Thanks for taking some time to relax and listen to the Moving Art season 3 soundtrack. Now that you’ve had a chance to listen to the sounds of Moving Art Season Three, we’re taking you deeper into the music by interviewing the composers behind each piece.
Today, we sat down with Genevieve Vincent, who created pieces for the Hokkaido episode.
Enjoy a bit of her music before we start the interview!
Here, we discuss the composing process and drawing inspiration from nature with Lisbeth Scott.
How did the visual imagery of Moving Art inspire you to create music? How does nature influence your musical work?
The first time I watched Hokkaido, I was struck by it’s frozen beauty and the sense that it was larger than life. I wanted the score to have melodies that floated and echoed through the canyons as the camera did, and support those with walls of strings and deep bold percussion.
Almost mimicking the architecture of the scenes. As we go farther into the episode we meet different animals, so I tried to give them a voice in the melodies and evoke their personalities through the music.
I love the geometry of nature, and it has a significant influence on my music. Something so tiny can be incredibly impactful but I also find musical inspiration in the vastness of nature as well.
I am always trying to see my surroundings from new perspectives and seek out environments to draw inspiration from.
What was the process of creating the music for Moving Art like for you? How long did it take? How did you keep the visuals in mind while composing?
I think we spent about 4 weeks on the music.
I don’t normally do things this way, but for this project I had 4 small recording sessions throughout the process with violin, viola, cello, woodwinds, and one big one with a percussionist, instead of one big session at the end. I didn’t want to use almost anything in the box for this score.
Something about how it looked screamed that it wanted to sound organic, and I wanted to hear the humanity coming through every layer. I recorded in some instances 17 layers of each instrument to create walls of sound that could reflect the magnitude of the cliffs, geysers, and overhead shots of the landscape.
For the percussion, I created essentially a custom sample library of Japanese percussion instruments which I then sampled and moved around the score in a modular way.
Do you believe that the combination of music and natural imagery can have a calming or healing effect?
I think music and nature are the original healers.
Whether it’s getting some air, vitamin D from the sun, calming our minds with tones, voice, or music, I think we all need both in our lives to stay healthy and happy.
What are your favorite pieces of music or artists that you turn to for inspiration?
I listen to lots of different kinds of music. I could list a thousand artists who have made music that I absolutely love but this is the list that is top of mind today!
Philip Glass, Gabriel Fauré, Lauryn Hill, Bill Evans, Kendrick Lamar, Lambert, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Nina Simone, FKA Twigs, Max Richter, Francis Poulenc, Flume, Taylor Swift, Cliff Martinez, Sia, Dan Romer, Selena Gomez, A Winged Victory For The Sullen. The list is long, and all over the place in terms of genre. I love any music that makes me feel, and I’m constantly looking for it everywhere.
Make sure you check out the Moving Art season 3 soundtrack, which inspires awe and elevates your states of consciousness!