[SAR-008] 03. Flora - Forest of Frequencies
Channel: Speedcore Abyss Archive
Date: 2023-02-11

BPM: 109.257 root (B♭ extratone)
Genre: Experimental/Extratone

The catastrophe has struck: as though through some strange curse, anachronistic supercharged electronic devices have appeared all over our medieval landscape, their speakers destroying locals' eardrums, their cables strangling the innocent. There's only one way to save the people of our land - our heroine needs to retrieve the legendary sword Excalibur and wield its magical powers to banish the devices. With an entourage of shallow acquaintances from the tavern, she treks through an enchanted forest towards the rumoured location of the mythical weapon.

The melody is loosely based on a 19th century Chinese folk song, 'Three Refrains of the Yang Pass', a version of which I recorded on the guqin, effected, and selectively played back in reverse.
The latter half of the song marks a switch to a much darker atmosphere, with a wind harp tuned to B♭ aeolian as opposed to the B♭ major pentatonic of the guqin. This section with its campfire crackles and sharp extratone rhythms symbolises night in the enchanted forest. Where the atmosphere was relatively optimistic during the first half, symbolising daytime, as night falls and our heroine with her entourage stop to rest and light a campfire, a mysterious sonic force lures them away from the group one by one and picks them off for dead, until when the sun rises again our heroine is left alone to continue the adventure.


Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3bD1N9oF091HWIBew54MZIAuduGRNk8y
Release Page: https://www.speedcoreabyss.net/?action=releaseDescription&objectId=8
Archive (download): https://archive.org/details/sar-008-flora-excalibur/%5BSAR-008%5D%20Flora%20-%20Excalibur
License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/