Some teasing glimpses into the next Poe Musicabre

Pre-production efforts for the follow-up to my short film musical adaptation of ‘The Tell-Tale Heart – a musicabre” are in full gear. This week I am in the studio laying down vocal tracks for “The Pit and the Pendulum – a musicabre”. Yes, as previously announced and discussed, it’s another Edgar Allan Poe adaptation.

These first pics are from Tuesday, my first day recording. I am using the same studio, JahRockn, where I recorded my Tell-Tale vocals almost exactly two years ago. Today I go in for my fourth session. Even though “The Pit and the Pendulum – a musicabre” will be shorter than “The Tell-Tale Heart – a musicabre”, I actually have to lay down far more vocal tracks than before. There are some important reasons for this, which distinguish the voice work here from its predecessor in dramatic ways, and require the extra time in the studio…

As with Tell-Tale, my vocals aren’t the first sounds recorded during pre-production. In August we recorded the instrumental tracks. And the old Tell-Tale music gang is back: Robin Hasenflug,  Scott Burns and Michael Gelfand playing the three cellos, again recorded and engineered by Todd Maki in Ohio. Above and below are some screen shots of my view of the proceedings hunched over my lap top with ear buds plugged in. Last time we did this, there was no need for masks and Covid tests ahead of time, of course.

Here is a goofy video Todd Maki sent me in response to some of the music we recorded. It’s also where you can also hear your first short excerpt from “The Pit and the Pendulum – a musicabre”, revealing that in addition to the three returning cellos this score also includes a piano, played by Clay Colley, and recorded before we scheduled the sessions with the cellos.

Speaking of ominous heads… here is a face cast also made in pre-production for this film. Now why might we need a face cast? What does it portend? I’ll just leave you with that question for now… except to say that it is for something very particular and unique, surely unlike anything you’ve seen before…

These next pics are from yesterday’s recording sessions.

Yes, obviously I take my mask off before recording in my booth.

The Pit and the Pendulum is a particularly dark and ominous story. So we should perhaps try for some dark and ominous recording studio pics…