Continuing the theme of creepy music for October: from Aaron Simms’ supernatural thriller Vermilion, this underscore accompanied the final run-in with a painting come to life. (This was much scarier on film than it sounds in my description!)


(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)

	Encounter

Continuing the theme of creepy music through Holloween: This week’s selection features Native American flutes, bowed prayer bowls, a spring drum, and an unusual instrument known as a Lion’s Roar.

The music was entirely acoustically generated, with no use of samples or synthesized timbres. Though computers can make wonderful sounds, I think that the most expressive music comes from human beings playing physical instruments. This remains true even when the music is disquieting rather than melodic.

(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)

	Flashback

Continuing our creepy music theme, this week’s selection begins with a disquieting ambient passage and transitions into a frenetic orchestral climax. The music makes use of the octatonic scale, which comes from an alternation of half and whole steps. This scale has been scientifically proven in special music labs to be particularly scary.

(Hat tip to horror-meister Mark Pavia for suggesting the idea of scary music through Halloween.)

(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)

	Confronting the Beast

As the title implies, this weeks’s selection is a dark and ambient musical atmosphere. Pulsing brass in their lowest register and woodwind trills help usher in the creepiness.

(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)

	Things in the Dark

Written back when I was a wee composer of 25, this action cue accompanies a daring airplane escape sequence in the film The F-Zone. Using a predominantly string orchestra, and one a bit underpopulated in the brass department, I turned to aggressive (marcato) string bowing as a means of conveying tension.

(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)

	Escape at the Airfield

Another orchestral cue from Against Time, this one conveying the exhilaration of invention with a touch of mad-scientist eccentricity.

(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)

	Genius at Work

A tender and somewhat wistful orchestral cue from the film Against Time. I had the enjoyable experience of writing this to accompany sensitive performances from Craig T. Nelson and Ean Mering.

(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)

	After the Game

This week’s musical selection is a quirky orchestral two-step, featuring a solo woodwinds and that most celebrated of melodic instruments, the tuba.

(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)

	Sneak Away