Recently I participated in a contest sponsored by Silk Music to remix a track called Painting the Skies by Robert Nickson (aka RNX). The brief was to create a remix in an electronica style, preferably of the house, trance, progressive, or chill genre, using the music threads supplied as part of the competition.

As I haven’t done anything creative musically for a while, I decided to give the competition a shot. The title of the track immediately evoked for me a mental image of driving along an empty seaside boulevard just as dawn was breaking, the light growing in the sky as the waves lapped gently against the shore.

Accordingly, I slowed down the beat and stripped the piece back to its bare essentials, beginning with a baseline and Rhodes piano track, then progressively built up each layer using synth pads, synth strings, and synth vocals. To support the baseline I gradually added synth plucks, guitar, and left and right hand piano threads. This builds up to a crescendo to symbolise the sun rising above the horizon, followed immediately by a softer “epilogue” in which I imagined the driver driving away from the sea, the memory of seeing the sun rise above the sea lingering in their consciousness.

Although my entry wasn’t successful, I like what I produced and enjoyed the creative experience. And Now I am going to share it with you. So please enjoy Painting The Skies (Dawn Cruiser Remix).

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