Wooded winds meander through the pines, small animals crunch around the forest floor. Blue, blue, blue, the scent of crisp fresh water. Slight dampness lingers in the air.
1. Chant D’Asama
Opens right away with an A13sus chord voiced x04030. Getting a fuzzy crunch between the F# on the 4th fret and the open G string. After noodling around here it resolves on D major add 9, with some small dashes of Lydian (G#) swimming in there.
Next section is over the D major add 9 chord. Riff is C#, D, B, A….G#, A, G, F#. It’s harmonized in 4ths, even adding a wonky D# under the G#. Cool to see the b9 over a Lydian voicing! Sometimes after this riff guitar jumps high up to xxx9710 voicing, hitting E, F# and high D.
The following riff is the same theme but transposed to D Mixolydian. It reads like C, D, C, A….G, A, G, D. Harmonized in 4ths, and resolving on a surrounding WOUMP of D major chord.
The wind instrument solo focuses a lot on notes D and E to draw out that suspended airy, hovering sound.
The guitar solo is mostly in key but goes out to G# and B for one run. Otherwise he plays will trills too like F# pull off to A repeatedly. Guitar sounds so much like Pat Metheny!
Misc. comments: Slight flange or chorus on guitar. Guitar is in Drop D.
2. Le Mistral
According to the interwebz, Mistral is a regional cold wind that blows from southern France towards the Mediterranean. Mistral..Minstrel…energetic, peppy, brisk wind at the market. Town is bustling.
In a lively Eb major:
Riff 1: Eb, D, C, D… Bb, C…Ab, Bb…
Riff 2: D,, C, B, C,… G, Ab, Bb….
Riff 3: B, Ab, G, Ab, G, Ab, G, F, Eb…
Riff 4: D a lot, C….D a lot, Eb…
Second section turns to Eb Dorian and is flavored with rock n roll riffs. Gb, Ab, down to Db, Eb, harmonized in 4ths like the upper end of a power chord. This shape appears all the time in 60’s and 70’s rock. The wind instrument is so happy, especially around 6:20 it’s laughing LOL. Very cool, almost ecstatic exaggerated laughter.
3. Fee Dormant (Sleeping Fairy)
Really the only track on this album with any sort of involved harmonic movement. Let’s check it out:
|| D maj | A maj/C# | E7/B | A maj ||
Melody for this section : D, F#, E….D, D, E, D, C#..... Harmonized in 3rds, so underneath it goes: B, D, C#....B, B, C#, B, A….
Then
||F#- F#-/F | F#-7/E D#-7b5 | D maj7 | E maj C#7b13 ||
On the second repeat there’s no C#7 chord.
Simple and peaceful for the sleeping fairy. Not unlike Dragon Quest music, or classical music in general.
4. Montagnes Dans La Brume (Mountains in the Mist)
Guitar in Drop C tuning with slight delay, opens with harmonics on 12th fret presumably: E, G, D, then C regular fretted note. Tune stays in C major. Wind instrument gracefully dances the main riff: high G, down an octave to lower G, A, C, F, E, D, E, C. Basically running around C major pentatonic.
Guitar has a chord solo with 12th fret harmonics and Led Zeppelin style rock triads while humming out on that Big Low Open C, grumbling like hefty mountains.
During wind instrument solo, guitar plays a voicing like x352x0, but really he’s all over the place anchored to the Open C.
5. Paysage Lacustre (Lake Landscape)
Open with harmonics E and A.
Drop D, guitar strumming on a round watery filled lake of 00423x, open D major without the high E string. The guitar encapsulates the D major chord from low end to High end with root note D, like how a lake is a circumference of water encircling itself.
The riff that stands out: D, C#...B, B, A….A, A, F#.... C#, C#, D….
Then a punch line follows: G, A, G, A, G, A.. BOOM D major. Punch line harmonized in 4ths.
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