Death – my first new music of release for 2024 in my continuing series of music based on tarot cards, their symbolism, interpretation, and hidden meanings. ‘Death’ released on 3rd May 2024 and is available on all streaming platforms and digital stores.
The Death tarot card is one of the most widely known and irrationally feared cards.
It represents rebirth, transformation and the ending of cycles – this can be good or bad. It certainly doesn’t mean someone will die; that’s just a bad horror movie trope. For example, if someone has been experiencing a run of bad luck, that could be ending. Alternatively, someone with financial difficulties or an illness, the death card could signify the ending of that set of circumstances. Not all endings are smooth and pain free in life though. Sometimes they are painful, traumatic, difficult and devastating. Endings bring about new beginnings and that certainly applied within the Tarot and life in general.
This piece musically is dark and foreboding yet has a sense of impending change leaving the listener in no doubt an inescapable force is coming. An almost euphoric lift towards the end still manages to leave a sense of transformation and destruction behind in the final moments.
The traditional tarot artwork shows Death on the back of a white horse which symbolises yin and yang – the opposite but interconnected, self-perpetuating cycle. A King lies dead on the ground beneath him showing that death is the great leveler and that it comes to all. A priest in front of death is shown trusting his faith.The small child is somewhat oblivious and curious and the young girl is fearful and not wanting to face what is ahead. In the background behind the two towers, the sun is rising which harks back to the moon card indicating what is hidden is coming to light as the sun rises in the sky. On the river in the background is a ship, this is symbolic of the river Styx from Greek mythology where the souls travel from the realm of the living to the dead.
Track Credits:
Music: Martin George Selwood © 2024
Mastered: Martin George Selwood (2024)
Cover art by Martin George Selwood
A massive thanks to Krissie at The Warehouse Theatre in Ilminster for the loan of the Kings robe, crown, and priests cloak.
All Rights Reserved © Martin George Selwood 2024.
Instruments:
Korg Arp 2600FS, Fairlight Series III, Fairlight IIx, Yamaha SS30, Zildjian Azuka Cymbals, Junk Cymbal, Abbey Road 70’s Drums, Heavyocity Damage, 8Dio Epic Taiko Ensemble, 8Dio Epic Frame Drum Ensemble, 8Dio Epic Dhol Ensemble, 8Dio Clocks, Keepforest Devastator Warzone Free, Keepforest Atlantica, NI Factory Gong, AAS Fear Within, Arturia Modular V, Cherry Audio Elka X, Cherry Audio Memorymode, Cherry Audio Polymode, Cherry Audio Quadra, U-He Bazille CM, U-He TyrellN6, U-He Zebra Hz, Audio Thing ER490, NI Thrill, Heavyocity Evolve, 8Dio Hybrid Tools 1, 8Dio Hybrid Tools 2, 8Dio Hybrid Eternal Darkness, Production Voices Death Piano LE, NI Symphonic Essentials Brass Ensemble, NI Action Strings 2, 8Dio Adagietto, Ben Osterhouse Ostinato Strings, Spitfire Abbey Road One, Spitfire Albion III, Spitfire Solstice, Spitfire Kepler, 8Dio Cage, Project Sam The Free Orchestra, 8Dio Liberis
Vocals: Martin George Selwood
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