Official AIM Review!

Sparse intro with tribal drums was a good decision compositionally, though occasionally the drums do hide in the mix. Most notably on your big swells.

As noted, it is fairly slow to progress and does have a drone like quality.

I would probably recommend a different bass, even be it a ramp synth. The stringy one you have now sounds fairly inauthentic and occasionally distracts me on that basis. There are several free basses available like Ample Sounds' ABPL, which has reasonably good articulations. (I used it on one of my previous tracks, Old Wounds, which was frontpaged, if you'd like to hear it in action.)

Back to the track at hand, I'd probably have liked a transition into 3:17. It's a pretty abrupt change in our texture, from super spacious forest with swelling synths to what sounds like either a bassoon or oboe tuned down, drums holding down the beat.

This kinda reminds me of some older videogame music I used to dig. Great job maintaining atmosphere, conveying the plight of the last tree alongside the memories of a bygone time.

Thanks for turning out to this year's AIM!

---Official AIM review---

I like the dreamy pads and pensive mood at the beginning. The percussion sounds like it doesn’t have a lot of tension, but otherwise contributes to the texture pretty well. The piece is pretty slow to progress, and also can sound rather atonal at times, especially after that e-piano comes in at :57. There was a good sense of climax into 1:24, but I think after that point it was hard to distinguish the harmonic progression of the piece. It started to lack directionality, and it might’ve been nice to ground the piece in some more melodic content, even if it’s meant to have a drone-like quality. The jittery effects at around 2:24 are pretty cool. I definitely like the sound design and atmosphere of the piece. As for the mixing, you do a good job of having a variety of frequencies, although the reverb may have been a bit excessive at times. The drums could’ve also been more up-front in the mix. I think the abrupt transition at 3:17 actually works quite well to bridge the gap between the moods of the sections on either side. The variations in the bass line at 4:00 were also quite welcome. After that, the piece seems a little disjointed from the rest. I suppose I would’ve liked to see you offer some more conclusive content in the second half of the piece that expanded more on harmonic themes presented earlier. That said, you nailed the mood and atmosphere with this piece. I think the composition might need work, especially during the first 3 minutes, where you rely mostly on adding instruments at fairly regular intervals in order to form the progression of the piece. Also, the atonality started to bother me a bit after a while. Overall, soothing piece with some cool instrumentation. Keep at it, Primallightmusic!

7.5/10