Home I

Home I

Where the doors are moaning all day long,
Where the stairs are leaning dusk till dawn,


Where the windows are breathing in the light,
Where the rooms are a collection of our lives,


This is a place where I don't feel alone,
This is a place that I call my home...

(Cinematic Orchestra - That Home)

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I swear if this song was what I hear first thing when I woke up this morning, I'd cry.

Dreams can feel so real.

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(credits to ariadnezenit @ deviantART)

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Silent emotions

Silent emotions

Imagine this and imagine it vividly in your mind as best as you can:

You sitting in your chair in front of your computer and books.

You stopping whatever you were doing and turning your head towards the large window to your side, while one arm supporting your chin as your gaze drifting softly at the scene beyond the window.

You watching the continuous stream of traffic on the road across your vision field, hearing the muffled sound of vehicles zooming pass as people move on with their lives and realising you with yours.

You noticing the distant sky scattered with clouds and the sun shying away behind the thick still clouds.

You barely knowing what is in your mind at the mundanity of the moment and being oblivious that you are caught in a tranquillising trance.

You holding in this position in the physical and mental sense for minutes and minutes that when you snap out of it you realise perhaps 10 minutes has gone pass.

This is how I lost presence in this world. This is the melancholy in me emerging spontaneously at random times. This is one of the moments in life that I feel most calm and become deadly quiet - almost everything seems so crystal to me as I observe a snapshot of the world outside my window moving with time while my body is held in time stasis.

Speaking of time, I realise it is a waste, but I simply cannot help it.While in this trance, a great concoction of feelings comes splashing in an overwhelming force and these feelings are often the most difficult things for me to describe. Is is sadness? Longing? Helplessness? Frustration? Or is this what melancholy really is?

Perhaps I will never know the answer. But the answer does not matter to me. The whole experience means so much more to me. I consider it one the pleasures of life, actually.

You might raise an eyebrow to that last sentence, but I consider experiences and savouring emotions as ways to live your life fully. I thinks I would miss out on a lot if I didn't get to experience as many different kinds of emotion. It's just a waste to live without tasting them. (Okay, I think I'm starting to not make any sense, so I'll stop talking about it. But if somehow I do make sense to any of you, maybe you have found a mate!)

Although my melancholy can be brought about deliberately (which isn't very common of me), it is oft most triggered. By music. (Not again)

Here's one:

Just click on it. Three minutes of audio data is hardly a permanent damage to your monthly internet quota.

Out in the garden where we planted the seeds
There is a tree as old as me
Branches were sewn by the color of green
Ground had arose and passed its knees

By the cracks of the skin I climbed to the top
I climbed the tree to see the world
When the gusts came around to blow me down
I held on as tightly as you held onto me
I held on as tightly as you held onto me...

Cause, I built a home
for you
for me

Until it disappeared
from me
from you

And now, it's time to leave and turn to dust...

Rarely you come across such powerful lyrics. Good songs are truly difficult to come by nowadays.

P.S. I may be misinterpreted by you as being "emotional" (the term as defined by people to describe certain difficult-to-handle people, as in "You're soooooo freakin' emotional!!!"). Those who truly know me would know better than to say I'm that kind of emotional.

P.P.S. Maybe I just simply miss home.

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EPIC(on) WIN!

EPIC(on) WIN!

Take out your kitchen mixer from the cabinet, and set it nicely on the counter. Next get a top-notch orchestra assemble and an esteemed choir (which go very well together indeed), and gently place them in the mixer bowl. This might seem a bit strange to some, but now grab a rock band by the neck and put it in the middle of the ingredients in the bowl. The next step is very important: DO NOT turn on the mixer on high setting as this will cause the sound coming out the mixture to be simply tasteless and inconsistent. To avoid having to throw out the mixture and start all over again, mix the ingredients gently and slowly instead so as to produce a flavourful, creamy, and chromatic music that may be enjoyed again and again with your family and friends.

I'm guessing a lot of people might think that it takes the form of the following equation:

orchestra + choir + rock band = Rock You Like a Hurricane

Well, the album Epicon, by Globus, I assure you, is very much different than Scorpions. In fact the left side of that equation is not quite right. Not all of the tracks are rock. It is difficult to categorise the album into any of the conventional genres that we have today - it has a mixture of rock-driven orchestral track, choir-orchestra combo with solo vocal, ethnic music, orchestra-supported rock music, classical music in Italian, and choir in Latin. I could go on, but let's not go there, shall we?

Cover art of Epicon

In any case, once you have listened to the whole album, you would agree that the tracks are very emotional, grand film soundtrack-like, and simple EPIC. It's funny that some would even classify the album under the genre of 'epic'. To be honest, I think it's a fair classification since it is immensely difficult to pigeon-hole Epicon. Besides, 'epic' pretty much sums the album quite accurately.

In the Hollywood film-making industry, the making of movie trailers are usually commissioned to a trailer company that specialises in producing, well, trailers. Film production companies are far too busy with the film projects themselves (especially during principal photography and post-production) to make trailers for advertising purposes. Now trailer companies usually have their own composers to create music for the trailers they are making. Generally, however, big-budget films necessitate trailer music that match the quality and calibre of film soundtracks. For this reason, trailer producing companies may then purchase music (or license, rather) from another specialised company to be used in the trailers.

This specialised company is what we call "movie trailer music production company". The companies employ numerous composers to compose music beforehand and then keep the music in their library. Big companies literally have hundreds of such high-end music that sounded exactly like film soundtrack, sorted according to genres (such as comedy, drama, thriller, and so on). Other production bodies may browse their extensive libraries and purchase the license for use of the chosen music.

Complicated stuff, and you'd think film-making or even trailer-making is simple.

One such movie trailer music production company is Immediate Music. It's a huge and very successful company that has been providing music for trailers of famous movies, such as:

Spiderman 2 trailer (Warning: music is quite obvious.)

Now, since I'm not a PR officer for Immediate Music and I'm not gettin' paid for it, I'm not gonna list down other movie trailers that have used their music (go Google that yourself). However, as an informed fan, I will let you know that following popular demand, Immediate Music has formed a collective band consisting of an orchestra, choir and a rock band that is Globus. Several trailer music were hand-picked by the composers and re-arranged for the album. This explains why the album is "very emotional, grand film soundtrack-like, and simple EPIC".

And I just had to capitalise the word "epic". EPIC.

The wonder of Epicon is that it brings all sorts of emotion with different tracks. I generally like the whole album, but I especially love "Preliator", "Europa", "Orchard of Mines", "Madre Terra", and "Sarabande Suite".

Here's a medley of almost all the music in the album Epicon for you to have a taste.

And one of my personal favourites: Europa

I can't remember how I came by the tracks from the album early last year, but I do remember before having a copy of the album (which I eBay-ed from UK), digging as deep as I could for the music and live performance at YouTube. You might actually just do the same thing.

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Music is Alive

Music is Alive

Music is universal. It can unite people. People across different cultures, races, and regions can instantly connect through music. Just turn on that radio or jukebox and you'll hear people - different people - singing or humming along, clapping and tapping their feet. All in unison. Isn't that just beautiful?

Music is instinctual. If you haven't noticed yet, you'll soon realise that you actually sing without thinking. Even if you don't know the lyrics or if you're afraid of people shouting at your ugly voice or for whatever reasons you can think of, you hum to the melody of your favourite music. Some people are not singers or hummers, but interestingly enough they play the music in their mind. Not too sure how that works? You've most likely have done it before - when you're alone studying, walking along a street, or staring out the window of a bus and suddenly the tunes, melodies, rhythms, and beats form in your mind that it's almost like you're listening to the real thing. Everything starts from your head. Singing and humming are merely manifestations of these music 'visualisation'. You don't even have to consciously tell yourself to sing. It comes to you mechanically. The next thing you know you're already singing. Isn't that just amazing?

Music is emotional. Try watching a really sad movie on mute and I bet you won't shed any tears. While the actors and actresses give emotions to the dialog, the soundtrack gives you that atmosphere. Music alone can really stir and evoke your emotions. I remember once I listened to this piano piece with my eyes closed and when it reached the ending, my cheeks were wet. Music can make you feel sad and melancholic. It's a powerful driving force into making you cry watching Titanic. Music can also make you happy and cheery. If you've listened to Mika before you know what I'm talking about (Grace Kelly is FUN). And music can lift your spirits soaring high. It's the very reason why the military has a band. Imagine experiencing an emotion from a blank state just by listening to the right music. Isn't that just incredible?

Music is inseparable from human lives. It is intricately weaved into our lives. Almost like how yarn is harmoniously knitted into a sweater. Music IS part of our lives. Pull that yarn away and you will be left with nothing.

That said, I myself cannot recall a single day where music is absent from my life. Sometimes when I'm on the tram alone and a hint of melancholy touches my heart, I would amplify that emotion with just the right playlist on my iPod. Or when I'm strolling down the city street at night, I'd switch to another playlist to induce excitement and then an  imagery of hustle and lights comes to mind. With every bit of emotion that I feel at any moment, I like to complement it with music. It makes the experience of those emotions so much powerful and (most importantly) memorable.

After all, emotion is what makes a human human.

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(I do wonder if I'm the only one with music having effect that strong. Let me know if you're in the club!)

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(credits to photographer Vince Walter [1st photo],

source from "Singin' in the Rain (1952)" [2nd photo],

credits to LGBT Domestic Abuse, Laurent, Kingdom of Heaven [3rd photo])

  

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