I love music like this. So calming.

This is SO ace!
You created some seriously cool atmospheres here. It's inspired me to play with Omnisphere more.
Very proggy in places too, I like.

Good work :)

great i like this sort of filtered drum feel and the door feel. Keep it up

Hi. Yeah I know I said I'd review this and I took ages to get around to it (but in my defence I was in Spain and I am certainly not analysing a track on laptop speakers or Apple earbuds thank you very much). Now that I'm back in Malta, I can finally review this, and let me just say from now that this is your best work. I greatly admire Birth of an Astral Nation for the whole size, ambition and creativity of it, but this is hands-down your most solid unified song. On top of that, I absolutely love it, and let me tell you exactly why.

This has EVERYTHING*. It's like my new smartphone. It can do everything save for make me my breakfast (but I'm sure there'll be an app for that in the future). This has parts that are slow, parts that are energetic and bursting with speed, parts that build up, parts die down, atmospheric parts, insane solos and even traditional instruments like the dizi and zither for God's sake. What's not to like?

This is such an ambitious project, just like a lot of your other works. There's a big diversity in sounds, effects and melodic content. This song is like a starry night sky. Look up at it and you've got a beautiful array of stars. Look closer and you start seeing more and more stars pop up here and there, and the more you look at it, the more stars come up and the more beautiful the sky becomes. Same thing here; if I listen closely to the song at any one point, I'll always pick up some new little detail which I didn't notice before. Yes, your song is a smartphone and now a night sky as well. DEAL WITH IT.

The insane amount of detail provides a very slight negative effect. It's very tough to add in so many instruments and soundscape layers playing together because that then diminishes the effect of each individual instrument, which makes this track fall in the same trap a lot of your other songs have. No sound truly stands out in the mix (except that open hat at 2:52 which ironically stands out too much. Turn that crap down, man). HAVING SAID THAT, this is very slight issue because 1.) It makes sense with the theme to have so many things playing together...

...and 2.) you've actually done a much better job on the mixing than you've ever done before on a track. This makes the problem of no sound standing out much less apparent because even if there isn't the clarity I want to hear in certain sounds, I can still feel the power and statement of certain instruments.

This issue is slowly dying away the more you make music, so I think after some time this issue will have disappeared for the most part and you'll be able to separate sounds more adeptly and suitably in a heavy and detailed mix instead of having them competing so much. In all fairness, your mixing skills right now are already great anyway. It's just that you use so many sounds that it ends up being a massive chore to control them all and mix them suitably, and you're already improving rapidly at that.

Now, I often start with composition when I review melody-heavy tracks like these but I wanted to get all that stuff out of the way first. The composition is stellar. I can't begin to express how much I love the leitmotif you've used here or how much I enjoyed the guitar solo towards the end without sounding like your number #1 fanboy or something. Not to mention that great rhythm guitar-like thing you use in the background during energetic parts like 1:20 which is coincidentally one of my favourite things in this track. Overall, you used just the right amount of quirkiness and just the right amount of excitement. This sounds very inspired and creative.

Something I would particularly commend you on is how you manage to combine a light, floating atmosphere with an energetic and fun atmosphere, even adding hints of deeper reflection in certain parts like the end. The sound effects and layers of drone ambience only assisted you in this feat. At the risk of sounding too much like an A.I.M. judge, this fits excellently with the art you chose in my opinion. Your story also fit so well that while I was trying to read it in sync with the music, I practically got goosebumps. It really works.

Notwithstanding the little mixing issue I mentioned above, the technicalities are pretty much nailed. Fitting intro and outro, superb transitions, great choice of sounds and choice of chords, and a very solid structure to boot.

There's nothing more I can say about this piece right now because I'm getting sleepy. I can tell you're proud of this and you should be. You worked hard on it and the result, without a shred of doubt, paid off. You get a 10/10 from me. Keep in mind the issues I've mentioned above and keep on improving please!

10/10
5/5
Download.
Favourited.

* except a cowbell.

This is sick! Great mixing, slick bass lines, and awesome solos. Sorry for the short review, but I wanted to say how much I enjoy this.

Added you to my favorite artists. :)