Song: The Hill (2008)

[Also posted at Starfish Stories :: The Band]

I wanted this to be a strong, confident, inspirational tune.

“The Hill (2008)” Listen/ download the higher quality versions at ARCHIVE.ORG
An original composition; performed, arranged & mixed by: Ivan Chew.

The whole song started as a melody with a Celtic Tin Flute sound (I’ve uploaded the sample loop to CCmixter). Then I added more and more layers, adding bagpipes, choir voices. I experimented with a series of different “African Drum” loops, which worked nicely.

The effect seems to be like a marching song from the heydays of the British Empire. You know, the Scottish bagpipes and African drums.

I can imagine the Singapore Army using this in one of their recruitment adverts, LOL.

But it’s not a warring song.

If I ever make a music video for this, I’d start with a single person at the foot of a hill. Simply looking up. Then for no apparent reason, that person starts walking up the hill. And soon, people starts to join the climb. The hill isn’t particularly steep but it’s not an easy climb. On the way, an old woman has to sit down to rest. A young man goes up to her. He carries her on his back the rest of the journey. The music video would end with a view of the people just standing on the top of the hill, quietly looking out on the misty glowing landscape.

This image illustrates the imagery nicely (Climb up the green hill. Originally uploaded by Berni Beudel):

Enjoy the song!