The transition between the first four songs and the last four is an orchestral piece, "The Battle of Chamdo", which refers to the invasion of Tibet by China. The piece was written by Lemay on piano and recorded with a string quintet. Compared to classical composers Shostakovitch and Penderecki (which has been acknowledged and affirmed by Lemay), the song represents a critical turning point in the album concept, according to Lemay: "The topic of this song, the Chinese invasion of 1950, is the most important thing that happened to this country [Tibet]...so the instrumentation is different - it's striking". He further explained how "The Battle of Chamdo" served as the watershed of "Colored Sands":