Desert music

My impression from chatting with Waveshapr in the past is that the game music will be themed for different regions and different times of the day. The "Under the Pale Moonlight" piece is obviously a night time piece. But in general the music plays at random. At some point as more music is added and things are re-organized more then I'm sure the music will feel more themed. For now, I just wanted to share some ambient from my collection as inspiration for writing a kind of desert suite of music.

This seems fitting for walking over endless dunes. A spin of this might be suitable for daytime when the sun is high in the sky but this piece personally always felt appropriate for night time . Perhaps the beat reminds me of other music I enjoy when i stargaze.

This sounds like something you'd hear as the sun goes down and the sun rays are shooting in your eye. If you've seen the Terminator 2 movie as Sarah connor is watching the parents play with their kids in the desert as the sun begins to set then you'll understand the feeling. This gets really good after 2 minutes but there are some sound effects mixed in towards the end that only seem appropriate to the movie and not the piece in itself.

Something for exploring pyramid ruins or some other abandoned places in the desert. A vast natural rock garden with massive boulders scattered or a place such as Balanced Rock in Idaho comes to mind. This piece just screams "magnificent desolation" but has a very eery feel as well. Again, this feels like a night time piece but is dependant on location.

Despite the name, this piece always makes me think of vast open spaces with grand mesas, canyons and arches. This is what I'd play in my mind on a day where the sky is clear, the humidity is low and you can see nothing but colored rocks seemingly endless in each direction. It's not too hot yet so you can sit in comfort and marvel at the view:

And now a quote from Edward Abbey who wrote Desert Solitaire which was the inspiration for some of the music above that Michael Stearns and Steve Roach collaborated on.

Quote from Edward Abbey

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.

Yes, the current look of desert biomes which border with mediterraniean biomes do feel like you are somewhere in Africa. Use of the arabic scale, plus some instruments in middle eastern culture (i could not name the instruments) would give the desert an authentic feel. Regarding American deserts, those still need to be added to the game and I sincerely hope Red intends to do so as they would add so much to the diversity of game biomes. The Desert Solitare album has such a western Americana feel and its essence would be more apropriate for those biome types.

*blinks* There will be dungeon music? Ooh how exciting! I had the opposite impression. Maybe something disorienting yet more refined than that sample you posted a while ago (I seriously enjoyed that clip even if you were not serious about it. I found its disorienting sound to be appropriate while exploring a creepy place)

I love ambient music and soundscapes as you can tell.

Quote from waveshapr

…aand this is what the dungeons will sound like*

*nah, actually just all pieces played at once *wink wink*

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