Howard Music scores latest Fiat and Spekko TVC's

“This was an enjoyable project to work on. The brief was to use 'Il Dolce Suono', the famous aria from Donizetti's “Lusia di Lammermoor”, and morph this into a more modern loop-based track, but sounding African, to mirror the commercial's concept,” says Howard.

Music was composed and recorded weeks before the shoot, as there was so much animation to be done. This allowed the animators to work to the music, and for the director to have a clear sense of were the music was at, throughout the days leading to the shoot.

“First, I had to re-record the Aria. I used famous soprano, Hanli Stapela. We worked together when I was principal trumpet at the State Theatre in the late 90's, and have performed the piece many times whilst there! We didn't have budget to get in an orchestra on this job, but my world-class orchestral sample library helped us here!

“I then had to compose a new track to end with, over modern loops, and with an African flavour. I still kept the orchestra playing in this new piece. I originally wanted to digitally alter the soprano voice, but this wasn't fitting to the new music. Using chords from the original Aria, I got Hanli to do a sort of 'classical improvisation', keeping in with the style of the operatic Aria. Director Tristan Holmes and Producer Adam Thal from Star Productions were very clear in their brief to me, but at the same time, gave me creative licence.”

A big up to all the Team at MOI and Yvette Lee and Pierre Odendaal from Leo Burnett, for all their late nights getting this ready.

View the Fiat TVC here.

Spekko Rice TVC

Another TVC completed last month was a commission from Old Shanghai Firecracker Factory and Spekko Rice. The brief here was to create a 'feel-good' Latin/salsa track, to be used as a tag to all TV and radio campaigns this year. Adam can be heard on trumpets, giving that right, live feel to the music.

View the Spekko TVC here.