Dreams

It's time to go to bed.

Sleep imitates the way that we gradually fall asleep. It was purposefully composed to be simple and lullaby-like, with as minimal changes to the core melody as possible while still creating a nice-sounding track.

Sleep uses only a few instruments to create its core tune. The guitar and bass are the stars of the track, with their use heavily inspired by that of Awakening. The core melody is the 'cool-down' melody of the second half of Awakening, allowing it to subtly reference Sleep in its melody. The piano serves as the quiet backer for the melody, until right at the end, where it imitates the ending of Awakening to form a sense of completeness by the end of the album.

As the third track that was composed, the samples used are very similar to what was used in Awakening, the second track to be composed. I'm quite pleased with how Sleep turned out, although I could foresee future improvements that I could make to it when I feel like it.

Relive the good old days.

The theme of nostalgia and carefree joy is the core of the melody of Memories. It aims to remind the listener of a simpler time when things were straightforward, and when we didn't have to care about so many things in life.

The carefree melody of Memories is complemented by the bright strings and choir, along with the leading guitar and bass. The bright chords create a cheerful atmosphere and drive the melody forward. Although the melody is simple, the layered instrumentation of the complementing instruments gradually makes Memories into an orchestra of joy. Also, the main themes of Dreams are emphasised repeatedly in Memories, with the core leitmotif of Dreams played on a loop at the end of the track to emphasise that the memories we see in our dreams are in our past now.

Being the last track to be composed, Memories acts as a very nice 'farewell' track to this project, with the best melodies from all other tracks incorporated within Memories. I feel that this track does my time with Dreams justice, and gives a sense of closure to Dreams as a project.

Entering a deeper state of the subconscious.

As the last formal track of the first half of Dreams, this track is literally a gateway into the next half of the album. I wanted to explore the feeling of digging deeper into a deeper state of the subconscious, as we fall into a deeper state of sleep.

Gateway can be considered an appropriate follow-up to Memories (although it was composed first), as similar techniques of composition were used in Gateway, as in Memories. Specifically, a repeated chorus is constantly punctuated in the track. Also, similar instrumentation to Memories makes it have a similar soundscape to it. But, as a melodic send-off for the first half, it references parts of the melody in Sleep and Memories and has more reverb than the former tracks.

Gateway was number six to be composed. As I had just finished composing both Dark and Inferno, I challenged myself to compose a track that had an air of grandiose and epicness, similar toAwakening, instead of creating a simple and bland track. The final revision of Gateway was my answer to this challenge, and I am proud of what I put out.

Something feels off...

Dark imitates the feeling when the mind starts to wander off to a (literally and figuratively) darker place. The feeling that something bad is about to occur lingers heavily within the track, as the melody progressively gets darker and darker as time progresses.

Dark acts as a bridge between the first and second halves of the album. The core melody of the track signals impending terror and horror, while not yet introducing too serious of a concern. The ending sting serves as a hint of what is to come.

Dark was the fifth to be completed. The melody is nothing too remarkable, with my aim just to make a song to bridge the two halves of the album together. Still, I believe I did a decent job of linking the two halves together.

You can't escape that easily.

Nightmare is, at its core, about the terror of nightmares. The feeling that things aren't right and that you can't escape the terror is the central theme of the piece. As time progresses, the melody increases in tempo to simulate the feeling of an increasing heart rate, and the unnerving atmosphere set by the song keeps getting worse.

Nightmare is the most technically challenging piece of the album. The inception for this song began right at the start of the project, but it was only recently that I was able to come up with the sounds needed for the feel and atmosphere that I wanted to create. Making the backing "boom" sound just right took the most time, followed by the rapidly adjusting static sounds.

Nightmare was composed right after Gateway. I originally wanted the start of Nightmare to be the backing for Gateway, but eventually, I felt that the "boom" was more suited for a horror-based track instead. And thus Nightmare was born.

The full experience of Nightmare is best experienced with high-quality headphones. I am very proud of Nightmare, so much so that the bonus piece for Dreams uses the backing of Nightmare.

Why does everything not make sense?

Inferno asks the question about troubling dreams when one is almost awake. Dreamscapes stop making sense, and it feels as though reality is burning around you. The unnerving feeling from Nightmares is gone, but it is replaced with a sense of urgency and a new form of terror — escape.

Inferno was my first experience in creating music with synthesizers. Using simple kicks, I created a simple tune that just got stuck in my mind. After some messing about, the core of Inferno was born. The added flames in the soundscape were meant to re-emphasise the name of the song (i.e., Inferno), and their increasing volume highlights how close to danger one is.

Inferno was the fourth to be completed, but I had to repeatedly update the mixing of it to better fit in with the rest of the tracks. Being one of the two 'Electronic' tracks of the album (the other being Nightmare), and being the first of the two to be created, it posed an interesting challenge and experiment for me to see what kind of music I could make.

What if something that you knew all your life was hidden away in the subconscious?

The primary soundscape for Truth is by the sea, by a departing ship. The song aims to recreate the sombre feelings of a goodbye, to someone you will never see again. Of course, there's a deeper message behind the tunes, which avid listeners can decipher. Regardless, Truth reflects a different kind of horror than the previous two tracks — the horror of realisation about something so fundamental that you can't take it back.

Truth was primarily composed as an experimental piece, with a focus more on the story being told by the soundscape rather than actual music. Waves crashing against the shore are a constant undertone to the sombre melody played by the strings and piano. Heavily modified chimes/tubular bells act as the ship's bell and evoke a sense of sadness when coupled with the ship's horn that is being played by the tuba.

Unlike all the other tracks, and being the first, Truth was originally composed in MuseScore. This was before I got FL Studio, so some of the tunes were lifted from the original project files from there. Consequently, as the first track to be fully composed, Truth set the direction for the types of music that appear in Dreams.

With the truth in hand, it's time to awaken.

Honestly, Awakening could have been split into two tracks, since the two halves are quite different from each other. But splitting Awakening in two would not do justice to the feeling that I want to convey with this final track.

The first half of Awakening is a sort of melancholy feeling of hope when emerging from slumber. It is sad for the nice dreams to end, and the sanctity of sleep to disappear. The knowledge gained from Truthalso dampens the mood, especially if one is still denying that fundamental fact. Nevertheless, facts are unchangeable, and we must accept them as truth. The second half of Awakening gives hope; some knowledge that everything will be fine. It lifts the melody out of the negativity brought by the second half of the album, and back into the realm of positivity, albeit slightly affected by the revelations in Truth.

Awakening aims to be the most epic track in the album, especially in the second half. A healthy mix of strings, guitars, pianos, choir, and SFX is used to create the atmosphere of hope and melody in Awakening. The second half of the track, in particular, layers together many different instruments to properly bring joy back to the surface.

Awakening was conceived very early on in the album's planning stages. I knew from the start that Awakening had to be the last song on the album, and so it was composed right after I experimented with Truth. Being the second song that I made in FL Studio, I am immensely proud of how the track sounds.