My newest album ‘Meditations on a Taxi,‘ compiles all of the new age, meditative, and cinematically contemplative cues that I’ve written over the past few years into a single calming journey for your mind and soul.
For several years, I was writing cues to submit to TAXI listings for sync music opportunities. One of the best by-products of doing this over time is that you start to learn where your strengths as a composer really are. What types of songs regularly get past the screeners and are submitted to the publisher or music producer (or whomever)… For me, my successes were – more often than not – found when writing music that is meant to be peaceful, inspirational, and introspective.
Those who know me personally are likely not that surprised… 🙂 And yet, as someone who loves to really over-produce songs and fill them with as many interesting bits and hooks as possible, these were always the biggest challenge for me. The appearance of simplicity… Anyone who has tried to practice complete stillness and meditate for longer than 5 minutes understands this very well.
Well, none of them were ever used in a movie or TV show or anything cool like that – but… I still love every one of them. Recently, I’ve had some reminders that life is too short to leave your best work sitting on a hard drive… and so, I’ve compiled these songs into a collection that I can share with all of you.
May they bring you some comfort and tranquility when you need it most!
xoxo
-keys
Get your copy or stream @
Want to hear samples?
Full Track Listing:
- Eagle Pose | 3:21
- Morning Lotus | 2:21
- Zen Dawn | 4:04
- In Time, We Rise | 2:08
- Moonlight Butterflies | 3:50
- Four Better or Worse | 1:20
- Memory Tears | 2:25
- Daydreamer | 2:51
- World Weary | 2:13
- Lofi Snow Fly | 2:40
- Recycle Hope | 1:09
- Tree Pose in Wind | 3:29
- Four 1-Minute Meditations | 4:00
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Total Run Time : 35:46
For those that grew up watching Carl Sagan and Cosmos – including the inspirational and touching soundtrack by Vangelis (one of my favorite composers of all time) – you’ll know exactly why I chose this video for Eagle Pose. I needed almost no editing here – the swells naturally rose when they needed to – it simply works! The amazing video – from the European Southern Observatory – is another great reminder that everything we’ve ever known and done occupies only a tiny dot in a vast cosmos…
Credit: ESO/L. Calçada/M. Kornmesser/spaceengine.org
About
Who is the composer?
Robert Peckyno (aka @streamingkeys) is an instrumental soundscape composer and multimedia artist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
You can view my full music bio here.
Who are the voices on Moonlight Butterflies and Daydreamers?
Those who have heard the composer Jonathan Elias (Requiem for the Americas, the Prayer Cycle, many many movies…) might ‘get’ what I was going for on ‘Moonlight Butterflies.’ One part beauty, one part mystery, one part production – mix till done. 😉 The beautiful voices are all Francesca Genco (via the Voices of Gaia sample pack). Francesca Genco is a yoga instructor, singer, and sound healer, manual therapist and interdisciplinary arts teacher. She is the founder of Song of the Body, which offers classes, workshops, and retreats in sound healing, yoga, and creative expression. Learn more about her @: https://songofthebody.com/about.html
Similarly, the male voices on ‘Daydreamers’ are from Bryan Lane (aka Bryn) – and are also from a Voices of Gaia sample pack. Bryan Lane has been a roster member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale since 2015 and has sung professionally with many regional and national companies/organizations including the Oregon Bach Festival, Seattle Opera, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Opera Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara Choral Society, San Diego Pro Arte Voices, and Pasadena Pro Musica. He has sung on film/TV scores such as Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker and the Netflix series Altered Carbon. You can learn more about Bryn @ www.bryanlanemusic.com
I am so very thankful to be able to include a tiny sample of their amazing voices on this project.
Why does the Unity purchase cost more?
Unity purchases include a license to use this work on your Unity video-game projects in perpetuity. Unity is the one place where I have had steady work and I am very thankful for the many game designers out there that have taken a chance on my music. I (genuinely!) hope your game sells millions of units! If you have a project and need custom work, reach out and I’m happy to give it a go.
What are your thoughts on Taxi?
A lot depends on where you are at personally, professionally, musically, financially, etc. If you go in with an open mind and are ready and willing to learn, you will gain a lot. I did a livestream video after my first year that goes into this in depth. In many ways, you are paying for an education and knowledge is power. Hearing other successful composers will give you invaluable insight into your own work. Screener feedback was more sparse than I would have preferred, but the community will often help you in ways the organization can’t.
For me, one of the biggest lessons was that I simply don’t have what it takes to make a career out of being an incidental music composer. You might have written one or five or even fifty great songs, but can you do that every single week for years? Income in the field is made by stacking nickles and many of the successful composers have literally thousands of tracks out there. Some can read a brief, and sit down and knock out 2 or 3 options in a day! I just can’t and honestly don’t want to… That said, my money is not wasted. I learned more about the business, about what works musically, and about where my strengths and weaknesses lie. I spent my whole life wondering if my music and my production was ‘good enough’ for film and tv work – after several forwards, I felt that question had been answered. Whether or not they ultimately get used is simply a matter of having the right song at the right time for the right job and that’s something totally different that you just have to learn to accept. If you have the money and the time to invest in yourself, it is totally worth it for that reason alone. I know many folks who have leveraged deals or opened opportunities through their work with Taxi. It didn’t work out that way for me, but it did push me to write more and get better at it in the process so, as they say, there ain’t nothin wrong with that.
Fun and Games
Regular followers know that I am also a hobbyist game designer and love making small games just for fun including a COVID blaster and a Seattle-themed gems game.
For ‘Astounding Stories, Vol 1,’ I created a cross between ‘Space Invaders’ and ‘Centipede’ to go with ‘the Beetle Horde’
For this record, I used the Unity Lego tools to create a fun small Christmas-themed web game to go with “Lo-fi Snow Fly” – one of my favorite songs on the album.
Collect the 20 missing presents and get Santa to his sleigh safely! Click the button below to play and enjoy! 🙂
(note: You may not be able to reach all presents, but don’t worry, there are 20 out there that you can!)
