Interesting collection of things I did this week…
- And Awaken (drama)
- Sleep and Then (drama)
- Alien Restaurant (experimental)
- Rock Hybrid (rock)
Additional comments galore!
And Awaken and Sleep and Then were a couple of cues for the audio drama “Falcon Banner” from Darker Projects. One was for episode 2, the other for episode 4. Not much really to know about them… I’m just adding more stuff to the Drama page.
Alien Restaurant was also written for Falcon Banner, but it is source music (music that the characters can hear) and differs greatly from the remainder of the wholly orchestral score. What sort of music would be playing in a restaurant on another planet? Hard to say… I developed a 4-tone scale based on adjacent perfect fifths. Originally, I tried a 6-microtone-based scale, but it proved too unrefined to make it work.
The instrumentation is also other-worldly. The base of percussions are just pitch-shifted african drums, and sound pretty normal. Then, there is a bass which is a plucked string instrument dampered at the center to accentuate the first harmonic over the base note. The string “harp” is a cross between some sort of greek harp, and sitar. It was actually built with waveforms from a harpsichord. The high wind instrument sounds like it may be string based, but it is actually a combination of trumpet and English horn.
All of the instruments are possible – none have yet been built, and the scale is mathematically probable (but not the most probable). This was quite a fun piece to think about!
Ahh… the Rock Hybrid. Insteresting thing. This was supposed to be a combination 80’s guitar rock and modern hip-hop/dance… and it is. This piece has no reverb on anything, and sounds especially cool (if cobbled) loud. I’ll call this one stark and rich. Good mix. That bass drum will kick you in the teeth.