Do you know that feeling of total independence of the world when you're pushing yourself to the extremes of your performance ability? That moment when the world around you just fades away, all the stress of daily life disappears, your mind is freed from all arbitrary things and the only thing left is you, your body and the movement?This is my first track of the year 2010. For quite a while now I've wanted to do a track about movement. The idea came out of watching pictures of parkour and free running. Both sports break the norms of moving in the urban environment by finding alternative routes going about. They both contain a certain search for freedom. Then again one can experience freedom from the world in basically any sports you really concentrate on. For me this happens every time I walk into a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gym. What's outside the walls doesn't matter, it simply doesn't exist. The only thing that matters is the movement you're doing right then and there.
I actually had less trouble figuring out where to start than with most tracks. Somehow this track seemed so clear from the start. I wanted to use a lot of airy instruments in this one. For that I fired up several NI Absynths and a few NI Reaktors, since they provide some of the best soundscaping possibilities. Also on the top of my list was Soniccouture's Pan drum, a sampled hang drum. It has an amazing out of this world sound, which was just perfect for this song. They created the backbone of this track. On top of them I layered lush strings, ethnic percussions, massive french horns, a Chinese Gu Zheng zither, the legendary Japanese Shakuhachi flute and a Boesendorfer grand piano.
As I said this track is more about the feeling than head on action. That's why I didn't write hectic drum lines, even though there is a strong beat in the song. Hectic just wasn't what was needed. Tranquility is more like it. A slight meditative state of mind, without actually being meditative music. This thought I carried with me to the melodies. They're ambient in nature, but there are parts you can grab a hold of. The different instruments play with each other, one taking the lead after another. I'm thrilled that the mesh of different sounds came out so well. For me the sounds of this track breathe positive energy out of the speakers.
This is also one of those tracks I'm completely satisfied with. I wouldn't change one note or sound from it. Creating this track has been a real pleasure.
Gear I used for this track:
DAWs and editors:
- Cakewalk Sonar 7
- Sony SoundForge 7
- NI Kontakt 4
- NI Absynth 5
- NI FM8
- NI Battery 3
- NI Massive
- NI Reaktor 5
- Vienna Instrument
- EastWest Quantum Leap PLAY
- UWI Workstation
- Noizware TriDirt
- Cakewalk Perfect Space
- Sonic Timeworks Equalizer
- Kjaerhus Classic Master Limiter
- Analogue Drums Big Mono
- Fixed Noise OTTO
- Soniccouture Gu Zheng
- Soniccouture Konkrete
- Soniccouture Konkrete 2
- Soniccouture Pan Drum
- Vienna Horizon Series Epic Horns
- Vienna Special Edition
- Tonehammer Epic Dohl
- EastWest Quantum Leap Ministry of Rock
- MOTU Ethno Instrument
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