The Making Of… “Cerebral Openers — Elevated Neutral Builds”
Gothic Hybrid’s latest release focuses on emotively neutral openers which express a sense of elevation, intelligence and artistry. These delicately woven emotionally detached pieces presented new challenges for our composers and we spoke to João Gabriel Rodrigues, Sigurd Jøhnk-Jensen, Andrii Yefymov and Maksymilian Piszczek about how they approached writing and sculpting these pieces.
How did you approach composing your track(s) with ‘neutral’ emotion. Was it difficult to avoid the mood becoming too dark?
JGR: I would say stripping the harmonic content down to the very minimum was key. So I used loads of two-note chords, or in some cases just a sparse melody giving hints of a harmonic progression, and even then I would steer clear from obviously functional harmonic progressions and just focus on making it all sound neutral.
SJJ: I tried focusing more on sound than certain notes or chords. I figured if it didn’t have too much melodic content, it wouldn’t fall under a certain mood or category.
AY: Yeah… for me it was a bit challenging, to not fall into certain emotional aspects. When in most cases with trailer music we are emphasising emotions, here we had to take more of a “underscore” approach while still keeping trailers in mind.
MP: My approach for neutral emotions was to use a lot of unusual sounds and instruments. This album was tricky but perfect balance wasn’t too difficult to achieve.
How did you approach the ‘Cerebral’ aspect of the brief, was there a certain instrument or musical tool you used to add artistry/intelligence to your track(s)?
JGR: I tried to be as creative and original as possible with the sounds I was using and how I was using them. Personally, I find that’s the most enjoyable aspect of music making — how can I create super original sound palettes layering different sounds together, and creating these complex and unique landscapes.
SJJ: I tried using as much of my analog stuff as possible.
AY: For me the cerebral /artistic aspect is always connected with unconventional sounds, but with this approach there is a huge chance to fall into the dark world of sound design, maybe it’s just me gravitating more towards the darker side of music… to find sounds that are unconventional but still could sound emotionally neutral is the key here.
MP: I created a minimalistic and deep sound palette to keep my tracks ‘Cerebral’. Processed mallets, foley sounds and catchy voices were my foundation during composing.
Were there any specific influences relating to genre or trailer trends you used whilst composing?
JGR: Back then I had just watched ’Severance’ and to me that aesthetic was ever-present when writing these tracks.
SJJ: I didn’t really focus on trends, but i was very much influenced by composer Tony Andersen.
AY: In general I just always try to imagine a scene in my head and score it. But I really like how some recent trailer campaigns have used artistic vocal FX. That inspired me to bring some of these into one of my tracks.
MP: Actually no. I wanted to go beyond the pattern of trailer music composing something more unique.
Was there any specific instrumentation you used to achieve the sparsity that the album required?
JGR: Not really. As I said doing crazy experimentations with sound processing and layering weird combinations of sounds is a key part of music making for me, so I just experimented and experimented until I hit jackpot.
SJJ: Building my own pads, and making sure they didn’t sound to intense on their own. That way I could layer without everything going nuts.
AY: I think sparsity and neutrality could be achieved with any instrumentation. It’s more about HOW you use tools rather that WHAT tools you use. So the choice of instruments for me relates more to building a desired soundscape fitting certain scenes.
Of course there are some chords and note combinations to avoid while writing emotionally neutral music.. and there probably should be less melodic elements… but it’s all a matter of taste and choice.
MP: Deep, ambient signatures in combination with mallets and unusual voices.
