This page consists of film clips for which Maria has written all the music and foley. She chose clips that inspired her, stripped all the original sound off and created an entirely new soundtrack from scratch.

MUTO

‘Muto’ is a film consisting of animated graffiti on public walls. It is set in Bunos Aires and Baden and is by an artist who calls himself ‘Blu’. ‘Muto’ contains the abstract explorations of the artists vivid imagination, and Maria was absolutely fascinated by the bizzarely evolving images, as well as awestruck at the patience and determination of the artist, who had painstaking drawn each separate frame of the film.

The original soundtrack worked quite well, but Maria felt that there were a few things missing in terms of sound effects and that the music could have had a bit more to it. Because of this, she decided to do the whole thing from scratch; foley, sound-design and music.

CHROME

With ‘ Chrome’ Maria wanted to write a programmed glitch track, drawing on drum and bass, glitch and IDM. Her eventual aim was to combine two completely juxtaposed musical ideas based upon the synthetic and the organic.

For the synthetic element she would use a combination of software and hardware synths along with programmed drums. For the organic element, she decided that the bright sound of a trumpet would cut through well over the drums.

Maria felt that as my track was largely beat-based, it could really benefit from having some visuals, especially some that would respond to the music. Musically, the piece had evoked metallic images for her, so she decided to look for clips of metallic things.

She decided that clips of machinery would fit well with the driving drums and the intricate, repetitive synth. In addition to this, she added some clips of a trumpet being made, and for the more chilled sections, images of different metals being melted and poured.

Once Maria had collected all the desired clips, she used a Pure Data beat detection patch to control them. The patch allows the user to load short clips into 6 banks of 14. It then swaps between these clips and lets certain parameters of the clips be controlled via a MIDI controller. These parameters include; which bank it is accessing, zoom, fade, effects such as negative and saturation, and perhaps most importantly, beat detection. The beat detection means that the clip moves and changes in time with the beat of the music. The picture below shows part of the layout of the patch;

Once Maria had collected all the desired clips, she used a Pure Data beat detection patch to control them. The patch allows the user to load short clips into 6 banks of 14. It then swaps between these clips and lets certain parameters of the clips be controlled via a MIDI controller. These parameters include; which bank it is accessing, zoom, fade, effects such as negative and saturation, and perhaps most importantly, beat detection. The beat detection means that the clip moves and changes in time with the beat of the music. The picture below shows part of the layout of the patch;

UNE MISSIONE EPHEMERE

This is an animated film from the 60’s by Potir Kamlar. As usual, all the original sound was stripped so that Maria could create her own version of the sound.

This was a university project which was made a particular challenge by the fact the students only had one week in which to complete it!

Because of the abstract nature of the visuals, she has used mainly sound design to narrate the film. She took and manipulated audio samples, processing using GRM tools.

Her aim with Une Missione Ephemere was to enhance the events of the film without imposing a certain mood upon them. She felt that the film was very ambigious, and so wanted to leave any emotional impressions up to those who view/listen to it.

Maria is an experienced singer with many different things under her belt. She has been classically trained to grade 8 standard, gaining distinctions in all her exams. She has been involved in the tradition of folk singing for years. She has performed regularly in Eisteddfods and concerts from a young age. She was a member of a Musical Theatre club for five years. She has fronted a rock band and a trip-hop band, and is currently fronting a new band. She has sang over different types of electronic music, something which she feels her voice is well suited to and is very interested in. And she has also worked extensively in a studio environment something which she gets a lot out of.

From pop-songs to classical pieces, film scores to experimental electro-acoustic music, Maria has composed in a wide variety of styles. She has been writing music for as long as she can remember, and has strived to rise to any musical challenge that has crossed her path. Rather than limiting herself to one particular type of composition, she has followed her inspiration wherever it has taken her, while still hopefully retaining her own sound. Contained in this website are examples of some of her work created during and after her time at university.

Once Maria had discovered the technological world of music, she immersed herself wholeheartedly. She is now able to use any software platform, having leant her way around lots of different programs including Cubase, Logic, Protools, Reason and Metasynth. Her natural perfectionism and attention to detail lent itself well to any role where she was needed to be a musical producer. She found that studio based work was something she could easily lose herself in. After years of compiling equipment, she currently owns a more than adequate home studio and is able to record and produce at will.