In this blog I will be discussing Space 6 by Nala Sinephro, a composer and multi-instrumentalist from London, with the analytical focus on her extreme use of tension in the track. This track is around four and a half minutes long and I’d argue the first three minutes purely build tension for one moment. What I find particularly interesting about the tension in this track is that, although drawn out, I still find it incredibly enjoyable. The orchestral make up of Space 6 is just saxophone, drums and modular synth and all three are present from the start. The synth and the saxophone both start off relatively sparse, one chord on the synth and a three note melody from the sax. The drummer plays a syncopated groove that generally maintains a similar rhythmic base throughout, with subtle and ever-evolving details. I feel for the first three minutes, the drums keep you hooked whilst tension is being built with the harmony. I think that it gives your mind something to play with as the track progresses. The synth sound evolves in timbre, but the chord remains the same for some time. At around a minute in, the saxophone switches to an even sparser melody of just two notes being played in a sharper, more stacctato way. As this goes on the drummer builds on the original groove’s complexity and as the rise continues, with the high cut filter slowly being pulled back on the synth, a huge sawtooth patch is revealed. I feel the tension is so strong through this section due to so much of the sonic landscape changing, whilst the harmony has essentially been the same throughout. Traditionally, the two change in unison with eachother as a song progesses and I find the idea of changing one element (timbre) and leaving another (harmony) to be a really interesting way of building tension without boring the listener. It signifies that the music is moving somewhere and you haven’t reached it yet. At this point, the chord being played on the synth instantaneously changes into a monophonic bass sound, played a semitone below the root note of the chord. Its a huge moment in the composition, but it isnt the release of tension. It snaps the listener out of the trance that came from the monotony before it, leaving you confused when listening for the first time. The saxophone imitates this feeling, scrambling around for notes and only reaching dissonant ones. The tension continues building and eventually the synth becomes warped out of recognition for a short period of time until quickly becoming another huge sawtooth chord on which the saxophone lands perfectly, finally bringing the release of tension before the track fizzles out into ambience.
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