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Topic: Ascension, An album inspired by Mike's music< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
qcfoetus Offline




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Posted: Aug. 08 2020, 18:55

Hi! Just finished recording this piece, which dates back to my youth and was heavily inspired by TB1.
I would have asked John Cleese to act as master of ceremony for the first four minutes or so, but unfortunately he wasn't around! :D
https://soundcloud.com/qcfoetus/hommage
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nightspore Offline




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Posted: Aug. 08 2020, 21:41

This is rather nice... that repeated, sinuous flute melody does anything but ascend... maybe Connie Booth could do the honors instead of Cleese?  :D "Hommage" unscrambles to "Ahem. MGO". Perhaps now is the time to fess up, Mike?  :laugh:


Margaret Pomerantz: "3 stars I think, David."
David (smiling smugly): "Two and a half stars from me."
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qcfoetus Offline




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Posted: Aug. 09 2020, 00:41

Thanks for the comments, Nightspore. Ascension is the name of the fourth and final piece of the album, which I'll post in the next couple of weeks. That one does nothing *but* ascend (er... sort of)!  ;)
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Posted: Aug. 09 2020, 13:06

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nightspore Offline




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Posted: Aug. 09 2020, 19:58

I could hear the references to TSODE in it, but much of it seemed new.
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qcfoetus Offline




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Posted: Aug. 09 2020, 20:23

Quote (Ommagest @ Aug. 09 2020, 13:06)
Enjoyed that, good work and more power to you.

Thanks Ommagest! This is my pre-retirement project, and with a little luck I'll have more coming soon.
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qcfoetus Offline




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Posted: Aug. 09 2020, 20:36

Quote (nightspore @ Aug. 09 2020, 19:58)
I could hear the references to TSODE in it, but much of it seemed new.

Funny you mention this, as TSODE is one of my favorite albums. Hommage was created in 1981, long before TSODE was ever published, but the choice of instruments and methods I used for the 2020 version was probably influenced by it, along with other parts of Mike's extensive portfolio.
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nightspore Offline




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Posted: Aug. 09 2020, 21:51

You obviously had the music and title in your mind before it all came to being in TSODE and used the title "Ascension" for one of its pieces.
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qcfoetus Offline




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Posted: Aug. 16 2020, 15:50

Hi! Here's the second piece from the album, intended to be sort of an interlude between Hommage and the remaining two, shorter pieces. As such, it's much calmer, hence its title. Try to picture a quiet stroll along a lake or river on a nice summer day... In true Oldfieldian fashion, Calmos builds on one of the central themes introduced in Hommage.
https://soundcloud.com/qcfoetus/calmos
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nightspore Offline




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Posted: Aug. 17 2020, 09:09

This one didn't remind me of Oldfield at all. Clarinets don't connote lakes for me, although an oboe might. I don't know where that lakeside stroll went, but the bit with the xylophone (or instrument that sounded like one) suggests, a la Danse Macabre, that it stumbled on to a cemetery :O  :laugh:

I notice you dedicated it to the angel who gave you wings. As Bing Crosby might have said, if you don't care a FEATHER or a fig, you may become a flying pig  :D
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qcfoetus Offline




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Posted: Aug. 17 2020, 09:35

Quote (nightspore @ Aug. 17 2020, 09:09)
This one didn't remind me of Oldfield at all. Clarinets don't connote lakes for me, although an oboe might. I don't know where that lakeside stroll went, but the bit with the xylophone (or instrument that sounded like one) suggests, a la Danse Macabre, that it stumbled on to a cemetery :O  :laugh:

I notice you dedicated it to the angel who gave you wings. As Bing Crosby might have said, if you don't care a FEATHER or a fig, you may become a flying pig  :D

Yeah, Mike's influence here limits itself to structure, i.e. using common themes in different pieces. To be honest, this is my least favourite part of the album--nothing more than a filler--, and I guess it shows! As far as artwork goes, maybe it's an inside joke. Angel: "When will you ever have time to put your ideas into music?" Me: "When pigs fly."  :p
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nightspore Offline




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Posted: Aug. 17 2020, 18:47

Quote (qcfoetus @ Aug. 17 2020, 09:35)
As far as artwork goes, maybe it's an inside joke. Angel: "When will you ever have time to put your ideas into music?" Me: "When pigs fly."  :p

Perhaps a tart allusion to The Captain and Tennille would be appropriate: "Lonely nights, Angelface".  :laugh: Well, Pink Floyd liked Tennille, didn't they?  :laugh:

Tennille: "Are all these your guitars?"
Pink: "No, they belong to Mike Oldfield, actually"
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qcfoetus Offline




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Posted: Aug. 23 2020, 17:25

Hi! Here's the third piece from the album, which builds on another one of the central themes introduced in Hommage. This piece is much shorter than the others and was quite a lot of fun to produce. Enjoy!
https://soundcloud.com/qcfoetus/manouche
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nightspore Offline




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Posted: Aug. 24 2020, 19:21

A bright cheerful tune there... I notice the repeated opening rhythm spells, in Morse Code, "TAEM". A spelling error for "TEAM" or "MATE" maybe
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qcfoetus Offline




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Posted: Aug. 25 2020, 09:50

Quote (nightspore @ Aug. 24 2020, 19:21)
A bright cheerful tune there... I notice the repeated opening rhythm spells, in Morse Code, "TAEM". A spelling error for "TEAM" or "MATE" maybe

Thanks for the feedback. Actually, I wanted to spell "F--K OFF RB" but could not make it fit into the structure of the piece! :D
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qcfoetus Offline




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Posted: Aug. 30 2020, 19:08

Hi! The album's fourth and final piece is now available. Like Calmos and Manouche, it builds on one of the central themes introduced in Hommage. The middle section, however, briefly explores other grounds.
https://soundcloud.com/qcfoetus/ascension
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nightspore Offline




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Posted: Sep. 02 2020, 20:09

I notice an ascending melody in the background, played on the sinister, Addams-Family-ish harpsichord. The foreground melody is cheerful, but towards the end there is the repeated circular saxophone melody. It's interesting that on another thread someone is talking about Mike's not liking the saxophone; I personally don't either. The final "voice" is a solitary flute.
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qcfoetus Offline




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Posted: Sep. 04 2020, 11:27

Quote (nightspore @ Sep. 02 2020, 20:09)
I notice an ascending melody in the background, played on the sinister, Addams-Family-ish harpsichord. The foreground melody is cheerful, but towards the end there is the repeated circular saxophone melody. It's interesting that on another thread someone is talking about Mike's not liking the saxophone; I personally don't either. The final "voice" is a solitary flute.

Thanks for this other bit of feedback; it's nice to get an outside perspective on one's work. The "final voice" comment is particularly interesting, as it leads me to further ponder Mike's influence on me--specifically the passage on Ommadawn where, approximately 5 minutes into part 2, a single guitar emerges from chaos. I've always been fascinated by this passage, and was probably trying to reproduce it, in my own limited way, to close off the Ascension project.
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