In memory of 400 Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians by VicDiesel
Genre: Native American
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Keywords:
flute (144), native american (21), atrocity (1), war crime (2)
Description:
The full title of this piece is: In memory of 400 Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians who were cowardly massacred by troops under general Chivington after said Indians had already surrendered. This commemorates an event that happened on November 29, 1864.
Hardware:
Butch Hall native american flute in F#, Scott August model Anasazi flute in A, Godin fretless bass guitar.Software:
Logic. All synths are Zebra.You must be registered and logged-in to comment.
I'll take a download.....thanks.
Mystified
This is beautiful....transcendent.
Thank you
Rocha Malhada
this just for me, right? :) Not.
You know how I love this... thanks for the DL
November 29, '56 (almost a century later) is my birthday; so I'm kind of glad you didn't wait until Saturday to post this. I was just telling a friend of mine a couple of days ago that had the original Americans been known and backed by the Chinese, they would have kicked everyone's ass and you and I would not BE, here anyway. Then again, they would not have lived the same, either... A people lost by isolation from the advent of a technologically "superior" race
. - Harold
VicDiesel
That's my birthday too, which is how I found out about it. I was looking up what happened on that day in history.
Doadars Uncle
Dramatic and emotional. The story sounds terrible. This is a wonderful tribute.
michael2
is a really nice track, and perfect for the thanksgiving holiday. you always have such cool instrumentation and production. inspiring really, how long have you been working with Logic? your comfort level is obvious and allows you to really focus on the music and not fret the production process. great stuff. love how that flute sound evolves into something resembling an ebow.
VicDiesel
thanks for the compliments. I've been using Logic since version 5, probably around the year 2000, maybe a bit later. Given how long that is I should really know its features better than I do, but I seem to get the job done anyway.
In the second half of this piece I switch to an Anasazi flute which is much lower and much harder to play than the instrument in the beginning. The ebow effect is probably because I have to tinker with the eq and such to lift that dark sound out of the mix. Also, my tone has a lot of wind noise. Fortunately here it contributes in a positive way.
kassia
I am always so wonderfully surprised by the diversity of your tunes and the broadness of your talent. The flute work on this is stunning and just cradled so beautifully by the synths. The bass adds the perfect amount of movement and depth to the piece. Melancholy but not without hope. Gorgeous.
drakonis
Very nicely done here, Victor. The only two things that bothered me a teeny bit were the initial synth that come in sounds a lot like one of those heavily chorused (thus detuned) trance-pad synths, so it sounded slightly out of tune against the higher plucked synths at first (slightly sharp, but it could be my bias against that sound of synth too, and it could be that the "bitter" sound was exactly what you were going for), and the other was that it felt like the low end could have been a bit richer (the bass synths, and thus the whole mix, seemed like it could have a little more 100-150 Hz oomph.)
Now, with that out of the way, this is awesome. I absolutely love the music bed, the rhythms/percussion you have in here, and the slow longing echoey flute performance that floats over the top of this. In some ways, it reminds me a bit of Enigma, sultry and heart-tugging.
Great writing and performance here, again, and again! Love your stuff!
ttfn,
Drakonis
VicDiesel
There are probably one or two more issues that you could have remarked on. I was aware of the intonation problems (and the bass is not always spot on), but I hadn't thought about a relative lack of low frequencies. I find it very hard to integrate a real bass into a synthesizer mix. In the end I may have mixed it a bit low, though on small laptop speakers it actually comes out pretty strong. But a bass guitar is often not even all that low. I'm not sure what to do about that.
Thanks for the compliments. I like how this one came out, in particular that I managed to pull off that Anasazi flute in the end. Difficult instrument, but with a haunting tone.
drakonis
oh, and the artwork is terribly disturbing to me, very effective, apropos, emotive impact. Without a word, it brings up so many atrocities mankind inflicts upon the rest of the world. Pierces this romantic heart.
Feter
Nice ambient flute work with deep bass spread some colors
here and there ..a song telling a story ...thnx alot for
sharin !!!!
tokai
fantastic piece of work, that is a fitting tribute to them. The fretless bass, is my favorite sound here. Beautifully played with perfect pauses and intonation and amongst the flute and synths it fits perfectly. Moving melody with a top production sound.
MarkHolbrook
Love the pipes!
sloparts
that draws you into the sorrow and pain of that moment in time.
I have to ask, when will the human animal learn to stop killing one another and learn there is more joy in giving than in taking. Of all the creatures in the world we are the only one that kills for "Sport" and "Revenge"
That is were this music took me Vic, it makes me very sad, because so much beauty is possible in Man, and yet so much terror is too.
A wonderful piece my friend, thank you for this.
Be well and be cool,
Ed
lengold
musicianship. Very impressive.
Cheers
Len
Diviner
This is certainly a great track, so well composed and beautiful to listen to. I agree with the sentiment of the title. You have done really here, very impressed.
peacepiano
Modern sounds meld well with the live flutes. Mournful sound send message clearly.
Thanks
Bill
dolby
Yeah, I like this a lot. It's very heartfelt and emotional.
I love the quality of each of the sounds - and the overall mix is excellent.
Good stuff -
Ibstrat
was listening to (right-wing) radio the other day and they had a guy on who had written a book about the "truth" of the American settlers treatment of the native Americans.His theory is that European society was inherently superior and had to prevail.He also claims that the "mainstream media" over emphasizes negative episodes in history (Like slaughters)while failing to report on the "good" things.(Setting up reservations in the desert,casinos?)
Your song is a fitting tribute- you play with extreme emotion and the background sounds superb to me.
Parichayaka
Soothing and mesmerizing. Not a single note out of place, harmonious and well mixed. Nice that you played in the bass, really adds to the mix. Some of the synths have a slightly different pitch from the flutes (especially the drone in the beginning) but overall this track must be one of your best, and that says a lot!
dreadmon
This is great, Vic - different than anything I've heard you do before. As usual, big sound and impressive arranging. My one comment would be to decrease slightly the amount of delay in order to let the flutes breathe in the mix, or maybe bump down the wetness in favor of more spacious reverb. What kind of mics did you use for the flutes? You got a really nice, true sound there. Superb track!
VicDiesel
Thanks for the compliments. I've actually done a few more native flute tunes and one (Vermillion Cliffs) is in a meditative vein.
I'll tinker with those delays. There's definitely one that goes on a bit long.
Moviz
atmospheric, meditative and hauntingly beautiful, regards M
guitapick
Bow my head to this...
rabittwhole
wonderful
Confounded
I enjoyed it :)
and it suits the reason that u made it for. it's nice to dedicate a song to such an event.
Peace.
kristyjo
I love how you pillow the flute in the synth and guitar sounds. Really fine playing - I actually like the sound of breathing on the Anasazi flute, it is very human sounding in the midst of the synths. When I grow up, I want to play native american flute like you :)
Downloaded & faved.
Monkaton
I think the bass is very effective and powerful. I wouldn't change it.
It is a fitting tribute and very well done in performance, composition and production.
America can never do enough to repair the evil it wrought on the Natives and their land.
tempie
This is great - originally i thought the title was in memory of a 400 CHEVY so I hit this because i'm a car nut so imagine my surprise LOL but glad I found this dude i'll have to expand my MJ horizons! My wife and I spend alot of time in new mexico (she's choctaw) and so we hear alot of this type of music and generally I think most of it is too easy, too formulaic - like a white new agey person's idea of what indian music should be - but this is exactly what that stuff should sound like imo - thoughtful and intellectual and moving - a tribute without condescending - I don't know if you are indian or not but the point is that the way you compose it doesn't matter. I really dig this i'm going to dl it and play it for her today. Thanks man !
thetiler
to do these types of tributes and pull it off because the music backs up the feeling in the description. It is so important to have great feelings for the music you are playing.
Thanks for the history lesson and of course the wonderful music!
chronologic
KILLER mix of natural instruments and technology. I have always thought it would be a challenge to mix in the naturals with the artificial. I have listened to Enigma kind of a lot and this does remind me of the BEST of Enigma. I guess if I were to add a "constructive" comment it would be that there's not maybe as much thematic motion as might be nice. That doesn't have to be a bad thing, depends on what you want. I guess the point is this is a song that is more contemplative and symmetric throughout, not one that progresses. And all I'm saying is it would have been interesting to see how you might have tackled putting the motion in there. However, given the gravity of the subject, and the actual culmination of real events... I wouldn't have done it either. In another cycle maybe you'll have a different opportunity. I'd like to hear it just as much as I liked to hear this cycle, which is a ton. So that's the best I can do. In other words: awesome. You don't disappoint. Thanks.
yrp
instrument on this piece is the bass.
What have you used as percussion?
That´s a very dinamic piece.
Very good playing all around.
it has the feel of Steve Roach´s album Suspended Memories, Forgotten Gods.
VicDiesel
Thanks for the compliments. I'm rather fond of bass guitars too, in spite of the fact that I'm usually playing a couple of octaves higher.
The percussion was a set of IDM sounds in Ultrabeat. I took some existing patterns and tweaked them a bit.
Jarvoid
and evocative,very...I don't really have the words,it brings a feeling of angst and sorrow and it does not seem long enough...but perhaps less is more.
Jarvo
DeathArrow
hey this has a cool modern sound i could deny it as a movie soundtrack it's pretty cool !!
i like these synth chords you use in this!
cheers, luke