revealing more space / time travellers


track: 04

recorded: 20140228

duration: 18:37

type: ambient


now, I really, really do not know what this title means, I just don’t – because it occurred to me at about two a.m. as I was completing this track – which is a very long ambient track, that features some lovely, slowly detuning passages, that lets the listener slip into a sort of ambient trance – as the piece goes on, the pitch drop becomes more pronounced, I really like the effect, and this detuned, organ-like patch gives the piece a more sombre air or mood as well.

the song was created on february 28, 2014, so a much later effort – and, as I will describe here, the first to take advantage of the new 16-bar layout in gadget :-)

I was very excited when I made this piece, because gadget had just undergone a massive update, which added audiobus and a whole hoard of other amazing features, but what was of immediate interest and use to me, was the addition of the option to have a sixteen bar form instead of just eight.

as soon as I read the details of the update, I just **had** to try it, because of course, it allows you to think in larger spaces, in longer, linear passages (which translates into, for me LONG NOTES) – for some reason, I find eight bars confining, and I am not adept at writing melodies **across** two bars of eight – it’s much easier for me to have all sixteen in a linear row (I know that is silly, but it’s just the way my brain works) – it just makes it easier (for some unknown and probably idiosyncratic reason) :-)

so “revealing more space / time travellers” is my first use of and foray into the use of the sixteen bar gadget session, and what I immediately did, was pull long, long notes, often across three or more frames, which created incredibly long notes that play and play and play and play – and I stop and start these long notes in varying combinations, sometimes they are in pairs – but it allowed me to use incredibly long notes in the construction of this piece – perfect for ambient composition.

it was strange to look at, these notes that stretch across a third of sixteen bars, but I feel that it’s going to be very useful in future.

unusually, once again, for the third time in a row, I used the slow removal / pare down method of ending the song, in this case, VERY gradually removing notes, until the song eventually just disappears – but not until it’s run it’s complete course, all 18:37 of it – and I must say, I’ve never done a piece quite like this, the only piece that is even vaguely similar might be “expanding universe” off of 2011’s “sky full of stars” but really only because that track also features an organ-like sound not dissimilar to the sound used on this track.

I have always loved organ music, when I was 15 years old, and I played heavy rock guitar, and I was into led zeppelin and king crimson and so on – I also had a penchant for the music of johann sebastian bach, in particular, his organ works, and some of the first classical albums I bought were bach organ works. of course, I now appreciate js bach for a lot more than his organ works, but, early impressions stay with us – so I do love to use, and always have, loved to use organs and organ-like sounds in composition. it’s just a beautiful sound…


it does give the piece a very serious, sombre feel, but that is tempered by the slight detuning that occurs throughout the piece, which gives it a slightly wonky quality – thus hopefully tempering the seriousness a bit – but this is no light-hearted ambient romp :-) in this case - it’s all about the mood, not about the melody.