James Barrs

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Portfolio


      *Click any of the titles to listen and for more information

Composition / Original Music

Everything Ends in Darkness | 2024
      Field recording, mixing, and guitar performance for a contemporary classical album. Recorded live in an undisclosed location in Colorado.

The Plan | 2023
      Compostition based on Dostoevsky‘s Crime and Punishment.

Man After Man | 2021
      Album written and recorded during the COVID lockdown with five collaborators.

Rainy Day in the City (clearing my head) |2020
      Composition which integrates soundscapes recorded at varies places around Chicago with electronics.

Film / Sound Design

Halo Redesign | 2023      
     Redesign for a scene from Halo 4 using logic pro, alien voices, gunshots, footseps, lazer gun, ambience.

Shelf Life | 2022            
Composition and sound design for short film, directed by Erin Zhang, premiered at Atlanta Film Fest.

Daphne | 2019
      Composition, recording and sound design for short film, directed by Erin Zhang. Synopsis: A woman explores the stages of life, from unadulterated birth to earthly glut to eternal damnation.

The Road Home | 2019
      Composition for short film, directed by Tony Inhorn.


Radio / Podcast Production

Aspen Public Radio | 2022-Present            
        Audio recording and production for ISL and Sonic ID Library. Production of weekly hour long special, includes scripting, editing and mixing/mastering the weekly special. Daily special recording, production during Aspen Ideas Fest. Engineering live remote broadcasts.

WNUR | 2020-2022      
   Served as Traffic Director and General Manager for Northwestern University's student-run radio station, WNUR. Utilized Zetta and GSelector software to schedule remote broadcasts and played a key leadership role in the station. Responsibilities included event planning, leading meetings, and fundraising.


Audio Programming / Interactive Media

Visions of the Amtrak | 2022
     Capstone project for Northwestern’s Media Arts and Game Design module. Audio visual composition built in Max MSP. Combines generative audio composition with impacted footage from the Chicago Amtrack.

Sonic Portrait of Chicago | 2021
      Project for Northwestern’s Summer Undergraduage Research Grant. I proposed a creative project centering around the human and non-human sounds that contribute the sonic environment in the city of Chicago.

Ambient Music Generator | 2021
     Music generator built in Max MSP. Uses western music theory to create melody in multiple parts. Also incudes an interactive visual component.

A Dip in the Lake | 2021
     Realization of John Cage’s “A Dip in the Lake” using a 4 track tascam tape recorder and 16 different field recordings taken around the city of Chicago.

Lonely Penguin | 2020
      Game inspired by Werner Herzog’s “Encounters at the End of the World.” Written and designed in Unity.