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.