More free sounds for Alesis Fusion from Hollow Sun

Steve has just put up some more free sounds in the Fusion format. Link is in the title. Here's the blurb...

"This freepack is quite different from previous ones in that it contains 50's sci-fi 'alien landscapes'.

The 50s sci-fi film 'Forbidden Planet' is a seminal piece of cinematic history not just because it's a great movie (based on Shakespeare's 'The Tempest') but also because of the revolutionary electronic music soundtrack created by avant-garde pioneers Louis and Bebe Barron.

In a time long before commercially available synthesisers and/or multi-track tape machines, the Barrons made their own circuits and assembled the sounds they made into collages using music concrete techniques (intricate tape splicing, etc.). Built in to these various circuits, however, was a certain degree of unpredictability and serendipity - that is, their circuits had flaws and imperfections and didn't always behave as expected - and the results created a certain 'organic' quality that belie their electronic origins. However, if anything, this was a strength that the Barrons exploited to highlight the human flaws in the characters in the film or, indeed, the unpredictability of the alien landscape depicted.

It was also the first movie to have a totally electronic soundtrack AND it was credited as such ... as 'Electronic Tonalities' ... and it was a major influence on the use of electronic music in the movie industry even to this day!

I used to use Native Instruments' REAKTOR to design and build my own 'circuits' in software in a similar vein to the Barrons' ethos - to create 'organic' instruments that can generate eerie soundscapes almost at random and which have an unpredictable life of their own. On offer here is a collection of samples from these instruments.

I make no claim that any of these sci-fi samples are authentic recreations of the Barrons' work but during the time these samples were available for Akai samplers, a close friend of Bebe Barron emailed me to tell me that they are "Very much in the spirit of Forbidden Planet, and in most cases dead ringers for the original" and it seems had Bebe's approval! Although her husband died some years ago, last thing I heard was that Bebe was still active in the avant-garde electronic music field.

All the sounds are single samples recorded at C3 but mapped out across the keyboard range. As a result, they will speed up and slow down if transposed but this is perfectly in keeping with the Barrons' original work who used different tape speeds to affect the playback of their recordings.

These are not sounds for your next MTV hit that's for sure (although you never know!) but if you want to push the envelope with ambient soundscapes, these might be just the ticket.

Top work again, Steve :o)