Sound Check Sessions: with Sound Artists Chris Bartholomew & Nao Masuda

After the impressive collaboration and results from last year, I brought back sound artists Chris Bartholomew and Nao Masuda to work on the music for Sign Criminal.

Chris Bartholomew is a superb sound designer and DJ whom has worked and toured in live shows for various theatre companies including the award-winning ‘Light’ by Theatre Ad-Infinitum, and his latest works for Deafinitely Theatre for their highly-acclaimed new production: ‘4.48 Psychosis’

Nao Masuda is a highly-talented musician and composer, famous for her energetic, visual performances using Taiko Drums and various other percussion instruments. Nao is well known for her live performances and tours with music ensembles which also include Deaf musicians and artists. Sound Check with Chris B In June I met up for a 1-to-1 session with the fantastic Chris Bathrolomew - a DJ and sound designer, at his studio in central London. The plan for today was to discuss my project with Chris and the new ideas I had in regards to the storyline, and to explore new sounds for the music and effects that I want to use in the show. It was great to see Chris again - I liked his work last year and he’s laid-back humble guy and easy to work with.

Studio Sessions: Days Four & Five with Nao Masuda The fourth and fifth studio sessions that myself, Ariel Fung and Chris Fonseca got together for, was also the introduction of Nao Masuda in the project once again - with Nao bringing her superb expertise and support in linking our movements to the music. In the morning the three of us dancers arrived first to set up and have our warm ups, followed by brief recap of the work we created so far. At eleven o’clock, Nao arrived in the studio and I warmly introduced her to Chris as they’d met for the first time. We had a short discussion, filling Nao in on the details of the scenes we’ve been developing so far, and then the three of us continued polishing up on our new work whilst Nao was setting up her drums. With Nao ready, we showed her the Joyful Dance scene from start to finish, and she observed. She then added visual cues to assist us in perfecting our synchronisation as a trio. We continued this for the rest of the day.

Day Five: Further development with visual cues On Day Five, we showed Nao the Nightclub Scene that we’d developed, and again she observed the scene over a few times, and added visual cues in the acting sections. She also added her own touch of musical effects to the hip hop music that we used in all the work so far.