Music and sound design studios typically find themselves brought into the creative pipeline at the tail end of a project’s schedule, serving to polish or punctuate work that has already been locked picture-wise. However, the creative crew at the sound and music studio Cypher has decided to flip that traditional script entirely with the launch of a brand-new series titled "Sonic Studies."
The initiative is designed to give the studio’s artists an outlet for proactive exploration, breaking free from the conventional constraints of commercial briefs and client revisions. By initiating projects from the ground up, Cypher aims to investigate the deep relationship between sound, texture, and visual pacing.
John Black, the founder and creative director at Cypher, explained the philosophy behind the ambitious new venture. As sonic artists, Black noted, the team frequently discovers that they lack any meaningful input regarding the core subject matter or structural foundation of typical commercial projects. With "Sonic Studies," the studio wanted to establish a definitive way to showcase their unique approach to crafting bespoke music and sound design directly to picture. Rather than relying on a standard highlight reel or an abstract creative manifesto, the studio chose to build a dedicated series of dedicated sonic explorations.
The very first film in this ongoing series emerged organically from an unexpected place: team member Joseph’s personal interest in connecting his professional work in sound design with the tactile world of sewing and textiles. This initial spark provided the project with a tangible, hands-on point of origin. Specifically, the journey began with a custom jacket that Joseph designed and fabricated himself. This personal creation granted the studio direct, uninhibited access to the actual fabrics, specialized tools, and heavy machinery involved in the garment’s construction, utilizing them both as primary visual subjects and as authentic, physical sources for field recording.
In commercial sound design, practitioners frequently take creative liberties with the inherent disconnect between what an audience sees and what they hear. This often involves employing Foley or sound effects that may bear little physical relation to what is actually transpiring on screen, yet successfully suggest the desired movement, texture, or emotional weight. In contrast, this inaugural study took a different path. The team worked extensively with sounds that physically and intrinsically belonged to the subject matter itself, subsequently manipulating, processing, and warping those audio elements while maintaining an unbreakable, underlying connection to their source.
For the visual component of the film, Cypher relied on a deliberately restrained aesthetic vocabulary. The production incorporated simple animation techniques, scanned physical materials, basic digital image processing, and raw textural footage. By allowing the imagery to remain remarkably sparse, unpolished, and minimal, the creators ensured that the sound design was given ample breathing room to actively shape the rhythm, pacing, and overall character of the edit.
As the team progressed through the various stages of production, they uncovered a fascinating and harmonious relationship between the distinct disciplines of sewing and sound design. At their core, both practices share a fundamental methodology: each involves gathering raw materials, meticulously manipulating them, and assembling them into a cohesive, structured final product. This particular study offered the studio an invaluable opportunity to bring those two parallel practices together, allowing them to experiment freely outside the usual boundaries and constraints of a commercial brief.
The project features a collaborative effort from a tight-knit creative team. Music and sound design were handled by Cypher, with John Black serving as founder, creative director, and sound designer. Original music for the piece was composed by Joris van Grunsven, while the audio mix, animation, and editing were executed by Joseph Sims.
