One Media® presents "Three Islands" by Nowhere Near (Downtempo Reggae World Jazz Electronica streaming mp3)

"Three Islands"

Downtempo Reggae World Jazz Electronica in 32 bar AABA standard form, featuring synthetic steel drums in the head, a koto playing a bebop/hardbop style solo, with didgeridoo accompaniment throughout ...

One Media® humbly submits its Steemit Music League #smlchallenge season two, round three (S2:R3) entry befitting an Island Music theme...

In this piece, the composer decided to return to some musical elements from which our modernist sensibilities have lead us astray, particularly melody and form. One notion of Island Music is a sense of relaxation, so that guided the arrangement towards the lower end of the tempo scale. Of course some of the world's most beloved Island Music is reggae and the project, Nowhere Near certainly would include influences from especially the sub-genre of Dub Reggae as part of its musical pallette. While Dub Reggae could feel really dark and 'stoney', the intent here remained to keep the sentiment of the piece in a postive mindframe. In the composer's mind a conflict of authenticity remained, to play reggae honestly, one may presume one must first have partaken of a spliff of great abundance with I-and-I in a Kingston recording studio ... that irie opportunity has not (yet ;-) presented itself to Nowhere Near, so this piece comes from an instinct of relaxation, with the apparently unavoidable inclination towards a Jazz standard form and Bebop or Hardbop Jazz styled soloing.

With synthetic steel drums in a reggae influenced head, a koto taking a solo, and with didgeridoo accompaniment throughout, one ought to immediately recognize to which three islands the title of this tune geographically refers...

One could get philosophical and claim the three islands could refer to Self, Other, and All of Being, and certainly the cover photo for this tune alludes to something of that nature. But perhaps we'll plumb those depths at a later moment. However, in brief, there are certain paradoxical or diametric opposites at play here; old versus new, traditional versus contemporary, relaxed and primitive versus busy and structured, to name a few that come to mind. For instance, Modernism introduced into the approach of harmony, chords with ninths for 'upper partials' take a step further beyond simple triads and sevenths. A Koto played with technique befitting tradition, however also in a Jazz solo context illustrates a meeting of opposites. Of course, ancient and recent traditional instrumentation from disparate cultures in a Jazz setting also illustrates this point although one may recognize Jazz itself as a world music upon its first conception.

Technically, it was the 'island instruments' at the composer's disposal at the time which lead to the arrangment taking its final form, and giving the work its title. The didjerdoo was sampled from a previous project. The koto patch 'comes standard' with a Korg T1, and the steel drums (which comes standard with many other libraries) as heard here was a synthetically constructed combination from the T1 sounds, 'Spectrum 2', and 'Spectrum 4', and combined with its 'Pot Covers' program (patch). A PAiA Gnome analog synth provides a warm, gentle breeze of synchronized pink sound, and Zig's very own SIDnth prototype enhances percussion and hints of birds of paradise.

Happy listening!
Zig

©2018 One Media®