Let it never be said that I don’t write music for undead housepets.

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	Cat

Since my previous cue was a romanticized, melodic interpretation of a desert environment, I thought I’d offer a contrasting take on the same subject. This week’s selection is visceral and raw, evoking a desert’s harsh conditions and oppressive heat. Nothing to hum along to here!

Part of my approach was to include musical timbres that were organic but unfamiliar, to add a creepy and alienating flavor to the score.

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	Bite of the Desert

This week’s selection is an orchestral overture with flavors of mideastern folk music, written for the game Empire Earth II. The sinuous-sounding wind instrument opening the piece is an Armenian duduk, played here by Chris Bleth. Everything else comes courtesy of the Budapest Film Orchestra.

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	Sands of Arabia

This short piano cue from the film Home Room is loosely imitative of the ticking of the clock, the specific visual which the music accompanies. I could have adopted a closer imitation by setting the tempo to a clocklike 60bpm, but the pacing of the scene required something a bit lighter on its feet. (Plus, I wanted to be transparent rather than cutesy.)

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	The Clock

Most of the music for the film Against Time was orchestral, but a few guitar-driven cues reflect more personal or homey moments. This folksy/bluesy piece introduces the film’s opening baseball sequence. Every instrument (except kick drum and shaker) performed by guitar-monger Tom Strahle.

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	Field Work