This all started with the Moog Modular. I was working on a sequenced filter patch and began some experimentation. I was soon recording and laying additional tracks and ended up with this piece. Even being only 3 tracks, there are a lot of sounds in this one, using not only the Moog (bass and filtered lead) but the Halo (percussion and strings) as well as the ESQ1 (all other sounds). I also used the heck out of CEP's effects rack in this one. Some parts of all three tracks as short as one beat of percussion have as many as 4 effects applied to them. In short, this is one very complex piece from a sound engineering standpoint and took the better part of 2 1/2 hours to finish.
As far as the title goes, I was reading a book which proposes a rather "out there" theory that Mars was once inhabited by beings much like us here on Earth, but who came to this planet after they destroyed their own ecosystem by unwise management of their resources. I got to thinking if how I were to embody a Martian's personality in a piece of music, this might be it. The name of the (imaginary) individual in question came to me in a flash...maybe he isn't so imaginary after all...
[EDIT addendum 5/12/07] |+|+|+Oh and a status report on the movie project I mentioned...Production problems in the writing and SFX are causing major delays. We can't get to work until we at least have some sketches from the art department so we can begin to color the music with the character. We are still in essence "telecommuting" him in south Florida and I in the panhandle-a good many hundreds of miles apart. Awkward, but doable, for now. Ultimately, what we'd like to see coming our way is a full-length animated pencil storyboard. I keep asking the producer if they want only music or are we also expected to add the "zwing" of a drawn sword and crunch of feet and all the other sounds in a "foley" session as well. She still ranges from an "isn't sure" to an outright "I dunno" so its kind of frustrating. Anyway, my bro and I will keep working as well as we can blind as we are for now. He'll keep doing his own stuff outside of the movie project and so will I. From time to time I post my work although I don't post everything I compose...|+|+|+
~>One last thing: I'm not sure if I am violating some law from somewhere, but I found this clip of Mars as it turns on its axis. Taken by an amateur astronomer on his backyard telescope over a period of several hours, you can see the various colored terrain pass. Since this is through a telescope, the image is upside-down. Thats the south polar icecap you see on top.
Mars' day is about 35 minutes longer than ours on Earth. One Mars year is 20 Earth months long. Mars' total surface area is almost exactly the same as all of Earth's dry land. If Mars had an atmosphere (a very expensive and time-consuming project, but theoretically doable) and all the water ice under the surface was thawed and settled in the lowest areas, 40% of Mars would be covered in water up to 2 miles deep.<~{end addendum}
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