This was originally a candidate for the 'Hypnotic' cafe contest a couple of months ago. It's kind of based on some of the ideas behind Shepard/Risset tones, with a repeated loop that continually slows down without really getting slower.

You can focus on one thread in the track from fast at the start, halving in speed and dropping an octave with each repeat of the loop. It was pretty tricky to come up with something that followed those rules yet still sounded harmonic, but I quite like the end result.

The End of Time (Soundcloud)

A very enjoyable and relaxing track to listen to. It makes more sense now I have read the accompanying blurb

I'll check out your new track later today. Off to bed now

This one was built on a very good idea.
The result is enjoyable, very effective with that relaxing vibe and background noises. Nicely done

Cheers

Thanks for listening and commenting seismic1 and Laguna Rising - glad you enjoyed it

Great job of taking the Shepard idea into the time domain. That's some work to make that actually function and be musical at the same time.

This is really nicely done..and it goes with the picture really well as..found myself staring at it while listening to this , imagining it spinning slowly out of existence.. great work !

Thank you - the Shepard/Risset effect always intrigued me, and on the 'Jean-Claude Risset' Wikipedia page there is an interesting example of a constantly accelerating breakbeat which prompted me to try this, but taking the idea in a different direction.

The picture is M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, which I shot some years ago using a home-modified CCTV module on the back of a 6" reflector. Somehow I pictured the end of time being like a spiral, where you could perhaps escape from doom by periodically jumping to the next ripple out on the whirlpool - hence the image.

And Michael Moorcock's 'Dancers at the End of Time' trilogy is one of my favourite stories, which ties everything together nicely

Thanks for listening, and for commenting!

Quite sombering...

Thanks for sharing.

Just had a thought. Did you ever hear "Coda: Marine 475" by King Crimson? It's got an ever-descending chord sequence. Not the same thing as your piece, but interesting anyway.

No, I hadn't heard that King Crimson track before - but I have now Thanks for pointing it out.

The Queen track 'Teo Torriatte' from 'A Day at the Races' ends with a very good example of a rising chord sequence - starting around 4:40 on this video

Very serene... Reminds me a bit of Tenmon's tracks for the anime film 5cm Per Second.

Very interesting effect!

I become a little more tense with this sort of piece, though, because I end up concentrating on it, and it gets my nerves going.

Still, very beautiful.