Dance of the Unicorn => Dance of the Unicorn is music in a traditional Celtic style using the included Ethno 2
Skisni tuning. Ethno 2 gave me the opportunity to compose in the Celtic style with authentic sounds. The Instruments used (all from the Celtic instrument group) are: Bodhran Hits, Bodhran Licks, Hand Clap, clogs, Pipe Snare Drum, Penny Whistle Sus, Tenor Drum, Fiddle KS, Guitar in E, Twelve Strings hard, Guitar in D, Celtic Harp 1, GH pipes wild
The Unicorn Foal => The Unicorn Foal is an improvisation using a guitar to midi converter to control three Ethno2 Celtic instruments, the Guitar in E, Twelve Strings hard guitar and Fiddle sus and recorded live in serial fashion. All of the instruments used are tuned in the included Ethno 2 werckmeister3_eb tuning .
The Dream of Aengus => The Dream of Aengus is free-form neo-classical piece using the several variants of the penny whistle and guitars (listed below) in the included Ethno 2 appalachian tuning. The idea behind the piece was to write something lyrical using some 20th century melodic and harmonic techniques such as blues inflection and parallel chords. The instruments used are: Guitar in E, Twelve Strings, Penny Whistle Sus, Low Whistle, Penny Whistle Rolls, Penny Whistle Grace.
Kandahar Poppies => This piece is a quasi-middle eastern band using the included Ethno 2 Zurna tuning. The composition was created by a bottom up technique where the percussion was composed and then the acoustic bass improvised, then the guitars, and then the Electric Bouzouki lead improvised last. All improvisations used a guitar to midi convertor. The specific instruments used: Tweleve Strings, Guitar in E, Guitar in D, Acoustic Bass 2 hard, Acoustic Bass 2, El. Bouzouki KS, Timbales 1, Luo – Gong, Bendir 1, Bendir 2, Daires, Darbuka, Oriental Tambourin, Sistres
Searching for the Unicorn => Searching for the Unicorn uses mostly African instrumentation with the bamboo saxophone taking center stage with guitars in the Almak tuning included in Ethno 2. The composition started as a chord progression with a feeling I liked in the Almak tuning and I added layers of percussion, Dobro slides and then the Bambou Saxophones. Instruments used: Twelve Strings (guitar), Djembe Modern Skin, Talking Drums, Cruche, Fedounoum, Tamborine 2, Guinean Baga Drum-Close, Cha, Bass Tabla, Bambou Sax F sus, Bambou Sax C sus, Bambou Sax A# sus, Afro Steel Guitar, Sweep Moon, Dobro slides
Socotra Island => This is a little piece dedicated to the lost world island of Socotra that grabs a lot of instrumentation from across Asia with little discrimination – the pitched instruments use the included Afshari tuning with the exception of the Jaw harps which use 12-tET (due to an oversight). The composition was an experiment in layering Ethno 2 percussion. Because so many instruments were used two simultaneous instances of Ethno 2 VST instrument were used to realize the piece.
Instruments in instance 1: Ban Gu, cha, Gu 1 Bass, Gu 2 High, Luo – Gong, Guinean Baga Drum-Close, All Burmese Gongs, All Cambodian Gongs, All Chinese Gongs, All Indochinese Gongs, All Japanese Gongs, All Kelantan Gongs, All Vietnamese Gongs, Taiko Reverb mic 1, Kendhang Ageng -big, Japanese Gong Energy E1
Instruments in instance 2: Jaw Harp C#, Jaw Harp D, West Indies Bass, Lira 1 Sustain
Bending the Rules => This piece is a composition for 12 string guitar and various percussion in Bohlen-Pierce 13 notes per tritave tuning. The percussion in the piece is triggered by the midi part for guitar which was recorded by a guitar to midi convertor. This technique relies on the ranges each percussion instrument covers to provide variety – thus a low note may trigger a Baya and a high note a bell but not both at the same time. Instruments used Aboriginal Perc Bass, Twelve Strings, Baya, Misc Percussion, Congolese Sanza 5 plates