The Cosmic Gondolier

[ChameleonMusic]

https://soundcloud.com/chameleon-music/ ... -gondolier

citiesandmemory.com/
March 2020 Project: Future Cities
Future Cities is the largest ever survey of the sounds of urban spaces around the world, examining how the soundscapes of our cities are changing and what that means for us all.

What if Venice and all its wonderful canals were lifted off the earth’ surface and became a floating metropolis in outer space?

In terms of the sound world they create, I’ve always found journeys on water to be discrete and utterly disconnected from their immediate surroundings, so I’ve tried to create a more cosmic, outer space version of travelling by water!

The first 90 seconds of the piece are 99% taken from the original field recording (a gondolier on the water with various people sounds in the background + an accordion player towards the end):

The opening waves of sound are taken directly from the original field recording – snippets of water sounds were processed using granular sampling and synthesis in two instances of Reaktor 6.

The outer space tinkles, clicks and beeps are a combination of tiny vocal samples from the original alongside synthesis in Omnisphere.

The pad sound that enters at around 50 seconds was created from the accordion playing towards the end of the field recording – sampled and processed in two instances of Omnisphere.

The original music was all created using Omnisphere.

[wagtunes]

Very well done. It's hard to make Omnisphere sound bad. lol

[empphryio]

Sounds excellent. Thanks for posting it.

[sjm]

The opening section sounds great - you could have left that running for a few minutes, and I'd have liked it. But I enjoyed the turn the track took with the melodies coming in. It's like being taken on a journey, which seems very fitting. And you still deliver us back to that beautiful soundscape at the end.

I really liked it!

[ChameleonMusic]

Very well done. It's hard to make Omnisphere sound bad. lol

Thanks Wags!

Making Omni sound bad...i don't know...I've done it few times!

[ChameleonMusic]

Sounds excellent. Thanks for posting it.

Thanks for taking time to listen - appreciated.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

Thought we'd lost you again!

Really enjoyed the track. Really effective sound design and preset choice (Omni's vocal patches are still great to turn to, especially those female duet voices, and the boy's choir).

Hope you'll stick around, this time

[Frantz]

As usual, this is excellent. The ambient intro flows perfectly into the vocal sounds and arps.

The percussion at 2:36 seems a bit digital and Kraftwerky to fit with the prior sounds but that it is only a minor concern. Lots of cool parts are added on top and we are flowing again.

The mix is excellent. This could be extended to 15 minutes and I would have enjoyed it. Great job!

[ChameleonMusic]

Thought we'd lost you again!

Really enjoyed the track. Really effective sound design and preset choice (Omni's vocal patches are still great to turn to, especially those female duet voices, and the boy's choir).

Hope you'll stick around, this time

Nah! I'm still here, just not going to KVR that much this time.

Thanks for the listen!

"female duet voices, and the boy's choir" Yes, they're good, but not used here by the way.

The female 'voice' is actually a pure synthesis patch from Luftrum's 'Ambient 2' Soundset.

[ChameleonMusic]

As usual, this is excellent. The ambient intro flows perfectly into the vocal sounds and arps.

The percussion at 2:36 seems a bit digital and Kraftwerky to fit with the prior sounds but that it is only a minor concern. Lots of cool parts are added on top and we are flowing again.

The mix is excellent. This could be extended to 15 minutes and I would have enjoyed it. Great job!

Thanks Frantz...

The percussion at 2:36

- I totally agree and almost took it out...still not sure about it! Well, it's in there now and sent to Stuart at C&M!

The mix is excellent

- cheers, as it was a bugger to do this one! 31 tracks in total! also I was using Ozone 9 / Neutron 3 for the first time ever and it was quite a steep learning curve from the previous versions!

[seismic1]

It's got the lot. Great samples, tastefully reshaped to support a compelling storyline, some great rhythmic synthwork à la Jarre and a great Vangelis lead. The section from 1:30-2:30 could probably be successfully re-purposed into this year's uplifting trance "hit" of the year.

You've managed to pack a lot into 5 minutes without it sounding rushed or disjointed.

Good work

[htcnext2]

Interesting sound sculptures, although the field recodings sound a bit common, the track works out nice.

[Moe Shinola]

This is so nice. I love ambient stuff like this. Great percussive 2nd half, too.

[noylis]

Epic piece!! You worked on it very much and it shows

[ChameleonMusic]

It's got the lot. Great samples, tastefully reshaped to support a compelling storyline, some great rhythmic synthwork à la Jarre and a great Vangelis lead. The section from 1:30-2:30 could probably be successfully re-purposed into this year's uplifting trance "hit" of the year.

You've managed to pack a lot into 5 minutes without it sounding rushed or disjointed.

Good work

Thank you very much, Tim...

Yes, it's very JMJ and Vangelis in that middle section; a style I tend to write in naturally at times...maybe, my composition comfort-zone!?

Personally, i had some serious doubts regarding the blend of music and soundscape in this one and nearly abandoned it entirely at one point...maybe that's a classic case of getting so involved in a piece that you lose perspective?