The Final Flight
Composer
Composer
The Final Flight was an experiment in environmental sound and ambient music, and was named after the story it told. For this project, I generated three tracks inspired by a very emotionally heavy roleplaying game setting that I had the honor of being part of on two seperate occasions. The short campaign was set in the most northern part of the world of Nuheim, a shattered world recovering from a mage war. Our party was set to help pack up the last of our home village of Mundu before heading on a mission to hike through ice and wind up to the summit of Mount Orilia, the highest point in the world, where a bright light has appeared that shines on the peak as bright as a star.Â
The story dealt with themes of love, loss, and rebirth. It explored a dead world finding new life and survivors witnessing historical events so much larger than themselves. It is truly one of the greatest stories I've ever had the chance to part of. This project was composed around a year later, and was recorded, mixed, and mastered over the course of two weeks in December 2024. Listen below and read about my thoughts on each track!
Nuheim, named after the world of the setting, is a simple track of violins over a winter wind. This track is surprisingly thin, having a single violin track recorded all in a single take. I wrote each of these sequentially, so this was where I started, and when trying to capture the essence of this world, crying strings muffled by sharp wind felt like the only correct depiction, and the fact that the instrumentation was done in a single take and altogether makes it feel wistful and lonely in a really interesting way.
Eif is the second piece, and is named after a character found along the adventure. While bundling in a cave waiting out a heavy snowstorm, the party spotted Eif's lantern out in the storm. Rescuing him, the party finds him tired, hypothermic, and with a severely injured leg. With this track, I wanted to capture the essence of that initial interaction; a light in endless haze and impossible condition. It ended up being my least favorite track because it deviated from the environmental rhythm-light atmosphere set with the other two tracks. Even still, I think I learned a lot from making this track.
The Orilian Flame is the third track on the EP, and was the third track I composed. Named for the bright light at the top of Mount Orilia, this track had to capture the grandeur of what was found at the end of the journey: a miniature sun signifying the recomposition of the arcane energy that was destroyed in the apocolyptic war. Thus, this track has a similar (but different) wind, mixed with a compressed eternal fire that can be heard through the entirety of the track. This was the only track where I used electronic, meaningfully distorted sounds, emulating the otherworldly nature of this bizzare display. This is my favorite track on the EP, and perhaps my favorite musical work that I have composed.