Aries Initiation
Our video collaborator for this project, Jon Bevers, has a deep interest in the symbolism of the Zodiac signs and has become an excellent resource in my quest to understand these archetypes. On the subject of Aries, he says:
Aries is the youngest of all signs, often marking the 1st house, or the ‘beginning.’ It is often associated with Fire, and also with the Ram, or blunt force. I wanted to create a mood of initiation: Footage I shot for this one up in New Hampshire: A man of solitude is alone in the woods. He must survive. He makes a small fire that he can use for warmth in the early spring and to cook food from.
Following on these ideas, I imagined the Aries piece starting from a single point, the soliitary figure (might be single bell sound, growing with fragments of the melody on toy piano; or it could be saxophone multiphonic, as the “ram’s horn”), then growing with more layers added. Opening should be percussion-centric: individual bass drum strikes (samples triggered live in Ableton), gradually adding fragments of the snare part, timpani figures, and single bell strokes, combined with a building texture of multiphonics- ceremonial, “call-like” (Brian suggested that he could use his alto sax without the mouthpiece). Synth drones will blend with these. From single bell tones, toy piano is added- introducing fragments of the melody. Eventually the melody is introduced on synth. Here are a couple versions of the Aries melody in the electronic part, with different instrumentation of the accompaniment:
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Alto sax joins on parts of the melody and embellishes it heterophonically. A heavier bass line is introduced after the blooming of the bells layer.