The latest episode of Hammer & Bolter has been released: BOUND FOR GREATNESS. This was a truly fun and unusual episode to score.

In BOUND FOR GREATNESS, we follow the daily life of Adepth Neath, who works in a vast Librarium and is tasked with counting books. Every day, endlessly without end.

But deep within this library there are terrible secrets and temptations, things that could utterly condemn someone…

In scoring this episode I featured some extensive solo cello recording, which provided some gravitas for the depth of the plot and the danger that was risked. It also provided an opportunity for me to explore some unique aleatoric composing techniques with this string instrument, particularly throughout much of the horror oriented and scarier sequences

SPOILER ALERT! Because of the nature of the Chaos corruption of the librarian, I decided to explore using avian sounds. So went and recorded a number of birds, as well as obtained some recordings of North American loons, which I then programmed and manipulated throughout every scene within the episode. So the influence of Chaos was always there, even if it didn’t sonically register at first.

For example, I time stretched the bird sound 5000% percent to create a low register undulating drone, that infused everything else with deep forboding.

As the episode progresses, what seems like daily schedule tedium is actually changing musically, growing more and more corrupted with these avian elements. As the tempo picks up, some of the bird recordings were then used as percussive elements propelling the scenes as Adept Neath becomes more desperate to get to the bottom of this mystery.

You can watch all of Hammer & Bolter on Warhammer Plus: https://warhammerplus.com

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