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Description
Summary: This is a re-work of Desert Dance, a LIOLI entry from 2007. It now starts slowly and quietly, but finishes full of energy. I imagined walking through the dry barren hills after sunset, with a myriad of stars coming out overhead, to eventually come upon a small village celebrating around a golden fire in the night.
A subwoofer or low full range speakers/headphones helps.
Further comments:
It's interesting going back to earlier musical work after a couple of years to see what, if anything, I could do to now bring benefit to the early creation. I find there are elements I like in the early stuff and other aspects that I know are not quite right but I a) couldn't figure out what the 'missing ingredient' was, even though I knew there was a hole there somewhere, and b) I did know what was missing but couldn't get a solution to work. The other thing I have learned about myself is c) being too lazy to make improvements because they are going to be 'too hard to do'. The latter has been great learning for me since the effort of resistance is often more than the effort to just get on with it.
In Desert Dance I explored what I thought were middle-eastern influences, although I am not really knowledgeable about the various styles of music of the cultures from the Mediterranean to points further east. The original piece was supposed to be entered in a LIOLI event that was to use some Beathive loops. I think by the time I joined MacJams the LIOLI event had already run its course. :)
The first incarnation came together pretty quickly as it was all crafted out of loops from Beathive and Jam Packs. In listening to it again, I thought I would make it a little longer and let a bit more repetition happen to leave space for a buildup and transition to new themes. There was other repetition that I wanted to take out of some of the loops, like the Oud, where in this version it now almost duels in counterpoint to the Turkish Saz. There is now also more EQ around lead instruments to bring them out better and a more uniform wet/dry balance. The Jin Hu Om melody is new and was hand crafted to replace the original mandatory LIOLI loop in the first version.
I also thought of adding a modulation after the second flute theme, and carrying on with a new melody but decided to keep this incarnation about the original length for the dance section - it seems tidier and I had no clear inspiration as to where to take it further.
The intro is the largest change here. It is a slow build to the dance, like walking through the dry barren hills after sunset, with a myriad of stars coming out overhead, to eventually come upon a small village celebrating around a golden fire in the night. If you hear a Dead Can Dance or Jack Wall (Myst Exile) influence I wouldn't deny it. The Duduk you hear is from QL Silk, and is loop-like in that I didn't have to play each articulation. While I might have had a go myself with selecting and playing from the zillions of Duduk note samples Silk provides, see item c) above. :) The first vocal is from QL Voices of Passion, Syrian, and is also loop like in nature. I decided to use electronic sounds in the intro since they were in version 1 with the main dance theme, and I like the fusion feel and tension they create as a morphing drone under the natural sounding Duduk and VOX. Most of these drone sounds are JP synths, and I also used the Death Song Stormdrone from QL Goliath. I finally hand crafted some beats and added more shakers, a little African choir for low vocals, and some further VOP accents from the American voice. It is all mastered in Ozone 4.
I know that in this piece, the style is similar to Guillo Pran ton Tambourin that I worked on in Nov/09. I guess that just shows the influence of this style of music in my work over the last 3 years and where my head is right now - my 'world fusion phase'.
The artwork is a digital painting I made from picture from a travel photo site.
I'm not sure this is really middle eastern music, but it's the closest genre I could find.
Enjoy the festival!!!
A subwoofer or low full range speakers/headphones helps.
Further comments:
It's interesting going back to earlier musical work after a couple of years to see what, if anything, I could do to now bring benefit to the early creation. I find there are elements I like in the early stuff and other aspects that I know are not quite right but I a) couldn't figure out what the 'missing ingredient' was, even though I knew there was a hole there somewhere, and b) I did know what was missing but couldn't get a solution to work. The other thing I have learned about myself is c) being too lazy to make improvements because they are going to be 'too hard to do'. The latter has been great learning for me since the effort of resistance is often more than the effort to just get on with it.
In Desert Dance I explored what I thought were middle-eastern influences, although I am not really knowledgeable about the various styles of music of the cultures from the Mediterranean to points further east. The original piece was supposed to be entered in a LIOLI event that was to use some Beathive loops. I think by the time I joined MacJams the LIOLI event had already run its course. :)
The first incarnation came together pretty quickly as it was all crafted out of loops from Beathive and Jam Packs. In listening to it again, I thought I would make it a little longer and let a bit more repetition happen to leave space for a buildup and transition to new themes. There was other repetition that I wanted to take out of some of the loops, like the Oud, where in this version it now almost duels in counterpoint to the Turkish Saz. There is now also more EQ around lead instruments to bring them out better and a more uniform wet/dry balance. The Jin Hu Om melody is new and was hand crafted to replace the original mandatory LIOLI loop in the first version.
I also thought of adding a modulation after the second flute theme, and carrying on with a new melody but decided to keep this incarnation about the original length for the dance section - it seems tidier and I had no clear inspiration as to where to take it further.
The intro is the largest change here. It is a slow build to the dance, like walking through the dry barren hills after sunset, with a myriad of stars coming out overhead, to eventually come upon a small village celebrating around a golden fire in the night. If you hear a Dead Can Dance or Jack Wall (Myst Exile) influence I wouldn't deny it. The Duduk you hear is from QL Silk, and is loop-like in that I didn't have to play each articulation. While I might have had a go myself with selecting and playing from the zillions of Duduk note samples Silk provides, see item c) above. :) The first vocal is from QL Voices of Passion, Syrian, and is also loop like in nature. I decided to use electronic sounds in the intro since they were in version 1 with the main dance theme, and I like the fusion feel and tension they create as a morphing drone under the natural sounding Duduk and VOX. Most of these drone sounds are JP synths, and I also used the Death Song Stormdrone from QL Goliath. I finally hand crafted some beats and added more shakers, a little African choir for low vocals, and some further VOP accents from the American voice. It is all mastered in Ozone 4.
I know that in this piece, the style is similar to Guillo Pran ton Tambourin that I worked on in Nov/09. I guess that just shows the influence of this style of music in my work over the last 3 years and where my head is right now - my 'world fusion phase'.
The artwork is a digital painting I made from picture from a travel photo site.
I'm not sure this is really middle eastern music, but it's the closest genre I could find.
Enjoy the festival!!!
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dirigent
Brilliant how you succeed in creating this special vibe, that makes this track breathtaking.
Superb sound, excellent mix (I listened quite loud - with a subwoofer).
Great concept, very cool stuff, much enjoyed :-)