Since his earliest releases under the lupine moniker Cujo for the London-based Ninebar label, which fused complex jazz rhythms and hiphop influences with the spinning breakbeats of drum and bass, Brazilian-born and current Montreal resident Amon Tobin has consistently chosen the path less travelled, his frequently dark and menacing constructions occupying an intoxicating space of their own, caught between the twin roles of ‘head music’ and fierce dancefloor fuel, without necessarily easily falling into either category.

Shifting back to his given name for his 1997 debut album on Ninja Tunes ‘Bricolage’, Tobin’s productions began to take on a distinct experimental jazz and plunderphonic feel, with ghostly instrumental traces of artists such as Jaco Pastorious and Elvin Jones being pushed through all manner of effects and processing, the frequently treacherous and unpredictable beats placing them closer to the work of ‘experimental artists’ such as Squarepusher than the expected junglist mafia.

While its 1998 successor ‘Permutation’ followed similar musical lines and showed Tobin trawling back through the mid-sixties and swing eras for both inspiration and samples, it was with his third album, 2000’s ‘Supermodified’ that Tobin’s work began to shift in an increasingly dark and complex direction.Ranging from doomy, sepia-tinged downbeat funk breaks (‘Four Ton Mantis’) right through to harsh industrial textures (‘Golfer vs Boxer’) and heartfelt melancholic cinematic landscapes (‘Slowly’), ‘Supermodified’ showed Tobin unveiling a new direction closer to avante-jazz and film score territory than anything he’d previously released, a trajectory that was followed by the release of the jaw-dropping ‘Out From Out Where’ album two years later, which showed a multitude of influences ranging from Bernard Herrman’s classic score to ‘Taxi Driver’ to electric-era Miles Davis being run through Tobin’s twisted sonic filter, the result being a densely-engrossing ‘soundtrack’ style experience that at times ventured into the nightmarish.

With Tobin’s music travelling in an increasingly cinematic direction (and also given his self-stated passion for the genre), it seems inevitable that at some point soon, he would be commissioned to produce an entire soundtrack, and with the release of his soundtrack for ‘Splinter Cell 3 – Chaos Theory’, that moment has now arrived. Don’t expect to be able to fall asleep during the slow bits however – in this case, we’re talking about a soundtrack designed to interact with an onscreen game character, with ‘increasing levels of stress’ reflected in the sonics.

ITM’s evilchris caught up with Amon Tobin to discuss the advantages games soundtracks often have over Hollywood, the film composers that have personally influenced his work and ‘that’ gig in Melbourne last year…

ITM: Were there any particular film soundtracks / film composers that you had in mind as influences or examples, while you were working on the Splinter Cell – Chaos Theory soundtrack?

AT: My favourites are Bernard Herrman, RD Burman, Ennio Morricone, John Barry and Lalo Schifrin. The soundtrack in particular I drew inspiration from for this project was Dirty Harry. I started obsessing over the bell sounds a la ‘Mardigras Break’ which led me to make my own bell chime break that you can hear on ‘Ruthless’ and ‘Ruthless reprise’.

ITM: Were the separate musical tracks included in the Chaos Theory soundtrack something that you designed to run ‘in conjunction’ with visuals (ie. did you create tracks in parallel whilst viewing scenes / events from the game, or was this done as a completely separate process?)

AT: I worked from Quicktime videos of testers running through each level of the game. The idea was to make a full 5-6 minute arrangement for each map that was split into four layers. Each layer corresponds to a level of stress that would trigger individually following the players moves.

ITM: After the experience of working on this type of computer game soundtrack, are you keen to perhaps work on a motion picture soundtrack at some point in the future?

AT: Really I’m interested in doing soundtracks. To me it doesn’t matter if it’s for a game, a movie, or whatever. My focus this time round was on making the soundtrack to a thriller that mostly already existed in my head and to do it to the best of my ability.

ITM: A number of writers have commented on the noticeable stylistic shift in your music that occurred around the time of ‘Supermodified’s release, from jazz-informed beats and samples towards a considerably darker, harder and more ‘film-score-esque’ direction; a progression that your Chaos Theory soundtrack appears to continue. What do you think were the main reasons behind this stylistic shift?

AT: I’d done lots of music based on jazz and jazz breaks up to ‘Supermodified’ and made a conscious effort to explore new ground at that stage. This soundtrack however was commissioned on the basis of that jazz break/ high bpm sound, so it wouldn’t have been appropriate to have delivered a series of ‘new styles’ for it. Instead I saw it as an opportunity for me to dive back in to a sound closer to what I was doing around the time I did ‘Permutation’, but with a whole different context.

ITM: I understand that you also recently contributed music (alongside fellow Ninja Tunes artists Blockhead, Diplo and Lo-Tek Hifi) to Sony Computer Entertainment’s ‘The Getaway – Black Monday’ -what is it that particularly attracts you to working on game soundtracks / audio?

AT: I think games offer a way of getting your music heard by a very diverse audience without having to compromise what you do. I see it as a relatively new platform that’s rivaling the movie industry in popularity but that still doesn’t suffer the constraints you might associate with a big Hollywood production.

ITM: You’ve also developed a 5.1 DVD-Audio version of the Chaos Theory soundtrack, which will emerge on the shelves a month after the standard CD audio version; obviously working with this same sound in a 5.1 DVD audio environment would have presented a considerably more involved process? What sort of priorities did you have when working in this 5.1 audio format?

AT: There are two main ways of approaching a surround mix, so I’m told. One is to place the audience in an imaginary place, say third row from the stage where the mix is mostly in-front with reverbs and occasional pans fx behind. The other is to place the audience right in the middle of the band/orchestra. Needless to say I opted for the latter with careful guidance from Bobby Owsinski at Surround Associates who has had a lot of experience mixing in surround. The end result is a much more involved listening experience, almost disorientating at times.

ITM: Are you keen to look at perhaps working in this 5.1 DVD-audio format in regard to your future artist album projects?

AT: I’m interested in doing live shows in surround. I like the idea of putting on a show that’s an entirely different experience from hearing my records at home.

ITM: How is living in Montreal going – it certainly sounds like a city with a thriving creative / artistic community? I can also imagine that those sub-zero winters are conducive to camping out in the studio and getting work done?

AT: There is definitely a vibrant creative atmosphere here but I’ve never been involved in scenes even when I lived in the UK. I treat scenes with the same degree of suspicion as I do xenophobes who obsess over national pride or indeed anyone who rides on the coat tails of a collective.I like the Montreal winters because as you say, you get a lot of work done when it’s -30 outside.

ITM: Last year’s Solid Steel Presents release of your live Final Scratch set recorded in Melbourne, brought back some great memories, as I was lucky enough to attend that gig:) Have you any plans to visit us again down under any time soon in the future?

AT: I’m planning to come back this December. I feel really lucky to have had such a great response last time considering how little I manage to come down and play. I’d like to take the opportunity to thank all who came to that show in particular for making it such a memorable night.

ITM: Have you commenced any work on a follow-up to your 2002 album ‘Out From Out Where’? Any ideas at this point as to the sorts of explorations that might be featured, and has working on this game soundtrack altered / influenced the sorts of things that you might be keen to do?

AT: I have lots of obligations right now which I’m hoping to have sorted soon. As soon as that’s all out the way I can start on what I’ve been wanting to do for the last year which is to make a new album of my own. I’ll be taking all the disciplines I learned during making the soundtrack and applying them to a completely different type of music. The plan is to start from where OFOW left off and then go further out to who knows where…

Amon Tobin’s soundtrack to the computer game ‘Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell 3 – Chaos Theory’ is out now through Ninja Tunes/Inertia. A 5.1 limited edition release is expected soon – for more information, check out http://www.ninjatune.net and http://www.amontobin.com.