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Description
When I first saw the art prompt, I immediately thought, oh god harpies. Harpies! Harpies? And why are those birds so nonchalant? They seem too pure, they have to be hiding some nefarious intentions! The idea of the songbirds being the children of a nearby town sounded a lot like the sort of fairy tale they were going for in both prompts, so I aimed my sights at making their song sound peaceful, yet menacing and eerie in the title track, Harpy Song.
The preamble theme represents the town that unknowingly celebrates the old songs, that were forgotten, and the piper that saved the townfolks’ children all those centuries ago. I wanted to create a jazzy licks for the piper to resemble that we are in a different age, past the olden days of fairy tales. Ambiance was also a big element I wanted to incorporate, sort of a meditative moment in the theme that gives it space. Also I like big juicy chords like Breath of the Wild.
The moment the piper accidentally plays the melody to break the seal that kept the harpies forgotten was some sort of accident on my part just toying around with reversing the piano audio. I thought it sounded sort of otherworldly, like two mirror worlds colliding together and summoning the gateway to let the harpies into the world. The World Remembers is a prelude to the children getting turned into birds by the harpies in Harpy Song, so I thought it made sense to include them together. The woodwind trills are also the children following the song.
The idea was to have multiple boss fight themes for each of the harpies, each that riffed off of the melodies they present in Harpy Song, but unfortunately I did not have enough time. Still, one is better than none! Cord’s theme was fun because I went to town on the jazzy influences, and the rhythm outlined at the end of Harpy Song. Theorbo was also a delight to incorporate because I love bass notes, so to pair them with baritone sax and contrabass clarinet was a treat.
I composed everything in either Reaper or Dorico, or both! I recorded a lot of the accompanying harmony from my piano, and input most of the instruments into Dorico, then exported their audio to put into Reaper.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy! :)
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Number of tracks4
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Comments
Loved "The World Remembers", especially when the reversed audio stuff plays. Made it so relaxing! Overall pretty good project
The town theme had an interesting mix of a cozy vibe and a more ominous ambience/harmony. I would have liked some drums (a timpani maybe ?) in "Harpy of the Herd - Cord's Theme" to give it some more impact. Lastly, the reverse notes in "The World Remembers" created a cool dark atmosphere.
Somewhat of a hidden gem, I'm surprised this has so few comments as of writing this comment. The tracks for this album are really experimental, making them interesting to the ear. The way most of the instruments were reversed in track 1 evoked a somewhat creepy feeling, paired with the bird tweets. To me it sort of screamed "The cruelty of an uncaring nature". Chord progression was also pretty great.
Track 2 had an absolutely amazing chord progression after the beat hit. The happy piano melody overshadowed by the grandeur of the second chord made me feel overwhelmed, in a good way. The way the piano takes the center stage in this song was amazing, in a very old-school jazz kind of way. Defo my fav track from the album, I've saved it to my personal files.
I enjoyed the third song, an good decision considering the character it belongs too, however my enjoyement was a bit curved due to the high amount of reverb on all the tracks, which was not a problem in previous tracks.
The story for this honestly sounds really interesting. Instead of a generic tale, it feels almost like a fable. Something about it feels like it could succomb to unknowable darkness at any moment, calm before the storm. I think continuing it would be a wise decision.
Solid entry! Excited to see more from you in the future.
The world remembers definitely gives breath of the wild vibes the the piano and ambient noises.
The strings is Cord's theme were also really nice. I think the brass in that one was a little distracting though as they felt a tad loud and out of place to me in terms of the songs theming.
Cool! Really fits the theme..