The “guru” on their facebook page told us that the E.S.Posthumus website has been updated.
There is a discography and a “sports” tab.
In addition to releasing 3 albums, ES Posthumus wrote numerous compositions for sports programs including the NFL on CBS, Super Bowl XLIV, MLB Tonight, The Masters, The PGA Championship and The US Open. 6 tracks are there, you can listen to straight away, and you can purchase/download them also through the site directly.
They are fantastic, I can’t stop listening to it.
Here a taster of “Burlingame”
and the “Thrill of Victory”
Enjoy the tracks and have a look at their website!
You might not have heard the name E.S. Posthumus before, but you have certainly heard the music on many movie trailers or TV shows including the Themesong for “Cold Case”. It was formed by brothers Helmut and Franz Vonlichten in 2000. I wanted to share this amazing music with you as it has enchanted me completely.
E.S. Posthumus stands for Experimental Sounds, Posthumus stands for “all things past”.
Their music is classical with drum beats and electronic sounds, inspired by the Pythagorean Philosophy which states that “music is the harmonization of opposites; the conciliation of warring elements”. (Wikipedia)
Both brothers grew up in a musical home with their mother being a classically trained pianist, so they were exposed to all different music from an early age. Their music blends classical, symphonies, electronic, world music and choirs together. Helmut said in an interview : “We just gravitated toward everything we loved and found a way to make it all mesh together.”
Helmut studied Archeology and it shows in the Latin based Lyrics and the back story of the album Cartographer. There is no label with their music – “we are really grateful that no label was willing to take any sort of a chance on us. We are in complete control of our careers, and we own all of our master recordings and publishing. That is very liberating.”
There are 3 albums of E.S. Posthumus. I cannot decide which one is my favourite, as all 3 have epic, relaxing and emotionally charged compositions. They can be downloaded via Amazon.com and cdbaby.com.
Unearthed – January 2001
In keeping with the theme of “all things past”, each of the thirteen tracks on the album is named after an ancient and abandoned or destroyed city. However, Cuzco, Nara, Isfahan and Estremoz still survive to this day.
Track listing
Antissa
Tikal
Harappa
Ulaid
Ebla
Nara
Cuzco
Niniveh
Lepcis Magna
Menouthis
Etremoz
Pompeii
Isfahan
Some of this music can be heard in Planet of the apes, Minority Report, Spider Man, Lord of the rings, Lara Croft, Matrix Reloaded, Cold Case, Top Gear, Hunger games
Cartographer – January 2008
The vocal tracks are sung by Luna Sans, while the remix versions replace her vocals with instrumental solos and choir melodies, much in the style of Posthumus’ first album, “Unearthed”.
Track listing
Disc 1 – Luna Sans (Vocal)
Nolitus
Isunova
Vorrina
Selisona
Marunae
Mosane
Decifin
Sollente
Caarano
Raptamei
Oraanu
Nivaos
Nasivern
Disc 2 – Piri Reis Remixes (Remix) instrumental.
This is the same music with 2 bonus tracks, no vocals and in my opinion absolutely beautiful. I absolutely prefer these versions.
Ashielf Pi
Oraanu Pi
Marunae Pi
Mosane Pi
Isunova Pi
Nasivern Pi
Selisona Pi
Raptamei Pi
Caarano Pi
Nivaos Pi
Sollente Pi
Decifin Pi
Vorrina Pi
Nolitus Pi
Odenall Pi
Some of these tracks can be heard in Lost, Law and Order, and Top Gear
Makara – January 2010 – another beautiful album
Track listing
Kalki
Varuna
Unstoppable
Durga
Manju
Kuvera
Ushas
Lavanya
Vishnu
Indra
Arise
Saint Matthew Passion
Krosah
Anumati
Moonlight Sonata
Again some of these tracks can be heard in Sherlock Holmes, Pillars of the Earth, Avatar, Top Gear and X Factor
Here links to their web site and twitter. There is also a Fan facebook site.
Unfortunately Franz Vonlichten died unexpectedly in May 2010.
Helmut wrote this to his fans in July 2010
Dear Friends:
This has been an amazing year for ES Posthumus. Not only did we release our best selling album “Makara”, but we opened the Super Bowl with Jay Z. However, with the sweetness of life often there follows the bitterness of mortality….. my brother, Franz, passed away in May. It was entirely unexpected.
The vast majority of music that we created as ESP is in your hands… there may be 1 or 2 additional songs that become available before the year end; unfortunately, I cannot promise anything.
As for me, I will begin to rebuild what was washed away, albeit in a form other than ES Posthumus. My brother and I created ESP together and we’ll “exit stage left” together as well.
Franz was an extraordinary talent…. among other things, I will miss his creative ear and incomparable musical palette. Most of all, however, I will miss his wit and humor…. a consummate storyteller who found a punch line in even the most mundane scenarios.
Finally, thanks to every one of you… as you know, our success was truly “grassroots” … it was driven by a sense of community and word of mouth…. you made it happen for us… we are eternally grateful..
Be well,
Helmut
In November 2011, Helmut has formed a new band called “Les Friction” with Nihl Finch and Paint. His first new track is called ”Torture”
Everybody has heard Trailermusic, be it on TV for new series or in the cinema for new films or through the computer gaming industry.
I am a new but huge fan of Trailer Music and thought I share this with you as there is so much beautiful music in this genre. It is almost like classical but some much more monumental, some very emmotional and some just plain epic.
Movie trailer music: it’s not what you think
What is Trailer Music?
Trailer Music is the background music used for film previews, which is not always from the film’s soundtrack. Sweeping melodies and epic themes composed specifically to accompany motion picture footage, that has been crafted into a “trailer” – a mini story which serves to excite and inspire audiences to attend a movie.
The music is here to stop your heart, steal your breath and leave you gasping for more – so you really can’t wait to watch the film. Because the score for a movie is usually composed after the film is finished (which is much after trailers are released), a trailer will incorporate music from other sources.
The music used in the trailer may be:
Music from the score of other movies.
Popular or well-known music, often chosen for its tone, appropriateness of a lyric, or familiarity.
Classical music, such as Mozart’s Requiem or Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.
Specially composed music.
“Library” music, which is previously, composed production music.
There are different kinds of trailers:
Theatrical Trailers – the official theatrical piece often 2 and half minutes long
Teaser Trailers – a short theatrical preview while the film is still being shot, minute and half long
TV Spots – 60 seconds long- for special events, sports events for example, or advertising a new series on TV.
Trailer Music is becoming more popular and there are many music companies out there, producing this music. The Fan base is growing steadily and there are fan clubs and facebook/ twitter groups, you can look into if you are interested.
Trailer music library companies typically do not offer their music to the public and develop and license music exclusively to the motion picture studios. Because trailers are released on the Web, fans are asking how they can get hold of the music. So Immediate Music did release a commercial album called “Trailerhead,” Reeltime Music with a double CD called “Coming Soon” and Two Steps From Hell with an album called “Invincible” and “Archangel”. They also can be downloaded on iTunes, or Amazon.
Famous trailer Music Companies are:
Immediate Music, a trailer library run by Jeff Fayman with his partner, Yoav Goren.
Two Steps from Hell – founded by Nick Phoenix and Thomas Bergersen
Audio Machine – Paul Dinletir
E.S.Posthumus
Sonic Symphony
X-Ray dog
Non Stop Music
City of the Fallen
Brickwall Audio – Erik Ekholm
Les Friction
Brand X Music
Future World Music – Armen Hambar
Position music
Please note this is not a complete list.
The art of scoring a trailer requires not only a certain style of thinking, but an entirely different approach to composition. Trailer scores are commissioned by production companies via “trailer houses”, which produce the final edit. They typically last two minutes and are split into three parts: beginning, middle and end, usually all containing different pieces and styles of music. The goal is to produce a heavily briefed, tightly wound and meticulously edited piece of work in which every second counts. (John Beal)
The team making the trailer selects tracks from these albums, licenses them (fees run $5,000 to $10,000 per track for international use, according to Bergersen), and then edits the available footage with that music. A trailer usually features at least three musical tracks. A typical formula, especially for dramas and event movies, is a soft start that gradually builds, leading to a climax that fades and “hopefully leaves people stunned,” Bergersen explained. (Excerpt Los Angeles Times By Emily Rome, April 8, 2012)
For Two Steps From Hell, selling music commercially is a more lucrative business than it is for many other libraries. It has sold more than 300,000 copies of its two albums on iTunes — a robust supplement to licensing music from its 17 albums available to clients.
Here are some famous composers of trailer music- again this is not a complete list, there are certainly a lot more, and also lots of young budding composers with lots of talent.
Thomas Bergersen and Nick Phoenix formed Two steps from Hell
Mark Petrie – wrote the amazing spiderman trailer
Paul Dinletir – Audiomachine
Erik Ekholm – Brickwall Audio
Zak Hemsey – wrote the Inception Trailer
Steve Jablonski – wrote trailer for Transformers
Hans Zimmer – too numerous to write all down
John Beal – Hunt for red October trailer, the Matrix trailer
Jo Blankenburg – Position Music
Thomas Adam Habuda – Media Music Factory
Krzysztof Wencel – Polish pianist and composer
Daniel Yount – Yogscast music composer
Armen Hambar – Future World Music
Rick Horrocks – RH Soundtracks
If you like what you see and hear, check out http://trailermusicvibe.blogspot.co.uk/which will give you more in dept information like interviews etc. And join the already existing fans.
Lots of Music samples of the above composers can be heard on “youtube” or “soundcloud”.
If this music gets your fantasy and imagination going why not write a story to some great epic trailer music. Have a look what can be done on the website below:
Ute smile 