II. Terra Engine - Ahuna Vairya
Originally released March 27, 2008, by Time Theory Netlabel
Anyone even remotely familiar with FL Studio will probably be familiar with the synth used on this track. Still, to this day I have yet to find a synth that produces the same type of pleasing atonality. There is a purposeful sense of ritual and mystique to this track, which is intentional given that "ahuna vairya", the Zoroastrian tradition, is a "primordial utterance" which has, among other things, "the power to aid mortals in distress". One of the few tracks I would consider re-composing at a future date.
The album "Khravenah", in the most basic sense, is an aesthetic exploration of Zoroastrianism, one of the worlds oldest continuously practiced religions, notable for either influencing or providing the theological frameworks for many later religions and philosophical systems. Exactly why I chose to explore these themes I cannot say, other than that my notes at the time indicated that I wanted to present themes that were a bit different than the "standard" of Egyptian, Greek, 'Odinistic', "and other such legends". This is a bit of a mistaken assumption on my part given that even a cursory amount of time researching shows that there are many, many, MANY obscure tales and parables from the above-stated ancient belief systems that have not been frequently utilized in modern creative endeavors.
Released a mere month after my previous album, this remains one of my most 'popular' albums, at least from a strict "plays/'views'" perspective, for a variety of reasons. One of the main reasons being that Myspace was still an active force in the world. In short, one did not have to worry about being at the mercy of algorithms to determine if content was viewable by site users. In short, if you post it, they will come. Also, this was the first album released on Jon7's influential "Time Theory Netlabel" (the first of several), and it is no exaggeration to state that without Jon7's encouragement and support, there would be no John Lithium project, so self-titled or Nihil Obstat, no cut-up remixes, and definitely no Argali Records netlabel. The high level of care and commitment that went into releases on his label was a direct inspiration in the eventual creation of Argali Records Netlabel as, prior to working with Time Theory, I had had several bad experiences with various other netlabels.
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