrument

JGR: I will die an Ableton Live advocate. In my opinion it’s the only DAW that works as a creative tool in itself. I get lost amidst its endless possibilities when it comes to turning sounds upside down with its unique system of parallel processing and different plugins. I also use a lot of Soundtoys plugins, particularly Little Alterboy, which is kind of a hidden gem in my opinion — many people are turned off by its simplicity and apparent lack of versatility, but it’s probably the most versatile tool in my arsenal.

AL: The vocals of course, but other important element is the small perc pattern.. It gives a sense of creepiness or something like that.

JB: I used the Phaseplant and Pigments synths as engines for my own source audio for a lot of the process, including most of the vocal passages.

This album is geared towards eerie thrillers and horror, can you imagine a particular type of placement that would really suit your track?

JGR: A24 productions come instantly to mind!

AL: Yeah, obviously any thriller/horror trailer from A24 movies…

JB: Anything A24. This was my motivator.

It was important that alongside the vocal signature sounds, these tracks had some kind of propulsion to set a pace and suck the listener in. What did you do to achieve this, in regards to sounds and rhythm?

SJJ: As mentioned before I recorded a lot of the material. Then put these sounds through processing, creating midi instruments that I could effect with different midi effects.

JGR: I just made sure as many elements as possible featured some kind driving quality. Some kind of pulse, as subtle as it could be. With my tracks the whole idea was to create this propelling effect while keeping everything as organic as possible. So I was always looking for creative ways to achieve that without falling for the trap of using traditional or customary trailer sounds.

AL: I included some organic percussion like a small drum, shakers and other random percussive sounds.

JB: Some of the more prominent “ticking” and other various clicks and such came from my personal library called Presage. There are a few patches, like sampled Victrola Needles and Cuckoo Clocks, that really enhance the creepiness of the vocal and bass pulses used.