On the Wings of Hermès: Launch Show
Composer for the “On the Wings of Hermès” experience launch show at the Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. Choreographed and performed by Vocalise.
Ana Is Here: A documentary about Serbia
Original score for the documentary about Serbia’s Prime Minister Ana Brnabić. The documentary explores the political landscape of Serbia, a country with no LGBT rights, and its openly gay Prime Minister. Directed by Adam Santovac.
Hua Mu Lan: Instrumental Theatre 器乐剧《花木兰》
Original music for the instrumental theatre with Ding Yi Music Company, commissioned by the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre. Directed by Danny Yeo, script by Neo Hai Bin.
Quarter Life Crisis
Quarter Life Crisis
| Co-composed with Alexandra Funes
| Best Music, British Web Awards 2024
| Webseries pilot
| Directed by Raven Smith
Quarter Life Crisis is a story about the unexpected families we all find in life. At its core, it's a show that celebrates the population of twentysomethings that look less like movie stars and more like children, who can't fake it 'til they make it, and have absolutely no idea what they're doing. It's a testament to how much of yourself you can find with others... in a time where most of us feel entirely lost.
Marvin Hamlisch International Music Awards (Musical Theatre Category): All In Me
Marvin Hamlisch International Music Awards Nomination
“All In Me”, a musical theatre-style song about finding oneself on life’s journey, received a nomination for the Best Musical Theatre Song at the Marvin Hamlisch International Music Awards 2022.
ADAM
ADAM
Genre: Drama
Director: Shoki Lin
Selection Cinéfondation, 72nd Cannes Film Festival
Nashville Film Festival 2019
Tirana International Film Festival 2019
Asiana International Short Film Festival 2019
Nominated - Best Original Music, National Youth Film Awards 2019
Tired of his turbulent family life, Adam seeks out an alternative arrangement in hopes of finding his place.
Score Type: Minimalist
Scored for solo clarinet and solo bass clarinet.
For such an intimate film, the challenge was in capturing the alienation and emptiness of ADAM through the music. I went from scoring a pulsing woodwind ensemble to a poignant string orchestra, eventually discarding everything and going down to a minimalist score with just a clarinet and a bass clarinet, to bring out the feeling of this endless, aimless search and struggle to find your place in the world.
Listen to how the two clarinets try to search for each other in this trailer, eventually getting closer. They finally meet, but in dissonance.
Clarinet: Stephanie Tan
Bass Clarinet: Benny Lim Wei Cheah
Recording Engineer: Leon Teo
Recorded at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music recording studio.
Chasing Paper
Chasing Paper 临考
Genre: Drama
Director: Shoki Lin
23rd Busan International Film Festival, Asian Short Film Competition
2018 Camerimage, Student Etudes Panorama
2018 Tirana International Film Festival Selection
A mother struggles with her moral boundaries while trying to salvage her broken relationship with her daughter.
Score Type: Minimalist
The score for Chasing Paper was composed via two main routes - firstly, recording different sounds and extended techniques of the zhongruan before processing them into different kinds of pads and textures; secondly, by performing on the zhongruan direct to picture.
Zhongruan: Sulwyn Lok
Recording Engineers: Sulwyn Lok and Shoki Lin
Recorded at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music recording studio and the Nanyang Technological University sound suites.
Hair 髮
Hair 髮
Genre: Stop-Motion Animation | Drama
Producers: Caroline Ching, Ng Zhi Xin
Supported by the Singapore Film Commission.
A stop motion animation about a little girl who falls into a world of anxiety after her father leaves the family, and how her mother rescues her and helps her overcome her problems with her love. In this short film, Hair plays a huge role as a character, representing the separation anxiety of the protagonist and her longing for her father’s return. This animation makes use of real human hair on two-dimensional paper puppets, a novel approach that allows for a level of realism and texture that other materials cannot provide.
Score Type: Orchestral | Chinese
Hair is scored with traditional Chinese instruments - the guzheng, sheng, and yangqin - supported by a chamber orchestra. Much of the score casts the Chinese instruments in an intimate setting, with the pure and crisp tones of the leading guzheng reflecting main character Qiqi's youth and innocence.
The musical motif "re-mi-so-re-mi" forms the foundation of the music theme and follows the exploration of relationships and growing up - first heard in the opening gently accompanied by the harp when we see Qiqi and her complete family, the motif appears as a fragmented unit in various forms (from a processed yangqin to achieve a fuzzy, dreamy timbre, to being performed 'molto espressivo' by a flute driven by the orchestra) throughout the film, corresponding to Qiqi's emotional states.
The main theme is reprised at the end, this time with an uplifting arrangement and in a new key, symbolising growth and a new stage in relationship between Qiqi and her mother. A subtle alteration to the last phrase of the reprised theme, having the notes ascending instead of descending, brings the film to a close as the theme, which has never reached a resolution, finally resolves.
Bodhi 菩提
Bodhi 菩提
Genre: Drama
Director: Png Zhen Yu
Winner - Best Original Music, National Youth Film Awards 2019
A mum's fear for loneliness becomes prominent as her son prepares to embark on a new journey as a monastic. She begins to cast doubts on her faith and struggles to choose between her faith and her only son.
Score Type: Zen | Chinese
Scored for solo xindi (Chinese flute), harp, muyu (Chinese temple block), and strings.
Of faith and family, of new journeys and letting go - such were the beautifully poignant themes in Bodhi/菩提. The main theme consists of a simple recurring phrase, each time rising up, but coming back down again - symbolizing the concept of 'letting go'. Xindi musician Ng Weixuan’s sublime expression brought the music to transcend the superficial, touching hearts while bringing a sense of uncertain calm.
Every single hit on the muyu (temple block) was recorded live (not looped!) - the director himself sat through and played everything during the recording.
Xindi: Ng Wei Xuan
Muyu: Zhen Yu Png
Recording Engineer: Tharshwin Thanaskodi
Recorded at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music recording studio.
Progress
Progress
Genre: Action | Sci-Fi | Comedy
Director: Alistair Quak
Nominated - Best Original Music, National Youth Film Awards 2019
Far into the future, in an unnamed dystopian, totalitarian state, we follow a regular day in the life of Sergeant Major Lam, as he oversees his troops on a mission to take down a rebel building. However, as the film unravels he is forced to come to terms with himself, as we explore the true extents of his relationship between work life and family… Oh and also, a heck of a lot of intense violent action.
Score Type: Electronic-Orchestral Hybrid
Progress was an interesting film to score, as the soundtrack was part of important world-building - from a glorious (and satirical) national anthem, to heart-thumping action scenes, to an emotional theme exploring the relationship between a father and daughter on opposing sides of the war.
The action scenes had me recording various traditional Chinese instruments - relentless ostinato from the erhu, chromatic loops on the zhongruan, pitch-bending tremolos on the guzheng…listen out for them in the video of a fight scene above! - before processing and mangling them in various ways (often beyond recognition) for an electronic-orchestral hybrid score.
The Anthem, written for the fictional totalitarian state in the film, heavily draws inspiration from what I deem to be one of the most beautiful national anthems in our real world, even going as far as employing retrograde inversions of its melodic lines.
