Musical Melting Pot: BMG PM’s Best Boundary Breaking Work
The democratisation of music over recent years has seen the rise of local markets emerge from developing territories. As music breaks boundaries, cultural influences from around the globe are beginning to reach new corners of the world, opening up a whole new world of discovery.
In this round up, BMG Production Music showcases a selection of its best international work, from bilingual albums to contemporary sounds from the heart of Turkey, South Africa, Korea and more.
VALORANT
Riot Games is well known for its cinematic character debuts, and for its latest VALORANT agent, Fade, the game was no different. Looking to create an original track for the Turkish agent, the brand looked to BMG Bespoke who commissioned composer group ARB4 to take on the exciting challenge.
Wanting to ensure the featured artist aligned with the new character’s identity, ARB4 approached Turkish artist Helin Senturk who improvised her own lyrics and melodic line, inspired by Turkish music makams - melodies used in Turkish classical and folk music. The track also features traditional Turkish instruments like Bağlama, Kaval, and Turkish Mey (Duduk) that help evoke the cultural sonic world of Turkey.
Aziwe - South African Beats
Against the backdrop of South Africa’s musical history, current landscape, and emerging sounds, Nonku Phiri takes you behind the scenes on a whistlestop tour sharing how music and creativity give her an outlet to become a superhero.
Heritage, modern dance styles and a mixture of sounds transport you into the world of the new dynamic music album, Aziwe – South African Beats, as each track elegantly blends together traditional instrumentation with the contemporary vibes of Amapiano.
LISTEN HERE: https://app.bmgproductionmusic.co.uk/carrier/158495
Hinglish
A unique, versatile bilingual release featuring three tracks, each artfully recorded in an English and Hindi version, spanning a spectrum of emotion and tempo in colourful and expansive tones.
K-Pop - Hits Over Time
Hits Over Time is the alias of composer/producer, Nicky van der Lugt Melsert. Over the years, he has worked on a number of K-pop records including ‘Amber x Luna - Lower’, ‘EXO - Jekyll’, ‘THE BOYZ - Christmassy’ and ’WayV - Electric Hearts’.
Although K-pop is booming, when it comes to production music, the amount of releases were pretty scarce - which is where the idea for the K-pop album came in. Hits Over Time created an instrumental concept that was later re-recorded with Koren vocals, doubles and harmonies before being edited and mixed.
With multiple vocalists recorded in different rooms and on different microphones, it was a bit of a challenge but Hits Over Time took this rough demo to ‘radio-ready’.
LISTEN HERE: https://app.bmgproductionmusic.co.uk/carrier/159482
Expand Music
The music and education company founded by Niall Lavelle and Tobias Silvester, Expand Music partners with BMGPM to bring a diverse range of emerging artists into the world of production music.
The young artists are paid up front for their music and earn ongoing royalties, something often unheard of when starting a music career, and highly pertinent to those economically disadvantaged individuals who are regularly the creators of the music of tomorrow. The projects aim to bring authentic creators of new musical genres into production music.
OGe: A Lagos-raised British Nigerian, OGe moved to London aged 16 and chose to study music based purely on a love of singing. It quickly became apparent he was an innately gifted musician with a rare talent for catchy song writing. Heavily influenced by the current explosion in west African and Nigerian led Afrobeats (typified by the likes of Burna Boy, Davido, Rema, Wizkid) he has an EP coming out soon and another in production! Blending English, Pidigin and Yoruba lyrics about young romance and his experiences in life with cutting edge production he writes hook laden pop songs for the internet generation.
LISTEN HERE: https://app.bmgproductionmusic.co.uk/carrier/159845
Tega: Born in Spain to Ecuadorian parents, Tega's family moved to the UK in search of better opportunities, his parents working tirelessly as night cleaners in central London office blocks to support their children. Tega long held aspirations of making music but lacked the physical and economic means. This was until one day when his father was cleaning the office of a company that was liquidated, the office managers allowed the cleaners to take home anything they found, in his case a working Macbook. Armed with this Tega began relentlessly recording and releasing music himself blending influences from his native Spain, Ecuador and London. He raps in Spanish and English over a diverse range of Trap, Drill and Reggaeton beats. Working with Expand has resulted in a feature on two tracks as part of a BMG and Paramount pictures writers camp and several tracks on an upcoming Latin Trap EP.
