Permanent Collection

Sound & Light Meets Geography in Kim Taylor’s DEEP GEO

Posted on Monday, August 31, 2026

The fjords of Norway are certainly spectacular in real life but Amsterdam-based CD/motion designer Kim Taylor gives them a whole new dynamic intensity in this audio/video experiment based on georeferenced map models.

Kim Taylor: It’s been a little dispiriting seeing AI take over my feed and feeling that the craft I’ve been honing over the years is being cheapened. I still get a huge amount of satisfaction creating visual art and motion graphics, so I wanted to feel that creative kick again.

“I love both visual and sonic worlds, and combining the two has this alchemy where it becomes something much greater than either of the two parts could have created on their own.”

I created DEEP GEO as the visual companion to the musical track of the same name from my own debut EP Afterimage. No AI generation was used at any stage. The terrain, lighting, and motion was designed, lit, and animated by hand.

The project was built in Cinema 4D (importing/manipulating the map elevation data, lighting, composing and animating the scenes) and then rendered it with Redshift natively inside C4D. I did a bit of comp work afterwards using After Effects, where I also assembled the edit.

I love both visual and sonic worlds, and combining the two has this alchemy where it becomes something much greater than either of the two parts could have created on their own.

Images

A bright vertical beam of light, part of the DEEP GEO Sound & Light experience, shoots into the night sky from a valley surrounded by rugged mountains, with clouds and dark sky overhead. Frame from Stash Magazine article.

Snowy mountain peak under a night sky with swirling purple and pink light trails above, creating a surreal, futuristic atmosphere that blurs the boundaries between Geography and Sound & Light. Frame from Stash Magazine article.

Aerial view of glowing orange and red ridges and valleys, resembling molten lava or a heated, abstract topographic map, with dramatic lighting highlighting the texture—capturing the raw essence of DEEP GEO geography through an interplay of sound & light across the landscape. Frame from Stash Magazine article.

A green-lit, pyramid-shaped mountain with horizontal ridges, set against a night sky with streaking star trails, creates a surreal, otherworldly effect reminiscent of the striking visuals found in the DEEP GEO short film by Kim Taylor. Frame from Stash Magazine article.

A rocky, mountainous landscape under a dramatic sky with glowing orange spheres lighting a winding path at night, capturing the interplay of sound & light that animates this breathtaking geography. Frame from Stash Magazine article.

Credits

Director/animator: Kim Taylor

Music: Kim Taylor

Aerial imagery: Norway Orthophoto Geovekst, sourced from norgeibilder.no, licensed under CC BY 4.0

Stephen Price

Stephen is the co-founder/CD of Stash Media Inc. and the executive editor of Stash Magazine and the Stash Permanent Collection.
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Category: CG, Featured, Motion Design, Short Films · Tags: Kim Taylor