Original music for the 2026 independent film Coyote Road, by Andrew Calvetti
Amber Tides was composed for a pivotal scene in Coyote Road, accompanying the film’s protagonist through a transition from uncertainty, through darkness and conflict, and finally toward action. I also appear in the scene as the performer singing the piece.
The composition began, however, with pigeons.
Pigeons recur as a visual and symbolic motif throughout the film, and I wanted their sounds to become part of its musical world rather than simply appear as environmental effects. I began by recording pigeon vocalizations and radically slowing and phase-stretching them, initially hoping to create a transformed texture inspired by the distinctive processed-guitar sound in Herb Alpert’s Rise.
The experiment produced something entirely different. Once slowed, the pigeon coos revealed a repeating pitched pattern that sounded remarkably like an arpeggiation in G. Rather than forcing the source material toward my original idea, I allowed that accidental discovery to determine the tonal center and sonic character of the piece. The transformed coos became an eerie, cavernous presence at the opening of Amber Tides, and the rest of the composition grew outward from them.
That discovery also left me with a question I have not yet answered: to what extent are the pitch relationships in pigeon vocalizations biologically consistent across populations and environments, and to what extent does my perception of an “arpeggio” reflect my own enculturation in Western tonal music? The moment became as interesting to me as a perceptual question as it was as a compositional one.
Throughout the piece, I continued treating sounds associated with the film’s imagery as musical material. Wild-dog yips become rhythmic and textural elements; pigeon sounds recur in altered forms; and the darker central section incorporates the sonification of a black hole released by NASA. These sounds coexist with voice, musical saw, vintage analog synthesizers including an ARP AXXE, a homemade Stylophone synth, singing bowls, and an assortment of acoustic and electronic instruments.
The structure follows the dramatic movement of the scene. An ambiguous, mysterious opening gives way to a denser and more troubled middle section before emerging into a brighter, celebratory finale. As the music ends, the constructed musical environment gives way again to its source material: the sound of pigeon wings taking flight.
What began as music written for a film became an experiment in allowing the acoustic properties of found sounds—and the unexpected information revealed by transforming them—to guide composition.
Film excerpt presented with permission of filmmaker Andrew Calvetti.