Orchestral Tools Announces Grimm with Bleeding Fingers

Contemporary medieval ensembles for modern cinematic scoring and sound design

Berlin, Germany, May 8, 2024 — Orchestral Tools announces Grimm with Bleeding Fingers, an evocative collection of historic instrument ensembles created in collaboration with the Hans Zimmer-led composing collective. Created in close collaboration with Bleeding Fingers Music composers Adam Lukas and Jacob Shea for an upcoming series, the collection is a medieval orchestra crafted for the modern composer – filled with authentic sounds and timbres but designed specifically for contemporary melodic and textural expression. The modern approach takes the collection well beyond the stylistic cliches of these instruments making it a compelling sonic toolkit for modern drama and horror scoring as well as historical fiction and fantasy. Grimm with Bleeding Fingers is available now for an intro offer price of €179 (€249 + VAT regularly) until May 22, 2024. For more information and to purchase, please click here.

Venturing into the sonic heart of a dark, foreboding forest
The core of Grimm is six ensembles of traditional instruments that present the complete sonic palette of a dark, medieval-tinted world. Each ensemble features a main showcase instrument supported by two matching instruments and played together as a single sound. Featured instruments include familiar sounds such as lutes and baroque violins and violas, as well as the hurdy-gurdy, tagelharpa (bowed harp from Northern Europe), and the sackbut (predecessor of the modern trombone) among others. The characteristics of these instruments immediately set a historic mood, but use of contemporary and experimental playing techniques when recording them elevates the sounds into a modern context.

All the instruments in Grimm were sampled with expert musicians at the Teldex Scoring Stage in Berlin, ensuring that they blend seamlessly with all other Orchestral Tools libraries. All the ensembles are also key-mapped for compatibility with modern (A4=440Hz) tuning which makes them easily fit into any composition without transposing.

In addition to its primary ensembles Grimm also includes an array of processed pads and impacts sculpted from the raw instrumental sounds and combined with distortion, filtering, and other effects to create a wide variety of sonic moods. Gritty, dark, eerie, melancholic, or sweetly dystopian sound design is easily achievable and serves as a compelling sonic canvas for modern film and television scoring.

“Grimm was a fantastic opportunity to reimagine traditional instruments within a contemporary context, and expand the definitions of what sounds and textures fit within modern film and television scoring,” said Orchestral Tools CEO Hendrik Schwarzer. “It was great to collaborate with our friends at Bleeding Fingers Music on this collection, and we’re looking forward to seeing how composers use it to create modern compositions with a medieval nuance.”

For more information about Grimm with Bleeding Fingers, please visit: https://www.orchestraltools.com/store/collections/grimm

About Bleeding Fingers
Bleeding Fingers Music is an all-star team of composers founded by Hans Zimmer, Russell Emanuel, and Steven Kofsky under the credo that collaboration fosters innovation and creativity. Their work can be found in major film and television productions including Blue Planet 2, Prehistoric Planet, The Simpsons, Beckham, and a lot more

About Orchestral Tools
Orchestral Tools makes premium-quality sampled instruments for professional composers. Notable libraries include the Berlin Series, Metropolis Ark, Tallinn, Tom Holkenborg’s Brass and Percussion, created in collaboration with composer Tom Holkenborg, and Phoenix Orchestra, created in collaboration with composers Harry Gregson-Williams and Richard Harvey. Originally founded in 2005 by Hendrik Schwarzer, Orchestral Tools operates internationally from its base in Germany, with offices in Freiburg and Berlin.