Nice, Rune. You have to be in the mood...to listen to this. But it's nice and relaxing for your ear and soul.

In World War One battlefields were hell on earth. It was a war fought in trenches. Wet, cold trenches full of mud, excrements and corpses. And it was not always fought by trained military soldiers either. Most of the time it was fought by normal civilians. City people, farmers, teachers and students, mechanics, jazz players and store workers. Middle aged and teens side by side. Some were volunteers, others were not. But no one wanted to be there. Most of them died in the trenches screaming and stinking of fear. The ones who survived turned to psychic wrecks. The famous battle of Verdun was the longest battle of WW1 wich also made it the longest battle in war history. This made it particularly filthy. It took place on the hills north of Verdun-sur-Meuse in northern France from 21 February 1916 and did not end until 18 December the same year. The length of the battle was 9 months, 3 weeks and 6 days and resulted in French victory although no terrain was won. But no terrain was lost either. It was a battle of diseases and madness, of amputations and slobby surgery on the go on poor equipped men with no supplies and with no other future than a painful anonymous death in a stinking trench. Apart from heavy artillery the Germans also had twenty-six super-heavy long-range guns up to 420 mm (16,5 inches) making a rumble that could be heard 160 kilometers away (99 miles). Apart from the constant bombardment the Germans also used flamethrowers and Mustard gas and both sides used bajonettes and handgranades in close man-to-man fighting. Rain and the constant bombardments turned the clayey soil to a wasteland of mud full of rotten and stinking human remains. The casualties on both sides after the battle is varying depending on sources. But it has been estimated that somewhere between 700.000 and 1.000.000 men were killed or wounded.
When I read the story of the battle of Verdun (it is well documented and with pictures) in autumn 2019 I immediately felt this should be my next GarageBand project. And so, four years later, here it is. Today the ground and landscape of Verdun still mourns what took place more than hundred years ago. This composition is a humble attempt to give a voice to the ground of the battlefield.
There is no hate or aggression here, just faith in the destiny as you sink deeper in the red clay. And contempt and hate for the generals, dictators and presidents who declares wars but never fight them themselves. That was centuries ago. They are to smart for that nowadays. Well, you could get hurt, couldn’t you? And being hurt - or worse - is a privilege they leave to normal people. I dedicate this track to all normal, innocent people who is sent to unknown places to kill other normal, innocent people.

Verdun - The Red Clay

Reel for Niklas Swanberg, www.niklasswanberg.com

Jag och en kompis vid köksbordet. Inspelat på iPhones röstmemon. Lyssna i lurar annars blir det pannkaka.

Not Dark Yet

Plinkiplonk 2. Samma inspelningsstudio som plinkiplonk 1.

Standing in the Doorway

Welcome to a swedish senior citizen. Old but not cold. Rune Ahlström barada nikto.

I can't sing. I can't play any instrument. I dance like Lurch, the butler in The Addams Family. With those shortcomings and armed with a Mac, a dashboard, a mouse and a visionary mind I jumped into musicmaking. Well, sort of musicmaking. For me it's more like soundbathing. Makes dirt go away too. Mental dirt.
No professional tools are used. Just an old version of GarageBand and some other simple Mac software such as Audacity. And Terminal when I want to create speech synthesis from written text. From a technical point this is crappy. But if you are determined enough and have a frontal lobe that is odd and irregular small miracles can occur. Besides, music happens in your brain, not in your ears. Embrace it and you will be richly rewarded, financially or just mentally. I don't know how but you will.

Verdun - The Red Clay

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