The Making Of… “Dark Propulsion — Tense Builds”
Gothic Hybrid’s latest release focuses on dark, ominous moods with powerful builds conjuring up visceral tension and mystery. We spoke to João Gabriel Rodrigues, Lionel Schmitt, Chris Haigh, Maksymilian Piszczek, Amadeo Lopez and Gonçalo Penas about their compositional processes and what continues to inspire them to write dark trailer music. Enjoy!
What instrumentation did you choose in order to conjure the dark, tense and ominous moods needed for this album? Was there a particular instrument that proved useful for your track?
JGR: Synths all around, and some more synths! Distorted to the very end!
LS: Rather it was a huge stack of sounds and sources. The project would crash most computers. I was very focused on atmosphere rather than the usual cool/punchy/energetic approach so I used a lot of textural sources. A lot of unusual sources. Electric activity recorded with contact microphones (the “Coil” sources in Omnisphere, for fellow composers) were used quite a lot, church gospel choir chatter/warm up with a lot of reverb, the custom built instrument Everwave (sample library by 8dio), some throat singing and a children’s fan “playing” a drum (also both from Omnisphere)… just a lot of strange things that worked to serve the atmosphere I was going for.
CH: For this track I wanted to use a mix of synth and organic instruments. For the pulsing rhythms I used a lot of different synths layered in omnisphere and an organic repeating cello ostinato rhythm. I also used the cello to create a signature hit sound layered with other scratching bowed instruments for the main back end section to create tension.
MP: For this track I decided to use a lot of dark synth sounds and custom made SFX with the addition of staccato strings and choir to achieve that ominous mood. The core of my track is an ear-catching, crunchy bass layered with an organic texture. It’s not incorporated only as a bassline but also as the screaming bend sound in the final part.
AL: Well, I’d say tons of synths.. Specially low pulsing bass lines and bends.
GP: I take inspiration from personal samples as a starting point, so the track is sound design oriented. My go-to instruments usually are FRMS granular synth from Imaginando, Vital wavetable synth, Warning Signs Kontakt library by Hypersamples and Ferrum Kontakt library by Keepforest.
Did you imagine a particular dark cinematic scene when composing?
JGR: Just an ever-growing development of tension, as people on screen go down the rabbit hole.
LS: The terror of human made machinery and technology. People thousands of years from now viewing the creation and usage of destructive machines and nuclear weapons in awe and horror.
CH: I guess I imagined scenes from crime docu-dramas. Rorschach pictures, true crime scene images etc.
MP: Yes, definitely! When composing I had sci-fi scenes in mind, like a conspiracy in post-apocalyptic times where people are rebelling.
AL: Nothing in particular, just a dark and ominous atmosphere at the beginning.. and then lots of action and danger.
GP: I don’t picture a specific scene or narrative while composing, but I do get some more abstract visions to help me balance the instruments and the timbre and/or atmospheric palettes, from the more digital hi-tech sci-fi futuristic sounds to the more organic twisted natural sounds.
How did you make your track build with the required darkness and power? Are there particular instruments you use to create builds like this?
LS: Only about 100 instruments and non instruments layered did it haha… I tried having most of the energy of the build come from adding interesting sounds/instrumentation rather than making everything just bigger and bigger. The bendy/howling synths in the climax are 66 Trombones in a concert hall (sample library by 8dio). And perhaps the first usage of children’s choir in a dark hybrid trailer track?
CH: Lots of distorted pulsing and rising sounds with huge earth shattering percussion and slams.
MP: I started the track with a subtle but dark and atmospheric intro leaving plenty of space for dialogue. Along with the second part, it begins to become really ominous. You can hear aggressive sounds such as bass or signatures/bends accompanied by powerful hybrid drums and hits until the end of the track. Together they create a powerful sonic impact.
AL: In this track I focused on the use of synths.. The main instruments I used for achieve the power were the very low pulses and synth basses, plus a cocktail of high synth bends, and of course lot of percussion.
GP: The Hypersamples library Warning Sounds was very helpful in building a progression of tension alongside the drumming parts, as well as the very flexible Vital to keep shaping up the sounds as the track goes.
This album is geared towards modern thrillers and dark mysterious stories, but can you imagine the ideal trailer placement for your track?
LS: I wanted it to sound less like classic Hollywood trailer music and imagined it for some kind of documentary/even movie mixture. Perhaps a dark dystopian but realistic docu style view of the future as we move towards earth destruction.
Hm… fairly depressive ending of my part of the interview. Uhm…. here is my favourite cat video! https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Z-qA1k2K8fg
CH: I think any of the Netflix style true crime documentary dramas or modern horror films would be perfect.
MP: I think a story with a pinch of sci-fi background would be perfect!
AL: Although Batman is an action/dark movie, I think it’s also a dark mysterious story.. so, that would be the ideal placement for my track I guess haha.
GP: Not specifically as a story per se but I feel that it could lay somewhere in a sci-fi dystopian thriller, with organic or nature related deformations in the theme, and also a bit of an apocalyptic tension to it.
