Inside Stephen Arnold Music’s CNN International work

In a recent release, Stephen Arnold talked about his recent work for CNN International:

”I-Desk is about immersing viewers into breaking stories,” said Stephen Arnold, President of Stephen Arnold Music. ”Since the news can come from anywhere in the world, the theme needed to have a broad reach in terms of instrumentation and orchestration. So our job for a show like ‘I-Desk,’ is to maintain an international flavor, without skewing the sound too heavily towards any one region.”

For “Inside Africa,” Arnold had to create a compelling intro using local beats that worked with CNN’s existing brand.

”We stayed true to the three-note mnemonic that’s a signature of the network’s ‘Inside the Middle East,”’ Arnold says. ”We applied those same notes, but in a setting that emphasized strong beats and modern instrumentation, creating a sound that was instantly recognizable as pan-African.”

”For themes like ‘I-Desk’ and ‘Inside Africa,’ you can overwhelm the composition with local instruments and ideas if you’re not careful,” Arnold says. ”These two shows represent the way we love to work, making extremely well-balanced music with a global perspective.”