How do you get a Paralympic tandem cyclist who has 1% eyesight, to ride solo on a racing bike?

As part of the '5G. Samen vooruit-campaign', Matemade created the 4 minute case film for Vodafone and PR and Storytelling agency Glasnost. Matemade Music composed a made to measure soundtrack for the film.

Paralympic athlete Tristan Bangma has only one percent vision left and is unable to ride solo. Until shortly he cycled together with a 'pilot'. The gold medalist of Rio receives sound signals via his headphones about his opponents position trough the lightningfast Vodafone 5G-network . This enables him to ride solo again. A dream coming through!

The Music

For this short doc. we were faced with a new musical challenge: creating the music before the film was completed. Working alongside the video team and step by step creating film and music simultaneously. This was a unique opportunity to get even closer to a perfect storytelling and emotional cohesion in both video and audio.

We created a soundtrack intended on sounding modern, digital and always moving forward. Pop drumbeat/drummachines with modern synthesizers and synth basses were the main instruments of choice to achieve this flow.

In the slower, more narrative focused parts of the video, softer piano’s and synth pads took over to ease the music down and shift the emotion more to the message being told.

Finally the video and music reached a crescendo with Tristan taking off on his first ever solo ride using the new 5G technology. “A dream come true” as he said, so the music emphasized that feeling of victory and overcoming the odds by getting bigger, faster and more symphonic. Quick violin and cello arrpeggios, driving double basses and big orchestra percussion make their entrance, push the music into the finale and together with Tristan cross the finish line, all to end on a last satisfying major triad.

'I never thought I would be able to ride solo again. A dream coming through!'