The Making Of: “Places In Time — Key Moments In History”

A spectacular trailer music album focused on evoking musical themes from key moments in History. World War 2, The Vietnam War, The Wild West and Victorian London are just some of the scenes musically re-imagined and peppered with trailerized power. We spoke to composer Rene Osmanczyk about his influences and composition processes for this unique album.

How did you translate these important moments in history into musical themes? Were you inspired by previous cinematic moments or was it purely trying to imagine the scene?

RO: I was very much inspired by all kinds of music from games and movies that use a certain tone and genre that works with the image. I was trying to evoke a certain feel and image when listening to each track.

Using specific instruments, rhythm, instrumentation and orchestration and also giving those tracks trailer-style structures and elements to make it more modern.

Was the composition process different to your previous work, considering you had specific themes to capture?

RO: Yes totally different, as every track is in a different style, some are more contrasting than others, but in the end I couldn’t stay in one style or genre.

All in all it was a real challenge that I gladly overcame, because you grow with each challenge.

What is your favourite track on the album and why? Was there a particular historical scene you preferred to work with?

RO: I think “Victorian London — Wake Up Call” is one of my favourites on this album, because I really went crazy with the strings, they are playing all kinds of things which were not that easy at times, but the string players did an awesome job there (big shoutout to them!). The track itself is inspired by the Sherlock Holmes soundtracks, which are always a bit twisted and bold.

I really much enjoyed the World War settings, epic battles, action, big dramatic choirs and strings, I think that really came across.

Do you have a favourite movie set in the past?

RO: I loved “Road to Perdition” with the soaring soundtrack on it. The music of Thomas Newman got me to thinking about getting into writing music full time.

Tell us about the instrumentation on the album, are there any particular sample libraries that were key? And how did the live strings affect the final mix?

RO: The Cinematic Studio Strings (CSS) Library is a big one for me. I think they have the most beautiful legato transitions (the transition that happens between two notes).

OrchestralTools Metropolis Libraries were also really helpful to convey the sense of scale, since those samples are recorded by a full orchestra, which brings in a lot of epic-ness that sometimes is necessary.

Especially for trailers it can never get big enough right?

The Live strings added a lot of life and detail into the mix. While the CSS library gave a sense of scale, the live strings added liveliness and nuances that a sample just can’t deliver that easily.

Also the real choir brought size to the overall sound and as far as I heard they really liked recording these tracks.

Which composers have influenced your career so far? Whether it be commercial, production music or film composers.

RO: A big influence for me was certainly the music of Thomas Newman and James Horner.

I love their scores a lot, Newman’s sound especially with Muted Strings and soaring melodies. The super simple piano parts always touched my heart alongside the warm string sound.

James Horner kicked ass for me with the score from “A beautiful Mind”, a movie I watched and listened to a million times and also the greatness of his Avatar score.

“Places In Time — Key Moments in History” is out now for industry use.