Vermilion Syncretism
Notes On "VERMILION SYNCRETISM"
TRACK DATA
Composition tool: MuseScore 3, Studio One 5 Professional
Recording tool (DAW): Studio One 5 Professional
Number of tracks: 72, 70(Original)
Sound source: Presence XT, Impact XT, Sample One (All built-in sound sources of Studio One)
Composition and Recording period: 22 Aug 2022 - 22 Oct 2022
Concept: It Makes Me Laugh...
(TM writes:)
One day, almost for a joke, I wrote a notation score just to find out "what if Japan (the British band around 1980) play in the 6-8 time" despite no (or only a few at least) songs of theirs in 6-8 as far as I know. I really loved the band actually, and still do. (Steve Jansen's drums would've been super cool, especially.)
But I left it without developing from one minute length, because the concept was not enough for FMT (because I was just joking). I didn't even send the MuseScore (MS) file to TI at the time. But that was fine, as it sounds very funny to me every time I play it on MS.
Another day, I found one MS file out of my stock of diary-like compositions and conjoined it after 6-8 Japan, which was not too bad. That's why this work is structured in the way divided into three sections: the first third is 6-8 Japan, the second very FMT-esque section, and the final syncretism of Japan and FMT. The first time sending TI the MS file, I said to him, "I'm having doubts about whether it deserves being released, though."
It came to deserve being released when we added the sample onto it. They brought the work into life suddenly, just like SuZanne Ledwith's vocal track did for the track called "Blanket Of Moss." I agree with what TI told me then, like it should be meaningful to make something inspired by such an old great band as Japan, especially because there are few who talk about the band today.
This work is related to both the band and the country. Historically, religious syncretism has existed all the time in (the nation of) Japan. Roughly speaking, the country had had shinto as its main and only religion since around 2000 years ago until Buddhism reached there around the 6th century. Eventually, the government determined to admit both, which could be the nation's first probable syncretism. I believe there has been so much syncretism in Japan other than that example, though.
Shinto is famous for its shrines with toriis in vermilion; the sampled sound that appears in the first third is symbolic music heard in shinto shrines. In some versions the gomagyo sample TI recorded and added is from Buddhism. TI talks about some more details on it later.
Syncretism seems to have occurred when something newer than some existing domestic things was imported to a country, whose cultural heritages are extremely attractive to me. There are many examples like them in Christianity or perhaps Hindu, aren't there?
Anyway, that is how this piece has the theme of multiple-meaning syncretism but at the same time is still like joking to me.
Composition
(TI writes:)
TM created the basic structure and arrangement of the song, to which I added phrases and samples.
I put the WAV files into a sampler, applied filters and wrote pitch bend information into the sampler to change with the phrases.
The flute-like sound in the middle was taken from the opening phrase of the Noh play 'Matsukaze（Pine-tree wind)' and arranged.
As I mentioned in the notes for our previous work "Pebbles In The Garden", this is traditional Japanese Noh music, so unlike Western musical protocols, it is not in tempo and the concept of tonality in Western music does not apply, so it is originally difficult to score it in stave notation. However, we have no background in Japanese music and our DAW works with Western music protocols, so we had no choice but to transcribe the music in-tempo on the staff.
Also, we originally used a wind instrument called a 'Ryu-teki (meaning dragon flute)', but we used a flute sample because of its similar sound. However, the 'dragon flute' is structurally similar to the 'flute' and the sound itself is similar between the 'flute' and the 'dragon flute'.
The chorus heard in the middle of the song is called 'goma-gyo', which is a ritual of esoteric Buddhism, a branch of Buddhism, in which monks chant scriptures in a burning fire and throw wooden cards with wishes written on them into the fire. This is performed daily at an esoteric Buddhist temple called 'Fukagawa Fudo', and live sound recordings of the ritual are overlaid.
Also, the guitar cutting before the ending was created with the guitar phrase from Japan's "Art of Parties" in mind (not included in the original version).
Mixing
(TI continues:)
This track was written with the intention of making it sound like something (Tin Drum, the last album of studio recordings from 'Japan'), rather than a song that is uncharacteristic of FMT.
However, the 'real thing' is 'recorded live and on magnetic tape with track limitations', so we cannot create something similar in our way.
Therefore, the production system we used is exactly the same as for the other songs, but we took a completely different approach to the traditional FMT sound production.
The mixing desk section is set up in such a way that crosstalk is applied to adjacent tracks, and a curved EQ, similar in shape to an analogue tape, is applied to the master channel.
Sound Creation
(TI continues:)
Regarding synth sound creation, while using the Studio One synth and playback sampler, the sound is created in a similar way to 80s analogue synthesizers, with filters and ENVs set based on oscillators or sample waveforms.
Incidentally, Studio One's samplers and synths are configured in the same way as analogue synths, so I think they sound quite 'like' them. You can also use various types of filter effects. It also simulates the filter self-oscillation of an analogue synth properly (or rather, due to its inherently low accuracy). I was a bit impressed when I discovered this function.
As for the above-mentioned sound behind the sound of 'Matsukaze', I am aware of the tonal change of the synth riff in the middle part of 'Still Life In Mobile Homes' from 'Japan'. The point of the repeated synth riff in that song is that the same phrase is repeated but the tones are all different, but I'm not sure how it was created with the studio equipment of the time. The only way I can think of is to tweak the parameters in real time while playing.
Either there were not enough tracks to dub each phrase individually, or they were sub-mixed to another tape and bounced back to the main unit, but in any case, it must have taken a lot of work with the equipment of the time.
Versions
(TI continues:)
The 'Vermilion Syncretism' version, which has nothing attached, contains the above-mentioned 'Gomagyo' and guitar cutting, and differs from the 'Original Version' in other tones and phrases.
The 'Original Version' is a basic score created by TM to which the above-mentioned 'Matsukaze' phrase has been added, and the tones and phrases used in Musescore have been used almost as they were in Musescore.
There are several other versions that have not yet been released to the public. These may possibly be released when I remember.
(TM adds:)
Again, I intended to just make a joke at first, which ends up being developed into many versions. This fact is even funnier to me.
Comments