Week 4 - Forum - "Collaborations (1)"

It was interesting to see differing opinions on the concept of collaborations. The first presentation was by David who talked about Metallica and Michael Kamen joining forces for the album S&M.[1] In my opinion these sort of collaborations are always a one way street. By that I mean the orchestra has to adapt to playing the bands way. There is often very little compromise from the band. For example, during the presentation I learned that the orchestra had to learn to play with in ear monitoring, were separated by clear baffles, all the instruments were mic’d and had to get used to playing at huge volumes. Apart from the technical aspect, there was no compromise in the song arrangements. They are exactly the same as the album versions except with an orchestra jammed in there. Metallica weren’t the first and won’t be the last to do this, but honestly I never saw the point in it all and thank goodness the trend seems to be over.
Vinnie’s presentation on Trilok Gurtu and the collaboration of culture, religion, beliefs and music was interesting. I’d never heard his music before but I found it appealing. A lot of world music hangs on cultural balance only and this was a good blend of culture and ‘commercial’ sounds. If only Vinnie knew what was to come in the final presentation.
William presented collaboration between music and sound design and the game development industry. I must apologise because a lot of this presentation fell on deaf ears as I actually started falling asleep.
And then there was Sanad. Yes, well.

I was glad I didn’t have to present in the first group. Not only was it good to see what was expected from the presentations it also demonstrated what not to do.

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[1]Metallica. 1999. S&M (album). DVD. Elektra Records.