De Houdbaarheid van de Voedselketen – Investment Officer

Music composition, sound design and audio post production

In the documentary podcast series ‘The Sustainability of the Food Chain’ (Investment Officer), we explore in 3 episodes why our food chain is unsustainable and what possible solutions exist.

I chose to compose music with a small group of string players and acoustic guitar as the foundation. This intimate group of string players surrounds and accompanies the narrative, sometimes with melodic lines, at other times with dissonant harmonic sounds, and occasionally with suspenseful trills or more hopeful plucked notes.

In addition, I incorporated sound design to further enhance the atmosphere. At certain moments, the sound design seamlessly integrates with the music, combining rhythmic sounds of agricultural machinery with musical elements.

For the final episode, a two-part roundtable discussion, I wanted to make the music theme slightly more upbeat to align with the episode’s style. To achieve this, I employed creative sound design techniques. 🙂 By tapping on the body of a violin (partly processed with pitch-shifters) and plucking/scratching the strings, I created a new rhythm within the computer. It resembles percussion, yet you can still faintly perceive that the sound originates from a violin. This approach maintains the sensation of “a small group of string players surrounding and accompanying the narrative,” while the musical atmosphere also harmonizes well with the roundtable discussion.