Institute of Art Design + Technology
Dún Laoghaire

Rhys Mayes 

BA [Hons] Creative Music Production

I'm Rhys, I'm 22, and I'm from Comber, County Down. I have three main areas of interest when it comes to music. On the electronic end of things, I make algorithmic sound art in Csound, an example of which is this thesis project. I also produce Ambient and Gabber influenced Breakcore, and record lo-fi Psychedelic Pop, with a touch of sixties country thrown in. Much of my work has a process-over-product approach, in which I often use obsolete and roundabout methods of achieving something simply because I enjoy it.

Giallo Music

This project explores the idea and details the process of interpreting Giallo films as music. Gialli are highly expressive, Italian horror films which reached the peak of their popularity in the 1970s, and are known for their powerful suspense, plot twists, and artistic murder scenes. This work will detail the process derived in order to successfully capture the data required to create a composition from these films, and will detail the composition process utilised in the final piece.

The physical work of the project will manifest as an 8-minute electronic piece, serving as a representation of ‘Suspiria’: a 1977 Giallo film directed by Dario Argento.

At its core, this piece is an artistic endeavour which explores the world of data-driven composition processes in a fairly abstract way. This open-ended approach leaves opportunities for other composers and artists to build off the ideas presented in this thesis, to extend them into more complex processes, and to employ them in other areas and mediums.



Interpreting Gialli as Music

The thesis accompanying this project provides in-depth insight into the various processes that were used to create the composition. This includes data gathering processes, compositional processes, and sound design processes deployed in Csound.

The thesis also provides some insight as to how these processes could be used to compose music in the context of various other forms of media, and encourages artists to explore that area.

An MP3 of the piece can be downloaded below, however higher quality versions are available at the GitHub and Soundcloud links.