Living With a Nerd

While working on Light Horizon last night, the music seemed to rip the steering wheel from my hand and push me out the door, leaving me to watch the vehicle careen down its own path. 

I never expected the track to go in the direction that it has; however this detour is of the more scenic variety.   I think it flows better with the rest of the album than my original idea, and even though I didn’t intend to travel this route, I see the advantage in it.  Over the past few months, I have found that creating music is a lot like writing a book: sometimes, the characters say things or take actions that you never expect…and then you realize you are grateful that your fingers thought of it before your brain.  Upon taking this new path, Light Horizon may now very well “sound” the most like it’s title, although I’m hoping that award will end up going to the title track, “The Transient Unknown”. 

The Transient Unknown will be the ONLY track that breaks the two word naming convention used throughout the rest of the album.  The purpose for this is two-fold: to indicate that this track is very different than those that came before it, and to promote a sense of wonder and intrigue due to the difference in the name.  I like to believe that the people who have the mental capacity to enjoy this kind of music have the mindset to consciously notice that the last track has three words in its title while the rest have only two.

Here is the current track listing as of today:

1. Cold Signals
2. Fomalhaut’s Zenith
3. Light Horizon
4. Stasis Dreams
5. IC 443 (work has not started on this yet)
6. Omicron Ceti
7. ???
8. ???
9. The Transient Unknown

IC 443 is the official name for the Jellyfish Nebula, which is made up of the remnant of a supernova.  I promised Brittnie I would make and name one of the tracks for her, and she loves jellyfish…so IC 443 seemed like a natural fit.  Not to mention Jellyfish are easy to translate into music…and the name rhymes.

Overall, I’m really pleased with how Light Horizons has turned out.  However,  in its current state, it’s only 4 minutes 32 seconds long.  The last 45 seconds or so get REALLY trippy, but the moment doesn’t seem to last long enough.  Knowing that this annoys me when listening to ambient music, I would imagine that this affects other individuals as well.  I will likely add an additional minute or two to the track.  If nothing else, it will give me an opportunity to retool the ending so that it feels more like “crossing the light horizon” instead of just “the end”.