Andromeda

March 5, 2019

I had the pleasure of working with Emily Coop (@microrockets) on her much anticipated animation, Andromeda.

Andromeda is a product of passion for Emily, so I was honoured to be given the opportunity to bring it to life with sound and music.

Andromeda follows a young protagonist who wakes up to find their world changed.

My first thought when I saw this animation was that it looked like a throwback to the classic monster movie genre. I immediately started playing with retro-inspired sounds and synths. In terms of music, I wanted it to start and end softly, and take a bit of a darker turn at the climax.

The sound design needed to support the heavy atmosphere of the story. You will see that the world is very recently destroyed as the animation opens on the character waking up alone and confused. There are feelings of loneliness and mystery that are carried throughout the animation, and supported by layered atmospheric elements in the soundtrack. I love playing with subtle winds and natural elements in a mix.

I'd say that I did dialogue as well, if you would call it that. Andromeda features some vocalizations from the characters.

Something important this project reminded me concerning performance, is just how critical the delivery is, even if you're just making small noises to give a character a sense of life, as I was. I performed a couple of rough takes in my studio where I was being fairly quiet so as not to disturb anyone. It took a lot of editing and manipulation to get these recordings sounding in the ballpark of how I wanted, but I just wasn't happy with the results.

I got a MUCH better result from performing this in my car where I could be as loud as I wanted.

As I always say, "you got a car, you got a recording booth"

Emily is an awesome artist. I'd encourage you to check out her work on Twitter.