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Inland Empire

By ViridianLoom on March 1, 2020 11:17 pm

This is primarily an experiment in sound. I wasn't too concerned with composing anything that would necessarily be enjoyed by someone, just taking those steps towards figuring out how to create soundscapes and make spoken word passages sit in a mix. Not quite there yet with figuring it out but I had fun with this spooky ambient song. I was also toying with the idea of making melodies bass centric, so the ending section is two bass guitars playing melodic phrases.



Spoken Word Passages:

*PART 1*: "Inland Empire"
Unfiltered wellspring of imagination, emotion, and foreboding
It enables you to grope your way through invisible dimensions of reality
Gaining insight into that which sight cannot see
What do these enigmatic riddles mean for the world fate?
Animate the inanimate
(you'll have conversations with your clothing)
(conversations that will change the course of the investigation)
You'll be void of imagination
Shape the cosmos


*PART 2*: "Half Light"
~Instrumental~

*PART 3*: "Shivers"
Rain drips from the eves and floods the gutters, washing the filth away
The spring thaw must be here, the snow is melting
Looking up at the sky, cold water dripping from your hair
And what you see is a grey sky with great battleships, clouds colliding into one another
Rain falls down on the world
Your shirt sticks to your chest
The shoulders of your disco blazer grow heavy
The cold finds its way under your skin
You shiver, and the city shivers with you


Great ambiance, I like the electricity that the sounds convey and when you drift back into a more traditional song with the spoken word, it's a nice journey; there's a very Lynchian quality to the whole track heart

Gab Manette wrote:

Great ambiance, I like the electricity that the sounds convey and when you drift back into a more traditional song with the spoken word, it's a nice journey; there's a very Lynchian quality to the whole track <3

Haha thanks! Yeah the plan was to do some spooky, unpleasant atmospheric music that lends itself to a "hidden" traditional track for those patient enough to listen to all of it  tongue. I would have liked to expand upon the section at the end and them book end it all with some kind of pretty ambient bit but that's the kind of thing that would take me more than a week to complete.

I usually don't like spoken word music, but this is pretty nice. Sweet vibe here smile

Mission Crossing wrote:

I usually don't like spoken word music, but this is pretty nice. Sweet vibe here smile


Thanks! Yeah, I feel that, I've tried going out of my way to listen to spoken word albums before and they weren't really my thing. There are a couple of albums I really like that have a few spoken word passages but I found them by other means. They would be Kayo Dot's Choirs of the Eye (the centerpiece of Manifold Curiosity has 3 poems being spoken over one another, with certain words in each poem being said at the same time like overlapping realities) and most of Slint's Spiderland album. I liked the way spoken word sounded from those albums which is part of the inspiration about trying it out here. This song is something I'll probably work on again in the future because I'd like to change some of the lines, connect things better, remove that bad guitar bit towards the begining of the song (I improvised it the day of before uploading) etc.

Appreciate your feedback smile

There are some really wonderful sounds in this experiment. I'd call it a success!

This is a good experiment! I like the different guitar sounds and ambient! It seems an empty dark place but it has so relaxing feeling.

woah, this is really cool. super cinematic, love the swells and atmosphere. reminds me a bit of miles davis - panthalassa

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