Iterations, Modern Originals

Agony

My brother (who is an accomplished multi-instrumental musician in his own right and a collector of obscure and eclectic music) and I recently had a discussion about this particular track of music. I asserted that the track really does sound quite unsettling, while he opined that, compared to many things he’s listened to, it’s not particularly unsettling at all. I suppose you’ll have to listen to it to see which one of us is right; be aware, though, that it contains many discordant elements and may not be your cup of tea (in fact, music is rarely a beverage unless you are suffering from extreme synesthesia).

The song started out as an experiment in varying synth harmonics by variably modulated filter sweeps across synths playing the same pattern. Ultimately, the effect ended up being less interesting than I had hoped, so I started playing around randomly with other musical elements, the result being a sort of discordant found-sound mishmash which sounds to me like something you might hear during a cinematic nightmarish hallucination. There are two versions: the original, and a later variant with some additional samples and processing that is probably the better of the two.

The synths were produced in Vanguard, and the discordant ambient background is provided by a custom-tweaked preset for the Reaktor ensemble SpaceDrone. Most other sounds are random clips and loops from the packs that come with Logic Pro.

Oh, and one additional note: You might want to check the volume level on your equipment before listening.

http://www.idlecircuits.com/digintmedia/agony.mp3

http://www.idlecircuits.com/digintmedia/agonyv1pt3.mp3