Instrumental DaveJSvensson
REPORTfromPLANETthreeByDS2020

REPORT FROM PLANET THREE: a 16 min long track based on some ideas emerging when I was exploring a new keyboard; the opening chords were among the first ever recorded - in "performance mode" (no midi) - and then other ideas grew out of it. I wanted to make a long and restless track with lots of related passages, variations on a theme... It started out rather electronically, but then I integrated the guitars, aiming for an ensemble approach; it took me a year to complete.

Most of it was recorded before the World Crises, but I now can't help to associate the sounds of the synth arpeggiators with the Virus flooding the Mankind. Although the music wasn't conceived as a statement over the new gloomy era, it is for me emotionally connected to it. When the music took shape, people started to die around us; personal values were at risk in the pandemic, when the virus probed a close family member for weaknesses for a prolonged period, resulting in severe pnemonia which almost took her life. For a more distant relative it was fatal.

For a long time, I intended to use these ideas for another big recording project. But then, I (rather late) realized that the material stands better on it's own - as a REPORT - and I am quite excited about it. The process was long and unpredictable, but that is the nature of composing ... All music was hand-played (if counting the arpeggiators and ignoring some drum programming) and overlaid using the DAW as a multichannel tape recorder (line-in, .wav), avoiding midi and accepting some non-fixable human error.

I understand that few will listen to it all (thanks if you did!) but I have always had a soft spot for longer tracks, where sections relate and share underlying DNA. A story, maybe our struggle for survival? Is the final too gloomy, should it have ended differently? But those complaining guitars at the end felt right to me, crying out their painful statements - a memorial over the losses, after our Ultimate Victory.

INSTRUMENTS: I used ROLAND and YAMAHA keyboards extensively, emulating synth sounds, organs, piano, bass guitar, and percussion. I also played my electric IBANEZ guitar through the BOSS ME80 pedal effects - including occasionally playing it as bass, and added (sparsely) some notes on my acoustic 6s Hagstrom and 12s GUILD. Both programmed drums and drumloops were used too, occasionally spiced by some extra ALESIS drumpad hits.

ARTCOVER: based on a photo taken 2018 by myself, arriving just in time at the southernmost spot of Sweden to capture the sunset while gathering up for the Blood Moon to appear.

A magical night, representing the great moments on Planet Three!