Audiochef - Serena’s Sensual Living Assen
October 2021 we were asked to make music for a new and unique store concept in Assen. A shop that is completely dominated by nature, with 45 trees, and the walls covered with branches and moss. A magical experience, according to the owner, and that was our musical focus. Our assignment: ensure that the visitor is immersed in this atmosphere, and enhance the experience with music and sound design.
We soon came up with the plan to make it a giga surround sound experience, as if you were in the cinema or in the Efteling. Wherever you walk, you hear the same music everywhere, but the experience has to be slightly different. The music has been mixed in twelve layers, spread over 22 speakers: 20 in the ceiling and 2 large subs on the floor. We divided these into different zones in the store; if you are standing by the candles, you will hear something different than when you are at the book department, for example. The subs can also be controlled separately and serve the foundation and the special effects.
In the end we composed two hours of music including a continuously changing sound design: birds flying overhead, a thunderstorm in the distance and eventually pulling over your head through the shop, running horses that we recorded at an Assense riding school, crickets, frogs , etcetera.
The music had to have a celtic character with mystical elements, not new age. We used an arsenal of natural instruments such as strings, woodwinds and brass, drums and percussion. We recorded various musicians in our studios and also used our in-the-box instruments. The very first track (the Overture) starts with a midwinter horn of which every new overtone that is played comes from a different loudspeaker. From that moment on it goes wild and the whole loops after more than two hours, making use of the short pauses between the notes of the midwinter horn. As a visitor, you will probably not hear the same song twice.
Audiochef
Audiochef is a creative team of music and sound freaks who can compose, do sound design and audio post-processing for major (international) brands. Varying from Disney, KPN, ASML, to almost all broadcasters in the Netherlands.
PK: Audiochef, thanks for sharing!
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