PORTFOLIO
For the past seven years, I've been working as a composer and musician aboard cruise ships. Sailing around the world led me to many exotic places and even more exciting creative possibilities.
I currently travel between Slovenia and South Africa. Although Slovenia is my home country, I live in Cape Town, South Africa, where I got married to the love of my life in 2019.
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Music is my passion and my work, but it always co-existed with computers and video games. I can still remember playing classic games such as Prince Of Persia, Civilization, Dune, and Dune 2. Running around with countless 3.5-inch floppy disks trying to get the latest game from my neighbor.
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Such a long way back from days of apps, Steam, and Origin.
*Scroll down for the interesting stuff!
THE WORK
*Please use headphones or speakers for the best listening results.
MISERY IS THE RIVER...
I love the music of Tom Waits. It is so disturbingly beautiful and incredibly challenging to interpret any other way than Tom Waits's way.
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When Rob Spelberg - the conductor of the New European Jazz Collective - asked me to arrange this song for the big band with a female vocalist, I jumped on it even before I got any idea on how to convey the message Tom delivered.
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Well, the superb vocal interpretation of Eva Krisper, as well as ingenious interpretation of the arrangement by the collective, gave it that punch.
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Listen to the short demo of the recording.
DANCE
At one point in my life, I got intrigued by electronic music and its applications. I started with DJ-ing, which inevitably lead to sound design and electronic music composition. I ventured into sound programming language Pure Data and later on into Ableton Live and its Push MIDI controller. I gained knowledge of VSTs audio effects and instruments as well as sound libraries.
For this track, I used only Ableton's native instruments and a few saxophones. There is a nice solo played by yours truly in the middle of the song.
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Before I added the saxophones I created an emulation of the legendary Roland TR303 on Ableton Live Instrument Racks and came up with the bass line. If you listen to it carefully, you can also hear me toying with the vocoder and the word pleshi (pleši) translated from Slovenian language it means to dance.
30FPS IN Eb MAJOR
​I've been going to music schools from my tenth year of age and inadvertently had a classical music upbringing. I loved the classical symphonies and classical cinematic works. John Williams had a profound influence on me through Superman, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones. The music he wrote is just so impressionable and emotional. Hence I try and convey the same in my writing.
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I wrote this composition for traditional Slovenian zither. Unfortunately, I don't have a recording of it; however, I am still very fond of the work. That is why I threw it into the MIDI engine and got it performed by a grand piano VST.
CLICK TRACKS
When I started to work as a composer for various entertainers around the world, it soon became apparent that the sound they are searching for shouldn't be limited to the live band budget. Many professional musicians solve this by using click tracks in their show. Therefore I learned how to use sound libraries and their emulation engines to create realistic click tracks.
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"Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is a well-known jazz standard. Operatic singer Jennifer Fair requested for a classical crossover version of it for her show.
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I used EastWest Sound libraries to create this track. You'll notice that the actual music pans on the hard left and the click with count-offs on the hard right. We use this technique to enable the sound engineer to send separate channels to different groups of people. Left is for the audience, right is for the musicians.
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This is just an excerpt of the click track and doesn't include any parts that are meant to be performed live.
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TESTIMONIALS
Ric Steel, Headline Entertainer
“CHURT is the epitome of a professional musician. I have had the privilege to share the stage with him internationally for several years. His “can do” attitude is always positive, and his laughter is infectious! His chart services are also on point, sharp, ingenious, and affordable. I recommend him at every level without hesitation.”
Jennifer Fair, Vocalist
“I’ve worked with CHURT as a music director and as an arranger. He is meticulous to detail and knows how to make something common sound interesting and put a spin on the classics to make them sound unique. He is a pleasure to work with, his work is of the utmost quality and I would recommend him without hesitation.”
Kwame Remy, Vocalist
"CHURT has a great knowledge of various musical idioms. He created arrangements for me that invoked the fundaments of Soul with a fresh contemporary feel. I am very happy with his work and enjoy using his arrangements."
MORE ABOUT ME
Having a knack for mathematics, I decided - for a brief moment - to study it. In the end, the music prevailed, leaving me with invaluable knowledge of abstract mathematic thought, programming language, and fascination with technology.
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As I am looking forward, I feel ready to venture into the world of video games. All in all, it is a perfect cohesion of technology and music.