Presenting Toy Stories, a fantastical album filled with playfulness and mystery composed for The Scoring House label by the eclectic talent that is Marc Teitler.
Marc was inspired to write this album following a chance encounter with a vintage toy shop in Paris and wanted to capture the atmosphere of the toy shop’s magic, charm, and dusty warmth in this album. Find out more below as we hear from Marc himself…
Tell us a bit about yourself?
I grew up in London with an Italian mother and Rumanian father and was immersed in the musical traditions from those countries which go some way to explaining my European musical leanings
What was the inspiration behind the album?
The initial seed for this album came from a chance encounter with a vintage toy shop in Paris. I was about to start writing the soundtrack to a new stage version of ‘The Nutcracker’ so the sonic delight of all those one-off noisemaking curiosities seemed fortuitous, and I soon found myself walking home with several boxes full of them.
How did you establish the tone and sound for the album in your writing and performance?
I was listening to a lot of music that featured experimental, one-off toy instruments, in particular Tom Waits, Raymond Scott, and 60’s French animation
What was your creative process and how did it differ from how you’ve worked before?
As the soundtrack to the stage show I was writing started to evolve I discovered that by bedding these mechanical and electronic noises within a broader sound palette (saxophones, tuned percussion, accordions, surf guitars, upright pianos, double bass) it was possible to create something instantly distinctive whilst seamlessly supporting the storytelling. I decided I wanted to take this discovery further and make a full album which is where Toy Stories was born.
What is your favourite track on the album and why?
I wrote World of Wonders whilst trying to imagine what toys would sound like underwater. I’m always happy when I make a track that really shouldn’t work but does!
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