Composer Peter Rundquist has joined New York-based music/sound design company Sacred Noise, following several months there as a freelancer. At the shop, he’s composed music for American Airlines’ "Rocking Plane" via Temerlin McClain, Dallas, and Lucky Strike’s "Lunatic" via Bates USA, New York. He also collaborated with Sacred Noise composer Charles Lovejoy on Herbal Essences’ "Elevator" via The Kaplan-Thaler Group, New York.
Rundquist is a New Jersey native who studied political science at Hamilton College, Clinton, N.Y., graduating in 1986. A guitar player, he spent much of his college career performing in bands: "I played more than I studied," he laughingly told SHOOT. After a short stint on Wall Street, Rundquist joined Elias Associates’ New York office in ’89 as a studio assistant, becoming a composer there within a year. At Elias, Rundquist met composer Michael Montes, who, with Jeff Rosner, would go on to found Sacred Noise in ’94, as creative director and executive producer, respectively.
Soon after Rundquist and Montes met, they began working together on the experimental band Zoar, for which Rundquist plays guitar and co-composes. Rundquist described Zoar’s sound as "a dark ambient music that evolved from sonic experiments. We’re just trying to make music like we’ve never heard." The Zoar album Cassandra is available on Philip Glass’ Point label.
Rundquist joined JSM Music (now JSM), New York, in ’91; went to bicoastal tomandandy’s New York office in ’96; and began freelancing full-time in ’98. However, having grown dissatisfied with the solitary nature of freelancing, he was happy to move his equipment to Sacred Noise and start working out of the shop when Montes and Rosner suggested it. As Rundquist explained, "I realized that I wanted to be more collaborative. I didn’t want to work in a bubble, which is what you do when you’re freelancing. I wanted to work on a spot from beginning to end; I didn’t just want to sit at a keyboard, composing."
Rosner noted, "We [he and Montes] really respected the kind of work Pete was doing. And when we started working with him on a freelance basis, we realized how strong his talent and how diversified his work had become. He’s got great creative insight." Rosner and Montes decided to offer Rundquist a permanent position when clients started requesting Rundquist for their projects: "It became apparent that he ought to be here full-time," said Rosner.
Currently, Rundquist is working on the music for a series of promos for the Women’s United Soccer Association team NY Power. Primarily a guitarist, he composes "with the guitar in my lap and the computer sequencer in front of me." But, he added, "I always want to involve some humans [in the musical process]; I don’t want a sterile thing—the composition’s got to have some soul to it."
Sacred Noise’s composers include Montes, Lovejoy, David Gennaro and Ravi Krishnaswami. The company is repped nationally by in-house head of sales Ann Zagaroli.
