How do you compose a rating for an expertise that defies language? This was the central problem for composer Prateek Rajagopal on the Tribeca-premiering VR set up, In The Present of Being.
The challenge immerses viewers within the true story of a girl’s harrowing journey surviving electro-convulsive remedy (ECT), requiring a sonic panorama that might convey reminiscence, trauma, and resilience unexpectedly.
I sat down with composer Prateek Rajagopal to debate how he constructed a musical language for VR and the accountability of translating profound human trauma into sound.
Let’s dive in.
– YouTubewww.youtube.com
NFS: Hello Prateek! How did you employ spatialization to form the viewers’s sense of Carolyn’s physique and surroundings with In The Present of Being?
Prateek Rajagopal: Spatialization is the center of this challenge. The second you placed on the headset, you’re transported into one other world, and the haptic swimsuit deepens that by translating sound into bodily sensation. To match that, I approached the music as a dwelling being. I used mixed panning, {hardware} reverbs, and spatial imaging to create the phantasm of motion, so the sound doesn’t simply encompass you – it strikes together with your expertise.
NFS: I perceive you usually document and manipulate your personal instrumental taking part in. Did your personal physique, as a performer, turn out to be a part of the haptic design course of in any method?
PR: My physique wasn’t instantly a part of the method, however my background in excessive steel formed the best way I approached the music. Taking part in dwell in that style is all about depth – the riffs are punishing, and you end up pushing towards the guitar, nearly wanting to interrupt the strings. I wished to channel that vitality into this challenge. Carolyn’s expertise was brutal, and the music wanted to embody that – visceral and unyielding.
NFS: Rising up in Oman and India, and now working in LA, do you’re feeling your cross-cultural experiences have knowledgeable your work on this challenge or any others?
PR: I first grew up in Muscat, Oman, which is essentially the most stunning and serene metropolis. Transferring to Mumbai after that was the alternative – chaotic and nearly lawless. But beneath the insanity, there’s a concord – an order throughout the chaos. Then got here Los Angeles, a metropolis wrapped in “a dream” however brimming with battle and strangeness. Dwelling by way of these totally different cultures has felt like dwelling many lives. My private journey has deeply knowledgeable how I see artwork, view the world, and the way I create music.
NFS: Conversion remedy is a deeply political topic. How did you evoke this sense of controversy through the challenge’s soundscape?
PR: I used white noise, distortion, sub-frequency drones, and actually pushed the limiter to the sting of being unlistenable as a solution to evoke that sense of confrontation. Given my background in underground subcultures the place breaking boundaries is a part of the language, these topics have at all times been pure to me.
NFS: The haptic component appears to push audiences right into a susceptible, nearly uncovered state. How did that component of In The Present of Being form your method to its music as nicely?
PR: The primary time I attempted the haptic swimsuit, it was not like something I’d ever skilled, particularly within the context of this challenge. The swimsuit was designed to simulate the feeling of being electrocuted, and I wished the music to seize that very same jolt. I recorded uncooked electrical present sounds and wove them into the rating, letting electrical energy turn out to be the connective tissue of the challenge.
NFS: Noise and distortion play a giant position in your work. How do you stability such chaos and rawness with the necessity to generate empathy by the top of Carolyn’s story?
PR: Going again to my cultural background in Mumbai, the place chaos is in every single place but balanced by an underlying concord – I carried that concept into the music. As soon as I channeled the chaos and rawness, the subsequent step was to carry out the empathy. I used guitars to floor the piece in actuality, and that clearly comes by way of within the closing two cues of the OST: “Anhedonia” and “I Will Defy You.”
Prateek Rajagopal Credit score: Impact24
NFS: Are there some other areas the place you see essentially the most thrilling potential for haptic-driven and immersive experiences like In The Present of Being?
PR: We’re shifting quickly into the period of immersive storytelling, and actually, even past it. Expertise is opening up potentialities we’ve solely begun to discover. It looks like we’re in the midst of one thing transformative.
NFS: Having lived so carefully with Carolyn’s story, did engaged on this challenge alter your personal relationship with sound, id, or resilience?
PR: Completely. Initiatives like these at all times maintain a mirror to your personal notion of actuality. They push you to look inward, to query your beliefs – and for me, that’s at all times a win.
