EMIL SMITH
COMPOSER, MUSICIAN
Denmark
Portfolio of
Currently working on sound design and music for a short animation film about a Danish prisoner-camp during WW2,
- and composing music for an RPG from a British game developer.
Photos by R. Allmand
Bliv
Animation director Lukas Damgaard's film Bliv is a story about an ambitious conductor who neglects presence with his son. As he is preparing for a big concert, he is suddenly sucked into his son's drawing. There he meets the two fantasy creatures from his son's imagination: Presence and Play.
They try to help him on his journey back to reality, to his family and to himself. Watch it here!
The soundtrack is inspired by the main characters classical and traditional background, but as we follow him into the fantasy-world the music becomes playfully exotic and even scary as the orchestra falls apart.
BLIV - Trailer (2022)
Xiangyu Shi's short animation film The Name of the Plum Blossom, is a personal story about her relationship with her mother growing up in China.
The music reflects the merging of dreams and memories, nostalgia and magic, and interacts with the soundscape. As I also created the sound environment for this film, I chose to blur the borders between soundscape and music, which was fitting for this dreamy story.
Tapes
Tell Me Everything
Smilla Dreinø Khonsari's: Tapes - Tell Me Everything was awarded with Ekko Shortlist Awards Best Documentary in 2021.
The music is sentimental and lift us up from the heavy emotions, supporting the life-affirming quality of the documentary.
Uterus
Uterus is a clip from a Marie Winter Olsen's experimental documentary about a challenging birth. It is a metaphorical exploration of a fetus POV. We worked with the music as a key narrator.
Windfall
Windfall is a 3D exploration platformer game developed by Frogspawn Studios. The interactive soundtrack enhances adrenaline and awe as you traverse the procedurally generated landscape of floating islands. The music reacts in real time to speed, combo-jumps and challenge difficulty and enhances the aesthetic experience at vista points.
Try it here for free on itch.io.
Windfall - Game trailer
Windfall - compiled cinematics
The Next 24 Hours With You
By Smilla Dreinø Khonsari
Intoxication
By Tara Salas
My work includes:
FILM COMPOSITION
Storytelling supporting the directors vision
Film music can set the tone for the film and glue the plot together. It can provide insight into characters' unspoken emotions and add new layers to the story.
Embarking on a new project, I like to ask the director about her/his vision and taste, about the characters' journey, dramatic turning points and what role we want the music to play in this specific film.
We don't need to speak in musical terms - the essence is the emotions we want to convey. I will later translate those emotions into music.
With a background in music production, I naturally start shaping the timbre and crafting sonics from the beginning of a new project.
MUSIC FOR GAMES
Immersive interactive music
What emotions should the player experience, and how does those emotions develop throughout the journey of the game?
With adaptive music, the player's interaction with the game world generates unique compositions and soundscapes that adapts to speed, danger, mystery, challenge, etc.
The player should be a co-performer of the music in games
With handcrafted music specific to the game states/modes, we can trigger unconscious associations and set the scene. I always push to bring out the stories that exist or could exist in the game world.
MUSIC PRODUCTION
Writing, recording, mix and master
What should the song express and how can we support that in the mix?
By balancing the steady building blocks of a song, with the more exotic spices, we can create a dance between the safe and the unknown. When supported by dramatic dynamic changes, we begin storytelling through music.
Crafting a mix is often about finding those original creative ideas and clarifying them or augmenting them. I often find that by reducing or removing less important tracks, the musical idea becomes much stronger.
I have written, recorded, mixed and mastered soundtracks as well as rock, folk and pop songs.
Terra Incognita
EP [2023]
Scorpio (feat. Anna Lidell)
BIO
My story
I head dived into music in my teenage years as my brother introduced me to grunge rock. I started playing guitar and instantly connected with the genre and subculture. A few years later I met a guy who did recordings and synth programming. I was intrigued by the creative process behind sound manipulation and using the recording studio as an instrument and a compositional tool. By then I had started writing my own songs, and since I've played in many small bands as a songwriter, guitarist, vocalist and drummer.
I love storytelling, and I think music is a great tool for that. I bring my own story and my love of art, fiction, world music and creativity into my music.
Discography
My debut EP Aetherreach from 2020 is a conceptual soundtrack for a sci-fi animation project. Combining Middle Eastern and North African instruments with glitchy drums and dark synths, the music has a dark epic mood that represents the story world. Its eclectic nature does not point towards a specific culture of traditional music, as the story is set in an alternate universe.
With my second EP Terra Incognita (March 28. 2023), I attempt to move deeper into World Fusion, exploring tribal rhythms, and working with multiple musicians.
Photo by R. Allmand
Some of my earlier work includes interactive sound installations, with original soundscapes and compositions, music for commercials and sound engineering for live concerts.
Education
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Master degree in Film scoring from the Danish National Academy of Music
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Bachelor degree in Popular Music & Sound Production from Aalborg University
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Three-year course in music production and film scoring from the Danish talent program MGK.
Aetherreach
My debut EP
