Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Website Move and Redesign

Big admin news! I have been in the process of preparing for a domain move to the world of Squarespace. The overall layout of the site will remain intact. I am happy with it, and its clean and simple structure gets across all the information that I want to provide to the world.

One reason is to make my life easier. I want to set up systems in place to allow me to concentrate on the most important thing I need to accomplish with my time: compose music.

And one of the big things I have struggled with is creating an elegant e-commerce solution. In order to provide a better store experience, I need to provide more purchasing flexibility and automated delivery systems. Right now, I am limited to accepting Paypal only, and I want to be able to accept other forms of payment as well, such as credit cards.

The other issue is one that exists somewhat behind the scenes: getting the product to you in an elegant way. Right now orders placed on the site send me an email, notifying me that someone has purchased something. Then I create a new email to that person and send the product you purchased as an attachment. While it has a charming and artisan personal touch, the charm fades quickly if I happen to be out of my studio.

Luckily so far everyone has been cool with waiting for me to return for receipt of their music or mp3's. But this solution will end the waiting!

Once you check out, Squarespace will AUTOMATICALLY send you a download link for the product you purchase and you can have it more or less immediately.

This is why I am excited about this move. It provides me peace of mind that you will be taken care of, no matter where in the world I happen to be. And it will provide you with a more professional solution for purchasing sheet music and mp3's.

As always, I welcome your feedback.

The only downside for me is Blogger will not be part of the new site. I will link to it for the sake of having an archive, but a new fresh blog will now exist under the blog tab.

The new site will transition in the coming weeks!

Friday, April 17, 2015

Premiere: Over The Edge

I am excited to announce that Montanta State's MSU Wind Symphony will premiere "Over The Edge" on April 19th, 2015 at 3PM. This marks the first official public performance of this exciting piece, which features powerful brass, agile woodwinds, and a lot of fast percussion.

Find more information about the concert here, at the Montana State University website.

Listen to the mockup on Soundcloud.

The sheet music is also available for purchase in the JosephCarrillo.com Website Store.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Updated Demo

It has been a long time since I have updated my demo. And I finally decided it was time. What...it's only been two years. I also decided to go to Vimeo for it, partially to explore what they have to offer. Partially because YouTube is extremely frustrating--that's a whole other story with more cans of worms than I'm prepared to open.

I will admit to having issues with Vimeo's embed code, which seems to work in different ways, depending on how you are applying it. Sometimes it requires the "http:" and sometimes, like here, it doesn't.

I guess since my site is entirely hand-coded, small things like this get weird between applications. Some new-fangled sites require stodgy old code in order to properly link. So it continues to be an ongoing experiment.

One of these days, I may go the way of Squarespace, and leave all the heavy lifting to them--infact, I feel it is an inevitable eventuality--but for now, my website is artisan. Creaky, and based on html practices from a decades old book, but there is a certain charm about it. Like many skills I'm happy to have explored, but lack the hours required to master, like folding a fitted sheet.

There are two versions below, a "regular flavored" version, and a "music-only" version.


Joseph Carrillo Film Scoring Demo


MUSIC ONLY Joseph Carrillo Film Scoring Demo

Not that I feel the need to qualify my choices, but I should mention that this actually went through a couple of different versions. I really wanted to include selections from 5IVElements, but it was a little awkward not having video, or pictures of the exhibition or reception. I had programmed some really awkward cross-fading graphics from the art I used for the cover flying across the screen documentary style (though with less style). At the end of the day, it ultimately wasn't a "film" and despite my feelings toward that piece as a significant accomplishment, I just didn't feel like I could include it. The other problem being it takes 30 seconds to play about four notes, as it is a very slow meditation on these themes. Evocative, yes, but not if you have somewhere to be.

Not Cool and Wish were no-brainers to include, as was Emo Dad. There were some moments from Episode 3 that were also good, but a little dark out of context, and between Dead Line and The Darkling, I felt I had that covered. I was a little hesitant to include Darkling again, but I REALLY like it, although I feel the music could have been mixed better.

Penguemic was also a little problematic for me, as again, a major accomplishment, but the game hasn't been released yet. It will be, I have been assured, but the company is very small and other things took precedence. The other problem is there is no actual gameplay out there, aside from a couple of early alpha-release reviews with talking over the top, there is just a trailer, using music that isn't actually in the game--it is music I wrote, but it was an early theme that wasn't used. The other thing that was pointed out to me was part of the appeal of the score is how the theme varies from country to country, and there is no way to capture that in an elegant way in 30 seconds. So I kind of just slammed the music from "World 3 - India" in there because it seemed to fit the best.

So there are all the things that were going through my head as I put this together. Aside from "AHHHHHH!" which only happened every other minute.

Friday, October 3, 2014

Not Cool - Soundtrack Now Available

I'm so excited to announce the soundtrack for Shane Dawson's film, Not Cool, is now available from iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and a variety of other places around the web.

You can download it from iTunes here.

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Winner! Best Musical Score for "Wish"

I am so excited to announce that my score for Wish won the award for Best Musical Score at the San Diego 48 Hour Film Festival!

You can watch "Wish" on Vimeo by clicking here.

I am so excited to have my work recognized, and would be remiss if I didn't share this honor with the very talented sing/songwriter/producer duo of Archie Thompson who wrote the haunting "Sounds In My Mind" and Whitney Shay, who so beautifully and powerfully sang it.

They are amazing and you can find out more about Archie Thompson here, and more about Whitney Shay here.

Their contribution to the overall film and the sense weight it brings is worth the biggest mention.

Friday, January 3, 2014

Penguemic: Soundtrack Now Available

I'm excited to announce that the Penguemic Soundtrack is now available on iTunes and Amazon. A fully orchestrated and realized game soundtrack encompassing ten worlds, as the penguin heroes tour the globe in their quest for vocabularic domination!

A main theme sets the stage in Antarctica and is morphed and reimagined from country to country, from Australia to China, Africa to South America, world instruments and native musical techniques help immerse the gamer into the new settings, as you battle kangaroos, polar bears and other bad guys using lexicon as your weapon of choice.

Included on the soundtrack are early demo versions of thematic ideas, and end-game bumpers.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

My first review! Penguemic: Word Domination

So I happened to discover my first review last night! I am really excited about this even though the music criticism was only an afterthought in the video, but still! It was a review of my music and even better: it was a positive review. I'll take it!

In case this doesn't work the way it is supposed to, the music review is at 10:25. Please check it out:

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

5IVElements Suite for Orchestra


Joseph Carrillo has recently completed work on the 5IVElements Suite for Orchestra. The five movement piece was composed to accompany an art exhibit. Each of the participating artists created works on canvas for Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Spirit, using a variety of media, including oils, spray paint and watercolor. The music and interstitial sound design (such as rain, birds, wind, ocean, campfire, and crickets) serve as an ambient meditation on each of the themes and plays on a continuous loop for patrons to enjoy an immersive experience.

"The term "ambient," might be a little misleading," Carrillo says, "the music has a meditative quality to it, but it is composed for full orchestra, and the recording features several live musicians: oboe, English horn, violin, cello and a choir, assembled from 48 individual voices." Fellow SCL member Catherine Grealish is also featured as a vocal soloist.

The Elements, is on display, visually and aurally, at the Northeastern Nevada Museum in Elko, Nevada from August 13th through October 29th.

The music is available for purchase. CD's are available in the Museum Gift Shop, and it can also be downloaded from iTunes and Amazon.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

New Project: Five Elements

For the past few months I have been working on a new orchestral piece, which will play as part of an art show at the Northern Nevada County Museum from August 13th through October 29th, 2013.

The title of the show is "The Elements." Each of five participants created five works, one inspired by Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Spirit.

I composed five movements for orchestra and choir. And the recording will be further augmented with sound effects, such as wind, waves, and birds.

This has been an enormous undertaking to compose, perform and deliver in just a couple of months. And though I performed the oboe parts and sang vocals, I am not alone in the performance of this. I had help from an amazing collection of talented musicians, to whom I am eternally grateful:

Jen Choi Fischer, violin
Catherine Grealish, soprano and alto vocals
David Mergen, cello and baritone vocals
Victoria Sabonjohn, English horn and soprano and alto vocals

I hope to do a YouTube video about this project soon, as there is a lot to talk about.  All this week, leading up to the Album release on iTunes on Monday, I am posting excerpts at my Soundcloud page, which is Soundcloud.com/JosephCarrilloComposer.

The opening reception is the 23rd of August, and unfortunately I will be unable to attend, as we leave for vacation the following day. But I am looking forward to being there in spirit.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Deranged Update!

I am excited to announce that Deranged won 3rd place in the festival, and was chosen to participate in the Best of San Diego event on August 11th.

I plan to remix the music and post examples as soon as I have some free time to do so.