Feb 2022 ambient synths chill not-metal
I've had a MIDI controller keyboard and a bunch of soft synths for years now, and never really done much with them. No time like right in the middle of FAWM to try and learn something new, right?
I wanted to try and do something slower.
Something with only synths.
Something sort of Sigur Ros-like.
Ah, well. One out of three ain't bad ;)
I think I ended up channeling @headfirstonly on this, and I reckon his spirit led me in some very cool directions. Thanks, HFO :D
Instruments:
NI Kontakt playing Destroyed Six piano and a bundled pad and bass patch
Toontrack's Dream Pop drumkit
A lot of guitar pedals
This land of ice
This land is mine
Never face the sun
Never be the one
Holding back
At last
A time to rise
All will suffice
The be at peace
In time's release
@audrey Mar 2022
This feels so mysterious, distant, ethereal and yet, at the same time, grounded - that deep percussive beat feels like a heartbeat to me. Love the outro, which sounds, to me, like the ocean's endless waves reaching shore. What a wonderful soundscape you've created here. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it.
@crutherford Mar 2022
oh this is lovely!
at first it felt like i was getting a wonderful massage
then - the guitar comes in and i'm driving on a sunny day in a convertible with the top down. it's a winding mountain and on the otherside there it is the ocean. i am by myself and i am so happy where i am right at that moment.. this is a cinematic beauty. bravo!
@tunecat Mar 2022
#tit4tat Looking to check out your not metal. This feels incredibly competent. Sounds floating around in space some great guitar playing. This matches the words - reassuring and expansive . With a rock god somewhere just on the side of the stage just to make sure it’s really epic!!
@mandolinda Feb 2022
#tit4tat OOH, I picked well this time, Very dreamy atmospheric track.
I would listen to this on the porch looking at the stars, but not when I was driving a car. It is very relaxing.
@ductapeguy Feb 2022
Sure @sapient can do incredibly technical, inhumanly fast grooves but can he do slow and emotionally complex? Damn right he can! Wow.
@dasbinky Feb 2022
Digging the layering and growth throughout here. Very much enjoying the groove. Nice incorporation of the geetars into the atmosphere.
I've been sort of eyeing the dream pop kit for a little while... I'm waiting for a sale.
@wobbiewobbit Feb 2022
lovely drifty, dreamy space. and the big sound gives it an epic weightiness
@judypie Feb 2022
More non metal?! :-0
Love hearing the different sides of your repertoire!
Beautiful, feels like interstellar travel.
@scottlake Feb 2022
Good for the soul this is!
@tfish77 Feb 2022
Wow, not what I was expecting from a Sapient tune! I love this. I see a planet slowly coming into view from the POV of a vessel floating in space... really lovely stuff. Beautiful work here!
@jacobeverettwallace Feb 2022
Man everyone's doing beautiful ambient soundscapes this year! I gotta join the fun. This is gorgeous, haunting and intoxicating. I like the grit interweaved throughout.
@gordon Feb 2022
Mean, moody and definitely cinematic. Love that guitar tone about four minutes in/
@katestantonsings Feb 2022
I could hear this play against a documentary with gorgeous video footage of glaciers. Cinematic.
@headfirstonly Feb 2022
Oooh. Trippy and expansive, with a hint of darkness buried in that timestretched bass loop. Back in the seventies you could have filled the Roundhouse several times over playing this sort of stuff. Your superlative guitar tones slot in very nicely here...
And I'm delighted I could provide a little bit of motivation to get you playing with soft synths, even though I'm blushing at the mention—but to me this sounds more like Bridge11 stretching their wings a bit (and the new album is excellent, by the way!)
The Dream Pop EZX is probably one of the most neglected things I have in my collection. Might have to do something about that.
@coolparadiso Feb 2022
what not metal- well you warned me. Agree with Candle a bit like your other ego. really like where it goes around the 4.50. very good build and descent
@candle Feb 2022
This is just gorgeous. An epic soundscape that instantly depicts the glacier in the mind's eye. It reminds me of your Space Rock tracks with @gordon for your Bridge11 project (which reminds me, I still need to listen to the new album! LOL). Yeah, you're channeling some HFO in this, & probably some @caterwauler as well, if I'm not mistaken. Either way, this is a fabulous journey that I might just have to put on repeat.
See You In The Shadows…
@chroes Feb 2022
Yay! Come to the dark side, we got MIDI-controllers!
(I, on the other hand, have bought an electric guitar and am in the process of learning to play that...)
This song has a calmness that I very much ejnoyed. The sparse beginning makes the later tonal richness so much more rewarding. Very well done!
@stephenwordsmith Feb 2022
In this climate, I'm glad a song entitled 'Glacier' can still be 'chill'.
It's an interesting spin on the concept. I find art based around glaciers tends to emphasise the stillness, monolithic-ness and crystalline nature of the thing, but here we have considerably more jaggedness and grit - viewing a glacier as something that, slowly but surely, ruthlessly carves the very face of the landscape ,
There's a slow, bearing heat in the delivery. And the occasional percussive echoes are like pieces falling away into the ocean, too warm to cling on to the rest of the contiguous mass. Everything seems to ripple away into infinity, giving a sense of the vastness and grandeur at play here. And yet it seems to almost be a challenge - scale this before it goes, bold adventurer - the thrumming pulse at 4:45 onwards certainly echoes this.
@jamesstaubes Feb 2022
This is a cool, different vibe from you. Very cinematic. I feel it goes from Kubrick to a Game of Thrones energy. It's big, wide, and epic.