Nereus

Hey all!

Soooo it's been a while since I've shared something, right?

Well my apologies for that. I've been working a lot and haven't really had time to share things here, but today I have an important track to show you. It's the first track from an upcoming concept album I'm doing as a personal project called 'Deep'. Deep is a concept album exploring the sounds and imagery associated with the deep sea.

This first track, Nereus, is a good opener not only because it combines many of the stylistic elements present throughout the rest of the album, but also because it’s an opportunity to begin on the surface of the ocean and work my way down, which feels like an appropriate progression considering my overarching theme.

The title comes from the figure in Greek mythology known as the 'Old Man of the Sea', an overlord of the ocean predating the rule of Poseidon.

Nereus

I hope you enjoy, and if you'd like to keep abreast of developments related to the 'Deep' project then I encourage you to visit its website. :happy:

I really liked the water panning, and the water felt so smooth. I would have liked the water to be a bit louder. But that is personal preference. Did you use H2O anywhere there? At 3:42+ Loved that! :D

I really like the evocative nature of this soundscape. Especially the watery-background, which works well as a palette for music to be painted on. The opening flutes are divine, with a magnificent ethereal feel. Further in, the more percussive, building section really got my attention, especially given how the regularity of the beat contrasted with the rhythmically free opening.

There wasn't much I didn't like in the track. I felt the brass sounds could have been more "full"-- they sound synthy and weak to me, which stands in contrast to the rest of the track. Were you going for a more synthetic sound?

I also found that the choir entrance was a bit abrupt-- the introduction of recognizable syllables (even if they aren't english per se) was a bit jarring, and I felt like they didn't gel with the rest of the piece. Perhaps adding more definite choral samples more toward the opening of the piece? I really liked where they took the piece, but it spent so much time building to this part that I felt the ultimate "climax" of the piece was a bit too brief.

Obviously nitpicks here, but I think elongation of the latter half (specifically the more rhythmic chants of the choir) would do a lot to make the structure of the piece make more sense.

Really great work, glad to see your always-excellent work getting shared! Its a real pleasure to listen to.

It's great! I love listening to deep and emotional sounds and melodies, and yours are truly are :)

Everything is really nicely fit together, I love the flute at the beginning (was it recorded or sampled?)

Really, really great work.

Hey guys, thank you all for the wonderful comments! Let me address them individually...

Nyu: Funny you should say that because I actually had the water louder while I was writing but I turned it down in the final mix because it was overpowering a lot of the more subtle organic atmosphere effects that I'd put together. It sounds fine with the water louder but I guess I preferred to showcase the full breadth of the soundscape and keep the richness of the texture more evident without having one particular element overpower the rest.

cschweitzer: Great thoughts here, I appreciate you taking the time to share them! Regarding the brass, I was hoping to have them sound washed out, drowned, and distant to a far greater extent than in my mixes usually so to some extent their weaker sound was intentional, though I didn't exactly mean for them to sound synthy. I understand what you mean about the choir though I'm actually happy that the entrance was surprising and a bit jarring — my intention was to portray Nereus the mythological figure as patient and serene during the first half and then represent the ocean's penchant for abrupt violence and turmoil toward the end. The brevity was my desire to keep in mind the changing nature of the sea's moods...it's never consistent for very long, and the abrupt drop-off was almost like traveling across the ocean floor and then reaching the edge of a shelf, plunging into the abyss...which is precisely what I was after considering the nature of the track that comes after this on the album.

Either way I will take your comments to heart and keep them in mind for the coming tracks — thank you again for being so thorough! :D

Arrus: I'm very pleased that you enjoyed it so much! The flute at the beginning is sampled, but constructed partially from phrases so it sounds basically flawless, especially with the reverb on it.

Really appreciate the comments, guys, thank you! :happy:

hey marius, great to hear your "voice" again.

all in all its a very high quality piece, everything is well coordinated and timed, the concept is there most of the time.

if i would have to give artistic criticism as a listener, i would love to hear much more experiments like you did in robots dream of electric sheeps, i feel this production although awesome and grand sounding, more of a video game music-those brass and strings coming at the end gave me that RPG feel, but also might because i'm used to that sound too. in anycase i think you should go much more wild, and write about stuff you really care the most, or feel the most powerful emotions at, unless its not an artistic album but a demonstration for commercial purposes-might be those sound effects you've added, i don't get if you wanted to make a combination or to add depth to the music.

that being said, take this as if i'm commenting on an A+ product striving to be A++ .

Hey Marius. Another one of your great works, really, the production was awesome on this one. I will have to disappoint you tho' in a sense that I didn't really got the feeling of an ocean other than the beginning and the end. What really bothered me the most is the Ney Flute with mid-eastern phrases, That just didn't click with the whole ocean picture. (given the fact that mid-east is usually associated with heat, deserts and whatnot) But then again, maybe it's just me. Anyway, you should check out a song called: The Siren by Nightwish, that really has some awesome oceanic feel, could be some inspiration.

Woo more comments, that was quick :o

J: I'm very happy to tell you that the later tracks on the album are definitely more in the vein of Dreams of Electric Sheep, so I look forward to showing you more stuff soon because the majority of the album is really focused on that end of things, I just have to balance an experimental sound with commercial viability for a fairly broad audience so I can't have everything just be consistently noisy and crazy because then most people won't want to listen to it. It's tricky to try and find the ideal proportions but I'll do my best not to disappoint either party!

Phant: Fair point and I see where you're coming from. I was actually hoping that between the ney and the half-real half-synth plucked zither hybrid I could evoke a coastal Greek feeling to match the fact that Nereus comes from Greek mythology. Guess not? I'm familiar with The Siren but that's not entirely the direction I'm headed in. Stay tuned for more tracks in the nearish future and we'll see how I do in those ones :P

Woo more comments, that was quick :o

J: I'm very happy to tell you that the later tracks on the album are definitely more in the vein of Dreams of Electric Sheep, so I look forward to showing you more stuff soon because the majority of the album is really focused on that end of things, I just have to balance an experimental sound with commercial viability for a fairly broad audience so I can't have everything just be consistently noisy and crazy because then most people won't want to listen to it. It's tricky to try and find the ideal proportions but I'll do my best not to disappoint either party!

Phant: Fair point and I see where you're coming from. I was actually hoping that between the ney and the half-real half-synth plucked zither hybrid I could evoke a coastal Greek feeling to match the fact that Nereus comes from Greek mythology. Guess not? I'm familiar with The Siren but that's not entirely the direction I'm headed in. Stay tuned for more tracks in the nearish future and we'll see how I do in those ones :P

Yeah, I definitely get you don't want to make a rock song, I just thought you could pick up some textures that sound very... watery... like harp arpeggios etc...

You know what always reminds me of the ocean, and ships and exactly that Greek feeling you mentioned? Choirs and brass. Low male choirs to be exact.

Looking forward to hear more :)

Hey Marius,

I actually like this flute in the beginning very much. Together with the water it really feels quite like a wide lonely ocean, imo :)

The last part where the strings come in is awsome! Perfect mix as always.

I could imagine it very well in a strategy game like anno, or Age of Mythologie (would be fitting with the mythology thing if you know the game ;)

Thanks for sharing!

Thank you very much, Oli! I'm just a bit behind schedule with this project because of some computer issues but hopefully soon I'll be able to show you more! :happy:

I appreciate your comments!

I don't suppose you've ever heard Vangelis' Oceanic album, have you?

this is very good! it really captures the feeling of the sea! the mysterious world underwater!! great job! and good luck with your album