2021 in review
2021: Never before has a year been so much better than the one that preceded it! Never has the bar been so low, the disappointments so shallow when taken in context!
While less, shall we say, “challenging” than 2020, this year was a bit of a bumpy ride in its own way. But I was grateful for the opportunity to provide quality music and sound design in the spheres of corporate communications, podcasts, film, animation, audiobooks, opera, art installations, and even live event recording. There’s a lot brewing for 2022 as well… stay tuned for more news in the coming year.
CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS
In 2021 I was happy to edit audio, provide vocieover performance and engineering, and execute final mix on corporate and institutional projects for end clients including Cisco-Cohesity, Cinnox, Sportsgigita, Supply Pointe, several medical technology manufacturers, and others. Many thanks to all the producers, directors, and faciliators who brought me in on these projects.
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ANIMATION
2021 saw the release of two very different animation projects I had the opportunity to work on…
TURNOUT
“Turnout” is an animated short produced by Foreign Fauna. Tobin and Sven are street artists involved in a shady lifestyle as middlemen. On their way to drop off an unmarked bag, they’re forced to evade arrest and a split second decision alters their future. I engineered the voiceover, edited dialog, FX, Foley, and backgrounds, and perpetrated final mix. Watch it here!
COPYCUT SCANFILL
Original music, sound design, and much intersection thereof for Colin Stanhill’s painstakingly made “Copycut Scanfill”. In Stanhill’s imagery-- animated entirely on a defective photocopier-- familiar images begin to drift, morph and dance their way into uncanny new forms. In response, I created a jaunty, jazzy score that gradually unravels and reconstitutes as particles of its former self. Screened as part of the 2021 Minneapolis-St Paul International Film Festival, the piece even made it into Best of Fest programming. Watch it here!
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OPERA
IN 2021 I had the good fortune to play a sound design role in the Minnesota Opera production “Chim Lạc” (Lost Bird), a shadow puppet opera created by Oanh Vu and Charlie McCarron. See and hear the opera here!
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FILM
Films featuring original music, sound design, and mix by Cool Cat Audio made their way out onto the festival circuit in 2021, both online and, yes, in person!
Kevin Obsatz’s short “Present Tents”, featuring an original musical score, sound design, and mix by Cool Cat Audio, screened at the Minneapolis/ St Paul International Film Festival, and plenty elsewhere besides.
We also provided sound edit and mix on Vanessa Powers’ noirish short “Unfortunate Necessity”, which screened at the 2021 Z-Fest. I checked it out online, still too cautious to go to indoor screenings, and thus have still not met Powers in person. Nevertheless, I like her very much, and I know she’s been very enjoyable to work with!
The short film “Floaters”, directed by Kari Jo Skogquist and featuring an original score by Paul Fonfara, premiered at Film Score Fest, back in action after its 2020 hiatus. I created Foley, edited FX, and mixed down a soundtrack that left a space for the score, which was performed live by an orchestra commissioned for the event. The screening was a lovely outdoor affair at a park in the middle of downtown St Paul (photo at the top of this entry). We made the entire film in quarantine, holding all our meetings on Zoom; I had never met Skogquist in person till the screening.
And Matthew Anderson’s “Their Town”, which I recall working on back in the halcyon days of 2020 but have apparently still never yet blogged about on the Cool Cat site, made extensive rounds on the festival circuit in 2021, all over the world! I composed an original musical score, edited dialog and FX, and mixed the pilot of what will hopefully become a new exponent of the Theater People Cinematic Universe.
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ORIGINAL MUSIC PLACEMENTS
Original musical compositions by yours truly found media placements worldwide in 2021. Shows featuring my music included “The Gadget Show” (UK), the Spanish animated programs “Ricky Zoom” and “Mis Vecinos Piratas”, and the American YouTube Original “We Are Savvy”.
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AUDIOBOOK ENGINEERING
In partnership with Steve Hendrickson’s AudioVisceral, I engineered voiceover for Jay Hornbacher’s book “Three Letters from Saint Nicholas”, available now on Audible. It was a lot of fun meeting Jay, getting to know him a little, and working with him and Steve to bring this book to cyberspace.
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FIELD RECORDINGS
ART START LANDSCAPE SHOW
The Rhineland, WI gallery Art Start currently hosts a landscape show that includes some of my field recording audio as part of “an informal survey of the diverse practices and perspectives of artists working with the concept of landscape in the mediums of painting, drawing, photography, field recording, dance, and video.” More info
JUST BEFORE DIWALI: FIELD RECORDINGS FROM NORTH INDIA
In 2021 I re-released my collection of field recordings “Just Before Diwali: Field Recordings From North India”, originally recorded in 2007 and released in 2009 on the Wandering Ear netlabel. The album documents weaving machines, a mass puja, a train for kids, cows munching grass, a man going at it with a mortar and pestle, people splashing around in the Ganges River, and bells, bells, bells galore. You can stream the collection here.
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CHORAL RECORDINGS
Late this year I recorded, mixed, and mastered a choral performance at a memorial service. A moving experience, to be sure. Hopefully there’ll be more choir audio on the way. I sure hope so! In this entry, I write about the setup.
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Thanks again to everyone who’s collaborated and/ or shared opportunities this year. It’s meant the world. Here’s to 2022!