Cycles
By Jetkick on April 6, 2014 11:52 pm
Hey there! Really sorry I haven't been releasing tracks lately; school and stuff have been a little rough recently.
Here's a piece I did as a submission for Sapporo International Art Festival's Urban Soundscape Competition! I realize that it's not so much a soundscape as it is a song with numerous background samples in it. That being said, I approached this in the best way I know how, and I'm happy with how it turned out.
Enjoy! Comments and critiques always welcome.
Track Art by shapecaster (Chris Rogers)
Check out his fantastic Tumblr! (Updates more than I do!)
shapecaster.tumblr.com/
Track on YouTube: youtu.be/ERKcV3wzePs
Track on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/jetkick/cycles
(Below is the 250-word summary I wrote up for the entry. It's super pretentious, but I think it makes me sounds like I know what I'm talking about.)
› summary
‹ summary
"Cycles" is a short piece that reflects upon the modern-day coexistence of nature and people, and is influenced by sounds from both the urban and the organic. The piece as a whole is ornamented with numerous theme-based samples, intricate countermelodies and polyrhythms, and neat, crisp percussion. Above all, this piece aims to be catchy, and provide easy-listening atmosphere in a meaningful way.
The first half of the piece is marked by simple piano melodies arranged polyrhythmically and a flowing string quartet section, played over an upbeat synth chord progression. Sounds of life, from a restless outdoors to a bustling city crowd, can be heard in the background.
This is followed by a short buildup to the second section, which exposits the second section's driving chord progression. One minute and twenty-eight seconds into the soundscape, the piano melody counts its beats and takes its pitches according to the sequence {1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21} (the first eight naturally-occurring Fibonacci numbers, with "1" = one eighth note = scale degree 1). This oddly syncopated melody conforms well to the vi -- IV -- I -- V chord progression.
The last section brings back the "bustling city crowd" section and represents it with comfortingly jazzy piano chords offering closure. The soundscape ends cyclically with a callback to the simple melody from the beginning of the piece.
The sound logo paired with this piece harmonizes the bustling crowd and forest samples to signify the theme, and ties it together with the beginning piano melodies.
thanks