A very intriguing track. A world of its own.

While the far-flung Asarian homeworld is the first inhabited system that we've discovered, this is not our first time encountering the intelligent cloud beings of Asar. We've learned that Asarian explorers visited our earth thousands of years ago, touching down somewhere in the Nile river valley. When the gas giants finally departed, the Pharaoh whose hospitality they had enjoyed bestowed two gifts on her alien visitors. The first was a scroll with plans they could use to build their own pyramids back home. But the most remarkable gift was a papyrus describing a peculiar set of frequencies that, when resonated in certain sequences, could reveal spiritual and mathematical truths. We believe the audio captured by our surface drone may be a sacred performance of this ancient harmonic "spell".

This one was a lot of fun to put together! It gave me a great excuse to experiment with microtonal composition, and learn how to configure custom tunings in Logic. I chose the Maqam scale, a traditional scale in Arabic music believed to have originated in ancient Egypt. The scale consists of two "half-flats": in this case, A, B half-flat, C, D, E half-flat, F, G, and A. The main melodic line is typical for the scale, arcing from root to  octave and then descending again. The percussion was inspired by reading about Wahda w-Nuss rhythms. 

More on the 718th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Planet Jam It — The Assignment: Record the sound of an advanced alien civilization — at https://disquiet.com/0718/.

The Asar Sequence (disquiet0718)

I create original experimental, postpunk, and experiential music from my studio in Chicago. The Hard Times described my work as "creepy, haunted, but also a little bit uplifting." Prolific.

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