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.
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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!
Just another big band playing funk music, right? Watch the beginning of this movie carefully — every single instrument actually comes from a different youtube video. The creator has mixed them all together into one track, along with the jumps and breaks in the video footage to show you where everything comes from and how each track loops back on itself. The DJ is a guy called Kutiman, and there’s more virtuosic youtube mixing on his site.
Thanks to Remy for the link
Andrew Bird – Noble Beast. If you’ve never heard Andrew Bird before, don’t bother reading or finding anything about him. Just pick up this album when it comes out on Jan 20, or download a torrent of the leak now, and listen until you fall in love. (UPDATE: I had to take down the sample song, but you can actually stream the entire album at NPR.) It contains more of the same folksy, intricate composition and witty, perplexing songwriting that’s in all of his past albums, but this time, you can tell he’s devoted even more time to indulging his own musical idiosyncrasies. Fortunately, these indulgences — the thickly layered flow and ebb of electric violin on a repeater pedal, the chirps and plucks and falsetto murmuring — were the most enjoyable parts of his music to begin with.
Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion. This is probably the most hyped indie-rock album in a long time, and comes out today on vinyl, with the CD and digital release on Jan 20. Like everything else, there is a leak already on bittorrent or rapidshare, so you can catch a preview there. Already it looks like the album has lived up to the hype. Pitchfork gave it an almost unheard-of 9.6 and a glowing review. Despite the band’s reputation for sprawling, almost schizophrenic eclecticism — their past records have combined pop, electronic, rock, jam band influences, and the musical equivalent of drug-induced hallucinations (which are probably the result of, yes, drug-induced hallucinations) — the new songs miraculously manage to find coherence and a sort of focused melodic quality. If this sounds vague, it’s because their music is basically impossible to describe. Try listening for yourself.