A skeleton of a song

Bit by bit, track "B" takes form. Tonight, I added chords for a verse (played on the mandolin), a basstrack for the "refrain" (out of a melodicon downpitched two octaves) and the song structure (intro, refrain, verse, refrain, verse, refrain(s) and fade out). I'm still lacking a melody and I'm not sure on what instrument to play it, but I'll get there soon.

Here's "Track B, version 3".

The hidden qualities of boules

The work on track "B" continues. A few days ago, I added effects. First, a short ambience-reverb for the unison intro and then a long, proper reverb as the five oboes spread into chords. I thought I needed something to mark the rythm. In my office, I have six miniature boules that made a nice sound when dropped on each other from two decimeters height. So, that's a nice intro. Now, the track needs a continuation. I duplicated the 8-bar chord part and lowered the volume, to make way for a forthcoming melody. I also created a very simple basstrack as a test, and was quite satisfied with the result. Since I prefer acoustic instruments to midi, I'll record the bass with, perhaps the accordeon or the guitar.

The present version of track "B" is here.

First attempt on track "B"

Due to the happy event of the birth of my two children, I have had a pause in my composing activity for about two weeks. The day before yesterday, I made the first attempt on turning the idea sketch for track B into audio. I decided early on to let oboes interpret the blue lines in the original sketch. The sketch showed the oboes coming disparately from different directions, but during my leave, it has become clear to me that I want them to be unison from the beginning, and after a while spread into the chords.

So, I recorded five oboetracks. An introduction followed by the chords. It sounds like this.

Hypothesis for the "B" track

Just now, I started working on the second additional track for the forthcoming release, the "B" track. In the idea sketch, I want four or five separate instances of instruments, coming from completely different directions, form a well structured chord progression on which to build the rest of the tune. I was thinking about what chords to use, when I remembered an old time favourite of mine; one of my first recordings since moving here. In it, I use a downward stretching progression of a bit strange chords, and while listening, I often find myself looping that progression again and again, lacking the desire to stop. I just can't seem to get tired of it. The original recording is merely a sketch, so I'll develop the material further for this tune.

The progression sounds like this (but, I won't use that tacky sound).

I'll continue tomorrow.

A time for subtraction

Listening to "A", version 2, I felt it was a bit too dense. Time for subtraction. In order to create a gentle climax, I muted the nyckelharpa and trumpet for almost a bar, while the oboe holds a high, expanding note.

Then, to add to the "Russian warship baptism"-illusion, I went out to our garage and recorded an anchor chain, pulled slowly over the arm rest of a garden chair. I inserted the sample in the last part of the track, after the oboe has left the scene and the nyckelharpa takes over the lead.

This, I'm satisfied with. This is the final version. Now, I'll just find a name.

"A", version 3