My Composing Process: "Bird Traffic" (2023)

Dear Readers,

“Bird Traffic” was composed in an Airbnb in Berlin in early April 2023. I’d just arrived in Germany a few days before, had gone to an Ikea and bought a desk chair, had set up my studio space in my flat and then composed this piece.

In the spirit of my “little pieces of improvised sound” album, I wanted to blend soundscapes that I have recorded in various places around the world with synthesizers. Improvising everything into my computer with my small Xkey keyboard, I got to work.

Taking Shape

Looking back at my Logic file four months later, it strikes me how simple the orchestration of this piece is. I am only using six different instruments, almost all from Spitfire LABS: 1) Hollow Brass 2) Flautando Strings 3) Sound the Alarm 4) Break Emergency Glass 5) Hayward Crane and 5) Logic’s Windchimes.

I remember digging through Spitfire LABS and settling on Hollow Brass from their Tape Orchestra instrument pack. I then improvised a few takes of a descending chromatic line that struck me as intriguing, over a pedal note of C. This led to performing for a minute and a half and using that performance as the canvas for the composition.

Next I performed in the Flautando Strings (also from Spitfire’s Tape Orchestra), gradually building a C7 chord (with a small added Eb at the end) over the course of the piece.

The piece was taking shape. I added in Sound the Alarm (from Spitfire’s Foghorn) and Break Emergency Glass and Hayward Crane (from Spitfire’s London Atmos). All three are slightly out of tune synths that sounded brilliant together. Generally they act as drones, centered around a C major chord, and enter in right near the end of the piece when the Hollow Brass solo reaches its conclusion with a long drawn out chord. The Hayward Crane synth plays a haunting melodic line centered around C major with the addition of a raised 4th (F#) and the major 7th (B).

Finally, to further add the sense of finality to that final chord, I added in one of Logic’s wind chimes for a little magical touch,

Adding In Sounds

While in Edinburgh the week before, I was staying in an Airbnb on Circus Lane in Stockbridge. Early in the morning I woke up to hear a Eurasian Blackbird singing at the end of the street. Half asleep, I got out my Zoom H4N microphone, set it up outside of the front door and waited as the bird continued to sing. I used this recording at the end of “Bird Traffic”, separating out of the bird’s calls. There is an eerieness to the gorgeous, lonely calls intermixed with out-of-tune synthesizers.

Throughout my time in Europe (in Berlin, Nice and Copenhagen) the Eurasian Blackbird’s call was a constant sonic friend. I saw the bird in each place and it was one of my companions on my journey around the continent.

In addition to the bird, you also hear Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II in Rome, Italy. I recorded this soundscape in December 2022. Wanting some close-up car sounds, I placed the mic very close to the road on a bridge in the Ponte district of Rome, right across from Vatican City.

Finally, during the large chord moment, you hear a rain stick from South America that my family owns. Blended with the wind-chimes, it creates a lovely, drawn-out dreamy sound.

The Video (And The Bird)

Today, I decided to make a video for “Bird Traffic”. Back in late 2020, I bought a little red decorative bird from the grocery store and put it on my desk. Even though it was winter themed, it has been on my desk ever since (see picture at the bottom of this page). I chose to have the decorative bird play a starring role in the picture “BIRD TRAFFIC”.

I just watched “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” again last night. Such a brilliant film. Something that struck me was the at times jarring editing style and the use of quick zooms. I decided to utilize that style in this film.

So I went out into our backyard, and filmed the bird in various areas: perched on a small pond, in ivy, in two different trees, on the front porch, in the grass:

Then, in iMovie, I edited together all the clips from my iPhone to the music. The goal was to feel like a story is being told in some way. So it beings with just the backyard and no bird, and then the bird appears as the Hollow Brass synth hits the peak of its first line. The film is edited to clear musical moments in the track, so it feels connected to the music. For example, as I begin moving away from the bird in the tree at 0:49, the entrance of the rest of the synthesizers occurs. The movement of the camera is tied to a moment in the music. Equally, the beginning of the low shot in the grass at 1:08 coincides with the long drawn-out C major chord and the windchimes/rainstick/birdcalls.

I end the film with a close-up shot of our goldfish. For no particular reason, it just looks nice.

The clips are all very saturated (especially the low shot in the grass) because I wanted the bright red color of the bird to really pop. In that last shot from below, the bird appears to be a monolith and a majestic being. The over-saturation adds to this larger-than-life quality.

Conclusions

For the album cover for “Bird Traffic”, I took a screenshot of the final shot of the bird and put it in Canva. I added a trippy filter that created a kaleidascopic effect which was exactly what I wanted. I feel like once the album cover is created, that is when the piece is truly complete. It is the representation of the piece. And for this video/track, the final representation is one of eeriness, dischord, disorientation and confusion.

This was a fun project and I enjoyed returning back to the piece four months later. I think this film elevates the composition and vice versa.

As always, if you have any questions or comments about this piece or my composing process in general, feel free to email me at nicholasescobarcomposer@gmail.com.

Your’s Musically,

Nicholas Escobar