Faretheewell

Written in 1991 / Recorded in 1991 and 2012

One early morning in February or March, 1991, I watched a Hollywood gangster film aired on telly. It was rather a coincidence resulted from flickering the channels after midnight and now I can't recall neither the title of the film nor its story line. All I remember is that it was set in the 1930s and the theme music of the film was not only suitable for the setting but was somewhat impressive for me. Within a few days from watching the film, I began to write this tune based upon the impression I have absorbed from the theme music of the film, though I couldn't remember it exactly by that time, and despite being surrounded by busy and uncertain circumstances, I managed to complete demo recording of the tune by the end of March. The initial idea for simply mocking the film theme soon developed to a next level for accommodating several variations stemmed from components I wrote for the tune and bridging pieces in the middle, where I tried to express my adoring for Hollywood film music and the Bolero piece furnished with the chord-progression belongs to the field of Pop music or Prog Rock.
I don't think the piano piece in the intro sounds like Contemporary Music - it was rather more about experiment - but a couple of pieces written for piano and organ are well written. I also like the brief piano solo piece in the second half, obviously inspired by Love Street by The Doors, and the guitar solo presented with double tracking of the classical guitar.

For making this video, I newly added the lead guitar part in the Bolero sequence in order to replace the original guitar part that was recorded with unnecessary voice parts, mixed together in the same track. You can see the new stuff being filmed and inserted in the video as well.  

"The Death" from 'Music for a Story-Telling'

Written in 1991 and 1994 / Recorded in 1991, 1994 and 2013

Basically, as far as the music concerns, my conceptual work titled Music for a Story-Telling is a collection of re-workings of my past compositions written in 1991; either works I wrote for a band that couldn't exist long enough to perform it, and/or works for a students’ theatrical project called Zone. This tune was originally written solely for the latter occasion.

The original demo recording for the students' project was used in the climax scene - the assassination of the antagonist - in the performance and that version is also available on YouTube under a title of Assassination Theme (from Zone). When the tune was converted to Music for a Story-Telling, a theme attributed to Kelp, the main character, was added in the middle, partly because of the story's requirement but mostly in order to break the monotonous repetition of the same motif, which was effective as mere background music for a brief theatrical scene but lacked a good structure for an individual composition.

For making this video, I made a new recording so that I could make a subtle change in the chord progression, whilst I also gave a room for the old demos from 1991 and 1994 to be preserved in the final quarter of the video. Footage of the assassination scene from original students' performance is also featured in this video.

Elegance Theme

Written and Recorded in 1991

A long instrumental tune I wrote for a newly formed band called Elegance, led by myself on the guitar and the keyboard, in early 1991. Though the tune was written corresponding to the personnel of the band at that moment, with a potential additional position for a cello player, before its creation finished, the personnel of the band changed so rapidly that the tune had almost no opportunity to be rehearsed properly by Elegance at all.

Despite this failure, I recognised that the tune contained some significant ideas to give bases for some future compositions and later converted most elements of this tune into one of my flagship conceptual works called Music for a Story-Telling, which was composed between 1993 and 1996.

"Finale" from 'Music for a Story-Telling' and 'Zone'

Written in 1991 / Recorded in 1991 and 1994

Basically, as far as the music concerns, my conceptual work titled Music for a Story-Telling is a collection of re-workings of my past compositions written in 1991; either works I wrote for a band that couldn’t exist long enough to perform it, and/or works for a students’ theatrical project called Zone. This tune was written solely for the latter occasion.

The theatrical project initially began with gathering random ideas for the performance and I wrote some original tunes in accordance with the basic story-line provided by the director, who was my close friend at that time. Writing of the tunes and the demo recordings completed within three days on late October 1991 and through this intensive creation, I developed my own version of the story-line for a certain extent. Meanwhile, the director developed his own version in a different way and he refused to use some portions of my original works nor my version of story-line. Finale was never used in the performance at all.

A few years later, I decided to re-use the things I wrote for Zone by re-writing the entire story-line based on my version mentioned above. Finale was also re-recorded but almost no modification was made to the new version, except for a tiny change made in the ending bit. More importantly, by applying the proper story-line stemmed from the original inspiration, the seminal flow of the composition became clearer - the decline of the old value, represented by Suetrea, the Poet's theme, being gradually taken over by the new value, represented by Khoros of the crowd under the influence of Kelp, the Intruder.

Actual footage filmed at the original performance of Zone is featured in this video at the transitional phase of the values mentioned above. The actor, who played the role of 'The Poet' appears from 1:45 and chaotic celebration sequence soon after the assassination scene follows. Musically, the Poet's theme played by the piano, which fades out in the transitional phase, and Khoros's them played by the organ, which fades in during the transition, are deliberately written in inharmonious keys. Visually, I also added the actual footage of 'finale' sequence from the original performance so that this video could play the role of 'finale' for both playlists; Zone and Music for a Story-Telling.

Waltz (for electric instruments)

Written and Recorded in 1994

This tune is actually a variation of a couple of following other works of mine; Dance to Me and Dance with Me, which were all written under a dance-themed concept that  was supposed to accommodate the former as the main theme whilst the latter as the closing theme. This Waltz variation was written as a bridging piece between other variations of the former and the latter in the original scheme.

The idea for the dance-themed concept first emerged a few years earlier before writing these tunes and one of inspiring sources for building up the concept was the waltz section of Petrushka by Igor Stravinsky. In other words, Waltz variation had been a requirement for the entire conceptual work in the first place.
Despite its source of inspiration, for writing this variation, I rather chose to borrow the form of Viennese Waltz, especially of Johann Strauss II, at the intro and at the end. Additionally, in order to furnish the tune with retro atmosphere, I added actual needle noise taken from my vinyl record player as well.

Regardless to the botched conceptual work, I think this tune is well written individually and could be one of my representative works I have ever written.

Summer Beach Silly Stuff

Written in 1994 / Recorded in 1994 and 2013

This tune was originally titled Pathos of Life, for its silly but a bit witty lyrics, which told a story of a boy, who met a beautiful girl at a beach on one summer day. The story had a twist in the middle and the tune was written in accordance with it; relatively quiet and romantic first half and obviously opposit second half.

For making this video edition, I removed the main voice part in order to make it instrumental piece, but I decided to leave the backing voices because they contribute much for shaping the essence of the composition. Rhythm section and the lead guitar, which is also in charge of replacing the original melody line for the main voice, were newly added to the remix of the original demo, which fades out earlier than additional parts in this video. As you can see in this video, it was a bit of fun to play this tune once again, even though it was genuinely for filming purpose.