This is a 3rd order Ambisonics mix I worked on for Northern Irish compose Stuart Leathem and was presented over a horizontal 8-channel loudspeaker system at Belfast Culture Night 2016.
The piece itself is about 12 minutes long with several movements, taking the listener on a sonic journey until the titular house comes crashing down. The composition is sonically complex and has lots of elements weaving in and out of each other. One of the challenges was to make sure all of the available space around the listeners is used without causing the coherence as a single entity to fall apart. This meant some elements could move dynamically, to bring a liveliness to the mix, while other remained rooted to the front-centre, giving listeners a reference point.
You can listen to an extracted from near the beginning of this wonderful piece here (Ambisonics converted to binaural – use headphones):
Last House comes from Stuart’s album Café for Lost Souls. You can get the standard stereo version on Amazon or listen to it on Spotify.
If you need your own Ambisonics mixes then please get in touch.
Stuart Leathem
Stuart Leathem (b.1980) is a composer from Bangor, Co. Down, Northern Ireland.
His electro acoustic work, sound-based compositions, songs and arrangements have earned him worldwide critical acclaim.
He has earned the respect of some of the world’s top producers, artists and critics.
Stuart’s music is eclectic, tonal and accessible. His compositions have been presented in locations as diverse as University College Los Angeles,The Cavern Club in Liverpool, The Odyssey Arena in Belfast and Mountain Studios, Montreux, Switzerland.
In 2012 Stuart graduated from the University of Ulster with a Masters Degree in Composing and research on Microtonality and Spatial Sound.
In February 2015 Stuart was honoured as guest composer at Oxford University, England, sparking the release of his ‘Café for Lost Souls’ album and UK and Ireland #lostsoulslive show and tour.
In September 2015 Stuart was entrusted to release a new track featuring Freddie Mercury vocals, ‘Little Freddie Goes to School’, premiered at the Freddie Mercury Birthday Party in Montreux, Switzerland on 5/9/15. The song charted in the iTunes Top 40 and received rave reviews in Rolling Stone, Time Magazine and Entertainment Weekly.
In recent months Stuart has completed a new original soundtrack for the award winning short film ‘Incoming Call’.
You can keep up with Stuart at www.soundcloud.com/stuartleathem
