Sir. You have been keeping a very strong pace the last year but something like this was completely unexpected. I have honestly never been impressed more, by anyone on Newgrounds ever, than I was when I first had a listen to the intro of this song. I've been listening to a bunch of classical music lately (due to watching the videos by the Youtube user 'smalin' - you should check him out, he makes visualizations of classical music and it really helps you see the patterns and themes). I get exactly the same feeling of 'genius' when I listen to those as when I listen to your song - and - coupled with the absolutely sublime soundscape you've created (more on that later), I am absolutely astonished. So much in fact, that I feel I have to talk almost formally. Well, let us get down to the specifics.
Excellent atmosphere from second one. The deep bass note keeps the rather mysterious mood, and the harp part is just great man. I love the little crescendo before 0:18 and how it graciously falls down to a slow tempo after that. The windy/rain noises around it are absolutely perfect for the song to give it an atmosphere and sound that suits the harp perfectly. It makes the harp sound more "lonely" than it would sound with the harp alone, YET it fills the frequency spectrum to give the tune a fuller sound from the start. The sound effect at 0:13 makes me anticipate the little crescendo, and then when the crescendo arrives at 0:18âEU¦ Now, stop and realize that while I am writing this, I am scrolling back and forth in the song to make sure what I'm saying is correct- and I get goosebumps EVERY TIME I listen to this little crescendo. EIGHTEEN SECONDS INTO THE SONG. Anyway. I love how you keep it so understated and subtle - the strings are truly massive, you can hear it, yet they just subtly fade out to give room for another part of the harp intro. The fading little sound effect just after that is just what is needed to almost put me into tears from how much I love this thing.
After that three-second musicgasm, the harp does its thing for a while (man I love the rubato/improvisation. I love it) until 0:32 where there's this magical chord progression that I love to much. There's something about the harmonic resolution at 0:38 - coupled with the very subtle tempo variations that add so much to the realism - that makes it sound incredibly talented/masterful/what can I say. Same for 0:41 to a lesser extent. Then there are the subtle little details like the super-faint mandolin at 0:35 (I don't know if I would (or could) have noticed it if I wasn't using the kinda expensive headphone+amp combo I'm using now), which is almost equally impressive because it shows the sheer amount of detail that is put into this piece. There's a belltree (I think that's what it's called) sound that is just a bit too loud and could use a bit more reverb - it sounds like there's an orchestra in front of me but that percussion instrument is in the seat just in front of me if you get what I mean. It's still needed though. 0:45 is another moment that gives me goosebumps - the reverb on the strings sound so very distant, and it's almost like it blows up the perspective: up until that point, the song has been quite intimate and confined to a medium-sized hall with a harp in it. Then the strings come in and all of a sudden the walls vanish and I am sitting in a goddamn valley. Thing is, this is not something you can just do by giving an instrument a big-ass reverb and I know this because I've tried and rarely succeeded. (Still enjoying the faint mandolin). Brief slowdown at 0:50 that leads into the next favorite moment of mine -
0:57! What an excellent, excellent chord. Very dissonant and out of left field, but it fits perfectly with the chord progressions you were doing previously. And the dissonance makes a perfect buildup of suspense to the next 'climax' at 1:00. I remember I was giving you tips for like a little piano line that you could use in a track a few months ago and here you just pulled the same thing off with a full string section like it's nothing.