This is the third (and likely final) in the series of albums based on my Tarot deck, “The New Possibilities Tarot”. This time I cover what I call the Family Cards. These are a bit like the Sun/Rising sign thing in Astrology in that we have the elements combining to manifest through (or alongside) each other. The cover shows this as a matrix. As do each of the cards down below, where the images show humanized traits of these combinations.
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The Elemental Journey
The elements work as:
- Air – ideas, newness, changeability
- Fire – passion, drive, energy
- Water – nurturing, warm, flowing
- Earth – physicality, grounded, completion
The elements of Water & Earth are considered feminine as they are receptive and nurturing. Whereas the elements of Air & Fire are masculine because they are forward-moving and generative. Think of this like taking a seed (air), planting it (fire) in the earth, and watering it. All four parts are needed for the tree to grow and bear fruit with new seeds.
I use the forms of a human (biological) family to represent the polarities coupled to elemental energies:
- Father – Masculine: Air – the idea or seed
- Mother – Feminine: Water – the nurturing medium
- Youth – Fire – the drive to grow
- Child – Earth – entering reality
Technical Stuff
In compositional terms, I set a solid structure in which to work. I wanted to keep each of the families together, but still allow each “person” to have their individuality. This meant I set each family to be a piece of 12 minutes, with each elemental-balance having three minutes.
After getting most of the work for the Air & Water Families done, I also decided to give some variety to the speed of the people. I added another rule to the framework: Father sets the overall tempo, Mother slows by -3 BPM, the Youth gets jiggy with +3 BPM, and the child again keeps the faith of the initial tempo.
I kept a limited sonic palette so the same sounds are used over and over within each family. I often allow a new person to add or alter a voice, but ultimately, the instrument sets are deliberately minimal, somewhat like a chamber consort or ensemble. I kept to my structure very well.
The musical development within each piece is similar to film music in that there are themes and motifs that repeat to tie in all the concepts of elements, polarities, and how they behave. The children bring something new but still echo their parents.
Each Family has a background sound as a signifier of their core element. All of these sounds are completely synthesized, no samples or any other shortcuts. Air is wind & birds, Fire is um fire, Water is upwelling bubbles & flowing water, and Earth is a rumble combined with some machinery noise (as we get on with making things). Fire proved the hardest to synthesize, and Earth was conceptually the most difficult – to machine or not to machine. Seems like there is some sort of ironic test from the Elemental Song Gods in there.
All the work was done in Reason 13. Sounds, compositions, mixing etc used predominantly stock devices with the usual addition of some of my specialist delay units for some echoes and reverb spaces.
The video was made in DaVinci Resolve 20 using the “New Possibilities Tarot” Deck I drew completely by hand in the early ’90s. It is designed to help the viewer understand where they are in the elemental journey far more than any attempt to be endlessly amusing (you have Nettlefix for that, right).
If you gain from my music, please purchase via my Bandcamp
This is the only way Indie Artists get paid.
Benedict Roff-Marsh 