In the autumn of 2010 I met director David Paul Irons through a friend, and through a cold night in a floating house in Brighton marina, where I was living at the time, we laid the groundwork for a collaboration that would last for many years. In Cassette, I provided music for some interesting scenes and emotions, with a style rooted in my sound art background. I also provided extensive sound editing, design, and general sound consultation. It was my first attempt at conventional music as a professional, and I quickly found it a great outlet for all the musical ideas that would never fit into my sound art projects. To this day, whenever I make conventional music for projects, my creative process involves imagining it scenically, as film music. It becomes the music that accompanies a scene that I imagine, regardless of its original intended purpose.
the first work that was included in the movie, this piece never received a proper title beyond BLB+(x)Version. The original was made on multitracked guitars and simply copied to the nostalgic style of music that fit the film, and so many in a similar vein during the early 00’s, so, A lot of sidechaining. Making the layered synths that pair with this musical style was my favourite part of working with this, unironically leaning on my Schaeffer sound classifications analysis and active listening to figure out how to copy some Justice-esque sound. This music was diegetic, playing in a cool used clothing shop where the protagonist steals her new outfit.
Some hypnotic Twin Peaks-esque looping organ with a few spectral tricks to fill out spaces and shape the psychoacoustic scene.
This is timed exactly to a scene that unfortunately cannot be shared in detail. in it, the Protagonist imagines the music from her cassette shaping and changing her environment as she waits at a bus stop. Its lofi synth was inspired by the type of music someone like Ulver would make for a Scandinavian drama.
Basti Aker 