I can’t really pinpoint the inspiration for this song. The lyrics seemed to come almost fully-formed to me once I’d written the main verse melody. It’s not autobiographical, or even biographical; rather, it’s an exploration of my own understanding of how people can be driven to take extreme actions.
Category: Classical
More music on Bandcamp!
I haven’t updated my Bandcamp page in several years… But that’s just changed! I’ve uploaded music from the last year or so there. So now you can download it in super-high fidelity, store it on your hard drive, record it to tape for your Walkman sessions… The sky’s the limit!
Deep River dreaming
I’ve written a few times about heading down to Western Australia’s “Great Southern” region. There’s a small bush-shack we stay at. It’s on a property surrounded by national parks, and is far from the highway. It has such a beautiful diversity of ecosystems — coastal scrub, rainforest, majestic karri forests, peppermint tree groves… It’s an incredibly calming place.
The pieces in this album all capture something about that place. Most were written there, in fact! There’s something about being in nature that just gives me a chance to pause, and to actually process things. There’s more space, and there’s less pressure to run from doing this to doing that to doing something else.
I’d describe this album as “ambient”, but there are really multiple styles together. Several of the pieces combine sounds taken from the forests with acoustic and digital sounds. My hope is that these pieces will give you the chance to feel the chaos of life slow down, if only for a moment.
As always, you can listen wherever you stream your music.
Waltz
I wrote this piece in active contrast with a lot of the other pieces I’ve written over the past while. It’s a small chamber piece that meanders through what is effectively a theme and variations. The arpeggiated piano line is contrasted with the broader viola and cello lines, which weave in and out of each other.
I wanted to try something a bit different (for me, at least!) by switching the melodic aspects of the piano from the right hand to the left; this results in a repeated ostinato phrase in the right hand while the left hand outlines the richer harmonic and melodic figures.
In writing this piece, I really just wanted to write something which would give me a sense of space and openness.
Find it wherever you get your stream on — here are all the streaming links.
Rondo occidentale
An orchestral track with a slightly western flair.
Rondo occidentale by Barry van Oudtshoorn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.If you’re interested in using any of my music in your games, videos, or other multimedia productions, let me know!
Improvisations
A set of improvised piano pieces. Some of these are in the style of a Satie Gnossienne or Gymnopedie; others, more free-form.
Improvisations by Barry van Oudtshoorn are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.If you’re interested in using any of my music in your games, videos, or other multimedia productions, let me know!
Nocturne
I’ve been rather remiss in updating my blog — so this track appeared on Soundcloud a while ago, but is only now appearing here. An orchestral piece, Nocturne focuses on an oboe/bassoon interplay, with strings and piano along as well.
You can grab and listen to it on Soundcloud, or use the embedded player and download links below.
Reflections by Barry van Oudtshoorn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.If you’re interested in using any of my music in your games, videos, or other multimedia productions, let me know!
[Music] Where you were
This track is a melange of orchestral, trance, dance, and chip. It’s also probably my “loudest” track to date — whilst I haven’t yet managed to put a compressor on the whole thing (or use sidechain compression), I have compressed Kontakt (for the orchestral parts) and the two basses, producing a much “tighter” mix than is normal for my music.
You can grab and listen to it on Soundcloud, or use the embedded player and download links below — whichever ensures your aquatic vehicle remains buoyant.
Where you were by Barry van Oudtshoorn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.If you’re interested in using any of my music in your games, videos, or other multimedia productions, let me know!
[Music] Unforgot
It’s been far too long since I published a piece of music. Part of the reason for that is that I was, for a while, without a sound-card in my computer — a problem which has since been remedied by a new Komplete Audio 6 interface. Another reason for the lack of music is that I’ve just been really busy at work — which makes it hard to come home and write music. 🙁
But enough with the explanations. Unforgot is a melange of dub, chillout, and orchestral styles. I actually wrote this nearly a month ago, but made a few changes at the suggestion of a friend from work. One of the changes was to make the bass much less “wobbly” — in the first version, it oscillated between the left and right channels, which sounded a bit off.
I’ve been told that all the cool kids put their music on SoundCloud now, so I’ve played the role of the compliant sheep and followed suit. To that end, you can listen to this track directly on SoundCloud. Of course, you can still grab it from here. 🙂
Unforgot by Barry van Oudtshoorn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.If you’re interested in using any of my music in your games, videos, or other multimedia productions, let me know!
