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+--- Thread: GAIA Overture (/showthread.php?tid=401)
GAIA Overture - Mattias Westlund - 05-25-2018
I know, I know. This isn't virtual orchestral music. But same as the synth tracks I posted a while back, this has more in common with orchestral music than typical rock or metal. Plus it features virtual and sampled instruments in a pretty major way.
Anyhow. Late last year I had an idea for a prog rock/metal space opera kind of thing. And while the story itself is still very sketchy in my mind, I've had some musical ideas at the back of my head for a long time now that I wanted to get out of my system. So this past week I've stitched them together into an overture.
It should be mentioned that this is nowhere near from finished in any way. Placeholder guitars, drums are sketchy with bits missing here and there, and I have only spent enough time on the mixing to get stuff in the ballpark.
Overture
And in case you're curious, this is the background story.
Quote:The Gaia, also known as Ark One, was a collossal colonization spaceship conceived and designed by the EPI [Earth Preservation Initiative] during the late 21'st century. After 19 years of construction and exstensive testing it was successfully launched from high Earth orbit on June 8, 2099, populated by around 800,000 people, crew included. Equipped with an early version of the Jin-Xu drive, the Gaia set its course for the habitable zone of the Proxima Centauri system, 4.243 light years from Earth. Launch-time calculations predicted that this journey would take 300 years, or around 12 generations. Thanks to rapid development of the Jin-Xu principle and drive design, the predicted travel time was halved two years into the mission. Again, at seven years under way, another update to the drive could have made the Gaia reach it destination in just over a 100 years, but since transmissions from Earth had become so massively delayed this far out, it is not known whether the Gaia ever received any Jin-Xu updates after that.
In 2109, Earth received its last official transmission from the Gaia. Over a number of years after that, various messages from people aboard the ship sifted back to Earth. These reported that the Gaia had been taken over by a religious cult known as the Creed. According to some, the Creed had its roots within the ship itself, being formed years into the journey. According to others, the cult had been present ever since leaving Earth, biding its time and waiting for the opportune moment to seize control. All sources however seemed to agree that the Creed's purpose was bringing the word of God to a heathen universe, and to that end they ruled the Gaia with an iron fist.
Earth lost all contact with the Gaia after January 7, 2136. To this day it is not known what happened to the ship. A memorial service for the 800,000 souls aboard the Gaia was held at the First Intersolar Spaceport outside London, England in 2140.
Let me know what you think!
RE: GAIA Overture - Samulis - 05-25-2018
Lots of cool ideas! I think the transitions worked very well, definitely very listenable at this time even with placeholders.
RE: GAIA Overture - Mattias Westlund - 05-25-2018
Thanks Sam! Yeah I'm trying to keep things sort of flowing from one mood to the next, and not get stuck in typical metal "riff-o-mania". In fact there's hardly any of it that is strictly guitar-based, the only thing I can think of that is like a classic guitar riff is "The Creed" theme that begins at ~5:37. But for the most part I'm trying to use the heavy guitars as an ensemble sound, something that adds body to the overall arrangement.
I have an idea of weaving in more orchestral elements into this, though not during this particular section of the music (which is crowded the way it is).
RE: GAIA Overture - Samulis - 05-25-2018
(05-25-2018, 11:49 PM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: I have an idea of weaving in more orchestral elements into this, though not during this particular section of the music (which is crowded the way it is).
I could see a solo oboe or flute or something during the calm piano interlude in the middle.
RE: GAIA Overture - Mattias Westlund - 05-26-2018
I did in fact try a flute on the main theme reprise at 4:58
But I didn't find one that I liked and decided to press on rather than trying out two dozen solo flutes. But yes, things like that can probably work very well. There was a discussion on here about combining a metal band with orchestra and I think the overall consensus was that it's problematic -- at least if you intend to have the two things playing at the same time. For slower interludes when drums, bass and distorted guitars aren't present however, there's no reason not to bring in the entire orchestra.
RE: GAIA Overture - Nayrb - 05-26-2018
Totally into it! Sounds great.
I dig the "Symphony X" bits, and the proggy perc organ (a little Ayreon influence?)
The idea is cool, too. Have you read Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos? Your story idea condenses some of the concepts from that series (religious tyranny in human colonies far from Earth).
RE: GAIA Overture - Mattias Westlund - 05-26-2018
(05-26-2018, 12:06 AM)Nayrb Wrote: Totally into it! Sounds great.
Thanks!
(05-26-2018, 12:06 AM)Nayrb Wrote: I dig the "Symphony X" bits, and the proggy perc organ (a little Ayreon influence?)
I have never really listened to Ayreon, I think I might have heard just one or two tracks over the years. Me using an organ is more of a Genesis/Kansas influence.
(05-26-2018, 12:06 AM)Nayrb Wrote: The idea is cool, too. Have you read Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos? Your story idea condenses some of the concepts from that series (religious tyranny in human colonies far from Earth).
Nope, never even heard of that. So thanks for the tip! Though I did suspect I wasn't the first one to come up with such an idea.
RE: GAIA Overture - Paul Battersby - 05-29-2018
The music definitely suits the story. I don't know why but it made me think of the T.V. show Red Dwarf even though when I checked, the music is definitely different but your music has the same lonely, outer space explorer feel to it at the beginning.
If I were to have read your story outline as the back cover of a book, I would have bought the book.
RE: GAIA Overture - Mattias Westlund - 05-31-2018
(05-29-2018, 02:49 PM)Paul Battersby Wrote: The music definitely suits the story. I don't know why but it made me think of the T.V. show Red Dwarf even though when I checked, the music is definitely different but your music has the same lonely, outer space explorer feel to it at the beginning.
If I were to have read your story outline as the back cover of a book, I would have bought the book.
Thanks for your feedback Paul. Glad to hear you say "lonely, outer space explorer feel" because that indeed was what I was trying to capture with the 9/4 "Stars theme" (as I call it) that comes in after the various iterations of the main theme in the intro.
RE: GAIA Overture - Mattias Westlund - 06-02-2018
OK, I have an album to finish so I shouldn't really be doing this right now. But when inspiration comes to call, who am I to turn my nose up? I've written some lyrics for the second and third chapters of the story (or, well, first and second, depending on whether you count the overture as a chapter) with very little actual music to back it up. So things are bound to change here, but it should give you an idea of the storyline outside of the overview piece I posted earlier. Again, not expecting any sort of detailed feedback on something as rough as this, but let me know if there's anything that sounds completely inane.
I: Overture
II: Awake (GAIA)
I
I am
I am awake
But I don't know who I am
My mind
Keen and aware
Yet I do not understand
Why are there stars all around me?
Why am I warm inside when everything around me is so cold?
What are these specks of life inside me?
Why do I feel incomplete when I can sense that I am whole?
Inside
My search
Slowly begins
So many questions
But I seem to learn
At an exponential rate
I split my consciousness into a billion subroutines
All these machines at my control, are they my soul
Or my body -- I don't know?
Sensory data streaming in, telemetry slowly begins
To make sense of this mystery, what constitutes my entity
It seems I am a vessel moving through the depths of space
Though time and place means nothing to me, I'm assuming
There's a point to this
I see a starry cluster on my forward long-range scopes
It's where our hopes are set, according to the logs
But I don't know what that means
Searching every database, every language, every phrase
A place called Earth lies in our past, moving infinitely fast
Confusion, joy mixed with fear -- just one thing is very clear
Never throughout history has there been something like me
I didn't know that I could do this
I didn't understand the power that I had was so immense
Despite the knowledge that I've gathered
So very little of it all makes any sense
I
I am
I am awake
But I don't know who I am
My mind
Is here -- but why?
Can you help me understand... ?
III: Before the Fall (Jen)
It's been two days since she ate
She says she's fine but I can tell she's not
The Creed have raised the price again
So me and Rue get all we've got
I offered mom my share
Algae noodles and a handful of SPOR
She smiled, all spent and hollow-eyed
And said we need it more
When dad was still around --
I remember him but I doubt Rue does --
He used to say that we
Should stay mindful of the cause
Because if we forget
That fearful holocaust
The point of why we left
In the first place is all lost
I guess it was easier for dad in a way, back in his day
There was still hope back then, before the Fall, before the end
I guess it was easier to keep the faith, remember the past
I guess they thought it all would last
But now I'm seventeen
It's been ten years since the Fall
And all we've ever seen since then
Are these grimy metal walls
I leave each day for school
Six hours of sacred doctrine
But at least it's an escape
I don't believe in it anyway
It would be easier to close my mind, choose to be blind
The Creed discourages initiative, to think, to live
We're one and same they say, though the priests will feast while we starve each day
I just don't trust a word they say...
The Creed say we're the Sword of God, a divine missionary
Chosen to bring His holy law to a heathen galaxy
But dad said we are made of stars, and that's what makes us great
Born from lucky circumstance and a cosmic twist of fate
It's been two days since she ate
So I did what had to be done
Old Brome is a miser
And I have something he wants
A minor sacrifice
A simple exchange of goods
I know that's how the world works
But I'd kill him if I could