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

Moebius