Movie: The Symbiotic Office by Richard Black

Movie: plants take over the offices of London’s commercial district Canary Wharf in this movie by Oxford Brookes architecture graduate Richard Black.

The Symbiotic Office by Richard Black

Black imagines the workplaces as a series of indoor gardens, where flowers sprout up between desks and pollen floats into the atmosphere through new openings in the existing glazed facades.

The Symbiotic Office by Richard Black

The project has been nominated for the silver RIBA President’s Medal, which last year was awarded to Kibwe Tavares for his movie about robots rioting on the streets of south London.

The Symbiotic Office by Richard Black

If you’re interested in animations, see our series by Tavares and his colleagues at architectural image studio Factory Fifteen.

Here’s some more explanation from Black:


The project stems from research into London’s office culture, in particular that of Canary Wharf. In the vastness of these office spaces the needs of the individual are largely overlooked and the repetitive, generic offices with their catalogue furniture offer little more than a place to work. The proposal is an attempt to open up these closed office cultures in which the basic needs of the individual have been forgotten. Floors are opened up and internal orchid gardens created.

The Symbiotic Office by Richard Black

The Symbiotic Office changes the way in which people use office spaces, creating internal relaxation zones where individuals can pause for thought, host meetings, eat their lunch or drink a cup of tea. In the digital age where the traditional place of work is a fluid concept, the project strives to highlight the importance of face-to-face interactions and to create an office space which not only boosts productivity, but one which the workers can enjoy.

The Symbiotic Office by Richard Black

The film itself is a representation of this proposal. Created in 3DS Max, rendered in Vray and composited in Adobe After Effects; it envisages an office in which these generic spaces open up to internal gardens and relaxation zones.

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Proposal for Resuscitating Prehistoric Creatures by Marguerite Humeau

Designer Marguerite Humeau has reconstructed the vocal tracts of prehistoric creatures to capture the shrieks and grunts they might have made (+ slideshow + movie).

Proposal for Resuscitating Prehistoric Creatures by Marguerite Humeau

Vocal tracts are made from soft tissue so they do not fossilise, meaning that Humeau had to speculate on what the surrounding tissue would have been like by analysing bones from the head, neck and chest areas of fossilised animals.

Proposal for Resuscitating Prehistoric Creatures by Marguerite Humeau

Scans of elephants, wild boars, dolphins and porpoises – the closest living relatives to the three extinct species Humeau chose to recreate – also helped to map the probable shape of the vocal tracts.

Proposal for Resuscitating Prehistoric Creatures by Marguerite Humeau

Humeau contacted dozens of experts, including palaeontologists, zoologists, veterinarians, engineers, explorers, surgeons, ear and throat specialists and radiologists, to help her work out the designs.

Proposal for Resuscitating Prehistoric Creatures by Marguerite Humeau

She produced models of each extinct animal’s likely resonance cavities, larynx, vocal cords and windpipe, and recorded the sounds that each animal might have made.

Proposal for Resuscitating Prehistoric Creatures by Marguerite Humeau

The first version of the project was presented for her graduation from London’s Royal College of Art last year.

Proposal for Resuscitating Prehistoric Creatures by Marguerite Humeau

The initial project recreated the sounds of the extinct Imperial Mammoth, and was then expanded to include Ambulocetus, known as the prehistoric ‘walking whale’, and Entelodont, known as the ‘terminator pig’.

Proposal for Resuscitating Prehistoric Creatures by Marguerite Humeau

The models have now been presented as part of an installation and performance at the Politique Fiction exhibition at Cité du Design in Saint-Étienne, France.

Proposal for Resuscitating Prehistoric Creatures by Marguerite Humeau

The movie is by Ben Penna and sound is by Association Phonotonic. Photographs are by Felipe Ribon.

Here’s some more information from the designer:


Proposal for Resuscitating Prehistoric Creatures sets up the rebirth of cloned creatures, their wandering and their sound epic. They are seeking to evolve in our contemporary era.

The designer, who became the heroine of a quasi-mystic epic journey, aims to resuscitate the sound of prehistoric creatures by reconstructing their vocal tracts. This is problematic from the scientific point of view: since the vocal tract is made of soft tissue, it does not fossilise. The only things that have been preserved through time are the surrounding bones. The inner parts have to be redesigned.

Humeau had to overcome the difficulty of telling history and prehistory, and also to create a work from non-existent, inaccessible or lost data. Design, fiction, science, speculations and phantasms serve the project ambition. Advice from experts as well as predictions were used to craft the roars of the new creatures. The epic, as real as fantasised, gives birth to three semi-real roaring creatures: a Mammoth Imperator, an Entelodont aka Terminator Pig, and an Ambulocetus “walking whale”.

From the exhibition curator Alexandra Midal:

Marguerite Humeau graduated from the interactive design department of the Royal College of Art in London in 2011. She resurrects the sounds made by prehistoric animals by reconstructing their vocal chords. This task is not easy when you realise that no fossils of these non-bone parts exist. For months, she conducted a dialogue with palaeontologists, zoologists, veterinary experts, engineers, explorers, surgeons, doctors and radiologists. Far from being a backward looking and romantic work, on the contrary she is carried along by the desire to feel the physical presence of these animals from another time.

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Sleepwalk With Me

Mike Birbiglia’s new film makes a powerful commentary on modern romance
sleepwalk-4.jpg

In his cinematic debut, comedian Mike Birbiglia takes the audience on a journey that explores his transformation as an individual and comedic artist. Birbligia, who has made a run on Broadway in a one man show and appeared on NPR’s This American Life and The Moth Podcast, brings his story to the big screen in Sleepwalk With Me. The film tells the tale of Birbiglia’s cumbersome entrance into comedy that runs parallel to a failing relationship and the comedian’s coping with an extreme sleeping disorder. If you are familiar with Birbiglia from the radio or his shows you will recognize many of the stories told here but the interpretation in film adds a fresh layer to his epic on comedy and elusive topic of contemporary romance.

sleepwalk-1.jpg

To begin we see Birbiglia the bartender, struggling as a comedian both professionally and creatively. Desperate to succeed in the shadow of an overbearing father, Birbiglia gets his break at the hands of a talent agent who sets him up with very low paying gigs scattered across the Eastern Seaboard. His hunger drives him on, forcing him to neglect his longtime girlfriend and himself through his denial of his sleep disorder, but success is still evasive because his material is stale. The turning point arrives when he begins to speak frankly about his life, his woman and his sleeping disorder.

Once he ditches the jokes and starts being honest the audience can begin to respond. Birbiglia is naturally awkward but relatable, his written comedy isn’t that funny but his stories are fantastic and his honest, depreciating delivery is enchanting. In the process of his comedic transformation Birbiglia becomes alienated from the love of his life, and in his denial of their parting ways proposes marriage to patch things up. This predictably fails, leaving Birbiglia alone to finally face the roots of his destructive sleeping habits and the realities of his relationship.

sleepwalk-5.jpg

In the film Birbiglia uses several devices to construct his narrative. At times he addresses the camera directly, frankly attempting to explain himself to the audience and setting up the following scenes. The majority of the film comprises these set-ups acted out by Birbiglia, playing himself, and a dynamic cast of characters. Finally, we are allowed to enter the hectic and dangerous territory of his sleep disorder—cinematically the most compelling element of the film—and see how his bizarre imagination creates situations that are treacherous when lived out in reality.

Despite the title of the film, sleepwalking plays a minor role compared to Birbiglia’s struggle with comedy and his relationship, with one flourishing as the other falls apart. The resulting story ends up providing surprising insight on the necessary sacrifices required to achieve one’s goals and the finely blurred lines between love and romantic maintenance.

sleepwalk-3.jpg

The film speaks strongly to the state of modern love and offers a very fresh look at relationships. There is no real conclusion, just a description of experience that points out the absurdities of romance and let’s the audience make their own resolutions. Produced in partnership with Ira Glass, the film itself feels like an extreme labor of love with clear passion and energy applied in every element. While very entertaining it is clear that this, like all of Birbiglia’s projects, is a therapeutic exercise for the comedian, another step in processing his rise to notoriety and his personal life experience.

Premiering 24 August 2012, this film is definitely worth checking out and is an exceptional example of how a compelling story, great cinematography and dedication can make independent cinema shine.


Movie: Daeyang Gallery and House by Steven Holl Architects

Movie: we take a walk through the Steven Holl-designed Daeyang Gallery and House in South Korea in this second movie by architectural filmmakers Spirit of Space.

Daeyang Gallery and House by Steven Holl Architects

Spaces include a gallery and recital room beneath a pool of water and two copper-clad pavilions that rise above the surface.

Steven Holl gives a guided tour of the building in the first of the two movies, or for more images see our earlier story.

Daeyang Gallery and House by Steven Holl Architects

Another movie we’ve published features a pavilion at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo – watch it here.

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Movie: Steven Holl on Daeyang Gallery and House

Movie: architect Steven Holl gives a tour of the gallery beneath a pool of water he designed at the Daeyang Gallery and House in South Korea in the first of two movies by architectural filmmakers Spirit of Space

Daeyang Gallery and House by Steven Holl Architects

Holl explains how he was inspired by the patterns of a musical score and how daylight floods into the underground rooms to create “a perfect light”.

Daeyang Gallery and House by Steven Holl Architects

See more images of the building in our earlier story, and see more projects by Steven Holl here.

Daeyang Gallery and House by Steven Holl Architects

Another movie we’ve published by Spirit of Space features a pavilion at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo – watch it here.

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Circumsolar by Sruli Recht

Icelandic fashion designer Sruli Recht has used translucent lambskin, stripy skunk fur, an ancient meteorite and fabric that can withstand mortar attacks in his latest menswear collection (+ slideshow).

Circumsolar by Sruli Recht

The spring/summer 2013 collection, called Circumsolar, was unveiled in Paris on the last day of June.

Translucent leather has been used to make a vest, shoes and passport holder.

Circumsolar by Sruli Recht

Leather made from horses and ostriches has been used to make two large penis forms, called Shaft and Sheath.

Circumsolar by Sruli Recht

Some of the linings and undergarments are made from a high-tech paraffin cooling knit, which rapidly cools the skin on contact.

Circumsolar by Sruli Recht

Ballistic aramid, a material used in body armour to protect against bomb and knife attacks, has been used to make a brimless hat.

Circumsolar by Sruli Recht

The Epoch ring is made from the Muonionalusta meteorite, which fell into the Arctic Circle about one million years ago. The striped marks on the ring are a result of the shock impact with earth.

Circumsolar by Sruli Recht

A silk and cashmere scarf has been digitally printed with an image of the sun’s solar wind by artist B. Börkur Éiriksson and produced by couture fabric house Ratti.

Circumsolar by Sruli Recht

Skunk fur has been used to make a bomber jacket with a white stripe running down the arms.

Circumsolar by Sruli Recht

Another bomber jacket is made from dark green lamb’s leather, which has been fused with aluminium in the top layers of the epidermis.

Circumsolar by Sruli Recht

The majority of the clothes are constructed from a single pattern piece and one piece of material.

Circumsolar by Sruli Recht

See all our stories about Sruli Recht »
See all our stories about fashion »

Circumsolar by Sruli Recht

Photographs are by Marinó Thorlacius.

Circumsolar by Sruli Recht

Here’s some more information from the designer:


“This collection is drawn by the dust of a meteor’s tail in orbital decay, illuminated by our sun.” – Sruli Recht, June, 2012.

The collection in three words – Solar, Polarising, Circular.

The Circumsolar collection for Spring and 2013 consists of 24 total looks – from light coats, tailored jackets and cardigans, to trousers, shorts and leggings, complemented by hats, boots, shoes, bags, gloves, sunglasses and jewellery – 55 styles, approximately 105 items with material variations.

Circumsolar by Sruli Recht

The majority of the garments/ items are constructed from a single pattern piece and one piece of material, where the width of the material allows. In the case of the shirts, the cuff and placket come from the same piece of fabric as the sleeve, which is also part of the body and collar. Our shoes are hand-lasted in-house and completely hand-sewn.

Circumsolar by Sruli Recht

This season employs a global selection of waxed cottons, leathers and silks, and timber, complemented by Icelandic reindeer and horse skin. Our buttons this season, an Obol, are made from oxidized metal alloy rods, designed, moulded and drop-cast in the studio.

Everything in the collection is made in Iceland.

Circumsolar by Sruli Recht

MATERIALS

Featured sourced materials: meteorite, translucent leather, black gold, ballistic aramid, high-tech paraffin cooling linings, skunk fur, aluminium-infused lamb skin and bamboo suiting.

Transparent Leather. Made from the purest lambs – for if you remove the sole of an animal before its passing, the skin becomes transparent.

Circumsolar by Sruli Recht

Muonionalusta Meteorite. Considered the oldest meteorite to have impacted the earth, the Muonionalusta Meteorite has passed through four Ice-ages, having fallen into the Arctic Circle about 1 million years ago.

Solar Burned Black Gold. For if you take the gold from the teeth of the passed during the daylight hours, it will become black when reworked.

High-Tech Paraffin Cooling Knit. Used in military and medical applications, this material rapidly cools the skin on contact. This season we have used it for both linings and undergarments.

Circumsolar by Sruli Recht

Ballistic Aramid. Known for its employment in military ballistic protection, aramid fibres are used in layers to stop mortar and knife attacks.

Skunk. Historically referred to as Alaskan Sable, the skunk’s fur is a shimmering black with a white V running from head to tail. This fur consists of two layers, a soft inner fur (25-40mm long), and longer guard hairs (35-80mm long) which are of a coarser texture than the under fur.

Lamb-coated Aluminium. Before departing, the lamb is placed partly submerged in a tank, where through scientific application the aluminium, like adamantium, is fused between the first few layers of the epidermis.

Circumsolar by Sruli Recht

Bamboo Suiting. Traditionally Bamboo was used to make hats and shoes in Japan and China. Moso bamboo has many advantages as a raw material for textiles over materials such as cotton. The plants can reach up to 35 metres tall and are the fastest growing woody plants on earth. The high growth rate of bamboo and the fact that it can grow in such diverse climates makes the bamboo plant a sustainable and versatile resource.

Circumsolar by Sruli Recht

GARMENTS

Feature Garments: Limited items from the new collection of Sruli Recht for Spring and Summer 2013, Circumsolar.
*Some items made to order only

Show Piece One – Carapace*

SR549 – Translucent Leather Vest – Made from the purest lambs – for if you remove the sole of an animal before its passing, the skin becomes transparent.

SR550 – Translucent Five-Dimensional Lamb Leather Parchment Shoes
To be placed on at birth and again at death, for in dimension 5, they are the parenthesis of this twisted mass, I.

Show Piece Three – Epoch*

SR540b – Large Acid-Etched Ring from the Muonionalusta Meteorite.
By the hands of one blacksmith, acid, and the coincidence of gravity’s pull on a passing octahedrite, comes the ring EPOCH, sheared and formed from the Muonionalusta Meteorite. Considered the oldest meteorite to have impacted the earth, the Muonionalusta Meteorite has passed through four Ice-ages, having fallen into the Arctic Circle about one million years ago. The linear striations are naturally occurring as a result of the heavy shock impact with the planet.

Show Piece Four* – Supermassive

SR527a – Skunk Fur High Collar Bomber

Circumsolar by Sruli Recht

Feature Piece One – In Solar Wind

SR534 – Digital-Print Silk and Cashmere Scarf.
2.5m long Skarf [70% WS 30% SE], with digital print of our Sun’s solar wind, by artist B. Börkur Éiriksson, produced by couture fabric house Ratti.

Feature Piece Two – From Kinetic Energy

SR523 – Hand Knitted Cowl Sweater [100% Organic CO].

Feature Piece Three – Supermassive

SR527c – Dark Green High Collar Bomber from Aluminium-infused Lambskin.

Feature Piece Four – May Your Duty Dance With Death

SR520c – Ballistic-Proof Brimless Hat [100% WV 100% Kevlar].

Feature Non-Product: Limited items from the new collection of Sruli Recht for Spring and Summer 2013, Circumsolar.
*some items made to order only

Circumsolar by Sruli Recht

Feature Product One – Shaft*

SR528a – Blood-Red Layered Penis Form, Icelandic Horse Leather

Feature Product Two – Sheath*

SR503a – Black Leather Ribbed Prophylactic, Ostrich Leather

Feature Product Three – White Albedo*

SR507 – Drift-White Rimless Cherry Wood Frames – with clear or tinted lenses.

Feature Product Four – The Great Transition*

SR531a – Single piece translucent leather passport holder, with sections for travel documents, 4 sim cards, pen and paper currency.

Feature Product Four – From Decaying Orbit

SR542b – Twisted bracelet of blackened gold, shaped to the path the earth takes around our sun, with one polished edge.

Circumsolar by Sruli Recht

June 30, 2012, 5 30 pm. This season brought our first officially scheduled Paris runway presentation and performance. Featuring the choreography and performance of artist Tony Orrico. Original score from acclaimed composer Nico Muhly. Presented as runway and performance within the epic spaces of Palais Brongniart, Paris.

The Sruli Recht studio is a cross-discipline practice caught somewhere between product design, tailoring and shoe making. Based in Reykjavík, the studio rose to notoriety as it began in 2008 to produce one “non-product” every month from umbrellas to bulletproof scarves, tables, to belts and boots, and incorporating such materials as concrete, diamonds, skin and wool. The studio produces two seasonal menswear lines per year.

Movie credits:

SRULI RECHT S/S 2013

Circumsolar
and fragments of dying light
June 30, 2012
Featuring the choreography and performance of artist Tony Orrico.
Original score from acclaimed composer Nico Muhly.
Presented as runway and performance within the epic spaces of Palais Brongniart, Paris.

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Windoil by Dave Hakkens

Dutch designer Dave Hakkens has devised a wind-powered oil press for making nuts and seeds into homemade oils (+ movie).

Windoil by Dave Hakkens

Called Windoil, the press relies solely on wind power and can be used to process nuts and seeds such as walnuts, hazlenuts, and linseeds, or whatever can be found locally.

Windoil by Dave Hakkens

Once the nuts have been gathered and placed into the funnel of the press the wind rotates the metal fins, powering the gear mechanism to grind the nuts and extract the oil.

Windoil by Dave Hakkens

The remaining pulp of the nut or seed can be used in cooking, as animal feed or as compost.

Windoil by Dave Hakkens

Hakkens claims the bottle in the movie above took just 60 nuts.

Windoil by Dave Hakkens

See all our stories about food here and Hakkens’ earlier stackable plugs project here.

Windoil by Dave Hakkens

Here’s some more information from the designer:


I like good food! Food which is made in the right way with good ingredients. Usually this is home made food. But his often takes a lot of time and energy which makes it expensive.

Windoil by Dave Hakkens

I made an oil pressing machine which works only on wind energy. The machine is made to press nuts and seeds such as walnuts, peanuts, sesame seeds, linseeds, hazelnuts. The wind power is transformed with a worm drive to make the movement slow but very powerful.

Windoil by Dave Hakkens

First I gather some nuts and put them in the machine. When the machine starts pressing I just sit back and relax. The leftover pulp is full of protein, great for cooking or feed your animals and plants with. The machine doesn’t use heat which means good pure cold pressed oil is produced.

Windoil by Dave Hakkens

The oil is put into old glass bottles, labeled and sealed with a cork. The only thing I need to pay for is a cork and a label, the rest is just for free…

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Postable by Studio Toer

Eindhoven designers Studio Toer have created a table designed to fit through your letter box (+ movie).

Postable by Studio Toer

The Postable comprises a modular system of sheet-steel components that can be folded and bolted together once unpacked to make tables of various sizes.

Postable by Studio Toer

Studio Toer wanted customers to be able to order it online without having to wait in for the delivery.

Postable by Studio Toer

See all our stories about tables »

Postable by Studio Toer

Here’s some more information from Studio Toer:


Toer presents Postable, the table that fits in your mailbox. Changes in customer-behavior and the online evolution of the retail industry were the motives to focus on the distribution aspect of new design. Toer explored the boundaries of logistics.

People furnish their living space. They used to gather their products locally. Later, they selected them locally and ordered online. Today people seem to be able to select their future possessions purely via the internet.

By inquiring and acquiring online, no customer-salesmen interaction is taking place any more. By delivering products in your mailbox there is no need to stay home to receive it . All human interaction in gathering furniture is unnecessary in the design of the Postable.

Postable is a stainless steel table design. It is a modular system. Each element fits within the outer dimensions of regular mail. A full-size dinner-table can easily be assembled from the content of one envelope.

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4D typography by Lo Siento

Barcelona graphic design company Lo Siento has created a set of sculptural letters that can be read from all sides (+ movie).

4D by LoSiento

The studio had been working on several projects relating to architecture when they decided to try out “four-dimensional” typography.

4D by LoSiento

The designers constructed the letters from pieces of white card.

4D by LoSiento

When the letters are strung up, the reader can walk around and through words and read them from any direction.

4D by LoSiento

The movie is by Marcel Batlle and Lander Larrañaga.

4D by LoSiento

Photographs are by Lo Siento.

4D by LoSiento

See all our stories about fonts »

Here’s more text from the designers:


4D Typography is the result of the intersection in an orthogonal way in space of two extrusions of the same character, which allows the spectator to read it from two different positions in space at least.

4D by LoSiento

An observer searching to enjoy a particular architecture is forced to move around and through it. The change in perspective generates new spaces in which light acts in different ways. In this case, it is the typography that makes the effort of abandoning its two dimensions to approach the architectural sense. It does not resign with a third dimension; a fourth one is necessary to complete the reading possibilities. By hanging the typography, the reader is allowed to surround the characters in order to understand all their shapes.

4D by LoSiento

This idea started after Lo Siento carried out several identity projects regarding architecture. This was when the study decided to investigate and develop several volumetric languages starting from basic graphical concepts. One of these languages was 4D typography. It became a personal project from the studio and we decided to develop the whole alphabet. The creation of this alphabet and mistakes that were made during the creation process lead to new ideas for future projects.

Project name/title: 4D paper lettering
Year of work produced: 2011
Work type: Typography / Alphabet
Client: Losiento / self-initiated project
Art direction/Design: Gerard Miró / Lo Siento
Photography: Lo Siento
Work description: Four dimensional alphabet lettering made with paper. Each piece can be read from all 4 sides.

Tangible Textural Interface by Eunhee Jo at Show RCA 2012

Royal College of Art graduate Eunhee Jo has designed a tactile speaker with a fabric control panel and a speaker that moves to the music (+ movie).

Tangible Textural Interface by Eunhee Jo at Show RCA 2012

The control panel for the Tangible Textural Interface (TTI) speaker is embedded in a concave surface on one side. By pushing the fabric surface, the user can skip tracks, adjust the volume or select options on the equaliser.

Tangible Textural Interface by Eunhee Jo at Show RCA 2012

On the other side, the speaker’s surface pulsates to the beat of the music and physically responds to selections made on the control panel.

Tangible Textural Interface by Eunhee Jo at Show RCA 2012

Eunhee Jo recently graduated from the college’s Innovation Design Engineering course and the TTI speaker is on display at Show RCA 2012, which continues until 1 July.

See more stories from Show RCA 2012 here and watch course leader Miles Pennington give a tour of the show here.

Photographs are by Taehyung Kim.

Here’s some more information from the designer:


TTI by Eunhee Jo

Interactive surfaces makes everyday objects multi-functional and fun. Reactive technologies have now enabled normal interfaces with new functions and new possibilities. The role of the surface is changing radically, according to how it’s designed and incorporated with objects.

My proposal was to re-define the role of the surface in future lifestyle, exploring how surfaces can be an integrated as part of a product or environment.

TTI (standing for Tangible Textural Interface) is a new sound system that embeds a tactile surface. TTI has flexibility that enables people to physically touch and feel the response through the controls and physical morph of the surface. TTI delivers new aesthetics through integrated flexible surfaces as interface material unlike adapting conventional materials for interfaces such as plastic or glass. Unlike existing 2D interfaces, TTI has a curved 3D surface opening up new possibilities in making flexible forms and shapes within the interface.

TTI consists of 3 main functions, backwards and forwards, volume control and equaliser, having a physical feedback and control interface within one surface. As you control the functions, the left surface physically responds to the controls. Tactile surface also responds to the beat of the music.