Name: Facing the Prodigal by Ian Spacek
Duration: 2 min 55 s
Description: Symphony of Construction 2023: https://www.paulvermeesch.com/symphonyofconstruction

Composed for the Symphony of Construction: https://www.paulvermeesch.com/symphonyofconstruction

Symphony of Construction 2023 - The Legend Exists

Symphony of Construction 2023: https://www.paulvermeesch.com/symphonyofconstruction

Facing the Prodigal

Thank you to everyone who worked on Symphony of Construction 2023. It was a blast and an honor to a be a part of! This is my submission. Checkout the full project here: https://www.paulvermeesch.com/symphonyofconstruction

Process and Interpretation of the Piece:
My process will vary from project to project, but for this project, I came up with a dramatic back story for the build, and I wrote music to accompany my journey as I let my imagination guide me.

Back story:
The build I received shows a single character alone on a planet full of exotic plants and vegetation, sitting on what I imagined to be a long-forgotten but incredibly advanced piece of technology. What does the technology do? Destroy worlds? Create portals for transportation? Who knows! But it is extremely powerful, and it COULD HAVE CHANGED THE WAR! That was many years ago. Now our main character might be the only one in the universe who still believes that her great great great great great grandfather developed a technology powerful enough to overthrow the empire, and not only has she finally discovered the technology on an unknown and unregistered planet, but she also plans to turn it on!

Part 1: Loss and the Forgotten Planet
Part 1 focuses on the world and the history of the main character's people from the main character's perspective. It builds on and off, bringing up themes that remind me of the empire that has now been ruling the universe for generations as well as the incredibly powerful square structure our main character seeks. I imagine the main character actively searching the planet for the square structure in this scene, and at the end of part 1, she finally finds it! I use dancing orchestral instruments to depict the planet's unique wildlife. I  use choirs in the orchestration because I imagined the world and technology to be ancient, with lots of history surrounding both. I contrast this traditional orchestration with a lead synth and dark synth textures to add a digital feel and reveal the loss the main character feels from her experiences with the empire. The darker orchestration makes me think of the corruption of the empire. The subtle doubling of woodwind parts with synths makes me think of a loss of innocence, the innocence that had once existed everywhere before the war but now seems only to exist in remote places like this distant forgotten planet.

Part 2: Destiny
After the main character discovers the structure, there is a pause of silence before part 2 introduces a very different mood. In part 2, I explore the main character's thoughts as she musters up the courage to turn on the device. She is scared because she doesn't know exactly what will happen to her when she turns on the structure and walks through the portal it creates, but her journey to get here has been very, very long, and she won't give up now! I picture her in a sort of trance speaking to the different people she believes she is doing it for, her family and friends who are ruled by the empire, her great great great great great grandfather. This scene is about her in a trance, building up the courage to activate the structure and enter the portal. The more intimate orchestration is her talking with her family, and the more intense moments are her believing more and more that this is her destiny. Finally, she works up enough boldness to activate the device. The structure comes to life, and after giving one last look back at the world, she walks through the portal.

Loss, Destiny, and The Forgotten Planet

When composing this piece, I wanted to capture the mesmerizing vision of starlight’s reflection through water and gemstone.  A series of chimes representing the image are prominent in the music as the orchestral bed illuminates the fantastic world around it.  Finding the right chime was difficult and I finally combined several to create a certain tasteful dissonance representing the shimmering quality of the reflections.  The sound of elegant chisels gently shaping the gems out of which the light flows opens and closes the piece.

 In my initial designs, the orchestra played a much bolder part in representing those grandiose places we sometimes see in dreams.  However, just as we dream and take these surreal places for granted, I decided to let the orchestra fade into the background as the piece progresses, eclipsed by the beautiful light which illuminates it.  This is the music between sleeping and waking when images of places beyond reality shimmer into life and then fade away.  Enjoy!

This piece is part of the Symphony of Construction series and I encourage you to check out the other composers and lego builders' work.
https://www.paulvermeesch.com/symphonyofconstruction

Starlight Meditation

Digital Music Technology Final Project: A soundtrack to an episode in an action TV show.

Adventures with Captain Bluejay

The second piece in a three part re-imagining of "Butterflies."

Butterflies - Nighthawk Remix

Walking Behind The Horizon

Younger is the second single from my forthcoming album "CHASM" due out Oct 18, 2018.

Acoustic Guitar: Adam Taylor 
Electric Guitar: Justin Loose
Bass: Carson Childers
Tracked @ The Planetarium, Nashville
Engineer: Brandon Owens
Mix: Satoshi Noguchi
Master: Satoshi Noguchi

Younger - Single

Younger

Ocean Nights

THANK YOU PORTER! @porter-robinson
[https://twitter.com/porterrobinson/status/1042487652677771266]

+ Spotify:
[https://open.spotify.com/album/4tOnKWyTWAzWNgUvIThJLY]

via Proximity: 
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9YGkHVgJqE]

https://sanjaux.com

Trinity

@Owsey's Original
• https://soundcloud.com/owsey/owsey-thousands-of-summer-twilights-1

+ Spotify
• https://open.spotify.com/track/1vky6CX49QlHT3NedyYZic

via @JaronSteele's Bitbird Radio #060 Mix hosted by @SanHoloBeats
• https://soundcloud.com/bitbirdradio/bbradio60#t=31:39

via @NEONIXDUB's DubHub Casting Couch 010 Mix
• https://soundcloud.com/dubhubb/casting-couch-010-neonix#t=28:29

All remixes
• https://soundcloud.com/owsey/sets/thousands-of-summer-twilights

https://sanjaux.com

My winning entry for the Owsey remix contest!

Owsey - Thousands of Summer Twilights (sanjaux remix)

Original music by Ian Spacek
Album art by Paul Vermeesch

Facing the Prodigal

Ian Spacek

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