New WIP "They Came to Follow Surtur"

[Nayrb]

Hi everyone!

Long story short, I'm finally done with my thesis and back to making music. I decided I would do some music based on the book I did my thesis on, A Voyage to Arcturus. I've also been keeping busy with music related stuff, so this track was made after I switched to Reaper, started taking music theory more seriously, started reading up on orchestration, and even rebuilt my music PC. It's definitely a WIP in all ways, but I thought it would be good to get some fresh ears on it. I might have posted a track with this title awhile back, but this is the REAL thing now.



They Came to Follow Surtur

[Paul Battersby]

Hey Nayrb, your link requires a login to access it.

[Nayrb]

(05-31-2022, 12:41 PM)Paul Battersby Wrote: Hey Nayrb, your link requires a login to access it.

Ah! How smart of me. OK, it should work now. The forum seems to have righted itself, as well. Not sure what happened there.

[Paul Battersby]

This definitely sounds like it's inspired by the story from your thesis or a video or an image. The music seems to be telling a story and leading the listener through a few emotions. I think this could have been dropped into a Star Wars scene and it would fit seamlessly.

[Nayrb]

(05-31-2022, 03:26 PM)Paul Battersby Wrote: This definitely sounds like it's inspired by the story from your thesis or a video or an image. The music seems to be telling a story and leading the listener through a few emotions. I think this could have been dropped into a Star Wars scene and it would fit seamlessly.

Thanks, yes, the story is atypical: it's weird and pessimistic. I ordinarily gravitate toward brighter music, so this was an interesting challenge for me, especially because I was trying to be conscious about using theoretical approaches like pitch axis theory and octatonicism. The book is about a restless guy who goes to another planet and learns that life is one giant illusion and that there is this other thing behind everything else called Muspel that is ultimate reality but is also ultimately unknowable. Experiencing it is always associated with alien emotions that are sort of like happiness and sadness and pain and pleasure all together in one.

So this is a sort of intro track intended to set the mood. Also, the vibraphone part at the end is a variation on the Muspel theme itself, that I'm currently developing and will probably base the next track on. I wanted to play around with themes and writing separate tracks that use the same ones because I never really do that. At the same time, I wanted to introduce the Muspel theme here without being too direct, because Muspel is such a mysterious element of the book. It wouldn't suit the mood to just have it spring up, fully formed right off the bat.

[Michael Willis]

First, big congrats on finishing your thesis. Second, this new piece of music is sounding great. It definitely has your signature Trogool sound, but with better production and more interesting harmonies. I'm very interested in hearing more!

[Nayrb]

(06-10-2022, 05:22 PM)Michael Willis Wrote: First, big congrats on finishing your thesis. Second, this new piece of music is sounding great. It definitely has your signature Trogool sound, but with better production and more interesting harmonies. I'm very interested in hearing more!

Thanks, Mike! Yeah, I'm glad to be done with the thesis and back to doing music. And I'm glad that you hear some improvements in this track over my previous stuff. It's starting to come along, so there will definitely be more soon. I'll update when I do! I'm finally starting to feel that drive and focus returning; it's just a matter of finding time, as usual.