This small slice of acoustic/folk pop heralded a sympathetic character’s arrival in the film “Siren”. Unlike an actual pop song, it doesn’t so much as end as ease out – a common technique to let the score exit gracefully without the audience becoming too aware of the change. Guitars courtesy of the ever-talented Tom Strahle.

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	Jay’s Theme

When writing this dramatic cue, I was seized with the notion of using a choir of flutes instead of the more traditional string accompaniment. The effect is both colder and more intimate, which seems perfectly appropriate for a scene about acceptance of death, set in a morgue.

In addition to the standard C flute, you’ll hear alto and bass flutes in the mix as well. Piano remains in the foreground throughout, reinforced by cello and a glassy electronic pedal.

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	At Rest

The game Wizard Ops for iOS and Android was just updated with some brand-new content, so I thought I’d share some of the new music. This selection is your textbook boss music. (For non-gamers, this means the intense fight music that accompanies extra-tough challenges at the end of a game level). In this case, the boss is a warlike dirigible that keeps pelting me with fatal bombs. I have yet to get past this level, and it’s becoming a bit embarrassing.

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	The Evil Blimp

This lyrical orchestral passage accompanies a turning point in the film Against Time, where a warm moment of bonding becomes foreboding. The score follows suit, opening with a nostalgic theme for strings and woodwinds, then shifting to a darker texture.

A simple three-chord progression represents the good feeling; at the fulcrum where things turn ominous, I invert the progression so that it starts to descend. Normally I try to avoid “intellectual” maneuvers in music, but in this case I thought the gesture really worked. Shortly after, the French horns enter with a disquieting sound that lets us know that the mood is turning darker.

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	Two of a Kind

This week’s selection is a happy march from an interactive story. It’s been a number of years and the details are a bit foggy, but I’m pretty confident that talking animals were involved.

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	A Triumphant Exit

This week’s selection is an ambient musical atmosphere evoking wheat stalks gently swaying under blue skies. (I’ll leave it up to you as to whether The Windswept Fields would make a good name for a band.)

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	The Windswept Fields

This week’s selection, which also currently accompanies the splash page of my website, is a dark and melodic orchestral cue with a hint of otherworldly flavor.

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	The Storm Gathers

This week’s selection is actually a combo of two orchestral cues from successive scenes in a film: a late-night research session fraught with unexpected discovery, and a morning departure from a rustic mountain farm.

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	Leaving the Ranch