Examples of Music for Media (Film, Dance, Installation, Television)
1. Pescador
Final scene for Pescador, a film I scored that premiered this year at IFFI Goa. The music was made with electric guitar, synthesizers, flutes (played by Zaq Kenefick and Jess Getter), acoustic guitar, percussion, and upright bass.
Film description: Parallel stories of two siblings. One follows a marine biologist searching for a mythical sea creature in Costa Rica, who perhaps has dark intentions. The other follows her shipwrecked older brother who is saved by a Costa Rican fisherman who believes he has found his new son.
During this scene, the biologist finally finds the "magic fish". It's unclear in the movie whether she actually discovers this fish, or if it's a dream image she sees upon dying (the scene is literally called "death"). I tried to play to this feeling with the music, using a blend of artificial and real sounds, evoking a semi-ominous feeling of joyous discovery. There were parts written out for the flutes, but the rest was played by me, and as a result, did not require a score.
2. tired music concert (Act 1)
An example of my music for dance, tired music concert is a collaborative opera/dance piece choreographed by Kensaku Shinohara with music by me. The music was made using synthesis, stock pop-music samples (people shouting "yeah", orchestra stabs) and field recordings. The goal was to explore exhaustion through pop music forms.
The entire opera is still a work in progress, with some musical parts being performed live and some being entirely fixed. In the first act, the music is fixed media, which is the included track. Versions of the piece have been performed at REDCAT for NOW Fest in Los Angeles, Kunstencentrum BUDA in Belgium, and Judson Church in New York.
The full piece is not available to watch online, but a trailer demonstrating some of the choreography can be viewed here (the trailer includes the first minute of music):
3. Music for Media: The Challenge (MTV), Disco Death, Pescador, Miss Lilac
Below is a playlist of music I wrote for the MTV show The Challenge, interspersed with a few select cues from the feature Pescador. Although some of the music I wrote was placed in the show, I don’t have the copyright to share the actual video clips.
4. Miss Lilac
Miss Lilac Kim is a film/installation I scored, that won the Jungwoon Prize at the Seoul International Experimental Film Festival.
The isolated music is in the playlist above, and the video can be watched here (pw: MissKimEng)
Dylan Marx is a composer, musician, engineer and educator. His work ranges from experiments in performance, recording, synthesis, archival sampling, and poetry. He performs live “with band”, and plays in Perfect Band. Working collaboratively, he’s recorded and produced albums for, as well as accompanied, many artists, primarily based in the Los Angeles area. He’s written music for film, television, dance, and for installation work. He currently teaches music at California Institute of the Arts in the School of Dance.
>>>MUSIC
>>>PROJECTS
Selected Performances
Score for “tired music concert” (audio recording can be found here)
Score for “joe”
Nomadic City
Selected Encantarri from the Nomadic City
