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Life and Death's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall | #8 | 3.906 | 3.906 |
| Listenability | #9 | 4.059 | 4.059 |
| Execution | #11 | 3.882 | 3.882 |
| Correlation to Theme | #11 | 4.235 | 4.235 |
| Composing Quality | #12 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Overall Uniqeuness | #38 | 3.353 | 3.353 |
Ranked from 17 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Link to Streaming Service, such as Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Youtube, etc
https://soundcloud.com/kiltedcomposer/sets/life-and-death
Description
I was deeply touched by these paintings by Thomas Cole. I stuck very closely to what I saw in the paintings and wrote from there. Though one could imagine a type of civilization building game where you are trying to help nature survive the expansion of man. Sort of an anti-civilization. Either way, I greatly enjoyed working on these pieces and hope you enjoy listening to them.
Beginning
Before man came to be, nature called this world home. It is awe inspiring, but beautiful at the same time. This piece captures that grandeur and the beauty that lies within. It also introduces the nature motif.
Harmony
This is the moment where man and nature are able to coexist one with another. There is an equal give and take between the two. In the second half of the track, you can hear the motifs for both nature and man mingling together in perfect harmony. This is the ideal state.
Arrogance
Unfortunately, man is rarely content to allow nature to grow unchecked. Slowly, man takes more and more until there is hardly a place for nature any longer. Vast forests give way to sprawling cities. In this moment man is at its peak while nature can hardly be found. This is the true introduction for the motif of man, played in great splendour and glory.
Discord
When man has taken all he can from nature, he then turns on himself. The now familiar motif sounds in the horns of war as blood is spilt and walls come tumbling down.
Rebirth
This piece starts slowly as you survey the ruins of a once great civilization. The once triumphant motif plays one final time from a single trumpet, remenescent of taps. Then, things change. This change is made evident by a key change and a time signature change. Slowly nature reclaims the land that was once hers. And the once sorrowful tone slowly transforms into something beautiful. You hear nature's motif return in the mallets as we once again return to where we started. Rebirth.
Screenshot of DAW
Screenshots are in the project alongside the audio files.
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Comments
These have a nice vibe, and correlate well to the paintings.
Constructive feedback: The first two tracks are maybe a little thematically too close. A lot of the tracks are somewhat static. I think one of the best ways to get out of this sort of mode is to improvise a lot - something people don't do enough of these days. It's like we get hung up on trying to be theoretically perfect, and forget how to just let loose and try new things. It took me years to get over that, personally.
I like how rebirth starts. My favorite so far.
Great work! :)
Thanks for the feedback! I'm just coming back to the world of composing and used these tracks to put into practice some things I've been studying recently about orchestration. I'll think more about loosening up on the next go around.
Can really hear all your influences in these, Rebirth had this sort of cool Hisaishi's Kiki's Delivery service meets Harry-Gregson William's Narnia vibe to it that i really liked.
Good stuff!
Wow, I am in awe of this music! Wow! Great style and touch. Just like the paintings themselves. There is sort of a Scottish or Irish tone to them as well. Good work! Every track has a great sound a power to it. Goodness. Thanks for sharing your talent with us.
This is an awesome submission !
Orchestration is very well made, as well as the composition in itself. I really love your melodies and musical ideas, reminded me of some very famous themes and soundtrack (LOTR for Harmony, Final Fantasy for Arrogance and Discord for example)
Rebirth is very emotional and well written too, I loved it. But I must say, Beginning is my favorite, full of hope and wonderful colors.
Very well done, congrats !
Nie orchestration I like the arrangement overall its well done, nice voicings.
Harmonuy - Well its Concerning Hobbits vibe for sure.
Arrogance - I think you need some low end, add some bass trombone - tuba with doublebass to add some depth
The other piece are good its just probably some mixing so fill some gap in the spectrum but the composition is very well done nice story telling. good job ;)
Hello! Great stuff here!
Beginning - Nice, love the solo horn! Lets the stage nicely. Lovely melodic line on the flute and the tutti moment that followed. Great stuff.
Harmony - Kokiri forrest, is that you? Love that pizz - nice transition in and out of that legato section too. Great feel, makes me want to crack out the N64 and get OOT on!
Arrogance - Nice work on the synthesis at the start! Nice question and answer in the middle section, I’d maybe automate those long strings lines a little more to really bring them to life. Really cool though, reminds me of the backing music in Soul Caliber II (showing my age)!
Discord - Nice - Great use of ostinato. Lovely climax!
Rebirth - Great stuff! Love the solo cello line with the piano and great ending - love a last minute change to the major!
A great collection and they do the paintings justice! We’ve certainly both done a very similar vibe but different at the same time! Great work!
This is awesome! All of these tracks are very memorable, lovely compositions! Feels like I heard a bit of the sound of the Shire in "Harmony". The track "Arrogance" was my favorite, the rhythms in the backing section remind me of the Indiana Jones theme!
There was definitely some Shire in Harmony. I find that the hobbits have a good balance with nature.
Really liked what you put together! All your tracks had a nice cinematic feel which was very cool to hear. Especially that beginning. Discord was my favorite one as I'm a sucker for some good brass compositions. Great work!
Really nice sub, I liked Rebirth the most the take on the painting is good and the finishing arrangement really does get your hopes up, just like a rebirth :)
I think you did a very good job mixing, but there is something in the horn section that sometimes feels to much, and kinda gives that plastic MIDI'sh feeling, and to be clear this is not the whole horn section but 1/2 horns in particular
Great sub, take care :)
Rebirth is my favorite track as well. I got really emotional as it started to come together. Thanks for the feedback. It’s something I’ll keep a closer eye on in the future.
I love it, makes me rembember certain game but I forgot remember the name (probably strategy game), it feel cinematic, my favorite part is Beginning and the Harmony, and after that still nice to listen, thanks for sharing this composition!
Fantastic sound, throughout. I could detect a few different styles and possible (cinematic?) influences, but you weaved them together coherently and made the whole thing flow very well.
There were definitely some cinematic influences, one of them rather blatant and initially accidental. But by the time I realized it I had to just roll with it. Thank you for your kind comments!