Hybrid Symphony Nr°2

This little Sonata for FL Studio, NI Komplete, and other friendly gadgets and sample libraries was written and produced between 2017 and 2019. It remained unreleased until now, because we were so busy writing, producing, sound designing and recording new ideas nonstop. This one leans more towards the classical side of our hybrid spectrum. We listened to a lot of Debussy, Mahler and John Williams at the time. While Steve and Pam dug deeper into sound design, learning a lot from tutorials by Mr.Bill and SeamlessR; Dave started trying to actually learn basic music theory in order to get the ideas in his head into actual melodies and harmonies that roll back and forth between the familiar and the fantastic. Learning a lot of musical concepts from 'nurd-tube' channels like Rick Beato, 12tone, 8-Bit Music Theory, Tommaso Zillio and Yogev Gabor. „Hello Internets!“ In this spirit of sharing knowledge we will add root keys, tempo and further info soon for all our fellow nurds and nurdesses around the world. Let's get edutained!

The first movement starts very simple, almost boring even. It developed naturally towards turbulent rhythms and melodies. The idea of soft rolling waves was inspired by Debussy from the very beginning, but the progression towards rapids and mudslides was an interpretation that came naturally after the whole thing was done. Yes, watching the news about the whole world falling apart in real time, did play a part. The cynicism is to be understood constructively, not in a doomer way. We don't have to go extinct, there is still a probabillity for change, even without the irrational gesture of hope.
The second movement takes an ambient theme of the first movement and delegates the harmonys to choirs. Again, we didn't know where we were going with this, just following our irrational instincts to whereever they might lead. After listening to it for several years, the image of a choir of angels came to mind. A litany of accusations are presented to the heavans State Attorney General in the flesh.
The Scherzo was rib cut out one the other movements, (can't rembember which) and then reformulated as a dance of aliens. It is the youngest movement, finished in 2019. Pam really blew us away with her mindbending sound experiments. These microrythms and effects really contrasted in a nice way with the acoustic, classic instruments and drums. Steve mixed the percussive sounds given by Pam with realistic drum samples and a shiny little software drum computer.
The fourth movement, i.e. second adagio was an idea taken from the first adagio, which took on a life of it's own. It was clearly inspired by Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry. At which point the inspiration became conscious is not clear. One night Dave started hearing the sound effects as bees. He cried. Again a choir of living beings for which all help came too late. We all agreed renaming it accordingly. Don't give up.

The Allegro Finale takes the same motive from the first movement as the second movement does, but grinds it through a process called 'negative harmony'. You just can't make this kind of stuff up. When Dave began to learn some music theory in earnest, it was the first thing that he was confronted with, and really took a deep dive into. It enabled him to re imagine all ideas of the first four movements with a fresh palette of harmonic colors. Rhythms and sound design too are twisted beyond reconignition.