HALLOWEEN PLAYLIST 2020

I love, love, love Halloween. My favorite holiday, by far! I don’t even care about trick of treat, costume parties, or any of that— I just really dig that for a certain interval every year, decorative depictions of monsters, the macabre, the paranormal, and what have you become socially acceptable fare. I keep some of my Hallween decorations up all year round, although it’s nice to bring some of them out fresh every October.

Anyway, this year I thought I’d put together a playlist of spooky music in accordance with the season… so if you to are a Halloween-ophile and would like 4.5 hours of music as a sountrack to this predilection (or, you know, just some songs to steal for your own playlist), then have at it! Although to be fair, if you require a high degree of wholesomeness in your entertainment, you might want to steer clear.

I highly recommend listening to it on shuffle— it’s not meant to be heard sequentially as is.

I’ve tried to lean on stuff people haven’t heard a million times, though I’ve included a few standards that I enjoy. There’s quite a bit of 50s and 60s novelty material, given the bottomless pit of it, and I enjoy the kitschiness of these tunes as much as I do the hokey vintage horror cinema they tend to reference. While I’ve hewed somewhat closely to songs about the explicitly imaginary/ paranormal (as opposed to songs that simply mention ghosts, witches, or monsters metaphorically), I’ve made a few exceptions for murder ballads, since these lend an appropriately haunting atmosphere.

Enjoy!

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SOUND EDIT, FOLEY + MIX FOR SHORT FILM: "THESE IMPERFECT GIFTS"

I recently put the finishing touches on sound edit, Foley, and mix for Oxford Comma Films’ short film “These Imperfect Gifts”, directed by Vanessa M.H. Powers-- a glimpse into the lives of a couple dealing with the aftermath of a miscarriage. In the audio post process we felt our way through the alternating numbness, pain, and anger felt by the characters as they stumble toward a sense of reckoning. Powers and I agreed there was a need for focus on small, intimate sounds like the tap of fingers on cardboard, soft cloth friction, and creaking floorboards. We gave the film a sense of delicate dynamics that I hope allows for the interior spaces of the characters’ thoughts to resonate. Looking forward to seeing this head out on to the festival circuit!

More sound by Mike Hallenbeck for film

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"BIRDS OF THE FUTURE": "MA" SOUL, AIR RAID SIREN + REWIND

Another excerpt from Skewed Visions’ 2019 live performance installation “Birds of the Future”, featuring original music and sound design by yours truly. I posted the first one here a while back. “Inspired by research into the nature of time and the combination of dystopian narratives in popular culture with resurgent political and social activism, ‘Birds of the Future’ explored what it is to recognize one’s place in a seemingly unending cycle of utopian impulses and dystopian realities,” Skewed Visions’ web site offers as a description of the show. “Rather than revel in a bleak aesthetic of apocalypse, ‘Birds of the Future’ wrestled with the possibilities revealed by chaos— among them, a new understanding of time in which each moment is open to the possibilities of a new way of being.”

Here we take a look at the musical accompaniment I came up with for a section that starts with performers Erika Hansen and Megan Mayer semi-improvisationally pronouncing the word “Ma” first conversationally, but gradually building a yelled crescendo, eventually singing the word repeatedly as lyrics to a 60s soul-style instrumental to reflect a temp track used by artistic director Charles Campbell. To me the somewhat forlorn repetition of “Ma” suggested a state of vulerability, a helplessness that no one ever arrives to rescue, and that the darker impulses portayed elsewhere in the show are grievance-borne as a result of the repetition we witness here.

I aimed to approximate classic Motown soul with the musical score, assembling an ensemble replete with a horn section entirely with virtual instruments. Eventually the frenzied ritual is cut short by an air raid siren, and the bird people scurry to safety in the provisional shelter nestled within Jess Kiel-Wornson’s wonderfully cluttered set, curling up like bugs to withstand whatever rains down on them. I even executed what I hoped to be a Eugene Chadbourne-esque freakout coda for the music once it’s interrupted by the siren. Never knew I could freak out with virtual instruments like that, but apparently I can. And as the video clip fades out, a rewind sound cue signals that our performers’ cyclical travails are about to restart.

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