Sanctuary Pt. 2, arranged by @moebius. for @derhealsmann

(Originally Sanctuary)
https://soundcloud.com/lucas_kelly/sanctuary

The new arrangement was also posted on YouTube: https://youtu.be/T060hsztLCg

Notes:
From all the pieces of Heals to choose from, I was drawn pretty early into "Sanctuary". The cute setting with the humans befriending aliens and going on adventures with them paired with time signature changes, spicy melodies and sparse instrumentation simply called for me to expand upon. Conceptually, I approached this as a continuation of the original story where the roles are reversed. The aliens are now the ones looking for their human friends to go on an adventure. Structurally, I initially tried a lot of different ways to expand on the original instrumentation. Finally I was inspired by the album "Re:Invent the Universe" by "Sithu Aye" (especially the first two songs "Invent the Universe" for the intro and "Grand Unification" for the rest of the song), and started writing a prog space metal piece. Before discussing the sections in detail, let's first establish the sections with time signatures, time markers and a short description:

Intro: 9/8 0:00 - 0:50 - aliens flying to space searching for their human friends
A: 9/8 0:50 - 2:33 - aliens discover earth and marvel at its wonders, they land, eager to reunite with their human friends.
B: 4/4 2:33 - 3:43 - aliens and humans join forces once again, exploring new worlds and forging an unbreakable bond.
C: 6/4 3:43 - 5:01 - aliens and humans soar through space, no danger is too large for them
D: 6/4 5:01 - 5:34 - aliens reluctantly realize that they need to go home
Outro: 6/4 5:34 - 6:07 - aliens leave a beacon of hope so that aliens and humans can meet again

For the intro I wanted to invoke the sound of a beacon that really defines the intro of the original piece, but with a twist. A reversed sample of a distorted electric guitar, faded from left to right and with sudden cut outs in time with the beat is the first indication that this version is in fact from another viewpoint. The sample is reused at key moments to mark transitions between some of the sections and in the outro.

The following section A feature the chords from the originals A-C section in arpeggiated form on a clean-ish electric guitar with some phasing and delay. From the beginning of this section we already have our first hint of metal with the heavy drums and the distorted bass guitar. Halfway through I added a distorted rhythm guitar belting power chords of the progression.

In the B section we drop the initial clean guitar in favor of a spacey sounding synth for the full chord progression and multiple lead guitars who take over the melodies and part of the harmonies. The rhythm guitar continues to give us power chords in order to fatten up the low end.

The C section replaces the space synth with the hammer klavier piano and somewhat more open rhyhtm guitar and much more complex bass pattern than before. I especially liked how I was able to keep the very jazzy chords in the end of the respective bar 2 (first appearance at ~3:54) without it getting muddy. This was achieved by splitting the chords across three guitars and voicing the chords much wider than in the original.

We enter the D section as a much calmer version of the previously heard material. The melodic instruments other than the beacon synth fade out gradually, indicating that the end is near.

Not much to say about the outro, other that I really enjoyed how the reversed guitar sample really ties this section together to the rest of the song.

Instrumentation - Plugin

5 Electric Guitars - Shreddage Jupiter
Electric Bass - Shreddage Abyss
Drumkit - Shreddage Drums
Beacon Synth - Sytrus
Space Piano - Toxic Biohazard
Piano - Hammer Klavier
Choir - 8Dio Liberis

Sanctuary Pt. 2

My submission to July 2024 Dwelling of Duels competition. Ended up placing third overall. Was an awesome experience and everyone that contributed to the piece did an amazing job.

ZackParrish: Arrangement, Production, Keys, Guitar, Mixing, Mastering

Emunator: Production, Keys, Sound Effects

TSori: Trumpet

Shea's Violin: Violin, Additional Parts

Sean R. Hanson: Auxiliary Percussion

GameroftheWinds: Flute

Pearlpixel: Oboe

Chromatic Apparatus: Cello

"Dancing with the Wind" - Gusty Garden Galaxy from Super Mario Galaxy

Arranged for Discord 8-Bit Music Theory Summer Santa 2024.  An arrangement of:  https://soundcloud.com/duncan-abrahart/fantasy-flight-1

Arrangement, original draft of bass+guitar - Me (mtaur)
Mixing, editing, and guitar solo - Moebius ( https://soundcloud.com/moebius-the-composer )
Piano/Organ - DerHealsmann ( https://soundcloud.com/lucas_kelly )
Drums, misc extra - Lampie23 ( https://soundcloud.com/the-architect-120514334 )
EWI - Keeba - ( https://soundcloud.com/kee-ba )
Barbershop quartet + arrangement - wilmx042, ViolaBuddy, metamoogle ( https://soundcloud.com/rkirsling ), Jesse!

Supernatural Submarine

For @markositta

My arrangement for the 8Bit Music Theory Discord's Summer Santa, 2024

Tons of Evil

Written for the 8BMT Discord weekly challenge, "Compose two contrasting title themes".

Touge Thursday - Title Theme Medley

For https://soundcloud.com/the-architect-120514334 as part of the 2024 8Bit Music Theory Discord's Winter Secret Santa exchange.

Originally Mad Dancing: https://soundcloud.com/the-architect-120514334/mad-dancing

I loved this original! It was a great prompt:

> Create a piece that includes a level section, boss section, and an optional post-boss section and your piece must include at least one modulation

And I thought Lampie did a really great job with it, going beyond the prompt into a five-part concept piece. The whole thing was really groovy and easy to listen to, and felt like an SNES soundtrack. I was especially attracted to the bass grooves, so I started my arrangement with those as the base (hehe) and then built up, trying to change the overall genre and mood. Once I had the arrangement sketched out, I started to narrow down more on the overall instrumentation and details like transitions, texture, etc. I found some cool Speak & Spell samples that I thought complemented the piece well, so I crafted those into an underlying story of playing a game that sounded like it was inspired by the 80s. Had a lot of fun with it!

Rad Dancing

Tommy Tremolo - SpindaSaturn
Anthony Taft Moogleman - metamoogle
Martha - Allison (irl MTaur's sister)
Linda - Mel
Lenny - Lampie23
Clara - spouselady

Adrift Once More - skit

Arrangement for Minotaur https://soundcloud.com/mtaur
Babbysville Diner and Triton

Tidal Wave

8-bit Music Theory Summer Santa 2025 arrangement of "Until Our Paths Cross Once More"

Original composition - Toby
Harmonica, lead sheet arrangement - me https://soundcloud.com/mtaur
Mixing, guitar - https://soundcloud.com/moebius-the-composer
Piano - https://soundcloud.com/lucas_kelly
Drums - https://soundcloud.com/the-architect-120514334
Vibraphone - https://soundcloud.com/rkirsling
Bass, tenor sax - https://soundcloud.com/timmitei

Live versions recorded at Aretha's Jazz Cafe:
https://youtu.be/kLoeQs77ruw
https://youtu.be/xp_Tjnfvhl4

Until Our Paths Cross Once More

Another entry into the 8-bit weekly challenges! This time, we were tasked with writing a piece for a solo performer based on the moon. Now, any normal, sane person would see that this challenge was made for piano or harp or any instrument that can produce at least two tones at once. Fortunately, I am neither normal or sane, So I chose solo Bb clarinet. The following is what I came up with.

Sanctuary Pt. 2

Moebius

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