SCGC member Phil Strong composed the score for The Messenger, a feature documentary about songirds’ astounding feats, intricate lives and what they tell us about their fate and ours. Fellow member Timon Wientzek provided additional music for the film. “The Messenger” has been released in the USA and is currently playing at select venues in Canada.

“Something I enjoy and usually undertake as part of my process is to create custom software instruments or musical “machines” for each project. In this case I wanted to create a quadruple stop bowing machine for one of the main themes. I wanted to create a kinetic, rhythmic, texture… the sound I was after is much like fiddlers as they hold down several strings and bow across them, varying the angle of the bow to create a harmonic rhythm. Because the strings on a viola/violin form an arch, they cannot all be bowed at once. The bow has to change angle to get each string. Rapid bowing and angle shifts (are not unlike the flapping movement of a birds wing ) – and create a flowing series of notes – a harmonic rhythm – without needing rapid movement in the left hand. I researched all possible quadruple stop combinations for violin and Sarah Shugarman performed several bars of each to a click. I then created a tempo-malleable Ableton Live session to sequence and combine these musical patterns, DJ-style, into musical pieces at various tempos. The original idea was to then transcribe/notate these pieces and rerecord the final with musicians based on the resulting form. But in fact (or inevitably) some effects, combinations and grooves were created that would have been very difficult to reproduce live. We were also on a budget and deadline… so the original “sample” recording session survived the process all the way through to the final mix. It was a hit with the producers.”