.::aRa::. by Brother Dragon

.::aRa::.

is mostly a lo-fi experimental piano piece recorded to cassette tape with 2 field recordings as bookends - a kind of audio play on an imperfect palindrome. aRa is a palindrome and constellation that translates as The Altar. There’s a shorter version of this piece called Air Climber that will be on the upcoming album Wild Postures. These titles aren’t void of meaning.

Philosophically - aRa is a bit of a soundtrack to a redemptive take on the human condition/experience. Paradoxically through doing something futile over and over (“climbing air” towards “the divine/a solution”) someone might find meaning in the process through inwardness/spirit/sacrifice - - a terrible and heavy beauty that requires absolutely everything from us - a didactic poem on repeat for those desperate and broken enough to listen….themes that continue to span across and through a very old Brother Dragon mythology..


For you sound people:

I remember when I first started listening to music like this I thought it sounded muddy/meh - after some time my ears began to wake up to this extremely dynamic world of morphing textures and tones. It took me a few days to dial in this sound on my spinet piano - there are certain things that can only be done in these tones.

aRa was played and improvised once through with a reverb and 2 EQ pedals - no layers (aside from the 2 field recordings). The panning was manually played with (mono to stereo - with variations depending on the feel of the sound) when recording from tape to DAW. The tape I recorded on was opened and left outside for over a year in the elements. The field recordings were taken on an extremely windy day in the hills outside of Pinnacles National Park as the sun went down.

For me - the best listening experience is on tape - in the dark - with quality closed headphones.

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Thank you for considering my work - really - it means the world to me. I love how it turned out - an absolute favorite of mine - enjoy
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A solo project of Jonathan Atchley (SAD GODS) that celebrates a stripped down approach, inwardness, and mythology.

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singing into the wind continued...