Calabi-Yau

Copyright 2005 by James Friesen

A Calbai-Yau manifold is a special shape with multiple dimensions. String Theory calls for more spatial dimensions than we experience. It is often theorized that these extra dimensions are shrunk down and curled up into a 6 or 7 dimensional shape called a Calabi-Yau, named after two mathematicians who explored the geometries of n-dimensional space. The idea is that we aren't directly aware of these extra dimensions, even though we exist partially within them. On the grand, and the small scales, however, they can have a huge impact on reality, so we need to learn everything we can about them.

I am reading a lot about string theory, quantum physics, and nanotechnology, and I am exploring a new sound (for me anyway) that seems complex and multidimensional, so this name seems appropriate.

Amalthea

Copyright 2005 by James Friesen

Amalthea is the name of a nymph in a Greek myth about Jupiter. It is also the name given to a small Jovian moon. There is no special meaning here, but I am an amateur astronomer, and I decided to name some of my piano solo pieces after heavenly bodies. I don't have a song that can evoke the majesty of the great planet Jupiter, but perhaps some of my piano solos can bring to mind the stark and solitary orbits followed by that planet's rocky moons on their billion year journeys. Will they be cast off into the dark, many years hence, or spiral into the gravity well, to be crushed in the uncharted depths of the Jovian atmosphere?

The piece itself is simple and moody. I seldom compose cheerful songs! Hopefully that is changing now that I have some new tools to play with. The sounds themselves inspire me, and the piano has a very lonely sound to me, so my compositions reflect that.

Distant View

Copyright 1997 by James Friesen

Distant View is the feeling that overcomes you when you are climbing a mountain to get a better view, both literally and figuratively. I have always had a yearning for the long view, whether over the horizon, out in space, or in the far reaches of my own consciousness. Some songs are about reflection, this one is about the future. The beat is almost Indian, evoking images of a shaman sitting on a mountain top, emerging from a peyote induced vision in time to catch the eye of an eagle regarding him as it rides the thermals in search of prey.

Okay, maybe I'm reading too much into this two minute song.

In the Groove

Copyright 1997 by James Friesen

In the Groove is the only piece on Cypress Trail with a piano sound on it. I have since made quite a few solo piano pieces (on a synth, not a real piano!)

Cypress Trail

Copyright 1997 by James Friesen

Cypress Trail has a methodical, loping rhythm that reminded me of walking the nature trails at Seashore State Park, since renamed False Cape State Park. I spent many a day, as a teenager, walking to the park and along many of it's trails, sometimes barefoot the whole way. I would get into a sort of dream state as I walked, just contemplating things, not always aware of my surroundings. I developed a walking gait that is too fast for most people and irritates the heck out of them.

The song and the CD are named after a trail in that park. The CD cover is a picture of an interesting tree that stood out from the others. The back cover is a picture I took from way up in the branches of another tree overlooking Broad Bay.

You Are...

Copyright 1997 by James Friesen

'You Are...' is a love song that I put together in my head one day sitting at my desk. I wrote a few lines of lyrics for the song, but never seriously considered recording them. I created a melody line that roughly follows the way the lyrics would have been sung, so I guess you could say the song went straight to elevator music. I won't say who it was written for, but he liked the song, and even took a turn trying to sing the lyrics. All I can say is, it's a good thing we didn't record any of our attempts!

The Forge

Copyright 1997 by James Friesen

The Forge started out as a rhythm track with a chant over it. The percussion had some echo on it which doubled the sounds and emphasized a metallic sound that reminded me of a hammer hitting an anvil, as in a steel forge. I would recite a passage from the Bible and a poem by William Blake that mentioned something being forged in iron, both of which appear at the beginning of a book by Roger Zelazny. Although the chant sounded cool, I was not prepared to release anything with vocals, especially when all my other tracks were instrumental. I ended up recording a lead synth part over the original track, resulting in what you hear now.

Road to Fra Mauro

Copyright 1997 by James Friesen

The Road to Fra Mauro is long and lonely and fraught with danger, as the astronauts of Apollo 13 quickly realized. Eventually another mission landed successfully at the Fra Mauro Highlands, one of the more dangerous landing sites chosen for the Apollo missions, and the one (if I am not mistaken) that finally yielded the Genesis Rock - a rock sample as old as the Earth and Moon.

I used a drumKAT drum trigger pad patched to a synth voice to create the rolling rhythm that underlies the entire song, giving it a sort of methodical traveling motion. I refrained from using any percussive sounds so as to give the song a solemn, muted atmosphere. The solo lead voice is a French horn. I think I was using an ART effects processor for the Cypress Trail songs, and I am sure I used a good bit of reverb on this.

XD5

Copyright 1997 by James Friesen

XD5 was the model number of my Kawai percussion module. This song almost has a "stomp" quality to it, and was just an exploration of that type of percussive music, with simple chords played over it. I liked the timpani sound and used it again in Sombre Reflections.

Dreamin'

Copyright 1997 by James Friesen

The title, Dreamin', is a reference to the German synth group, Tangerine Dream, who's 70's and early 80's music influenced me a great deal.

Once again, I think I used the drumKAT controller patched to a synth voice to create the opening bouncy rhythm that runs through the song, then composed the rest of the song over that. I was never very happy with the simple drums and bass, but I was in a hurry to get the whole project completed and so I moved on!

Sombre Reflections

Copyright 1997 by James Friesen

What can I say? The title says it all. Sombre Reflections is a sad song, almost a funeral dirge, what with the slow Timpani rhythm. There is a place of sadness in me that I will never fully understand. Many of my themes touch on that part of my psyche, and this one emerged fully from there.

Final Approach

Copyright 1997 by James Friesen

Final Approach is another early song (see The Stand) that has that sound track feel to it. I picture the scene near the end of Aliens where Bishop is piloting the drop ship into the atmosphere plant to allow Ripley to go look for the girl, Newt.

This piece was composed on the fly, after a little experimentation, and never changed much beyond that.

The Stand

Copyright 1997 by James Friesen

The Stand is the very first 'finished song' I ever created. I auditioned it for a customer group that met at a local musical keyboard store. Unfortunately for me, everyone there was impressed. Now I have spent thousands of dollars on musical equipment. I sometimes wonder if it was worth it (of course it was! Even if no one ever heard my stuff, playing keeps me mostly sane.)

The Stand was also the first piece made using my first 'professional' piece of gear, a Kawai K-1 rack mount synthesizer. It specialized in somewhat harsh, but otherwise airy synth pads. I created the voice I used on this song from scratch. The drums came from another Kawai unit, the XD-5 (recognize that name?) I thought I overdid the drums, but no one else thought that, so I let it be.

Tragedy struck when I lost all traces of the midi files and had to recreate the entire song from memory. The drums improved a little!

This song set the pattern for my emerging sound, I think. Minimalist themes and melodies supported by repeating percussion tracks.

I like to explore, or create, synth voices until something catches my ear. When that happens, invariably a melody comes out of my tinkering, which I usually stick with. I explore the melody and the song quickly develops. I often get 'stuck' on a more or less complete structure, with minor modifications coming along at a slower and slower pace until I am sick of trying to tweak it, then voila!, it's finished, or else it ends up in the recycle bin. Seldom do I make major changes after the initial idea takes form.

So, anyway, this song has meaning for me in that it signaled a new phase in my song writing. No more cheesy, cheap keyboard sounds. No more tiny plastic keys that barely gave my fingers room to play. I had graduated from playschool to amateur status!

What did the song mean? Well, the title, as with the other song titles on this CD, came after the fact, but basically refers to the 'soundtrack sound' of this track. I often picture pieces like this being used in climax scenes of dark, gritty sci-fi movies where the hero, beaten and bloodied, makes his/her final 'stand'. Alien is still my favorite movie of all time. I saw it at the theaters at an impressionable age.

Darkness/Pathfinder's Descent

Copyright 1997 by James Friesen

After circulating the initial cassette tape of Cypress Trail, I decided to try composing some music with a Martian theme. Not H.G. Wells or Edgar Rice Burroughs, but rather a modern space travel view of Mars. The Mars Pathfinder Lander was en route to Mars and it seemed a good time to focus on the Red Planet. I made some meager attempts at nailing down the atmosphere I wanted to convey, but only two pieces stood out in the end.

One was a stark, moody theme using a metallic string pad from a small multitimbral synth I had recently acquired. It seemed to me to suggest the loneliness of space travel.

The other piece was fast and fiery (for me) and evoked images of reentry, speeding through the atmosphere, fire and plasma enveloping the spacecraft as it careens toward a rendezvous on the surface below. The track is full of percussive sounds and one of my rare attempts at an electric guitar sound.

Putting the two together seemed an obvious step, illustrating a journey to, and landing on, Mars. They even had the same metallic pad for the bass sound, so the transition is seamless.

I abandoned the Mars project and went back to work full time (I know, never quit the day job). Darkness/Pathfinder's Descent became the 12th track on the Cypress Trail CD in 1997.