Afro Celt Sound System: ‘Release’

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About the Piece:

The main key in the piece is C minor but the music is quite modal and is diatonic in parts.

Release takes inspiration from several genres of music.

African influences: kora, talking drum (a type of African drum)

Celtic influences: hurdy-gurdy, uilleann pipes, bodhrán (an Irish drum), fiddle, whistle, accordion

Western (dance) influences: male vox, female vox, synthesisers (including string pad, soft pad, bells, string bass), breath samples, drum machine, electric piano, shaker and tambourine

Much of the piece is made from layering and looping.

There is a distinct verse form (shown below). It contains an intro, solos, breaks and an outro. There are no choruses in this piece and the piece contains three verses.

Playing techniques used in the song include: glissando, ornamentation and double stopping. The use of reverb is also very obvious for the whole track.

The main texture in the piece is homophonic but there is also use of heterophonic texture during the outro.

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Introduction:

The introduction to the song starts with a drone using two different synth tones, hard-panned L and R.

Both synths are being filtered with low pass filters. These are used to sweep through all the frequencies in a tone and modulate the sound by removing, and then adding, higher harmonic content while always keeping the lower part or fundamental. This filtering is often timed so that when the L is adding treble, the R is removing it and vice versa.

The introduction is in free time until the bodhrán, shaker and drum machine enter and help to establish the steady tempo (50″).

A steady C drone fades in gradually from about 19″.

The layering of parts thickens the texture as talking drum, synth strings drone and spoken vocal samples are added.

Female vocals enter at 1′19″ using heavy reverb and are panned centrally with synth and drum loops.

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Verse 1 and Verse 2:

Verse 1:

A female vocal sings the first verse. The accompaniment is simple chords, creating a homophonic texture.

The tambourine takes over from the shaker, playing steady semiquavers.

Kora enters at the end of the verse, along with low synth strings that play an ascending chromatic line.

At the end of the verse there is also a short bodhrán solo before the breath sample. The bass loop enters playing a riff on two notes (C and B♭), which gives a modal quality.

A short flute effect with delay FX (echoes) links the first verse to the second.

Verse 2:

Male vocals take over from the female vocalist, singing a variation of the first verse.

A more complicated drum pattern enters and a fiddle plays the accompaniment using double stopping, accents and triplets.

Towards the end of the second verse, the low chromatic synth strings enter.

A short drum and bass link leads to the solo section of the song.

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Solo Section: and Verse 3:

Solo Section:

Uilleann pipe starts the solo section and is soon joined by the whistle playing running semiquavers with glissandi.

The solos are accompanied by a bodhrán and an accordion loop playing accented chords.

The low whistle enters to take over the solo, playing a more complicated version of the uilleann pipe solo. It is more varied in rhythm and dynamics than the pipes.

The low synth strings accompany the low whistle along with the accordion and the bass loop drops out.

Towards the end, the male vocals are joined by the hurdy-gurdy (a plucked string instrument) and bass.

Verse 3:

The texture continues to thicken as the female vocals re-enter.

The hurdy-gurdy and uilleann pipe solo continue to play underneath the main vocals, creating a polyphonic texture.

A new synth sample enters, playing static chords.

The male vocal takes over at 5′35″, accompanied by the fiddle and the chromatic low synth strings.

At the end of the third verse, the bodhrán enters playing its original entry leading into the build section.

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Build and Outro:

Build:

The bass re-enters in this section, joined by a more complicated drum part.

An electric piano is layered over this, playing a syncopated two-note melody and accompanied by arpeggio semiquavers.

There is a second electric piano playing an oscillating pattern of two notes (E♭ and F).

The second electric piano soon drops out as a new hurdy-gurdy loop enters.

Female vocal samples interject as a new uilleann pipe solo loop creates a heterophonic texture with the hurdy-gurdy.

Outro:

The female voice sings ‘Reach out and you’ll touch me’ on a loop.

The bass loop drops out and the second fiddle loop re-enters.

At the end, the two electric piano loops enter as all the other loops drop out.

The music fades out.