Around the Edges

A piano improvisation based on the scale of C harmonic minor to play around with this scale in 3/4 time signature.

Afraid Of Underwater

guitar: @marco-pisu-511634437
synth bass on the right and ephemeral harmony: @houseofthejanas
e-piano, synth bass on the left: I

A clumsy and kind tiranny (feat. H.o.t.Janas and M. Pisu)

U-Smirnoff

Before the Fall we lived in splendour

No Love Lost

When opera singers meet the heart that is lonely in a person's chest - in search of its (lost) counterpart...

The opera singer was provided by: 
https://soundpaint.com/products/opera-soprano-maria

Further VSTs used:
Soundiron - Olympus Micro Choir
ProjectSAM - Orchestral Essentials 2
and more...

Cuori perduti | Lost hearts

"Dreams can save us"

Music by Stu King
AudioKit Synth One
Korg Monologue
Conductive Labs NDLR
Mixed in Cubase

Abiding

Ignorance is Bliss

This one began life on a 𝐅𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲 evening in 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟒. I was on my way home, on leave from military service. As I sometimes would, I stopped by a music shop on 𝐊𝐚𝐫𝐥 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐬 street called 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐤𝐤𝐡𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐭 ("House of Music") and tried out some keyboards. I wasn't in there long, but toward the end of my pit stop, I struck a chord that sounded fantastic. I was simply trying to place my fingers to make things interesting, so I couldn't tell you exactly what it was anymore, but I believe it's close to, if perhaps not quite, a major thirteenth chord.

I let it sit in the back of my mind for a long time until I found a place for it in 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 of 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟓 when I quickly composed a piece of music I felt evoked a special feeling and atmosphere. At the time, I liked the title "Ablaze." The music suggested something fiery to me, a slow burn. But when I'd finished it, I found it described more a sense of floating, of standing on a beach watching the heavens, or on a cliff overlooking the ocean, or of soaring into space. So I programmed the 𝐑𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐉𝐕-𝟑𝟎 to make the chords subtly fade in and out of each other while I played, and then fed it through the "Ping Pong Delay" setting on my 𝐀𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐬 𝐐𝐮𝐚𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐛 to increase the effect.

𝟑𝟎 years on, I still think it works well, and I frankly don't think I could ever recreate it. What I did seems to belong to that one moment. It'll always be special to me. Oh, and the chord I played back in '𝟗𝟒 is the last thing to be heard on the track as it swings like a pendulum into eternity.

𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐄𝐃
September 3, 1995

𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐓
Recorded directly to 𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐘 stereo cassette deck

𝐀𝐃𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐄𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐏𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓
Alesis QuadraVerb Plus Reverb Unit

𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒
Roland JV-30 16 Part Multi Timbral Synthesizer
(𝘚𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘗𝘢𝘥)

© 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟓 & 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒 𝐑𝐢𝐤𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐁𝐚𝐤𝐤𝐞 | 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜

The First Chapter

Spacefarer

Autonomous Sensory

Halcyon Hum is a Cinematic Ambient project by Minneapolis based musician, producer and recordist, Stuart King.

Cinematic Ambient compositions feature undulating rhythms, walls of sound, ambient melodies, lo-fi textures and field recordings.

Abiding

Halcyon Hum

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