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Music has always been a big part of my life, and composing bespoke soundtracks for the painting videos is a hugely rewarding part of the creative process.
My aim with the music is to enhance the thematic enjoyment of each episode without allowing it to come across as intrusive. As such, much of the material is quite meditative and ambient, making it the ideal accompaniment when painting or when playing the games to which the miniatures belong.
To compose the music I mostly use the wonderful East West VST instruments which are meticulously-sampled live instruments (rather than being artificially synthesised) and I perform each individual part myself with a MIDI keyboard, one note and one layer at a time – not unlike painting. The pieces are then carefully mixed and balanced in Cubase (a popular Digital Audio Workstation) before being inserted into the video editor.
Here you can see me performing the opening piano part to a piece called “Mage Tower” which was first featured in the Leoric of the Book painting guide from the Descent: Journeys in the Dark painting series:
Needless to say I spend hundreds of hours working on the music for the videos and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The music allows me to reveal something deeper about my feelings for the world or characters in which I immerse myself when I’m painting a figure, in a way that could only ever be hinted at using words, and I hope makes for a more engaging experience for my dear viewers.
By popular demand the music is being given a new lease of life through the release of a series of albums, the first of which – Starborn – features twenty five tracks written for the Star Wars Imperial Assault painting series and can be accessed on Bandcamp (where the highest-quality WAV files are available) as well as all of the other major digital platforms including: Spotify, YouTube Music, iTunes, Amazon.
My second album – Oracle – features eighty seven minutes of fantasy-themed music which was composed for the Descent, Zombicide: Black Plague, Blood Rage, and Kingdom Death: Monster painting videos, and I hope will form the perfect accompaniment to your painting and gaming sessions. is also now also available across all of the major digital platforms including Spotify, YouTube Music, iTunes, Amazon, and Bandcamp:
To accompany the album I have also prepared a full set of track notes for anyone who may be interested in learning a bit more about the origins and ideas behind each piece. The PDF of track notes is available for free here: Oracle Notes
Finally, here’s a link to my third album – Rise – which features tracks written for the Marvel: Crisis Protocol and Star Wars: Legion painting series: (Also on Spotify etc.)
Most recently I was thrilled to have been commissioned to compose a piece of Star Wars-themed music for the upcoming miniatures game Star Wars: Shatterpoint by Atomic Mass Games, and which will also feature in the painting series for the game:
Sorastro.
(For licensing of the music please visit my distributor HERE where you can submit requests to licence any of my currently-published tracks for use in your own projects, and for enquiries concerning musical commissions I can can me reached at sorastrospainting@gmail.com).