a look at 'Night Siege'

Back when I was listening to a lot of electronic music, I often became real inspired to fire up my studio and do a little experimenting. One of my experiments resulted in 'Night Siege', which is a rather turbulent and intense piece of music.

'Night Siege' is driven by a left-hand ostinato that has the effect of speeding up and slowing down (or so I've been told...). The unrelenting percussion was derived directly from that pattern, pretty much with each drum hitting on its own specific note of the ostinato, and a few fills thrown in for good measure. If you listen closely, you might be able to hear two different snare drum sounds that are panned to opposite sides. The basic theme is played by the right hand in block chords. The overlapping melodic lines are done canon style, in that they are essentially the same figure, but the entrances are offset by a measure or two. The entire piece is in 4/4 time, but with some syncopation and a few poly-rhythms, it sounds like something more complicated than it actually is.

The title is borrowed from the Phil Imbrogno book by the same name about the well-known Hudson Valley UFO sightings throughout the 1980's. I was lucky to see the lights myself one night, as they moved slowly across the sky.

Listen to Night Siege