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LloydeSorrow

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Music of Land of Enki - Part I

Posted by LloydeSorrow - January 22nd, 2015


 

Greetings to all! Lloyde here, but I’m sure that’s obvious :P. I thought I’d take you on a behind-the-scenes on some of the music for the Land of Enki games (I & II). Part I will focus on the music from Land of Enki I and Part II will focus on the music from Land of Enki II (maybe there will be other parts focusing on music from both LoE I & II...we'll see!). I must admit that this is my first time doing something like this so it may not be the best, but I will try!

Let’s start with the track that sets things up: The Main Menu theme. This is a favorite of mine as well as the developer of the game, VoidForce. It’s got a jungle/tribal vibe to it which fits/represents the Land of Enki. The two elements that I feel really gives it those vibes are the ethnic shouts and the xylophone. Oh, and the bass and Bamblong (kind of like a bamboo marimba)! I guess that’s four things haha. Of course the other instruments help out in giving it the jungle/tribal feel, but I feel like those four help out the most. I make use of two specific instruments to… represent the “island”: Steel Drum & Vibraphone. When I hear a Steel Drum I think of a Caribbean island and the Vibraphone in the context of this piece makes me think of a general nice island (it’s because of the beautiful 7th chords being arpeggiated and sustained!). Hmm… at the end of the piece, a few measures before it loops, there’s a polyrhythm going on in the percussion. I love polyrhythms! I guess that’s all I have to say about this track. I’ll say this now and at the end: feel free to ask me any questions about any of the music and I’ll do my best to answer!

 

On to the next track, Forest Food Lands. Another one of my favorites. It’s such a very beautiful piece. The driving force in this piece is the Harp. Without it… well, it wouldn’t be what it is! It’s meant to be peaceful and calm. It’s the first place Kon arrives at upon arriving upon (haha words are troubling me today) the Land of Enki… well, besides the shore… anyway! Though there are monsters within the forest, they aren’t really all that harmful. They’re quite cute… except for when they are trying to kill you, but that’s fine. You get over that once you look at them again :-).  Continuing on, to express the peacefulness of the forest I sought out beautiful harmonies as well as a beautiful melody. I wanted to keep things simple, so the instrumentation is light. That’s about all I have to say about Forest Food Lands. I wish was able to better explain it! For the most part this track was one I had a feeling about and went from there. Now, moving on!

 

Here we are at the Overworld Theme. Ah, this has quite the nice sound to it, no? It has the sound of adventure in it! Primary representatives of that are the Snare Drum and Pizzicato Bass (that rhythm!). The primary providers of harmonic support are the woodwinds followed by the harp. I believe this is one of the first pieces where I modulated to chords from different keys. The descending modulating chord progression also plays a big part in creating that “Overworld” feel.

 

Let’s take it to the Temple of Nature! This track overall has an ancient and tribal vibe to it. Everything about it gives that feeling. The percussion, the pan flute, the harmony, and the scale used. The scale used is Phrygian Major/Arabic (quite a few different ways to call this scale. The scale degrees are 1, b2, nat3, 4, 5, b6, b7). It’s basically the Phrygian scale with a natural third degree instead of a flat one. It has a Middle Eastern sound when played alone and also depending on the context it is used in. In context of this song, it takes on a more ancient and tribal quality (further enhanced by the breathy timbre of the pan flute and flute). Our friend the Bamblong makes a return in this song. An interesting thing about this song is that it moves away from the orchestral-like construction that most of the other songs have. The tracks of Land of Enki II do this even more so, but more on that later ;-). That’s all I can think of mentioning at the moment.

Alright, that’s all for now. I hope that someone is able to find this either entertaining or helpful, perhaps both! I know it probably could have been a lot better. There’s more to come, so there’s time to improve :-). My adventures in composing are far from over! If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask me. I can probably answer those better than I can thinking of random stuff to address! Also, feel free to ask questions or even make comments about the tracks I didn’t mention here. Part II will focus on the music from Land of Enki II. Stay tuned for that!

 

Cheers,

 

Lloyde Sorrow

 


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