Fiction Music's Portfolio
In 1991 Fiction Music did the season premiere of "The Nature of Things". It was a very controversial episode called "Animals in Research" and raised the ire of many in the medical field. It went on to win a Genesis Award for best documentary of 1991.
From such an auspicious start we have gone on to do "The Fifth Estate", "Adrienne Clarkson Presents", "Man Alive", "Undercurrents", "Venture", "News World", and other high-profile CBC documentaries and news shows. Although we are based in Canada our cues have been featured on American shows as well. CBS' "The Amazing Race", ABC's "20/20", TLC's "Battles that Changed the World", and A&E's "Biography' among many others, have all used our music. Typically these scores have suspenseful and dramatic elements to them. This is one side of our broadcast work.
Drama, Docs and Lifestyle TV Section
Animation and Kid's Tv is another side of our portfolio, where the suspense and drama is more often replaced with humour and light-heartedness. "Sniz & Fondue" had a decidedly perky surf-ish element whereas our work on "Toy Castle" and "For Better or Worse" often featured gentle acoustic guitar cues.
Animation and Kid's TV Section
Our Corporate and Commercial work tends to use more electronic and orchestral elements and a sense of urgency and patriotism is often the desired emotional tack. We have done well over one hundred hours of Corporate and Commercial work for a huge variety of clients . To hear some examples follow the link.
Corporate and Commercial Section
The last section on this page are full length songs we have written for a variety of supervisors. Much of what goes on TV these days is based around a band or song underscore and we have had to do many in various styles. This section of our portfolio has Blues, Hip-Hop (or at least Hip-Hop-ish), Funk, Electronica, Electro-Acoustic and even Progressive Rock. To hear examples of these and other facets of our work, as well as download a zipped file of our 10 minute demo, use the links to locate a section and the embedded player to stream, or click the stream or download links to either download an mp3, or stream a m3u file. Enjoy!
We have done a lot of International TV music over the years ranging from docs to cooking shows to drama to kid's stuff but here we'll concentrate on dramatic music written for CBC ("5th Estate", "Nature of Things" and "Adrienne Clarkson Presents" mostly) as well as stuff for "The Amazing Race" and "Biography"
First Race
The very first cue we did for The Amazing Race way back in 2003. Seldom used in its entirety, this playful piece features orchestral elements, trippy grooves and sound design.
Road Rage
Another cue for The Amazing Race, this is more in keeping with the series big and bombastic music. The series main composer, Lee Sanders, favours this style so we were asked by the supervisor to provide something similar.
Berserker Race
Yet another cue for The Amazing Race, again in a trailer-esque bombastic orchestral vein.
Canvas Of War
A small suite of cues for Canvas of Conflict, a film directed by Ottawa's Micheal Ostroff and which aired on the History Channel. The score was written for a cello trio, acoustic guitar, synths and soprano voice.
Colours
Theme for Nature of Thing's episode, "An Amazing World of Colours" from 1992 scored for he ubiquitous Korg M1 and the Roland U-20.
Frame by Frame
Theme for Adrienne Clarkson Present's episode, "Frame by Frame" , a documentary about Carol Spiers, David Cronenberg's production designer. Moody synths, soprano voice and piano are the textures here.
Nature of Things Pastoral
A peaceful pastoral theme for Nature of Things featuring the VSL and EW orchestral libraries.
By The Window
A piece written for a small studio orchestra and used in Adrienne Clarkson Present's "Frank Augustyne, a personal essay".
5th Estate Theme
We have been writing cues for the multi-award winning 5th Estate since 1992. This one is circa 1997 and features soprano voice, guitar and moody sound design elements. It seldom has been played in its entirety as it is usually edited for just the last percussive elements. This was used a lot!
The Name Race
Another bombastic orchestral piece for The Amazing Race and a good way to leave this section.
Homes by Design
This is a show we worked on for years and years and have scored over 60 complete episodes as well as done the themes, stringers and bumpers. Follow the link below to get the story of the series themes as we wrote and re-wrote, arranged and re-arranged, recorded and re-recorded lots of different versions until the client was happy. It is quite a unique unfolding.
One of our long standing dreams was to write music for animation. In 1996-7 we were lucky to get involved with Nickleodoen's Sniz and Fondue series. It was a hard sell, but after a lot of demos went to New York and back we were finally chosen. Since then we have done the scores and cues for "For Better or Worse", "Freaky Stories", "King Under", "The Great Bunny", "Toy Castle" and the pilots for more shows than you can shake a stick at.
Sniz & Fondue Theme
This is the main theme for the "Sniz & Fondue" series and was written for a surf-rock ensemble of Strats and Teles.
The Grumble
Pulp Fiction was still extremely popular in '98 and this cue was a response to the head-writer's request to have something sound like Link Wray's "Rumble" in episode 17 of Sniz and Fondue. Here we present "The Grumble", a cue that actually never made it into the intended episode, but was a lot of fun to do nevertheless.
For Better or Worse
Lynn Johnston's amazingly succesful strip was made into an animated series which ran from 1999-2002 on Tele-Toon. There were two main parts of the show and we were drafted to write music for the non-animated institials. The music played under slow pans of the most popular strips without any other audio accompaniment. It was a lot of fun to do. This playful little ditty was scored for percussion and synth-bass.
Low Noon
A cue from Freaky Stories. This one required a countrified theme. We used real drums, guitar and bass but had to use midi guitar playing banjo and violin samples for the rest. It worked pretty well!
King Under
This is the music for the pilot of King Under. We were asked to write something ska-like with some speedy guitar riffs. The show aired with a different musical direction ultimately, but we've always liked the rough demo we originally came up with.
The Adventures of Syd Possible
In 2005 we were asked to write music for a library to be used for a proposed animated series in the vein of the then popular "Alias" and "Kim Possible". We dutifully started on the music, creating in our minds a character called Syd Possible. The series never got off the ground but we were having such a blast that we continued to write cues. The music is action-adventure spy stuff, using drum loops, orchestra samples and sound design. Follow the link below to check it out.
Syd Possible's International Adventures
Being in a governement town we have done our share of corporate video scores. The jobs vary constantly, sometimes demanding an urgent in-your-face score, other times a calm orchestral underscore. Since 1996 we have worked on over a hundred such jobs. Here are some of them.
Department of National Defence
The job here was to write some forward moving rock guitar stuff and we were even given a spot for some shreddy soloing.
DFAIT
A strutting piece that uses loops and orchestral sounds, a little urgent but still groovy.
DFO
Department of Fisheries and Oceans has been a steady client. This is the theme music for a video about ocean kayaking safety and we were asked to write something quiet and peaceful but evocative of the sea. It features acoustic guitar, mandolin and faux orchestra.
NavCan
A short snipper of a NavCan video cue. Here we start quietly and build to a big climax in around 30 secs. Woohoo!
St. Laurent Jazz
A jazzy little number used for years by the St.Laurent Mall for their TV Christmas ads.
Cheo
A dissonant, all-is-not-well TV commercial for CHEO circa 2003
The following are long pieces in a variety of styles that weren't written for any specific production, but currently reside among the libraries of music supervisors and consultants who use them when the need arises.
Believe (Trip-hop)
A catchy little trip-hop number with a Cohen-ish vibe.
Peanut Butter (Funk)
A '70s TV funk groove with lots of real analog synth (care of The Mopho) .
Blue for Laura (Blues)
A heart-felt Telecastor solo over some pretty unconventional blues changes .
Longest Night (AOR)
A slow sad ballad in the vein of Jacob Dylan or Tom Petty with organ, guitars, bass, drums and raspy vocals.
String Quartet Excerpt (Classical)
An excerpt from a David's String Quartet No. 1
Shit Storm (IDM-Funk)
Some weird-ass funky bass and drums stuff with lots of sound design elements and even some Number Stations reciting.
Tempra (Prog-Fusion)
A bit twisted but fun, this tune featuring guitar, bass, drums and keyboards is in a Prog-Fusion vein.
Discoverie 1 (Prog-Rock)
A straight-out Progressive Rock tune and used by the local band The Rebel Wheel. The song is on their 2nd album with 10T records.
Mud (IDM)
Twisted and processed beats and manipulations. Not at all pleasant stuff for some but interesting for those who like it.
Fold (Acousmatic)
Strictly electro-acoustic stuff using electronics and synths like Reaktor and Max.
2011 Demo
Our current demo. Snippets of the many pieces we have written for TV.