Instrumental Music

[mithborien]

I just had a couple of ideas for a new vidding project (just thoughts at the moment as I have way too many vids planned, not to mention I still need to finish Festivids, eek!) and I am wanting to use instrumental music this time instead of songs with lyrics.

The problem is I don't really know of any instrumental music and/or artists that are good for vidding, so I thought I would throw this open to the forum and ask if anyone had any good sources for instrumental music that they like so that I can check them out

[FitzPro]

E S Posthumus has some great instrumental pieces. This one is one of my favorites

Also check out Two Steps From Hell - Never Forget

And Immediate Music - The Brave Shall Rise and Audiomachine - Breath and Life

These are a few of my favorite contemporary instrumental groups, but a few minutes searching on youtube would render even more. ;D Hope that helps.

[legoline]

I really like Explosions in the Sky. There are quite a few "instrumentalists" on Bandcamp, too, if you don't mind digging a bit

[franzeska]

All instrumental music ever is kind of a broad field. Did you have anything in particular in mind?

I like vidding cheesy 80s pop, and most of those artists have an instrumental track on a number of their albums that's structured like the rest of their music but without vocals. I've also vidded jazz, which itself has about a trillion eras and sub-genres. I think most types of instrumental music are viddable as long as you can find something in a length you feel comfortable with (or feel comfortable editing down). I've been thinking it would be fun to vid Edom. Bluegrass fiddle tunes would make fabulous vids, and there are a million different recordings of all of them.

Even if you don't know what to call what you want, you must be thinking of some kind of general feeling the music should create or place you've heard the type of music you want: "sounds like a trailer", "some kind of tango or other dance", "that lonely saxophone sound that indicates depressing nighttime cityscapes in movies", "techno with no words", etc.

[littleheaven]

I saw a fabulous Farscape vid to "Right Here, Right Now" (which is mostly instrumental). I think Moby had quite a lot of stuff which had very little or no vocal.

I always thought "Finished Symphony" by Hybrid would be great to vid to, if you could manage to cut it down to a more vid-friendly length. It's 9 minutes but there are lots of sections that can be easily trimmed down.

Thinking more about it - movie soundtracks are a goldmine of good instrumental stuff. There's really well-known tracks like "Battle Without Honor Or Humanity" by Tomoyasu Hotei from Kill Bill, or Paul Oakenfold's "Ready Steady Go" from The Bourne Identity. I really like this one from The Boondock Saints soundtrack.

[mithborien]

Thanks for all your responses everyone.

FitzPro - Those definitely help. I will definitely be checking out other songs by those artists.

legoline - I had never heard of Bandcamp before but I will definitely check it out. I have also heard of Explosions in the Sky but didn't realise they had instrumental songs.

franzeska - I knew there was something I had forgotten in my post! I don't really have a set idea of exactly what kind of instrumental music because if it fits then I am happy to use a song you wouldn't really expect.

However, if I was to put words to it, I am after music that has an understated drama to it with an atmospheric medieval feel to it.

'Rocks' by Edom is actually kind of close to what I am after.

littleheaven - I actually have that Farscape vid saved to my computer! But thanks for the other song links as well. 'Finished Symphony' does sound great to vid to.

[franzeska]

Ooh, interesting. If you want to go really Medieval, try something off of Portals of Grace by Azam Ali. Some tracks have vocals, but usually only on part of the track, and they're the really drawn out, not understandable sort (in addition to mostly being in Ladino). Here's a particularly fun instrumental one:



Breton Melody is another good instrumental track off of that album with a strong beat.

[mithborien]

Ooh, that is exactly the kind of thing I am after so I will definitely check out the rest of Azam Ali.

Thanks so much!

[franzeska]

Yay! Also check out Dead Can Dance's 'Saltarello' (that's both the name of the Medieval dance music they're doing and the name of the track).