New Album Releases: Instrumental Composer adds to Ambient Music Collection Epicworld Heritage Academy interviews Jordan about his music album release of “The Universe”.
Jordan is a music composer who has done a variety of projects in the entertainment business. He has done sound for more than eighty productions in live theatre and has done post production work in film and TV. He has released music albums “Solace”, Award-Winning “In Motion” and “No Limit to the Skies” (20th anniversary edition) “Variations” and is now to release this latest album “The Universe”.
What made you decide to do this music album “The Universe” sounds big… no pun intended?
In more ways than one I might add… It is currently the biggest album I have composed so far. It has been quite the challenge. I have been using some new instruments as well as tools and equipment to allow me to do some sound and music exploring. I have been trying to wrap my head around something that has no end and goes on forever and tie it together that would make sense and be enjoyable to listen to.
You do some things that sound familiar to some and still have a host of directions in which to take the listener. There are countless ways to go through all the things that exist and tell about it. These are just a few I decided to talk about including our solar system.
How did you begin this album?
The universe is made up of elements followed by gravity which play very important rolls and so I thought it was a good place to start. Both are very important parts as a structure and safe to say that almost everything of substance is brought together with gravity. I wanted to write in a way where the sound of this musical journey is quite vast in size.
In our solar system I started from the sun being large rich and an active place and the source of all our energy and continued to where our journey takes us further from the sun and its energy source becoming more distant and cosmic to the unknown outer regions.
You mention in the notation of both the rugged and the beautiful, what did you mean by it?
Space obviously is a huge endless place. There are too many possibilities to where there are so many ways to see what there really is and all of it being so different and unique. Each planet has a mythological story to tell. I have tried to keep their story and at the same time describe its actual environment.
Some are very hot and others are extremely cold. For example I struggled with “Venus” because of its Roman mythology of beauty and being the goddess of love, but in reality it is a really hot and unbearable place. So I hope I tied both concepts together somehow in the description with the music.
You mentioned mythology about Venus did you do that for the rest of the planets?
Oh yes of course. As you may be aware each of the planets are named after Roman and Greek mythology and it really helps to know the background with each of the planets. This is to give you an idea of why some were named individually when they were discovered.
Most of them are named after Roman gods except Uranus which is named after a Greek god. It is used today in the Latin version where it is constantly mispronounced. The Greek god’s original name was Ouranos (pronounced [oh-ron-nos]) I figured if they stuck with that name originally it would have made things easier today instead of all the “here’s how I say it” kind of thing.
Is there sound in space?
Well you are probably not going to go into orbit and roll the window down and listen for huge noises. I understand that space may not be a complete vacuum meaning that it is not void of the possibilities of molecular pressure somehow for us to hear.
During the Voyager space missions, they circled the planets and had technical instruments that picked up vibrations of the planets or moons magnetosphere. Each planet including our sun has sound. The sun’s tone is so low and loud that it has to be processed and sped up several times to make it audible.
I put a small ingredient of the actual sound from one of those Voyager recordings in with the music for “Venus”. You’ll have to listen closely especially at the end.
How long has it taken you to do this album?
Overall I would say that last three years off and on and two years consistently. There are a few pieces I had on the shelf I have set aside for this album. I sometimes write some pieces as ideas and they don’t have a place to go at the time. For instance “Stars” was on the shelf for longest time around the time I was in college working with a student who needed some music for his astronomy class.
I see that Pluto is on the list, what is the latest; is it still a planet?
To answer your question yes as I understand it, it is now officially reclassified back to being a planet. There was of course a debate for a period of time. This was due to not enough information. This is a planet roughly half of the size of the United States. There been additional moons even now discovered other than Charon and Pluto even has an atmosphere. And even now there continues to be even more evidence that it is a planet.
There is even now talk of a 10th planet even further out calling it Eris. I understand that scientists had to come to a conclusion and decide what makes a planet a planet. I still believe there are a few things left out of the equation. Of course I never had any doubt that it wasn’t a planet.
Mercury is not much bigger of a planet that has no moons or atmosphere and yet it is a planet. I think today sometimes people tend to get carried away if it is the going trend or now popular thing and facts are not brought to the table or the empirical law is not used properly which of course means that people are using their opinion instead of fact. They sent out the spacecraft New Horizons, which took about 9 years to reach Pluto and received more data that allowed scientists to come to a better conclusion.
They are discovering more planetary qualities all the time. It was at the time known as a minor or a Dwarf Planet to me it was giving it another title to satisfy uncertainties nonetheless the fact is that it is still a planet. I wrote the music knowing that Pluto was a part group of the planets of our solar system that we have known all along.
How does this album compare to the others you have written?
Many composers and musicians would like to have an overall signature or style with their music. Of course at the same time we try to keep doing something fresh and hope not to repeat something that has been done before. I like to try and tell a story with my music that people can relate to. We all have our mentors and people we emulate.
I for one like a few modern film composers such as John Williams who has played a part in my getting started. When I was young I enjoyed the classical greats like Beethoven, Mozart and others I can listen to them all day long over and over and learn something from them. I would like to think that the music can take you somewhere else and tell you their story that each person can relate to or understand and help them is some way. I feel I would like to do the same with my music.
Is there any other music in the near future?
Oh of course there is. I am usually writing something else at one time or another during the upcoming releases. There is usually something in the works. I try to release something every couple years and to be honest even that sometimes doesn’t seem long enough of a time to create due to other of life demands.
About 90 percent of the time music is just thinking a lot of research and making numerous decisions and it just takes time. I start music all the time and sometimes it needs the time to allow it to process. It all depends on the theme like the next album I have been working on for a number of years and may even be bigger than this album.
So yes there is more music coming. I do have a few more albums even now that are in the works or other ideas of others that I am looking forward to completing.
“The Universe” album and other Jordan albums available at:
http://jordanmcclungmusic.blogspot.com
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/jordan134
Press Release December 14, 2018
No Limit Sound Productions 2018