April 12, 2012
A fragment of a pinky bone and a tooth twice the size of today’s average molar are the only remnants of a species we now know lived at the same time and place as modern humans—and interbred with them. They are a part of us we never knew existed. What did these 'people' look like? And how do they fit into what we thought we knew about our biological development as a species?
Lisa Quijano Wolfinger: Senior Producer
Owen Palmquist: producer & writer
Jed Rauscher: Editor
Lacy Clark: Associate Producer
Tim Johnston: Post Production Supervisor
Jared Flynn: Motion Graphics
Chris Bailey: Managing Director/Production Manager
Hans Indigo Spencer: Music
Sex in the Stone Age is another blend of great storytelling, interesting characters, and fascinating science. As I composed the music for this, I found myself tumbling back in time to when early pre-humans wandered the far reaches of our planet. Through this documentary, I marveled at how epic our journey to becoming humans has been. My knowledge of human history from going to school goes back four thousand years at most. Measure that against the scope of our actual evolution and the jaw just drops. We have been here a long time, doing all sorts of things. Man, I could wax rhapsodic about this for a long time.
Oh, and a really cool part of this show is watching paleoartist Viktor Deak transform attractive modern actor-models into carefully researched, historically accurate cave people.
Swamp Talk Available on App Store
July 19, 2011
Chris Hancock called me this evening to give me the news that our letter drop game Swamp Talk is now available on the Apple App Store. I excitedly downloaded it to my phone and started playing. Even with all the practice I got during development, I still am terrible at it. (Well, I did spend most of my time composing the music, not playing the game…) Erica has the knack of it. She's a real wordsmith.
It's completely free for the next week, so I urge you to gobble it up. Chris and his development team at Tertl Studos have some surprises coming up. I can't wait to get good at it!
1 Comment »Swamp Talk on its Way to Apple for Approval
July 13, 2011
The new scrabble-meets-tetris word building game is on its way to Apple for approval before it can appear on the App Store later this month. Game designers at Tertl Studos in Montpelier, VT, just wrapped work on their flagship game product yesterday.
Swamp Talk takes you deep into a swampy virtual pad of paper where letters drift down from the margins. It's your job to turn these letters into words before they bump each other off the edge and fall into the swamp.
It's a quick, fun and addictive game that challenges your word skills like Scrabble and pushes your quick spatial problem solving the way visual puzzles do. Quite frankly, it was often hard to tear myself away from playing it to work on the sound design and music that help bring the game to life.
Chris Hancock is a long-time collaborator since I became his piano teacher back in the 1990's. His work at TERC and the MIT Media Lab has led him to create unique programming languages for kids and to his current work at his own Tertl Studos.
No Comments »World’s Oldest Child Airs on Nat Geo, June 16 @ 8PM
June 16, 2011
In the spring of 2009, the skull and upper torso of an ancient child were discovered buried in the soil of a Moroccan cave. The archaeological team couldn't even tell if it was a boy or girl, though they opted to call it 'Bouchra', a feminine name meaning "good news." But that did little to answer the questions that swirled around 'her'.How long ago did she live? What did she look like? Was she one of us? Few answers were to be found there in the cave, but one thing was clear: this child was special. Not only because ancient human bones are rare, not only because a near-complete child's skull is an almost unique discovery, but (1) because she hails from a period of our history that we know almost nothing about. (2) It may be that Bouchra will shed light on one of the last great mysteries of our evolution: the development of modern thinking. Yet with little more than the few pieces of her skeleton and the dirt she was buried in to study, it remains to be seen what stories she will tell … (more about it from Nat Geo)
In composing the music for this, I got to work closely for the first time with editor Tony Bacon and producer Owen Palmquist. Lisa Wolfinger, Rocky Collins, and Kirk Wolfinger masterfully supervised the project. Particularly amazing were the prehistoric recreations shot in South Africa and the way artists and scientists collaborated to turn an ancient skull into a realistic model face.
No Comments »Ghost Ships of the Great Lakes Airs on Nat Geo Tues, May 17 @ 6PM
May 17, 2011
The discovery of a human skull in the depths of Lake Superior begins a story that will take historian and author Brendon Baillod across two Great Lakes and a century of history. I created the musical score to this fascinating tale for Lone Wolf Documentary Group.
Read more…
New Episodes of Underwater Universe Premiere
March 9, 2011
Underwater Universe presents a comprehensive look at the fascinating dark side of the world’s oceans. Four episodes explore the five deadly forces of the ocean–Tides and Currents, Pressure, Waves, and Predators. These are the Ocean's unpredictable governing powers, deadly forces that have brought terror and destruction throughout history. more…
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January 20, 2011
Another fascinating program from my friends at Lone Wolf Documentary Group: "Star Clock BC" takes us back in time to the very first known computer. And it's a lot older than anyone thought: "Move over, Bill Gates. It appears that the world's first PC was invented during biblical times. It was a device so sophisticated that with a turn of a hand crank, mathematical gears mapped the positions of planets and stars. Now, more than 100 years since the discovery, experts are still vying to understand how such an advanced technology could have existed 2,000 years ago."
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