August 10, 2010
BleepCast, Seph Carissa / texx sound, films, games, retro
2 Comments
The BleepCast inspects covers, remixes and de-makes of our favorite tunes in the last 30 years in this level and asks how everything started, how it evolved and where it all went. This is a broad topic and so there’s no screwing around: This BleepCast hits you massively with 50 minutes of pure nerdsound, spoken and played alike. And the best of all: You’ll love it! I’m happy, Bob!
Read the rest…
The BleepCast inspects covers, remixes and de-makes of our favorite tunes in the last 30 years in this level and asks how everything started, how it evolved and where it all went. This is a broad topic and so there's no screwing around: This BleepCast hits you massively with 50 minutes of pure nerdsound, spoken and played alike. And the best of all: You'll love it! I'm happy, Bob!
March 21, 2010
Essay, Seph Carissa / texx sound
2 Comments
Time for some music. I recently finished Mass Effect and was intrigued by the rather well drawn characters in the narrative as well as by the music which had such a familiar appeal to it, thanks to the 80′s synths in an orchestral setting. Again, I wanted to add my personal two cents to the dark voyage through the galaxy — plus some bonus material. And you can find both right here!
Read the rest…
Time for some music. I recently finished Mass Effect and was intrigued by the rather well drawn characters in the narrative as well as by the music which had such a familiar appeal to it, thanks to the 80's synths in an orchestral setting. Again, I wanted to add my personal two cents to the dark voyage through the galaxy -- plus some bonus material. And you can find both right here!
I was working like crazy for many hours straight on that song, the melancholic and desperate flair I was trying to achieve eventually made images pop up in my head, so I guess I succeeded in creating something evocative. In fact, the images and the feel was so clear that I wrote down a little story.
Ideally you click now the play-button and read the short story below.
Seph Carissa - Space Love. 2010.
[audio:http://philstrahl.com/downloads/audio/2010/seph_carissa_-_space_love_v03.mp3]
If it could rain in space it now would. I look across the capsule. I can see her, head down, her eyes a pale blue, pale as the
February 4, 2010
Seph Carissa / texx sound
2 Comments
Yep, once again another little electronic piece in minor key. I don’t know what struck me today, I guess an overall mood of gloom, melancholy, boredom and nose bleed were the ingredients to the situation that had led to this point.
I guess it was one of those days where the simple act of waking up exhausted me so much that everything I did felt so mind numbing and tedious like following a paper trail.
Read the rest…
Yep, once again another little electronic piece in minor key. I don't know what struck me today, I guess an overall mood of gloom, melancholy, boredom and nose bleed were the ingredients to the situation that had led to this point.
I guess it was one of those days where the simple act of waking up exhausted me so much that everything I did felt so mind numbing and tedious like following a paper trail.
But I won't bore you even more with my gloomy day, just enjoy some music:
Seph Carissa - Papertrail. 2010.
[audio:http://philstrahl.com/downloads/audio/2010/seph_carissa_-_papertrail_v01.mp3]
February 1, 2010
Seph Carissa / texx sound
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It’s been only two days since my resolution to post something creative at least once a week and here I am now, already posting some new music. Looks like I am currently floating on a wave of dark electronic, but still I’m strumming with my guitars every day now for at least half an hour, so let’s see when there’s a new guitar piece out there as well…
Read the rest…
It's been only two days since my resolution to post something creative at least once a week and here I am now, already posting some new music. Looks like I am currently floating on a wave of dark electronic, but still I'm strumming with my guitars every day now for at least half an hour, so let's see when there's a new guitar piece out there as well...
On a related note I decided to changed my alias as music producing artist from texx sound to Seph Carissa. I've been pondering than for quite a while now and waited for the right name to find me. So there it is, texx is gone, Seph takes over. Why? Long story. Too long to tell, so you I suggest you only listen.
My new track, Vaccine, it a little inspired by recently watching 28 Weeks Later and I wanted to try something longer and more cinematic for a change. So I hope you enjoy it!
Seph Carissa - Vaccine. 2010.
[audio:http://philstrahl.com/downloads/audio/2010/seph_carissa_-_vaccine_v01.mp3]
July 4, 2009
Seph Carissa / texx sound
1 Comment

I watched another couple of CSI: New York episodes to research the cinematography and color grading (both much more subtle compared to the overly-saturated CSI: Miami), but the more episodes I watched the more aware I became of Bill Brown‘s music. It didn’t sound terribly hard to compose still it captured the mood quite well and was terrifically mixed. “Can’t be too hard to do that myself” I pondered two hours ago and gave it a try by scoring an imaginary scene in Bill’s style.
I am quite happy with it, just had to give it an urban beat and more synthesizers instead of an orchestral percussion in the end. Hope you like it too.
EDIT: Didn’t like it how it suddenly ended so I composed a more proper and a little soothing ending. Refresh your cache and take a listen.
texx sound – City Scape Intermission. 2009.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I watched another couple of CSI: New York episodes to research the cinematography and color grading (both much more subtle compared to the overly-saturated CSI: Miami), but the more episodes I watched the more aware I became of Bill Brown's music. It didn't sound terribly hard to compose still it captured the mood quite well and was terrifically mixed. "Can't be too hard to do that myself" I pondered two hours ago and gave it a try by scoring an imaginary scene in Bill's style.
I am quite happy with it, just had to give it an urban beat and more synthesizers instead of an orchestral percussion in the end. Hope you like it too.
EDIT: Didn't like it how it suddenly ended so I composed a more proper and a little soothing ending. Refresh your cache and take a listen.
texx sound - City Scape Intermission. 2009.
[audio:http://philstrahl.com/downloads/audio/2009/texx_sound_-_city_scape_intermission.mp3]
April 22, 2009
Compositing, Dear Diary, Reports, Seph Carissa / texx sound, filmmaking
3 Comments
It’s been quite a while since my last blog entry. In fact it has been so long, that I had to think twice to recall my password for this sweet blog o’ mine.
You ask “What’s new? What’s cool?” and I tell you: A lot: I’ve been in the trenches with Nuke and fought After Effects so there’s a lot of stuff I want to show and tell what I’ve learned in the past weeks, not only about VFX.
Read the rest…
It's been quite a while since my last blog entry. In fact it has been so long, that I had to think twice to recall my password for this sweet blog o' mine.
You ask "What's new? What's cool?" and I tell you: A lot: I've been in the trenches with Nuke and fought After Effects so there's a lot of stuff I want to show and tell what I've learned in the past weeks, not only about VFX.
I recorded a couple of tracks for my upcoming album (release: summer 2009). The Samson G-Track is a sweet piece of hardware, it combines a condenser microphone and an USB-soundcard. Finally I am able to record my acoustic guitar and piano work without the "help" of my 5€-headset whose microphone buzzes worse than the wasp hive in Donkey Kong Country 2 and rumbles more than my PS2's Dualshock 2 controller that surrendered yesterday to material fatigue after nearly nine years of heavy duty service. Got me a new one today.
Between all my private creative work I am tackling 87 effect shots for our student short film "MOSKAU
March 10, 2009
Random Thoughts, Seph Carissa / texx sound, ranting
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I couldn’t sleep and so I snuggled up with my guitar, below is the result. In fact there even are lyrics but they are too personal to appear here.
texx sound – Rain into Ice. 2009.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I couldn't sleep and so I snuggled up with my guitar, below is the result. In fact there even are lyrics but they are too personal to appear here.
texx sound - Rain into Ice. 2009.
[audio:http://philstrahl.com/downloads/audio/2009/texx_sound_-_she_turns_rain_into_ice.mp3]
April 3, 2008
Dear Diary, Seph Carissa / texx sound
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I’ve been practicing and strumming the past four days and this is what I came up with. It’s very rough and my technique is very amateurish, of course, but it’s already setting a mood which I am very comfortable with. Maybe I switch completely to jazz music for a while? If you guess and tell me on which song the chords in the background are based on, you’ll get a little surprise — provided you tell it to me personally. Let the competition begin!
The picture to the right is just a visual help for you to get in the right mood for this tune.
texx sound – Green Grass. 2008.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Grünstadter Park, originally uploaded by Phil Strahl.
I've been practicing and strumming the past four days and this is what I came up with. It's very rough and my technique is very amateurish, of course, but it's already setting a mood which I am very comfortable with. Maybe I switch completely to jazz music for a while? If you guess and tell me on which song the chords in the background are based on, you'll get a little surprise -- provided you tell it to me personally. Let the competition begin!
The picture to the right is just a visual help for you to get in the right mood for this tune.
texx sound - Green Grass. 2008.
[audio:http://philstrahl.com/downloads/audio/2008/texx_sound_-_green_grass.mp3]
February 18, 2008
Seph Carissa / texx sound, music
No Comments
I haven’t felt the urge to get creative with music since I scored my dear fellow student Zoki‘s short movie Sacred Tree which was a lot of work and great fun. Yesterday, however, I was invited by another dear fellow student, Jot a.k.a. Supernintendo Chalmers, to bring my guitar for a jam session. But, no, I won’t post any of my crappy ad-libs.
Read the rest…
I haven't felt the urge to get creative with music since I scored my dear fellow student Zoki's short movie Sacred Tree which was a lot of work and great fun. Yesterday, however, I was invited by another dear fellow student, Jot a.k.a. Supernintendo Chalmers, to bring my guitar for a jam session. But, no, I won't post any of my crappy ad-libs.
At around 3 am I suddenly felt the urge to compose something Hans-Zimmer-esque by stealing a big deal of Bill Brown, the guy who magnificently scored Command & Conquer: Generals, hence the title of my tune.
It turned out quite well, although I am going to add a lot of percussion and additional instruments as an additional theme to achieve a song length of more than three minutes.
I hope you like what I got so far...
texx sound - The General
[audio:http://philstrahl.com/downloads/audio/2008/texx_sound_-_the_general.mp3]