Filed under 'design':

TED video ad puzzler redux

Nov 19, 2009 in , , , , with no comments

Previously on this blog I wondered about the origins of a striking electric string quartet piece in an Autodesk ad at the end of a TED video. Thanks to the magic of the Internet, I found some people looking for the same thing on another blog. After a brief discussion in the comments, Sharon Jennings of APM Music gave us the answer: the mystery piece was “Cyclorythmique” by French composer Jerome Coullet. The design house who made the inspired decision to pair that piece with their ad is Remedy Editorial of San Francisco.

Anyway, that was resolved about two months after I started looking, more than a year ago, and the only reason I even remember to bring it up now is a new mystery tune.

Today I was watching TED videos again–surprise!–and spotted another ad with a sparse, modern, electric string soundtrack, this time for Barclays Wealth. It was at the very end of Devdutt Pattanaik’s talk, “East vs. West,” and unfortunately, this time I don’t even have a YouTube video for the spot. Assuming TED won’t randomly switch the ads after its videos, you should be able to see the Barclays ad by watching (which I recommend, because it’s a great talk) or simply skipping to the end of the video.

UPDATE 11/26/2009: I’ve ripped the track from the ad on the Ted site so you can listen here.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Let me know if have any ideas about the music. Generic instrumental compositions, especially when they’re not intended for popular consumption, are very hard to pin down!