2020 wasn’t my best year, but it had its moments. Time for a condensed wrap-up!
- John Williams concert in Vienna. I finally got to see the maestro, after missing him in London in 2019, and now that I had been to concerts of Goldsmith, Horner and Williams, my life was complete and I could – as one of my Twitter followers commented – die peacefully.
- Which I almost did a few days later, when I fell sick for 7 weeks (!) with influenza or covid19 (who knows) and a double pneumonia. I lost 12 kg (24 pounds) of body weight and it took me almost 3 months to recover stamina-wise.
- To conclude the series of illnesses, I suffered from acute hearing loss during September, losing the 10k Hertz on the left ear. It’s got better now, but it will probably never be the same.
- Let’s get to the good parts. I upgraded my system, not only switching from Cubase to Studio One, but also buying some more Orchestral Tool libraries, essentially ditching the VSL stuff I had used before. Getting to know the new DAW and the instruments went smooth and faster than I thought – yay!
- Ah yes, shortly after that I composed my first and probably last Star Wars music. Check out this post, if you missed it!
- I re-composed some older works of mine like “Temple of the Spidergod“, mainly to get to grips with the new system, but also to release the music which I think is very colorful and inspired, maybe a bit rough though as I was in my twenties when I originally composed it. But hey, it won me an award, so check it out! 🙂
- Another oldie but goldie that I re-did was “Goldfall” and this turned out to be a wonderful project as I decided mid-way through production that I wanted a human player to perform the viola/cello/violin parts. Fortunately, I got to know Natalia Wierzbicka whom I hired for the project and her performances would elevate the melodies in a truly magical way. If you haven’t, check it out, it’s already on streaming services!
- I also wanted to do something completely new, so I resumed rescoring another great movie with a terrible score: “The Prestige”. I know this is not as flashy as my Stranger Things music that got many clicks, but if you’re into subtle, atmospheric, thriller-y music, then you might find a lot of highlights in what I consider to be my darkest and most mature composition so far. Also available on Streaming services under the title “The Third Act” (for legal reasons of course).
- Lastly, I’d like to give a shoutout to Robin Hoffmann whom I started supporting on Patreon where he does amazing articles and projects, so if you’re composer, check him out – he knows his stuff!
Well, that’s my 2020 in a nutshell. The rest is about distance learning with 2 kids, fighting against depression, and eating (and drinking) too much. 🙂
Have a great 2021 despite the circumstances – stay safe and stay healthy!