Alien - 55 by Intelligentsia

Intelligentsia “ALIEN - 55”

The title of this music project is a word play on ‘Area-51’ (with an ironic reference to the author) consisting of 4 very different musical pieces, all constructed to be a quarter of an hour each exactly. A one hour soundtrack that ventures across upbeat Synth Pop, atmospheric Film score, euphoric Electronic Opera, and finales with dark tribal experimentation.

Featuring the operatic and ethereal voices of mezzo-sopranos Bronwen Stephens, Adey Bell, and male tenor Robin Whitehouse.
These four 15 minute tracks vary wildly, born from music specifically created for live performance, while experimenting in the sampled sounds of unique objects such as Handpan drums, Tone pipes, Euler’s discs and a Newton’s cradle.

"ALIEN-55" starts with a full synth-rock anthem, moving to film score, followed by 2 Yin/Yang tracks exploring optimism/pessimism.
For a more detailed rundown of each track and how they were made, see below:

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LIVE LIFE LOUD
Written in 2 days in July 2022. This was created after attempting (and completely failing) at formulating a 1970’s style YMO track. It started with the initial drum beat but then went off in a totally unexpected direction. Instead an 80’s synth rock anthem was born. All the themes and melodies were composed on the spot - there were no second guesses with this one. It all happened very fast. I often prefer one shot recording as it captures fresh emotional inspiration, instead of the contrived or planned, which can sometimes sound tired or overworked. This is the long 15 minutes version for getting out of bed in the morning - something uptempo to get energised. I imagine this one is good for driving the car also. Synthesizer afficionado, Andy Thomas (Wales) imagined this music works well with images of wingsuited sky-diving or extreme sports. Moreover, it’s definitely made for prancing around with Key-Tars. Let’s Synth rock!

Instruments: Retrologue, Groove Agent Drums, EastWest Symphonic Orchestra.

OVNI
The Spanish abbreviation ‘objeto voador não identificado’ for UFO (also in French, Italian and Portuguese), based on multiple sightings in Peru and South America. This track originates with a floating arpeggio which I first came up with in the early 90’s for a William Gibson Cyberpunk track. After listening to so many movie end credits since then, I wanted to write my own imagined film score. This 15 minute piece was written over a period of 2 weeks in August 2022. There are hints of Hans Zimmer in the final section, where I visualised multiple UFOs being tracked and chased by military aircraft. Part 3 is reminiscent of another favourite, the atmospheric music of Nathan McCree, and my many years of playing Tomb Raider. This features the angelic and ethereal voices of Adey Bell and Bronwen Stephens. Also included are the metallic clicking spheres of a Newton’s Cradle, and the ambient percussion of the UFO looking Pandrum.

Instruments: EastWest Symphonic Orchestra, Stormdrum 2, Cloudrum, Halion 6, Newton’s cradle, Plastic echo mic toy.
Mezzo-Soprano: Bronwen Stephens, Adey Bell (SoundIron).

GLOBAL VILLAGE
Featuring some of last words of Timothy Leary before his death in 1996, where he talks optimistically about the new birth of the worldwide web. First composed around 1998 in a game studio in Tokyo, this evolving piece was created to suggest the ever growing connections of “electricity and light” slowly, but surely, connecting the world together. Again this is the long mix version that was written and performed for a live show in Tokyo, and then subsequently distributed (in an abridged version) in Japan through the millennial “WorldWideKind” compilation project. Remixed for 2022, this new version features the Opera vocals of British tenor Robin Whitehouse, and Australian Mezzo-Soprano Bronwen Stephens. The synth guitar is played by myself on the Roland JD-800 synthesizer, which does the best impression of an electric guitar that I know of.

Instruments: Roland JD800, JV1080, Juno 106, Octapad, Yamaha SY99, Akai S3200xl, Retrologue, Euler’s Disc, EastWest Symphonic Orchestra, Requiem Light Choir. Male Tenor: Robin Whitehouse. Mezzo-Soprano: Bronwen Stephens. JD-800 Synth Guitar: Mirai.

OVERLORDS
I rarely create ‘dark music’ so this was switched from first place to last, as this one drastically changes the mood from the previous uptempo positive-focused journey. This track is completely created around the sound of the KORG NTS-1 (a handheld self built kit synthesizer). The lengthy interstellar drone sound it self produces is wondrous. This is an evolving cyclic piece, suggesting an interplanetary spacecraft, portal dropping through multiple dimensions, and on each rotation a new alien world is discovered - it gets stranger, more frantic and more war-like on each turn. The alien voices are mostly produced by myself, with added vocal sounds from Bastiaan Winde (Netherlands). This features the rapid speed up sound of an EULER’s DISC, and the spinning wind swirl of a Tobar Tone Pipe (played live in my kitchen and provided by Abi Fallows).
Māori screams and Japanese KODO drummers give it that extra violent whack. Be warned, I’ve found this music piece can make you aggressive in the real world, and I can imagine it would be great performed live with multiple drummers, smoke, strobes and darkness.
And who are the Overlords? It is suggested that our planet is overseen not by benign extra-terrestrials but by centuries old prison wardens that see us as DNA lab experiments. Our current benefactors could actually be quite dark and dystopian. Like an episode of the Twilight Zone, it’s a pessimistic note to end on. But we shall see.

Instruments: Korg NTS1 synthesizer kit, Yamaha CS5, GA Drums, EastWest Stormdrum 2, Padshop 2, Halion 6, iPhone Filtatron, iPhone Animoog, Tobar Tone Pipe and Euler’s Disc. Spectra Vocoder, sampling, and extra alien voices: MIRAI. Additional voices: Bastiaan Winde, Netherlands.

Tracklist

1.	Live Life Loud (MonuMental Mix)	15:00

2.	OVNI (part.1)	2:20

3.	OVNI (part.2)	3:52

4.	OVNI (part.3)	3:46

5.	OVNI (part.4)	1:38

6.	OVNI (part.5)	3:24

7.	Global Village (World Citizen Mix)	15:00

8.	Overlords	15:00

9.	Bonus track: OVNI (parts 1,2,3,4,5)	15:00

10.	Bonus track: ALIEN_55 Promos 1,2,3,4	4:30

Credits

released November 11, 2022

Composed, channeled and probed by MIRAI.

Thanks to Bronwen Stephens, Robin Whitehouse, Bastiaan Winde (Netherlands), Ian “BigBubbleMan” Russell (Euler’s Disc), Abi Fallows (Tobar Tone Pipe) and Zen Ad Astra (Video CGI Art).

“And now it’s digital. And these waves have been moving us through the 20th century and the 21st century is all going to be digital. Marshall McLuhan said it: It’s a Global Village, linked together by electricity and light.  And we are just lucky. We are the luckiest people that ever lived, to be alive at this moment, when we can see what’s happening - we are finally going to have, what Marshall McLuhan predicted: A GLOBAL VILLAGE” - Timothy Leary, 1995

.WAV music downloads are: 48khz / 24bit files.

Note: the full OVNI suite is available as a separate downloadable bonus track, which is all parts of OVNI as one 15 minute music file. (This is only available on BANDCAMP.)

License