In this track, in addition to my self-imposed mini-challenge of using guitar sounds as much as possible this time, I wanted to seamlessly pick up the mood of the previous one again and turn it into something different.

I also always quite liked the title “Intro” from “The XX” and wanted to transform this musical influence into a much more melancholic mood, but definitely use the guitar as the main element.

So in the intro, guitar glitches gradually peel out of ethereal vocal texture sounds until it sounds like all the sounds are sucked in and the first melancholic guitar theme kicks in accompanied by a slow house beat surrounded by airy glitches that sound a bit like voices inside the wind. Here I again let different elements glitch with each other in the mix, they transform into each other, especially the guitar track is mainly involved in the formation of the glitches.

The track seems much more inorganic, technical and colder than the previous tracks on the album. I wanted to implement here the feeling of loneliness and the irrepressible desire to be loved and to give love and to be able to live out these feelings.

Every day at my work I hear the sounds of the neighboring cattle farm, the animals penned in their far too cramped stalls and the deep, drawn-out, sorrowful cries when agitation spreads among them. I recorded this sound because at that moment it seemed like the most drastic acoustic manifestation of the feeling of loneliness and hopelessness. I layered it into the track without it sticking out of the mix at any point. I find that it can be important to include real footage like this that creates or represents a certain mood in the mix, as it has a very specific effect on us.

The first drop ends with the elements glitching more and more, merging together, warping and creating completely new little sound constructs. In the intermediate section, a beautiful cello solo first sets off from the airy vocal texture pads, its melody the epitome of romantic desire, before being absorbed and swallowed up by the glitching vocal textures.

In the second drop, a higher, more fragile guitar theme is introduced before a wild to moaning, strangely organic and noisy sounding bass-like sound kicks in as a main rhythmic element that I also crafted from a guitar track, rhythmically distorted and glitched to match the track. This strange sound reminded me very much of the sound the cattle make on the cattle farm, which is why I included it as the main element of the drop. Gradually in the mix, a post-rock-like shredded distorted guitar wall, generously endowed with reverb, rises majestically above the mix, much like a string section would. Everything builds to an emotional climax and fades back to nothing. The first part of the outro consists of two guitars playing a melody around each other that first converges and eventually separates without ever being resolved harmonically. With this I wanted to depict again musically the feeling of longing for love. The second part of the outro features melodic stuttering pluck-like airy vocal textures, the sound of which I like extremely well as it seems so organic and sorrowful, while a delicate fragile piano plays a variation of the theme one last time and strange technical cold and sorrowful sounding percussive glitches serve as a disturbing counterpoint to the delicate piano playing until the track ends quite abruptly without really resolving the tension. An unpleasant, sad and disturbing feeling accompanies one here until the end and in this sense this track is probably the most romantic of the album, as it is completely absorbed in the feeling without coming to a resolution of the drawn conflict.