05-31-2022, 04:49 PM
(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.