McKay's Soundscapes

After yesterday, I dived right in to the soundworld of Tristan McKay. He has an amazing way of making you want to go on dangerous expeditions with the music he writes. Take a minute to visit his page and read his bio. Meanwhile, I'll be getting lost in Tristan's remote icy soundscape inspired by the 1914 shipwreck of an Englishman named Ernest Shackleton. (**Spoiler Alert** After being shipwrecked and spending weeks looking for help in the Antarctic, ever single man on the voyage is rescued). 

Tristan McKay

Tristan is a composer after my heart with his multimedia composition Haiku. While the very clear *Varese-esque feel is rockin,  I just love  the composition. I mean, have you even seen the score? Following along with a recording hasn't been this fun since...I can't remember. I'm strongly tempted to print it out and draw pictures of penguins engaging the travelers in a bloody battle or a walrus slapping someone in the face. But on a serious note, the symbols are indicative of musical gestures, pitch-agnostic. It's fun to correlate the drawings with certain effects. Especially the middle where there's a glimpse of traditional notation and it explodes back into semi-random lines and figures.

Also worth adding, Tristan graciously gives a futuristic steam-punk redux of the whole affair with his short but awesome album Shackleton Gray, whose cover character looks kinda like a cross between Joel and Booker DeWitt (shout out, gamers!) Because what Shacketon's crew lacked was a soundtrack for when they battle mechanized enemies while smuggling a girl around.



*Don't know who Varese is? Explore and be amazed. You're welcome.