EP with ambiental orchestral music

[Viktor]

I've been working on some songs for the last two months on and off, that I wanna wrap up with one more song and have a little EP. Here is what i got so far https://soundcloud.com/iktorraus/sets/ep-wip

The generell directions is less orchestral and more ambienty with orchestral elements (especially God of Sleep is more on the orchestral side of things). Let me know what you think of the songs and if you got any criticism in making them better.

EDIT:
I had to render one track new and couldnt figure out yet how to get it into the playlist again, so here is the link https://soundcloud.com/iktorraus/forest-wip-3011

[Michael Willis]

I liked all three pieces. Some parts reminded me of your earlier work The Summoning, in a good way. It sounds like you are further developing your own style. With regard to our previous conversation about your fascination with Philip Glass, to me these pieces seem to resemble his minimalist work slightly more that the Summoning did. I'm not sure if you were going for that or not, it's mostly just an observation, not a positive or negative judgement.

[Chris Spyratos]

Hi Viktor, I just listened to your tracks. I find your approach (partly ambient - partly orchestral) to be defined very well by the term "cinematic"!

There were bits I sincerely loved and some others that bored me. (For example the Fountains of mist got me very bored at first but I was moved by the ending part with all the choirs, the polyrhythms and the reverb!

What I enjoyed more was your orchestral, polyrhythmic and, organic-shimmering parts.

Which libraries are the flute and the brass in God of Sleep from?

I think you should play more with some effects on your ambient sections and maybe sculpt your orchestral melodies a bit more (maybe it would help to do some reductions of your parts on the piano with "melody + bass" or "melody + countermelody" and study them).

The thing is, after 3 or 4 auditions I really tend to like your works more. I focus on the best parts and let the non-interesting pass by. However, I feel as composers should strive for that first impression. I tend to to do that with my work personally, give it some time to rest then try to listen it like I would listen it for the first time.

I think you have some good material but you should focus a bit more on how you present it.

Also, thank you for sharing your work with us!

[Viktor]

(11-30-2017, 04:20 PM)Michael Willis Wrote: I liked all three pieces. Some parts reminded me of your earlier work The Summoning, in a good way. It sounds like you are further developing your own style. With regard to our previous conversation about your fascination with Philip Glass, to me these pieces seem to resemble his minimalist work slightly more that the Summoning did. I'm not sure if you were going for that or not, it's mostly just an observation, not a positive or negative judgement.

Thanks! Yeah i felt like they defintly go more into the mellow and slightly depressive tone of The Summoning then the dance piece. Interresting, I totally see what you mean regarding Glass, it was not really a concious descision, but defintly is in there a lot of him in there...weird, I didn't have him on my mind at all or listened to a lot if him.

(12-01-2017, 01:35 AM)Chris Spyratos Wrote: Hi Viktor, I just listened to your tracks. I find your approach (partly ambient - partly orchestral) to be defined very well by the term "cinematic"!

There were bits I sincerely loved and some others that bored me. (For example the Fountains of mist got me very bored at first but I was moved by the ending part with all the choirs, the polyrhythms and the reverb!

What I enjoyed more was your orchestral, polyrhythmic and, organic-shimmering parts.

Which libraries are the flute and the brass in God of Sleep from?

I think you should play more with some effects on your ambient sections and maybe sculpt your orchestral melodies a bit more (maybe it would help to do some reductions of your parts on the piano with "melody + bass" or "melody + countermelody" and study them).

The thing is, after 3 or 4 auditions I really tend to like your works more. I focus on the best parts and let the  non-interesting pass by. However, I feel as composers should strive for that first impression. I tend to to do that with my work personally, give it some time to rest then try to listen it like I would listen it for the first time.

I think you have some good material but you should focus a bit more on how you present it.

Also, thank you for sharing your work with us!

Thanks for the compliments and the detailed criticism. I was somewhat scared, that they could be a bit boring (There is a fine line kind of between relaxing and boredome, that I haven't figured out quit yet). That were multiple libaries: The flute is VSCO2 Pro, the trumpet right after that is by The Alpine Project (which is free if you got Kontakt, so I highly recommend checking that out) and the last brass when everything goes loud is a big chunk of Hollywood Brass Diamond, mixed with the Alpine Project Trumpet and Horns out of VSCO2 Pro.
With sculpting orchestral melodies more, you mean the one in the God of Sleep for example, when the brass takes over?
I'm kinda torn on the first impression thing. Some of my favorite music took a lot of time to appreciate, but I also get that I cannot really demand that in the age of the internet, since anything boring just might not get that third or fourth listen (thanks for timing the time by the way, much appreciated), that it might need to develope it's shine.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I totally forgot, the brass right in the end of God of Sleep is excusivly VSCO2 Pro.

[Chris Spyratos]

(12-01-2017, 11:17 AM)Viktor Wrote: Thanks for the compliments and the detailed criticism. I was somewhat scared, that they could be a bit boring (There is a fine line kind of between relaxing and boredome, that I haven't figured out quit yet). That were multiple libaries: The flute is VSCO2 Pro, the trumpet right after that is by The Alpine Project (which is free if you got Kontakt, so I highly recommend checking that out) and the last brass when everything goes loud is a big chunk of Hollywood Brass Diamond, mixed with the Alpine Project Trumpet and Horns out of VSCO2 Pro.
With sculpting orchestral melodies more, you mean the one in the God of Sleep for example, when the brass takes over?
I'm kinda torn on the first impression thing. Some of my favorite music took a lot of time to appreciate, but I also get that I cannot really demand that in the age of the internet, since anything boring just might not get that third or fourth listen (thanks for timing the time by the way, much appreciated), that it might need to develope it's shine.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I totally forgot, the brass right in the end of God of Sleep is excusivly VSCO2 Pro.

Thanks for your insight on the libraries! I have yet to check out thoroughly the VSCO2!
As for the melodies I am referring to the brass, yes. Although I find them pleasing I would expect some better phrasing. Maybe introduce more rests or some chromatic passing notes. Don't get me wrong, I think it works the way it is, I just like to elaborate!

[Michael Willis]

(12-01-2017, 11:17 AM)Viktor Wrote: I'm kinda torn on the first impression thing.

I actually prefer music that gets better the more I listen, even if it isn't incredibly compelling the first time. I would much rather have that experience than listen-and-forget music, so I would say keep working on the former!

Obviously this is highly subjective, not everybody has the same preferences in music. What would be highly boring to one listener might be contemplative or meditative to another.

[Samulis]

Hey Viktor! Great use of VSCO 2 Pro throughout these pieces- definitely playing to the strengths of the library here and bringing in other libraries right where the weaknesses lie.

[Viktor]

@Chris: I will think about that, and maybe try out some stuff. Thanks for the tip!

@Michael: I'm with you on this one. I feel the perfect music to me must have some things that draw me in right in the first listen, so I keep on coming back and then I learn to appreciate the less accessible parts. I just relistened to the Mass for Piece by Karl Jenkins and some songs now took me 6 years to finally appreciate them, but it defintly was worth it.

@Samulis: Thanks! It's a great libary with lots of cool stuff. I feel like its the first one (at least to my knowledge) that makes grand intimity really easy. On top of that, I really love experemting with pitch shifting and reverb on it, it really makes some pleseant ambient noises.