This week’s music is an atmospheric main title for a supernatural thriller called Vermilion. In the film, a painter is slowly haunted by his works, which take on a life of their own… literally. I gave chromatic harmonies to piano, cello, bass clarinets, and muted strings in order to create a disquieting mood.

Having had a lovely time at the Edinburgh Fringe (no I didn’t eat haggis this year), I’m back stateside and will happily resume sharing excerpts from my work.

This cue from the game Empire Earth II introduces the Korean faction. As with most of the music in this game, I used an orchestral interpretation of national folk music, supplemented with ethnic instrumentation. (In this case the wooden flute.)

This week’s selection from Wizard Ops Tactics portrays the game’s swamp level as a damp and ominous place. Plaintive woodwinds ease in and out over low string undulations, while excerpts of the game’s main theme recur in the brass. The low string lines themselves are just the main theme, slowed down and altered to fit into 7/8 time. (Yes, I’m lazy and prefer to re-use existing material rather than write more.)