Hmmm... the very beginning seemed to have a little timing difficulties
between the drums and intro instruments, but things tightened a little
later. The lead guitar was slightly out of tune from the piano and
rhythm guitar, which was distractingly discordant. The slow buildup
and relaxing of the drums was interesting, but near the peaks there
was so much noise going on everything got muddy and overdriven.
You may need to work with some compression or start softer so you
have more headroom at the loud parts. The piano and strings near the
end were a nice respite from the earlier part... although the ending
strings seemed to hold almost too long, and then got cut off at the end
of the recording. The fact that the whole piece was based on a single
note made it a little monotonous... about 1/3 of the way in I kept
expecting and wanting a key change or a different chord structure but
it never came, sort of like that cold stare of silence that goes on for too
long, making you squirm uncomfortably... wait... maybe that's what
you were trying to get across? (smirk) Hope these are useful
comments/critiques!
ttfn,
Drakonis

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I don't agree with Drakonis about the drums at the beginning, I think it sounds fine - the piano hangs just off the drum beat. but I do agree that it needs some sound sculpting. If you are using Logic Express, there's a limiter in there which will hold the sound under the magic 0db and may get rid of the red mist. I like the one note thing, but I thought the piano distracted from it at times. I would like to have heard a guitar there maybe, like sunn0)) or the ambient bits in Old Man Gloom's Christmas. Very good though, I like the way you are pursuing a musical vision and not just playing around with genres and such. Keep it up!!

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Leaning more towards Smokey's suggestions where the timing and noise
are fine. Very atmospheric.
Would you happen to be a fan of Roy Montgomerey, Bardo Pond or Flying
Saucer Attack? If not, you might like them.

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2/3rd's the way thru...that ambient string pad/piano section. Wow that
was seriously heady. way cool. sad, comforting, wistful and expansive.
love your choices of photo's, did you take them?

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