The collected parts of the Windmill project by Annie Dieu-Le-Veut and me

Windmill

A collection of recent tracks fitting the title ...

Sweet & Mellow

I arranged the track's components to a pop/rock track, pleasant but not fancy. Basses got replaced by newly made one, organ and choir add some substance. 
The + version adds some more bass intro (now by Rickenbacker) and Mellotron/Pan Flutes decorations.

Synchronize (remix+ by APi)

My Contribution for the Production Competition on RepostExchange. The challenge is to create a composition for their online advertisements. 

This is for the Pop / Rock section, the suitable part is planned to be from sec 30 on.

APi - ‘Ad Music’ By RepostExchange

When musing at/for new hitherto totally unknown musical ideas I stumbled 'bout a black square. Here is its tune. Lyrics by APi (supported by AI), vocals provided by Suno.

Black Square

Annie Dieu-Le-Veut has written a magnificent/majestic poem about birds and dares to allow me to set it to music. The soundtrack is composed and arranged with a little help from four classical composers and lots of birds. 

Words and narration by Annie Dieu-Le-Veut, © January 2024
https://soundcloud.com/annie-dieu-le-veut

A Cathedral Of Birds

My second attempt at the Black Square; this time with a shameless promo 'bout it. Besides the narrations, I added cello and percussions to the (slightly altered & rearranged) music from Sascha Ende.

(Core) Music: Asperger by Sascha Ende
Website: https://filmmusic.io/song/9264-asperger
Licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Black Square (Promo)

My entry to the "Sleepwalking" remix thingie at RepostExchange ...

Sleepwalking

My attemt at realisation of aRVEGA's ideas in all things Beat Battles BB68 ...

Existing Absence, or what?

Maybe Down, Maybe Not

For challenge 078 over at Mix Challenge: I take a leap into my samples box, and arrange well a dozen score samples for some cinematic track. 
80 bpm and Emin are the (simple) basics; the desired leaps & steps are (hopefully) achieved by dynamic breaks, as well as by instrumental changes.

SWC078__APi_ZZ__TakeACinematicLeap

Words & narration by Annie Dieu-Le-Veut © February, 2024
https://soundcloud.com/annie-dieu-le-veut

The Windmill (as the Wheel of the Year) organises natural things like equinox, solstice as well as other important occurences and their accompanying events or festivals or gatherings. 
Annie Dieu-Le-Veut looks at that from her profound shamanic experiences. And she is inspired to put those special appearances into gorgeous poems. And not just that, then she even recites them with a deeply touching voice. I dare to set those poems to music, to support them. Here is our oevre for Ostera (aka Spring Equinox).

Ostara

Over at Discord's BeatBattles there is BB69 Fusion running (second half of February). This is my adventure to that theme:

Fusion -- an interesting theme! I knew that word as genre defining some solid Jazz/Rock melanges, e.g. Mahavishnu Orchestra, or Colosseum, Chicago, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Soft Machine, Nucleus, Brand X, the Mothers of Invention et al. 
But then Geoffrey's how·to·guide defines fusion as general -eh- fusion of whatever usual ain't put together instinctively. That's as broad as possible, but then offers myriad possibilities. 
I -- [again, how boring ...] -- dived mainly into the given samples, merely adding drums, as those are a bit underrepresented in those huge (and deeply organised) sample packs. 
The organisation required less efforts than previous use·only·samples enterprises, since keys and bpm are closely together. 
For the desired·as·bonus care·for·our·planet aspect. I chose a poem from Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali: Mind without Fear. 
Enjoy.

MindFusion (BB69)

Annie and me share and exchange ideas, views, insights and general fun doing things that might go together. This track emerged from her voice recording of "Vedic Peace Mantra" ... not yet set to a somehow fitting musical environment. So a first version was published over at her site, but [UPDATE:] is now replaced by the EXTRA Extended version, feat. an explanatory introduction: 
https://soundcloud.com/annie-dieu-le-veut/vedic-peace-mantra

Enjoy!

Words and narration by Annie Dieu-Le-Veut
© Annie Dieu-Le-Veut, February 2024

Music, arrangements and mix, as well as cover design by me, APi_ZZ

Peace extended

The 'Windmill' describes a cycle of events and occurences around the year. Also known as 'Wheel of the Year', eight dates are highlighted as important and worthy. This step is "Beltane" in early May, and we showcase the story for this date. 
See Annie's indepth explanation at her site: https://soundcloud.com/annie-dieu-le-veut/beltane

Words and vocals: Annie-Dieu-Le-Veut
Copyright © Annie Dieu-Le-Veut, February 2024

Music and cover art: APi_ZZ
Copyright © APi_ZZ (Andreas Pirner) February 2024

Beltane

I helps to follow instructions, even when they are given as voice record ... So here is my PLUS version to Beat Battles N°70 (over at Discord) -- now including the advised narration. Enjoy.

Goin' Glassy +

My entry to the ‘We Ain’t Here For Long’ remix. I used a lot (but not all) stems, took them apart, reshuffled a bit, replaced nearly all drums wit 'new' drums, and de-chipmonk-ed the vocals a bit. New BPM is 120.

We Ain't Here For Long (APi_ZZ remix)

Over at https://mix-challenge.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=722 runs the challenge "Chip away", promoting Synthwave as theme. This is my contribution.

SWC079__APi_ZZ__WynthSaved

The next step/turn of the Windmill, we enter the midth of summer, the longest day of the year. Why is that? Wikipedia has an answer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_solstice 
But beyond those "plain" physical facts this date is part of many cultures, religions, ceremonies and festivities. Annie's words tell one of the many stories. 

Lyrics and vocals by Annie Dieu-Le-Veut https://soundcloud.com/annie-dieu-le-veut/
© Annie Dieu-Le-Veut, March 2024
See her entry for lyrics and more info https://soundcloud.com/annie-dieu-le-veut/summer-solstice

Music, arrangement and cover art by me.

Litha

For Beat Battle #71 (over at Discord) I take its title literally: Find Beauty in the Noise. For me, that means to browse through the given noise(s) and to find beauty in there. So I did. 
Using nothing but given samples and not torturing them 'nto beauty, I build my track. Manipulations applied are: Aligning to a common BPM of 90, pitch shifting a few for more sonic spread, some panning, some compression for more tightness.

Beauty in the Noise

Original remix contest is over at SKIO. 
Well, I made a "regular" version (of 2:46 min) first. Then the inherent hypnotic vibe "demanded" more, so this final extended mix evolved. Drums are widely but not completely exchanged, a synth got added and that initial FX. Everything else is from the given stems.

Echo (extended remix by APi)

Over at Discord's Beat Battles runs №72, titled "The Last Rites of Spring". Go there and participate as long as the challenge lasts ... The contents contain lots of stuff related to -eh- springs, that is mainly those metal things or even oldfashioned reverb units.
I dived into the many samples. And I decided to just&only work with them (my mantra ...). The only (probably weird) adaptation was to use some drum MIDIs for a Kalimba, the only spring instrument in my repertoire. 
So all "uh! that's no springy thing!" complaints should go to (poor?) niCKed ...

Nonresonant Springs

Over at SKIO is a new remix contest (https://skiomusic.com/contest/sodown-oblivinatti-tinnflame-remix-contest). 
I love the vocals and the pretty open structure of the track. So I emphasized on crucial elements, added fresh drums and a few gimmicks, et voilá, this is my try on this ...

Supernova

Another step in the eight part journey initiated by Annie (https://soundcloud.com/annie-dieu-le-veut). 
I think it is never wrong to think of things happening a half year later than upcoming Beltane (May 1st) ... so -eh- how about Halloween time (Samhain is end of October)? 

Annie says: Before the days that saw Halloween become a festival for ghouls, ghosts and goblins, ‘hallows’ meant ‘holy’ and it was called Samhain, a celebration of the rebirth of the Celtic Lord of Winter, Gwyn ap Nudd, as the constellation of Orion rose above the horizon in the night skies. 

Words and narration © Annie Dieu-Le-Veut, Samhain 2023
Music and arrangement by me

Samhain

The April 2024 theme at Mix Challenge is "Scaffold" (https://mix-challenge.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=727).
I picked two chordstructures (one in F maj [A], one in D# min [B], four bars each), set up a simple song scheme of A repetitions, then some from B, repeat. Within that scheme the chords are used repeatedly while adding or substracting instruments. The four-bar basics are never altered. All voices are made via MIDI, just the percussions are from loops. [Updated version.]

SWC080__APi_ZZ__Scaffold

Over at Discord's Beat Battles the mid-April theme is "Pianissimo" (BB73), hosted by Ian Collins. This is my contribution.

pianissimo

In a roll of ideas inspired by BB73's pianissimo theme, this tune evolved. Again mostly based on arranging samples, plus a MIDI organ development. 
Its title is an anagram of the source material's label.

uccinely

Yet another lil' gem in that pianissimo inspired flow of tunes ... this one seems to be a bit more percs influenced. 
The basic procedure is the same: Arranging well selected samples (in)to a "pleasant" tune.

axis

As the title implies: Some whirl of sounds, beats and emotions ...

Whirl

Annie Dieu-Le-Veut did a fantastic narration of "True Thomas" and I set this to music: 
https://soundcloud.com/annie-dieu-le-veut/true-thomas-and-the-queen-of-elfland

As "musical director" (-ehemm-) I revisited the track and determined a few spots where the music could breath a little more, eventually increasing the soundscape feelings. This resulted in two increasingly 'extended' versions. This is the final one -- now valid over at Annie's too ... ;-)

True Thomas extended

This is a track meant to assist anyone caring for themselves. 
See https://soundcloud.com/annie-dieu-le-veut/svadhishthana-shamanic-healing-for-betrayal for full explanations. 

Idea, drumming and narrating the Mantra: Annie
Setting to sounds and music by me.

Svadhishthana

At the Discord Beat Battles site BB74 is running. The title is "As free as you think you are". See there for further info ... I (again) took the challenge's contents (aka samples & things) and reassembled them, adding some extra percs/drums and rendering the MIDIs. Not more, not less. "Free", "Libre", "Frei" might be the guiding words, use & feel & spread them generously.

Libre

Making music since age 8, guitar at 15, starting a band (mainly bass). Doing several genres, mainly (but not exclusively) prog rock. 
Now busy at several sites and participating at challenges.
Always open for collabs if the the interests match ...

APi_ZZ

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