Clément Barral is a Geneva based film and theatre composer. He mixes electronic and organic instruments to craft unique musical universes. He is also an active live musician.
Hello Ele (sorry, just know your WhatsApp name), here is how to navigate this page: Basically, it starts with a selection of some of my previous works that go more in the direction of what you are asking for your episode of Futura ! (or, more precisely, what I understand you’re asking, which may be completely off as well :p )
Then, the further you go, the more general it gets. Also, if you click on my name on the top left, you are redirected directly to my public website.
Enjoy 🙂
MY MUSICAL UNIVERSE
Opening Theme
I composed this music whilst working on a documentary series a few years ago. I went in a very different direction afterwards, but I was very happy with how it sounded. It gives a good example of how I use synths. This is more like a titles music, this is why it’s a bit intense.
Sin Razón – Techno / a dance in the parc
These two videos come from a short film about a young woman trying to get out of a toxic relationship and process her traumas. In the first video, she is in an underground club. For this part of the film, I collaborated with a music producer to do write credible techno music. The extract starts at a point where I bring back the main theme of the film through the arpeggiated synth sequence. The second video is later, when she has a sort of inner fight and break through in a parc. There, I made a music that would underlie this struggle and success with a lot of different textures, from vintage synthesisers to real strings. Of course, this approach would be a bit intense for a documentary, but there, you can pay special attention to the way I treat sound textures. For instance, I tried to bring this sort of gritty feeling in there.
Sin Razón, Vanessa Blättler – Alcaide, 2022
Proximité
I wrote this piece originally whilst working on a small theatre play, mostly to show an example of a certain musical texture. In the end, it became a full piece that was later used (although highly altered) for a dance video short.
Evolutif
This piece was written for a project that hasn’t started yet. It is a demo of evolving textures, between lightness and tension.
Synth Rêveries
Here are two short extracts of a longer piece. They display the same instrument but with very different pace and mood.
SK-111
Dark and percussive
Experimentations with the sampler Casio SK-1. This is more dark ambient.
In Context - More Videos
The Clock
It’s a short dance film made as part of a joint seminar between the dance and film departments at the ZHdK. The piece of music “Proximité” I mentioned before was selected for use. I modified it a lot to adapt to the different edits. I didn’t do the sound design for the film, but some of the musical elements I contributed to are quite inseparable from it.
The Clock, Linus Von Stumberg, 2023
pas de deux, Elie Aufseesser, 2021
pas de deux – Burial
This music was composed for a documentary feature. Here you have the guitar sounds first, but later, at around 1’30”, you have a growing drone texture that is typical of the ambient sounds I like to create.
T E X T U R E S
Hybrides
From here on, more general stuff…
MELANCHOLY
FEAR
MOMENTUM
In Context
Recent Projects
Schillerbalkon
ZHdK
2022
Docuseries
About me
Clément is a media composer specializing in theatre and film. He started composing for short films in 2015 and is also active in several bands. He started the violin at the age of five, before picking up the guitar later on.
Given his background as a musician, he likes to incorporate a performative element to his composition for theatre and considers the stage an important creative playground of the theatrical piece – although he can also work from the regie. Clément uses a collection of old sound devices, from reel to reel tape to old samplers, in order to achieve unusual sonorities.
He is also experienced in composition for video games and VR projects.
His compositional style starts by improvising and experimenting in order to set the tone and then to tailor his music to the project, working closely with the director and editor when appropriate. He is truly passionate about crafting sounds until they reach rich and interesting textures.
Being used to performing on stage, his approach to theatre is very performance related: he enjoys being part of a team. He likes to work closely with sound designers and other composers when possible. Collaboration is an amazing way to explore new musical grounds.
His music was featured at several festivals. From Canne’s Short Film Corner in 2017 (Traces, Eddy Juillerat) to Solothurn in 2022 (Pas de deux, Elie Aufseesser, Opera Prima Prize). More recently, he composed music for the short film The Whole World Blind (Finbar Somers & Seán Mackey) which premiered in Hollywood at the HollyShorts Film Festival in 2023 and then was screened at several UK film festivals including Norwich and Worcester (Best Midlands Film).