Here are five experiments in electronica, orchestra, and composition, with the purpose of evoking all emotions: sorrow, happiness, fear, hope, regret, and hopefully redemption. I’ve always wanted to take people someplace else with a song, so this is the continuation of my journey as a composer and a producer to hopefully make me better at achieving that goal.
Track list
The Ballet Suite
The introduction for this EP is inspired by my life-long obsession with Dmitri Shostakovich (which should come as no surprise, I once dedicated an entire album to deconstructing one of his pieces). He was a master of epic, cinematic orchestra. The piece begins with a simple bass line which repeats again and again. It’s joined with counter melodies by guitars, horns, strings, synths, and drums, ushering in an earth-shattering climax before dying off again in to a simple bass, flute, and piano outro.
Canon
This is a bit of a reprieve after the introduction, but continues to feel like an introduction of its own. Organ, strings, and piano build on a theme before disappearing in to nothingness, only to be brought back in to a variation on the theme by gentle orchestrations, and guitars. You can hear my Sigur Rós influences throughout this particular piece. They’re a band I’ve admired for many years, and will be the first to say they have inspired and will continue to inspire a great deal of my music.
Disaster is Restless
This is the title track, and starts much like any other. Just four chords repeated again and again, as more and more instruments and synthesizers join the chorus, ebbing and flowing around a simple piano solo which repeats itself as the song unfolds. I wanted to evoke a feeling of sunrise, and maybe even a bit of peace here. Ironically there’s nothing very disastrous about this song, which was the intent, as I was hoping to juxtapose the title with the contents of the music.
Forever Dawn
This song is, in a lot of ways, a “Part 2” of the second track on the EP: Canon. You will hear similar themes, chord progressions and melodies that were introduced in Canon, but in a different way. When I refer to a Canon, I mean it in the strictly literal sense, as a singular source that has been accepted as the original, genuine article, that many variations might be derived from.
7,000 Years
This is the closer, and hopes to give something of an epic conclusion to this release. It’s the only song with vocals, and yet the vocals are barely intelligible, as they’re heavily processed with various effects, but in general, the song is about how we’re all sometimes guilty of waiting for the next big thing, unable to accept life as it is right here and right now. One day, when I have a particular thing, or once I’ve achieved a particular milestone, then I’ll be happy. We predicate our happiness on fantasies. We have this invisible to-do list that has “happiness” at the end, if only all these criteria are met. I don’t know of a way out of this trap, but hopefully being aware of it is a step one of sorts.
Thanks for listening, you precious few 🙂