CYPHER was commissioned to create original music and sound design for Ultramega Kaiju Klash! – an ambitious anime-style short film directed and animated entirely by Kris Brady. The film draws from the cult comic series Ultramega by James Harren, capturing the kinetic brutality of early 1990s Japanese animation: a style that demands sound design as relentless and precise as the visuals.

Director/Animator : Kris Brady

Sound by Cypher

Joris van Grunsven (Original Music)

John Black (Sound Design & Mix)

The Big Bang Original Unico

Client : Hublot

Produced by Tendril 

Directed by Alexandre Veaux 

Sound by Cypher 

Original music : Joris van Grunsven/Joseph Sims 

CD : John Black 

Hexagonal Prisms is a music label and monthly mix series that releases music and sound on physical media and digitally. 

The initial concept was to create a beautifully packaged trilogy of cassette releases that would be both collectable design object and analogue audio delivery device. This project has developed into an important part of our creative studio practice, fostering artistic expression and a blatant disregard for commercial concerns.

Volume 01 has each side represent a ‘soundfilm’ to be experienced for the duration of 21 mins + (UV print on clear shell and cassette type engraving)

Volume 02/Transient Dispatches leans into a more rhythmic theme : 23:23 per side (Type engraved on mirror diamond cassette, OBI over clear shell)

Volume 03 arriving in Autumn 2026. 

Nic Girard designed the UV print on clear shell and cassette type engraving, as well as the supporting graphic materials and HP logo. The tapes were then hand assembled and packaged within antistatic bags containing custom logo/wordmark stickers.

Client : Huawei

Produced by cclab

Sound by Cypher

Composer : Joris van Grunsven

Sound Design & Mix : John Black

The Game Awards is the premier global celebration of the video game industry – an annual ceremony watched by tens of millions, combining the scale of a live broadcast event with the production values of a major entertainment show.

Client : Game Awards

Directed by Worship 

Sound by Cypher

Joris van Grunsven : Original Music

John Black : Sound Design & Mix 

Figure is building some of the most advanced humanoid robots in the world. For the reveal of the F.03 — their latest-generation robot — they worked with Tendril and CYPHER to create a product launch film that matched the ambition of the machine itself.

The result is a launch film that positions Figure’s technology not as science fiction, but as something present and inevitable. For CYPHER, the Figure work represents an expanding practice in sound design for emerging technology — where the audio has to define something the audience has no reference for.

Client : Figure

Production : Tendril

Sound by Cypher 

Original Music : Joris van Grunsven

Sound Design & Final Mix : John Black 

Production Company : Scholar 

Directors : Chris Finn & Michael Tavarez

Sound by Cypher

John Black was the Audio Director for Parallel Studios 2022-2025.

As Audio Director he oversaw the sound design, music and VO for the studio’s three games currently in development.
Composer Joris van Grunsven was added to the team in 2023 and created original music for the games, cinematics, short films and sonic identities.

Produced by Tendril

Sound By Cypher 

Figure is a humanoid robotics company. To build hype for the F.02, their second general purpose robot, Figure came to Tendril to create teaser films that demonstrate the elegance of the F.02’s materials and movements, juxtaposed with the groundbreaking engineering beneath the surface.

Sound by Cypher

CD/Sound Design: John Black

Composer: Joris van Grunsven

Sound Design/Mix: Joseph Sims

A young girl’s life is forever changed when a fleeting moment of wonder— a swan taking flight —awakens her first spark of creativity. Moved to share the beauty she perceives, she begins to explore her artistic voice but soon finds herself grappling with the shadow of self-doubt. This quiet yet transformative journey captures the fragile balance between inspiration and uncertainty at the heart of every creative spirit.

Inspired by an excerpt from Patti Smith’s memoir Just Kids, Swans is a poetic journey into the origins of creativity, revealing how a single moment can transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.
 

Studio : Wonderlust
Director : Ryan Rumbolt
Art Director : Justyna Stasik
Animation : Juan Pontaroli, Arm Sattavorn

Sound by Cypher
Composer : Joris van Grunsven
Sound Design/Mix : John Black

Directed and Produced by FutureDeluxe.

Discover TruGuard Lite: Red Wing Shoes’ latest workboot line that combines heavy-duty performance without the extra weight and bulk. Through innovative design, the TruGuard Lite collection demonstrates that lightweight comfort and rugged durability can seamlessly coexist.

Sound by Cypher
Composer: Joris van Grunsven
Sound Design & Mix: John Black

Cymatics + Cymatics Explorations

In 2013 Emmy Award winning artist Susi Sie approached John Black of Cypher to create sound design for a film called Cymatics which went on to win a Vimeo staff pick and garner several editorial features. 

All scenes were filmed by using lycopodium powder, 50 Hz, a Canon 5D and a 100mm macro lens.

The finished edit was turned over to Cypher to reinterpret the movement sonically. 

In October 2024 we launched a series of 9 short films based on unused scenes from the original shoot, that illustrate the beauty of analogue chaos and organized sound.

IBM’s Z17 mainframe represents the next generation of enterprise computing – technology built to handle the most demanding workloads on earth with speed, reliability, and security. For its product launch campaign, Tendril brought CYPHER in to create sound design and original music that could carry the gravity and precision of the reveal.

Client: IBM

Production Studio : Tendril

Sound by Cypher

The Huawei P50 Pocket Premium Edition by Iris Van Herpen is guided by the designer’s principle of »symbiosis«, with the etching on the cover meant to evoke the shadows and texture of the earth. 

Produced by Tendril 

Sound By Cypher 

Massimo Duti year end 2023

Direction & Animation : JoyCGI

Sound by Cypher 

Directors cut and exploration for the AJ11 ’23 campaign

Creative Direction : Vitaly Grossmann
Animation & Design : Vitaly Grossmann
Simulation : Philipp Pavlov

Sound by Cypher

Sound Design : Joseph Sims & John Black 

Production Company : Tendril
Director : Shane Griffin

Sound by Cypher
Music Composition by Joris van Grunsven
Creative Direction, Sound Design & Mix by John Black

Opening Titles for Design Conference FITC Toronto 2023.
Directed by Nicolas Girard/Worship Studio

Sound by Cypher
Composer : Joris van Grunsven
Sound Design & Mix : John Black

A product film showcasing Hublot’s latest Masterpiece series watch in partnership with Takashi Murakami.

Production Company : Tendril

Sound by Cypher

An award-winning sport drama. A gifted athlete struggles to reconcile her natural talent with the reckless decision making that comes from adolescence.

Selected for the New York Shorts and Toronto Shorts International Film Festivals. 

Production : Revolver Films

Director : Duane Crichton

Writer : Kimberley Gillis

Original Score : John Black

»GHOSTS« the mesmerizing animated short film by Kristoffer Brady, delves into a haunting realm of memories, visions, and fragments, embodying the spector of Zach Hughes. With a compelling nod to the original animated short »Hashiru Otoko« by Yoshiaki Kawajiri, this film pays homage to the influential works that shaped Brady’s artistic journey. Inspired by classics like Vampire Hunter D and Ninja Scroll, this project is a heartfelt tribute to Kawajiri-san’s impactful contributions to the world of animation.

Brady’s vision takes audiences on a journey steeped in abstraction and artistry, capturing the enigmatic tale of Racer 37, Zach Hughes, and the downfall of the Death Circus. What emerges is a story layered with intricate nuances, inviting viewers to immerse themselves in their interpretations of Zach’s power and ultimate demise. Through stunning animation and an ethereal narrative, »GHOSTS« navigates the psyche of a character torn between the tranquility of death and an unyielding yearning for victory, creating an atmospheric and visually striking continuum to a tale left open-ended by its predecessor.

Created & Directed by – Kristoffer Brady

Sound by Cypher
Sound Design & Mix by John Black
Music by Joris van Grunsven

Production Company: Tendril

Sound Design + Music : Cypher

Tendril & Cypher joined forces with the Hublot team and brand ambassador Samuel Ross in a fashion-forward collaboration to craft a launch film for the release of the new limited-edition

Big Bang Tourbillon Samuel Ross. 

Production Company : Tendril

Creative Director : Chris Bahry

Director : Pablo Alfieri

Sound by Cypher

Sound Design, Original Music & Mix : John Black

Tendril collaborated with design agency Oker to establish a logo reveal and brand film for Jidu – to be unveiled at ROBODAY 2022. Jidu is a new automotive company, co-founded by Chinese internet giant Baidu and automaker Geely– launching an L4 autonomous car. Jidu employs AI to drive the future of mobility and reimagine the human-machine relationship through immersive experiences.

We crafted the sonic experience.

Client: Jidu

Production Company: Tendril

Creative Director: Chris Bahry

Sound by Cypher

We have been collaborating with Tendril since Day One, so when the opportunity to sonify the brand refresh arouse, we dove right in.

more info

Client : Tendril

Sound by CYPHER
Music Composition/Sound Design/Direction : John Black
Music Composition/Joris van Grunsven

A hero brand film for the Hublot FIFA World Cup 2022.

Production Company: Tendril
Sound by Cypher

Collaborating closely with the team at Hublot, Tendril & Cypher crafted a launch film and visual asset library for the Big Bang Integral Time Only collection.

Sound by Cypher Original Music & Sound Design : John Black

Creative Studio : Massive Assembly

Sound by Cypher
Sound Design/Mix Engineer : John Black
Music by Joris van Grunsven

Tendril collaborated with AOI (Art On Internet) and CYPHER to create a high-fidelity immersive gallery experience for digital art collectors.

Built in Unreal Engine, rendered in real-time on the cloud, and streamed via browser on any device, the gallery offers collectors, the public, and artists the ability to experience and showcase digital art, in a natively digital way.

There is an abundance of exceptionally crafted NFT/digital artwork out there and practically no fitting way to experience it. We took on the creative challenge to design and build something for the art and artists that we love. Our mandate was to explore how far we could push the quality of a real-time 3D online museum for digital art — a love-letter to the likes of Naoshima Island or Storm King.

On launch, the immersive theatre of the gallery included a large scale collaborative artwork created by Tendril, titled Life#1. With sound design by CYPHER, this artwork is the first part of an ongoing exploration of the algorithms and processes that guide how living things grow and the forms they will take.

Conceptually, the gallery was designed to be as serene and immersive as possible: blending past and future, nature and architecture, interior and exterior. It’s a space that you can and want to spend time in, exploring and discovering little surprises around each corner (there are easter eggs to be discovered). As digital artists and creators, we are so excited to be able to provide a space for people to enjoy some of the most amazing digital art out there in a setting worthy of its craft and significance.

The generative, ambient music system was designed to produce ever evolving sonic experience within the hub and gallery spaces. Layers of ‘loops’ play in a random order based on sets of defined rules, generating a unique composition on each visit to the gallery. The daytime experience is in a major key, while the night mode is minor, shifting the mood slightly.

The Ambient System :

When the opportunity came up to collaborate with Tendril and create the auditory experience for the Shōyu AOI Gallery, I couldn’t have been more inspired by the concept for this immersive space. I immediately decided that it should be something that utilizes procedural music and sound to create a unique, evolving soundscape.

I have been interested in generative music for some time, being familiar with Brian Eno’s Music For Airports and subsequent installation work, I thought it would be fitting to design a procedural system, with additional inspiration coming from the Japanese Kankyō Ongaku ambient music movement of the early 1980s. Kankyō Ongaku literally means ‘environmental music’ and I wanted to bring some of the textures and moods from this genre into the gallery, and contribute to the overall sense of meditative space that we were after.

A short film by Six N. Five

Ordinary, everyday objects are the ones who rebel in a high-class house. Hidden, invisible, concealed, they disrupt the harmony of the calculated interior design. A true class revolution takes place, where the underdogs rise up against a so-called perfection.

Sound by Cypher featuring the music of Georgia.
Creative direction, production, arrangement, sound design & mix : John Black
Music Composition : Brian Close & Justin Tripp/Georgia

Created by Worship for Riot Games

Sound by Cypher 

A favourite from the Hublot series, a case study in synchronized motion and sound. 

Production Company : Tendril

Creative Director : Chris Bahry

Director : Vitaly Grossmann 

more 

Sound by Cypher
Original music/sound design/mix : John Black

Part of an ongoing exploration of the algorithms and processes that guide how living things grow and the forms they will take.

Produced by Tendril

Sound by Cypher

Sound Design, Original Music & Mix : John Black

Client : Riot Games

Studio : Massive Assembly

Sound by Cypher

Directed by Six N. Five Studio for Brizo’s, Kintsu Bath collection and inspired by the Japanese wabi-sabi philosophy. The campaign is called Counter/Balance and inspired us to create these three calm and relaxing videos.

Sound by Cypher

Sound Design Original Music & Mix : John Black

We were incredibly stoked to work on these three mini films with Alex Grigg, created for the cool people at Super Deluxe. It is part of a series of fragments designed to be seen on Instagram.

Written and Animated by Alex Grigg
Sound by Cypher

»Rutger Bregman on Taxes« is personal project made in collaboration with Yaniv Friedman. The quote is an excerpt from Dutch journalist and historian Rutger Bregman’s conference given at the 2019 World Economic Forum in Davos, where he talks about wealth inequality, philanthropy and taxes. Rutger is also the author of »Utopia for Realists«. A book where he explores three core concepts; a universal basic income, a 15-hour workweek and open borders across the globe.

Design & Animation : Yaniv Friedman

Sound by Cypher

Produced by Tendril
Sound by Cypher

Client : Haibike
Direction, Design & Animation :
ManvsMachine

Sound by Cypher

Sound Design Mix

Design/Animation/Direction : Tendril

Original Music & Sound Design : CYPHER

A cinematic that pays tribute to classic anime movies, while honing Tendril’s unique in-house art style.
Created by Tendril

Sound by Cypher Original Music, Sound Design & Mix by John Black

»The Second Coming« is a 1919 poem by W. B. Yeats, written under the shadow of WW1, and tells of the coming apocalypse. The film’s visuals are directly inspired by the early pioneers of moveable type, an artistic movement of the time. Artists such as Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Theo van Doesburg, Piet Zwart and Jan Tschichold. Their new untethered approach to moveable type injected a keen sense of emotion into an otherwise rigid medium. The film also mimics animation of the time with a stifled frame rate of 6fps. 

Voiced by English actor Jack Cutmore-Scott.

Created as part of TED Ed’s poetry/animation series.

By Eoin Duffy

Sound by Cypher

Music and Sound Design : John Black 

For A&E Networks by PRODIGAL PICTURES

Director : Danny Yount

Executive Producer : Grant Julian
Production Design : Southside Allstars
Director Of Photography : Andrew Shenkweiler
Editor : Shawn Fedorchuk

Sound by Cypher

Music & Sound Design : John Black

Cinema 4D/Octane Render/AfterEffectsTitle Designer/3D Artist: zaoeyo (Xiaolin Zeng)

Score & Sound Design : Cypher

Based on a poem and inspired by the work of Italian designer, Ettore Sottsass, Some is a short film that explores the spectrum of emotions of everyday life.

Produced by: Wonderlust
Directed by: Ryan Rumbolt
Art Direction//Illustration: Justyna Stasik
Animation: Juan Pontaroli & Arm Sattavorn

Sound by Cypher

The TEDx Sydney 2018 animation explore this year’s topic of Humankind by taking us through museum galleries, where our present and potential future collide with the past.

Modern subjects are mixed with classical forms, and the suspended animation of these sculptures kindles poignant evaluation of our current place within humanity’s short timeline.

Client: TEDx Sydney
Direction: Scott Geersen

Original Music & Sound Design : Cypher

Battle Force is a celebration of sport and culture, a global event where hoops, art, music and dance all come together. Nike approached us to develop a living, modular motion system that could accommodate a multitude of expressions — from web films to environmental animation to social content. 

Directed by: Oddfellows

Sound by Cypher 

Original Music/Sound Design/Mix : John Black 

Agency: R/GA
Art Direction & Development by Six N. Five 

Sound by Cypher

Original Music & Sound Design : John Black

We had the chance to collaborate with the one and only GMUNK on this film for the Infiniti QX50.

The fine folks at 72andSunny came to Munkowitz late in 2017 with a bold idea – they wanted to examine the relationship between Humans and technology and explore the notion that together, this union is more powerful than ever. They wanted Munko to create a series of films that spotlight the all-new INFINITI QX50 through the relentless cycle of man pushing machine—and machine pushing man.

You see, the drive to innovate is innately human–and it has been since the dawn of man. We were always inventors, building newer and better tools to fuel our societies. The technologies we create have always been an extension of the people we are. In other words… machines reflect the humans who dream them up. They are our extra limbs. Our superpower. Our evolutionary legacy. No machine represents that more elegantly or self-awarely than the new Infiniti QX50.

Sound by Cypher

Original Music/Sound Design/Mix

Client : SPACE10

Creative direction: Six N. Five + Sebastián Baptista 

Sound by Cypher//John Black

ItsNiceThat 

This collection of motion clips came from the Worship rebrand of Cypher, and were also utilized in John Black’s Blend presentation in May 2017.
Most audio is from previous projects, recontextualized to these minimal motion visualizations, creating a unique take on an audio reel.

»Hugo in Garden« is a multi-collaborative project where we explored how artificial common materials work into an organic atmosphere.

Directed by Six N. Five + Twistedpoly
Design & Art Direction by Six N. Five
2D sketches by Eze Matteo
Animation & edit by Twistedpoly

Music & Sound Design by John Black/Cypher

Event opening title card for CIINEMA, a monthly film screening series in Toronto.

Design by Worship. Nicolas Girard, Rafael Ruiz, Shalinder Matharu
Music & Sound Design by John Black/Cypher

Pilot episode of a series of short films commissioned by Zeiss, which look at artists, athletes, technologists and thought leaders around the globe who rely on Zeiss products to see and capture the world in unique ways.

FAMOUS FANS | CHI PO LIN

Director/DOP : Harrison Schaaf

Sound by Cypher : Original Music, Sound Design & Mix

Cypher was commissioned to create the music, sound design and mix for four films featuring artists in four Conde Nast magazines, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Bon Appetit & Architectural Digest.

Join Barry Jenkins, writer and director of the acclaimed »Moonlight,« as he returns to the film’s shooting locations, including the neighborhood where he grew up. In this video, part of Lincoln’s Continental Stories series, Jenkins shows how his time away from Miami allowed him to make a triumphant cinematic return to his hometown, and to grow exponentially as a filmmaker.

Produced by Common Good

Sound by Cypher Original Music, Sound Design & Mix

Production Studio: Tendril

Sound by Cypher

Original Music, Sound Design & Mix : John Black

Alone in an aging cosmos, a traveller’s pilgrimage comes to an end.
A short film by Eoin Duffy

Produced by the NFB

Sound Design by John Black

I had the honour of speaking at Blend in May of 2017 in Vancouver. Blend is a unique event in the design world, with no sponsors and a positive community atmosphere, it really is all about design, motion and sound. 

As the first sound designer to present at Blend, I had an especially fortunate opportunity to speak about my background and career designing audio for motion and other mediums. The visuals for the talk were created by Worship, and really helped set the tone for my segment ‘Constructing Imaginary Worlds’.

In addition to presenting, CypherAudio also created the sound for the opening title sequence The Blend Is Near.

VISUALS: DFMN
AUDIO: CYPHER 

Vimeo Staff Pick

Rising from the surreal landscape of an incredible alien world, Nike’s reinvented running shoe, the LunarEpic Flyknit, was a product launch of galactic proportions. 

Client : Nike 

Production Company : Tendril

Sound by Cypher

In this second phase of Nike’s LunarEpic launch campaign, the shoe has arrived on Earth bringing with it otherworldly powers. Roads curve and stretch seemingly into infinity. Impossible runs suddenly feel effortless. Gravity is nonexistent.

Working with Nike and Blacklist, it was our task to conceive and develop a narrative and visual structure for the brand film around the tagline ‘run forever’. The manifestation was a 45s film and sound design), key print and digital ‘hero’ visuals, social media clips and a large-scale track and field dome installation. 

Produced by Tendril

Sound by Cypher Original Music, Sound Design & Mix : John Black

Few things are as inspiring as nature and the human form. In this experimental film, director Eddie Alcazar imagines a world that blurs the line between fantasy and reality to celebrate sensuality inspired by Versace‘s Bright Crystal fragrance. The project gave Alcazar the opportunity to explore using the highest end film cameras, namely the Panavision 65mm Panaflex camera, together with a combination of stunning practical and visual effects.

The allure of a high-end fashion brand drew Alcazar in, allowing the creative freedom to make beautiful and emotional imagery, something soft and feminine.

»Bright Crystal« additionally required three main VFX teams to complete the complex elements of the film, all with the challenge of ensuring the end result still felt delicate, natural and real.

Sound by Cypher 

Original Music/Sound Design/Mix

Elevation Pictures film distribution logo animation.

Produced by Tendril

Sound Design and Music by John Black/Cypher

Sound Design Edit

Winner : 2016 The Art Directors Club Awards Designism (Motion)
Winner : 2016 The Art Directors Club Awards GOLD Winner : 2016

One Show, Silver Pencil Winner : 2016

D&AD Wood Pencil

Directed by Buck 
Sound by Cypher

Opening Titles The Opening Titles for Style Frames NYC.
A Tendril Design + Animation Production
Directed by Anthony Scott Burns and Chris Bahry.

Sound by Cypher : Original Music/Sound Design/Mix : John Black

Mongrel Media is one of Canada’s leading film distribution companies specializing in art house, foreign and independent feature films and documentaries.

Created by Helios Design Labs

Sound Design by John Black

Working with Nike, Buck directed and produced one 30 sec spot for TV and a plethora of other animated goodness that coated multiple screens in Times Square for the World Basketball Festival in NYC. Character design by Saiman Chow.

Sound by Cypher Original Music, Sound Design & Mix

PAUSE, an exploration of concept and design within Broadcast and Film. From :30 commercial spots to feature film projects, PAUSE will examine the creative and technical approaches of industry leading studios and agencies. We assembled some of the best in the business and they presented two days of non-stop kinetic information and inspiration.

Directed by IAMSTATC (BTRY)

Sound By Cypher