Infinite Nature, honoring friendship

[Nestor]

Hello there guys

I made this song to honor a lifetime friendship, so it is pretty different to anything I’ve done before. It is devoted to a friend of mine called Gabriel. We grew up together since we were about 2 years of age, also went to school and play in many bands together. As it is usual with friends that have stood the test of time, we have many astonishing childhood stories together that bond us into the amazing experience of life and friendship, in our case, full of music-related-stories, some really hilarious stuff nobody could ever forget! Our parents were closed friends as well, so it is sort of a brother to me rather than just a friend. He’s a guitar player and a composer today, a crazy fusion fan like myself, but with a taste of an old rocker style sort of Scott Henderson type of player.

When we had 10 years of age, Gabriel went to the countryside for a weekend, and being alone, he presence a rising that was so beautiful that inspired him a very simple, but very beautiful melody. When I heard the melody, I liked it very much being impressed by his explanation of how wonderful nature is, and told him that one day, when I grew older and had already learned to arrange orchestral music, I would develop something with his melody as a present. He agreed happily, of course, then we forgot about it 5 minutes later... That is why for him getting this song as a birthday gift was something magical. I am so glad I did it!

Please, listen first to the melody alone, the mp3 called “Melody_Only”, in which I have based the arrangement, and then listen the entire song called “Infinite_Nature”, (which is the name he gave to the melody himself when we were children), in this way you will get a clear idea of what is going on through the song. The song is almost 16 minutes long, so you need to take a tea time brake to listen at it I guess...

Before you listen at it, I will explain you a little what it represents, so you understand its meaning: First it starts with the birth of the group of people around us and our own birth, (namely, our closest friends, brothers and sisters), which is sort of ethereal (having fun with mam and dad), a few minutes forward we grow up into teenagers (playground) up to the moment in which we are with our families having fun (singing together), then we get to face up life and all its difficulties and beauties. From the middle and on, approximately, it comes the time where we grow up, get married, have to endure jobs, etc., then, by the end, the huge melody arrangment it would rather be our old age which is yet to come, and the final chord would be death.

I have used all sort of samples and instruments, from the very first CD coming from the former Creamware, some truly amazing free samples of old times, my own samples created with Pulsar synths and some real instruments, up to the latest instruments I have added to the orchestral side of things.

I hope you enjoy it, cheers.

First one: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25529735/Melody_Only.mp3

The full song: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25529735/Infinite_Nature.mp3

[dawman]

That's great stuff Nestor.
What Bass was the second ( last ) tune done on...?

[Nestor]

That's great stuff Nestor.
What Bass was the second ( last ) tune done on...?

Sorry Jimmy, I don’t get you in this one, do you mean “bass” or rather “brass”? I think you mean “brass”, tell me please so to answer you

[kensuguro]

I listened without thinking about the back story too much. The tune seems to tell of a story of its own. Just beautiful composition.

The orchestral execution and rendering would be the more obvious things to comment on, but I think for this piece the technology aspects are irrelevant, the focus should be on the composition and music. The variety of feelings portrayed is immense, almost extreme. Some short, subtle moments, personally I like dwelling on the subtle transitions, but with a long piece like this perhaps it's not realistic. For me it almost seems like it's too much material for 16 min, though the up side is that the piece is never tiring and ever changing. So many ideas, so many images, so many feelings.

Very romantic voicings, the tensions blend together into a thick cloud. I like the parts where the voicings are full and complex, the modulation brings about a dynamics of its own, esp with the parallel chord movements.

[dawman]

Sorry, Brass sounds.

[Nestor]

Sorry, Brass sounds.

Sure, I've used some old Akai 1000 orchestral samples, several Kontakt orchestral samples and a instrument that people tend to take for granted, but that I found really useful and great used with care, I have used this one for many, many years too, called Edirol HQ Orchestral. Of course, do not expect for it to be great if you use it alone, but blended with other instruments it does a superb job. Almost all the most important percussive elements in this song come from it, and I think it sounds really cool for such a low rated VST plug. Read some words here if you like:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/archive/i ... /10557.php

And:
http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/1 ... siser.html

One thing I have to say though: forget the piano, it is really bad.

[Nestor]

I listened without thinking about the back story too much. The tune seems to tell of a story of its own. Just beautiful composition.

The orchestral execution and rendering would be the more obvious things to comment on, but I think for this piece the technology aspects are irrelevant, the focus should be on the composition and music. The variety of feelings portrayed is immense, almost extreme. Some short, subtle moments, personally I like dwelling on the subtle transitions, but with a long piece like this perhaps it's not realistic. For me it almost seems like it's too much material for 16 min, though the up side is that the piece is never tiring and ever changing. So many ideas, so many images, so many feelings.

Very romantic voicings, the tensions blend together into a thick cloud. I like the parts where the voicings are full and complex, the modulation brings about a dynamics of its own, esp with the parallel chord movements.

Very interesting review Ken thank you for your precision in the description of the song, it makes me think better about the perception a composition has over another musician, which is always particularly interesting to me to follow and understand. If you pay close attention, there are a few details that would be unacceptable for a commercial release, but I concentrated in the heart-thing and not too much in the perfection of it, as it took me already one month to do the song, and I do not have much time left.

Yes, we’ve gone through many intense experiences with Gabriel, the intensity of the passages come from these many occurrences, some hilarious, some really painful, a period of dictatorship, a friends who died of cancer very young, extremely happy moments like music contracts and releases, marriage, children’s birth, so many things...

The interesting thing about a musician friend with whom you shared for so many years your music (both with each other), and particularly, with whom you have formed your first musical skills, is that you know exactly what he likes and he knows exactly what you like. We know each other language. We can play together with closed eyes and still understand each other without a word, in a full improvisation. This came to be through the many years of sharing and listening music together. We used to study songs to deeper our understanding of groups, musicians, arrangements etc.

What I like most in this composition, is the purity of the feelings of the melody as is, the feelings that my friend came to build as a boy, it is so naïf, in the good sense of the word I mean. It is an astonishing and thrilling experience to feel that my friend is here, present within myself with his 10 years old, and present too, now with more than 40, at the same space and time which is the song, it is a wonderful feeling joining together both persons into a single one, I would call it the “essence” of a person, or something like that. He told me the gift was a strong impression for him, which he will never forget. He made my day with that sentence, as you can imagine

Perhaps we should make things of the like for people we love and care about so much, life is rather short, very short, and it is a shame that the end may come without you saying “thank you for your love”, which is in fact what I wanted to tell him without words.

[scopus]

beautiful composition and story, such a great journey that encompases so many different places n emotions like an orchestration should, lovee it

[kensuguro]

If you pay close attention, there are a few details that would be unacceptable for a commercial release, but I concentrated in the heart-thing and not too much in the perfection of it, as it took me already one month to do the song, and I do not have much time left.

Yes, I think that is what was immediately apparent to me. The emotional content so far surpassed whatever technical things that were going on, that at least for me, the composition directed me straight to the point, which was the out pour of story, emotions and memories. And to me, that is a much higher level of writing than a perfectly executed piece with no personal message to tell. It is much more true to WHY music should be written in the first place.

But interestingly, from the long years of listening to your music, I've come to realize that your musical language is somewhat akin to mine, or at least in a dialect that I can understand quite well, so your writing may speak more directly to me than others.

[Nestor]

One of the clear flaws is in the flute melody, at the beginning, because some notes stick together and do not detach from each other in due time, the instrument did not respond to my MIDI programming even if I tried hard to fix the problem in many ways, but I had not much time for that, so I let it be. But when I listen to it, I can feel the same emotion anyhow. I used about two hours per day per a month to do it, this is what I had, so getting too deep into programming was not an option, and I am very slow at doing so also I have to say.

Definitely Ken! As I said to you when recording the bass into your last song that I called Kenfunckness, I have always felt a musical connection with you. I agree much with that philosophy when doing music, I mean “meaning” over “structure” or “technique” is a must! You say your musical language is somewhat akin to mine, I see that too, particularly when you get into orchestral music. What is most interesting for me, from your music creation, is the strong sense of “melody” you have, your melodies tend to trap my mind very quickly and they stick inside it for a long time.

Cheers