Inspiration to "Castle of the Gods".

[Mixmaster]

Hello Vince.

I\'ve been listening to your recordings on the CD\'s that I bought and lately something has drawn my interest to a certain suite you wrote. It\'s the "Castle of the Gods" Suite / Five Movements and "Castle of the Gods" Theme Variation.

Now I\'m not sure if someone else has made a topic about this... actually I\'m hoping I\'m the first.   Anyway... with all the hype on the internet amongst Transformer fans about the movie and all, I myself have began to show more and more interest in my previous fascination in the Transformers again.

Listening to your music and especially the two song\'s named here above, made me wonder. On the back of the CD "Falling of a Clef... " you wrote that you where asked by Glen Hallit to write some new Transformer like songs, but sadly you where prohibited in this quest.

This made me think when listening to the Five Movements suite... Let me first tell you my vision of this suite.

Movement no. 1

I\'m falling asleep... but within seconds I reopen my eyes and I find myself out in space, traveling away from Earth, past Mars, Jupiter and Saturn... away from our Solarsystem into Deep Space. I fly through fast clouds of interstellar dust particles... I see stars never before seen and when I finally fly through a Red coloured Nebula and appear on the other end of it...  I eventually see that what I\'ve been hoping to find... Cybertron.

Movement no. 2

I see Cybertron as a Dark, gleaming metallic sphere at first... but with each passing mile I come closer to it, it becomes more and more a living planet of unbelievable technological features. I\'m flying over the service and suddenly realise what all this years of war between the Decepticons and Autobot\'s have done to this planet. I see huge structures in ruins, totally oblitorated villages, landscapes filled with smocking holes of recent battles lost. In the distance I see smoke rising and light\'s of Industries.........

Movement no. 3

.... I\'m now passing the industrial and most mysterious side of the planet. Enormous factory\'s and plants below me. I see... the creatures, the inhabitants of this planet being build, constructed and getting form... and live. This must be what being born as a machine must be about. Live starts for them in a way that for us humans can\'t be discribed.

Movement no. 4

Suddenly an edge appears... a deep valley of metal, pipes, wires, beams... and I\'m falling deeper and deepr into the hart of Cybertron. Around me it become darker and colder. Looking up... I realise I can\'t go back... all my efforts in doing so are in vain. The only way to get past this is to go on my way. It becomes dark and Darker. the noise of the surface fades away.....

Movement no.5

A speck of light appears in fron of me... getting bigger faster. Suddenly I\'m appear in a city From now where... light\'s surround me... I feel watched as I\'m in the middle of a large citadel... it\'s Iacon, home of the Autobot\'s. As my feet touch the Cybertron\'s ground... giant creatures towering above me... look down on me with glowing blue eyes, but they ignore me... Not that they don\'t show any interest, but more because they are drawn towards the horison of their planet... they know it\'s that time again... to fight, evil, to fight for freedom, to fight for what is right and stop the wrong. It\'s their way of life.. it\'s their programming. Like with us humans, our gene\'s are that what a program is to a Transformer.

Now with the Theme version it all becomes very clear that this theme was aimed to be a Transformers theme. The unique sound of a Transformation in progress gives that away. Minor question... did you make that Sound yourself or is that from one of the Cartoon series?

Well... anyway I hope you like my version of what your Suite does to me. Each time I hear it, it inspires me to also start writing music... hm..... but I\'m still on a road far far away from where you are.

vince... good luck with future projects and greetings and cheers from me.

Niels Berndsen

[Vince DiCola]

Hello Niels.

I appreciate the time and effort you put into your \'vision\' relative to "Castle of the Gods".  Yes, this suite was certainly inspired by Transformers - I look at it as a natural progression relative to my original score.  And yes, the transforming sound effect came from the cartoon (Glen Hallit\'s idea).

I have to say, after seeing the most recent trailer for the new TF movie, it appears this movie will be awesome, at least from a visual standpoint.  From what I can tell, and given the fact that Steven Spielberg is executive producer, the preview implies "Jurassic Park" but with robots instead of dinosaurs.  If the movie lives up to the trailer and all the hype, this could bring in a whole new audience for the Transfomers franchise.   I only wish I had been considered for the score.  As of this writing, a CD is in the hands of some key people at both Dreamworks and Paramount, and in addition to some score material (just in case they\'d still be open to considering anything in that area - VERY unlikely at this point), the CD contains a new vocal song I wrote with my good friend Rick Livingstone.  It\'s a killer track  - perfect for the new film - and Rick did a fantastic job on the vocal and the lyric.  Travis and I have been talking about the possibility of making this Transformers promo package available here at some point.  Of course we\'ll keep everyone posted.

Thanks for your continued interest and support.  I\'m glad you find my music a source of inspiration.  Best of luck.

Cordially,
Vince

[Mixmaster]

Hello Vince.

Thank you very much for writing. Travis told me that at the moment you are very busy with new recordings. I\'m amazed that you\'ve found time to write back .

The way you discribe the new upcoming movie is perfect. Indeed the word on the net has been in some uproar cause of all the leaked images and negative comment it received from allot of die-hard fans. With the trailer I was somewhat convinced, but I have to see the movie in total to put a final verdict on it. The lines spoken from the first TF movie... "Guilty or Innocent?" certainly come to mind here.  

As for your music... yes, I do not only listen to your music, but I also study it. I try to imagine how you play the key\'s, what technique you use, which sound is best suited for a perticular song, etc. etc.

Well... I do hope that the chance for you remains on your score reaching out to Mister S. Spielberg. Each time when people mention the animated movie, people always mention your music to. If the possibility comes that the CD will be available here, I would welcome that with open arms for sure. I would like to know how the voice of Rick Livingstone sounds like. All that I\'ve heard so far are you\'re voice, Allice Hall\'s, Stan Bush and the one from the song "far from over", which is an amazing song to me, but I can\'t recall his name.

From this point I\'m crossing fingers in the hope you\'ll be the choise for the soundtrack of the movie. It wouldn\'t be the same without your sound in it. Also good luck with the \'other\' recordering. I\'m going to keep an close eye on the site when it comes out.

Good luck and cheers from Niels Berndsen