Snow, by Artificial Wonders

The Halo Soundtrack...
Think about the Halo Soundtrack for a second. That is the most epic, sweeping collection of orchestral works I've heard in contemporary time. Strings of liquid texture swell upwards, the overture like the tide, rippling over each other, messily and loudly, yet purporting a sense of grandeur and scope nonetheless. Those 15-20 second loops of melancholic chords are emotive and mournful tones, things that affect on an unconscious level.
Isn't that sad, in it's own way, though? That the only recent time one can recall hearing a piece arranged in the classic sense is to provide melodrama to compensate for Master Chief's lack of personality as he rampages across the universe with whatever two guns he can find? That Game Scores in general are the last bastion for a lot of instrumental work that the top 10 minded have grown too impatient to comprehend on its own merits? Maddening.

Still, the respect for the genre is there, as well as understanding for its origins; no one buys ambient music any more, but Konami would still like someone to provide some ambiguous background noise to make James Sunderland jump out of his boy panties while he's tripping over freaks in Silent Hill; I don't think instrumental music has been in the charts since Herbie Hancock did his Head Hunter thing, but that doesn't mean some voiceless drone and fanfare won't fit the thematic bill during a firefight in Alpha Centauri somewhere; Trip Hop hasn't seen real numbers in far longer than the genre deserves, but Hugh Laurie and the rest of the House cast mined and found a little golden nugget to remind us all what we forgot about.
So, while the musical snob in me might wince at the thought of the wayward auteur who cannot sell his wares any other way than to sneak them in through the muzak door, I breathe some minor relief knowing that talented fellas like Parker Files are the ones who have something to say in terms of the direction that muzak is headed.

I first reviewed something by Parker (preferably known as Artificial Wonders) called 3 Bottles, a piece that, in terms of subtlety, sounded equivocal to Trent Reznor remixing the Terminator Soundtrack. And the original one at that. So there were a few cheesy, misplaced synths making themselves known with largess and regrettable volume that took much away from the spirit of the animal itself, which was, at its heart, a very well arranged piece of progressive electronic music.
Skip ahead – me, throwing my chips in during the first week of the Critics Corner contest with a piece described as “obnoxious” at best; me and my finest attempt at the infectious hook.
My song was panned, and I'm glad for it, if truth were told, cos there were better offerings present at the contest, one of which being an Artificial Wonder in the flesh: a short, acoustic piano piece called Snow.

At 1:46, Snow is a startlingly stripped down affair; such makes it stand out in correlation with the other members of that contest as well as with his other work. It begins with higher keys played in staccato succession, a minor echo causing the notes to bleed into each other.
Then it stopped. A pause, and I recognized that familiar knack for drama and tension that truly makes a composer.
It begins again, albeit at a lower octave, with the aid of a single synth string, looming overhead, building ever so slightly in intensity as the two sounds feed off of each other in a swirl of ambient bliss.
It stops again, and that knack for composition hits me again, makes me think the guy's got that mystical “it” that people talk about before I realize that I'm a cynic at heart and I should know better.
The 1:00 mark, it starts again, the piano, even lower, but resonating all the more; the synth, joined by others like it to create harmonics; they sway like the winter winds the song suggests should accompany it.
These last three quarters of a minute are taken in as they must be, in accordance with the song's descriptor - “A Song about Dreams and Aspirations” - and thusly inspire my mind to wander. I picture fields, vast green ones; skies, endlessly blue; cherry blossom trees shedding confetti at their feet; silhouettes of men holding lone hands to crosses perched above them; other images follow and I find myself moved, and wonder aloud when exactly the last time it was that I heard a modern piece of music that MOVED me!

Rather than segue into the diatribe I've been inspired to bark out loudly, I shall instead pat Mr. Wonders on the back. As the track ends with another short succession of high notes and fates into memory, I feel like it cleanses that memory of horrible tunes I've had to withstand, and leaves only things I like, things with a genuine emotional arc, and real chops to back it up. Things like Massive Attack, Brian Eno, and yes, the Halo Soundtrack.