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Zarcon Seven
by Eric Koenig

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About Zarcon Seven:

Zarcon Seven is a fictitious planet that originated from a running gag in my family. At one point, I wrote a piece that was a fusion of jazz and orchestra. In it, I imagined traveling on some glass-domed people mover through a futuristic city on some alien world. I decided to name it Saturday Night on Zarcon Seven. After this, it only made sense to write a collection of pieces exploring this fantasy world. Though admittedly a bit strange for an album theme,  Zarcon Seven quickly became a wonderful canvas for me to experiment with different styles and textures as I wrote about different aspects of this fantastical world. I hope you enjoy listening to this as much as I enjoyed composing it. Below are brief notes for each track.

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Track 1: Journey to Zarcon Seven

This track has all the Hollywood orchestral film score elements of a rocket launch. It starts with the heroic march toward the gantry, followed by reflection of leaving behind family and friends, followed by lift-off, zero-gravity maneuvers in low earth orbit, and finally continuation into deep space.

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Track 2: Come In Zarcon Seven

The journey is over and it's time to land on Zarcon Seven. The only vocal track on this album, I lyrically run through dialogue and landing procedures with ground control. Musically, this piece is mainly contemporary but I thought it would be fun to borrow a few elements from cheezie '80s sci-fi like Dune or Flash Gordon--hence the wailing guitars and vintage '80s synths in the second half.

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Track 3: Ice Fields of Zarcon Seven

I image the ice fields of Zarcon Seven to be a ghostly and magical winter wonderland of ice formations and caverns. Steam rises from volcanic fissures, freezing in the cold atmosphere growing spectacular columnar ice vents. Minerals in the ice produce sparkling vivid colors of every sort. 

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Track 4: Sunrise Over Zarcon Seven

The music begins softly as dawn breaks over the planet and then builds as a binary star system rises above the horizon.  

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Track 5: Seas of Zarcon Seven

In this piece, I imagine drifting underwater along reefs teaming with alien marine life. The style is very relaxed and peaceful, and it would have been easy to simply create a few repetitive chords on some soft synth pads. But I felt it important to keep the piece interesting and moving forward with musical ideas that develop and climax. Take special note of the balance  between orchestra and synthesizers and how they complement each other to create some great sound textures.

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Track 6: Wilderness of Zarcon Seven

This is probably my favorite track and the one that took the most time. In this piece, you will wander through vast alien deserts, prairies, and soar through imposing mountains--all teaming with otherworldly life. As an engineer, my compositions are typically very structured and in this piece, I pushed away from from that structure. You may notice that musical sentences are longer and there is more variation in style throughout the piece. Yet common motifs are used throughout giving continuity. Those who are fans of the Romantic and Impressionistic periods may hear styles from Debussy and Saint-Saens--and, of course, there's always a bit of John Williams.

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Track 7: Saturday Night on Zarcon Seven

As mentioned above, in this piece, I imagine traveling on some glass-domed people mover through a futuristic city gazing up at passing skyscrapers beneath an alien sky. 

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© 2017 by ERIC KOENIG

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