Episodic Music: The Great Red Eye Part IX

"Clear platform one," Shem called into his radio, "we will be losing eye line contact in three minutes.  All systems currently functioning appropriately."  The platform called back, verifying both Shem's report and the current readings surrounding the module.

As the Great Pendulum plunged ever deeper towards the eye of the storm, the lone human on this great planet turned on his rear view monitors, and shuddered unconsciously as the center of all human civilization - and life! - faded away in the Jovian atmosphere.

Episodic Music: The Great Red Eye Part VIII

Breaching the Jovian Atmosphere

The Great Pendulum gained velocity as it raced towards the giant planet below, the first rumblings of atmospheric friction dazzling the camera views on the exterior of the ship - that they could survive such punishment was amazing!  Shem re-checked his exterior monitors in triplicate, ensuring that each was operating optimally with no sign of malfunction or damage.

So far, so good.

Years of space travel couldn't have prepared him for how quickly his field of vision would limit as the atmosphere began to thicken as they screamed towards the heart of the storm.  He could no longer see the blackness of space behind the craft, instead he saw a faint blue sky quickly being obscured by ever-thickening wisps of brown and red.

Soon, Cosmonaut Aglig would venture where even the Sun had never been.

Episodic Music: The Great Red Eye Part VII

The Terrible Looming Procellea

Track Available for Purchase Here!

As the chatter from his post-release procedures faded into the background of his subconsciousness, Shem found stared unblinking at the sight that filled every millimeter of his field of view: Jupiter and the Great Red Eye.  As he fell, irreversibly, towards the tempests' of a billion years his computer systems whirred away taking measurements, ensuring stability and monitoring Shem's own vital signs.

"Cosmonaut Aglig, everything okay?  Your heart rate and blood pressure have raised steadily over the past several minutes," his radio called, bringing him out of his daze.  "Everything is fine.  Seeing the approach of storms that are bigger than entire planet is... unnerving to say the least," he replied while trying to distract himself from the scene playing out before his vessel.  "Should you prefer, we can turn on the view dampeners, so you won't have to watch the entire - "

"No," Shem interrupted mission control without hesitation.  "I want to see this.  I need to see this," as he turned his eyes back outward, this time with steely determination.  "The terrible looming procella of this magnificent titan will not deter me, we proceed as planned."

And so, for the next several hours, Shem Aglig watched as the gargantuan swirls of clouds and violent upheavals of colorful vapor beckoned him tauntingly.  Shem Aglig was a tiny man, heading straight into the terrifying eye of the solar system.

Episodic Music: The Great Red Eye Part VI

The Great Pendulum

Track Available for Purchase Here!

The Great Pendulum was originally commissioned by the United Authority of the Earth, Luna and Europa in the year 2935 as a means to test 'scooping' gas out of the Terrible Titan Jupiter to fuel long term space voyages. Using the Jovian gravity to pull the pendulum down and out of it's grasp would save energy and ensure better monitoring capabilities from the Lagrangian pivot point set impossible far away - but physically tethered to the Pendulum itself.

By 2940, exploits in quantum gravity discoveries helped to lead, laterally, to the discovery of the dark energy drive - allowing enclosed vehicles to bypass the speed of light by riding the wave of expanding space, pulling and pushing them to their interstellar destinations at a mind bending pace. The Great Pendulum was now going to be a one-off, exploration mission. It didn't take long for the main Pendulum to be re-engineered from the 'ground' up to include one pilot. Man was going to visit Jupiter's Great Red Eye in person in 2953.

The main cockpit, officially called the Science Module, was set 100 meters from the front of the vessel, with layers of water shielding and a nuclear centrifuge (to power the G-Suppressor, which was designed to divert some of the g-forces away from the pilot) and 100 meters of precisely cut CarbonCompress to allow for clear, crisp view through the front and rear should any exterior cameras fail.

As the great lattice pressure cage encloses the Science Module, Cosmonaut Shem Aglig completes his third and final round of system checks before the countdown to release commences, and he becomes to second man to ever breach the Jovian atmosphere.

A new project - Episodic Music

During the summer of 2000, as I approached my first semester in college, I made the very deliberate decision to read Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey.   Aside from a very few school assigned readings I actually completed (The Chocolate War being the biggest standout) throwing myself into any book with intention that I had no previous experience with was as foreign to me as gay love is to Rick Santorum.

That all changed with 2001, however as diving into the Clarke's catalog became an obsession for his books so I could soak in his imagination - the diamond standard of hard science fiction.  Childhood's End, Tales from Planet Earth, the remainder of the Odyssey series all turned my imagination inside out with new concepts often based somewhat on hard science and the edge of possibility.

All of his works teemed with delightful imaginations of the future that seems always on the horizon - but none of it floored me like the epic Rendezvous with Rama.  The tale of a derelict spaceship on a scale that humans have never imagined sweeps into the solar system giving man just enough time to rendezvous with the craft only to deepen it's alien mysteries and magnificence before disappearing back into the abyss of interstellar space.

With the inspiration of this book, I wrote the concept pieces known collectively as "RAMA" for February Album Writing Month 2012.  While I'm really proud of some of the work I did with "RAMA" (and some was a little phoned in due to the time constraints of FAWM), it felt a little cheap because I was just retelling someone else's amazing story and using it as a strong crutch to hang my own sounds on.  I had always wanted to write my own hard science fiction story, but the incredible amount of technical depth required is intimidating as hell for someone that's neither an engineer or astrophysicist.   

At all.

The most consistent type of comment I received during FAWM had to do with the enjoyment people were having reading my descriptions of the story to go along with listening of the track itself.  Why not try to write my 'firm' science fiction using music accompanied by story snippets?  Let some of the details be inferred by the music and let the reader/listener draw conclusions from there.

I have a story that I want to tell.  I have an outline and I know with certainty where the story is going and how it will end.  No stringing you along with filler like LOST, but a purposely paced, episodic story told with a paragraph describing setting and scene with the music meant to invoke story aurally.

Hopefully in the next few days I will post the prelude text along with the first 'episode' of music, which is titled "The Saganites of Hypatia and the second Renaissance."

Yeah... I seem to be going for broke right from the get go... ;)