ReversalRain (Genesis & Revelation) is a pair of songs that are reflections of each other using the retrograde composition technique. This collection is intended to serve as the opening and closing themes of ReversalRain episodes, if this passion project gains enough traction one day to produce a full animated series. The compositional vision of these tracks is to evoke a foreboding atmosphere of an ominous and eternally recursive mystery. These songs are a medley of most previously released ReversalRain music since 2015, and the themes are described below.
“ReversalRain (Opening Theme)” is a revisitation of the concept behind Llyona Fang’s 2015 track, “Cacophony of Rain.” While “Cacophony of Rain” uses the reversed audio from an early MIDI version of “Wind-Up Storm,” this new opening theme utilizes the reversed acoustic piano recording from The Midst of Silence album in 2020. It took 4 more years to develop and mix to the point where we would be satisfied with the release. Trailer is coming soon, prospectively by the end of 2024.
The opening theme begins with rain sounds and the reversed “Wind-Up Storm” piano part, which is Melody Rain Jiayin’s leitmotif. This contains a harmony and countermelody in the 4-chord progression of c minor, Eb Major, Bb Major, Ab Major at 80 BPM which continues for the entire piece.
Next, the ascending piano c-minor scale with a high pedal point c from the non-reversed version of “Wind-Up Storm” is overdubbed during the entrance of a dark and creeping percussion beat.
Lukkas Souta Iocu’s woodwind refrain from the 2019 track “A Tempest Lullaby'' is the second leitmotif to enter. The acoustic flute recording was performed by Clark Ren.
Third, Renaye Igni Lopes’s brass parts adapted from the 2019 track “Kindling Flame” follows directly after Lukkas’s section. Unfortunately, we were unable to obtain a real trumpet player and had to rely on overlaying different trumpet soundfonts. None of them sounded genuine, but AvisLux helped to provide some that sounded much better than MuseScore MIDI.
The fourth featured leitmotif is a variation of Clarus Seco’s 2016 “Another Heartbeat” refrain.This section uses computer-generated string orchestra sounds from MuseScore because we could not find a string player who was able to record for us in a timely manner.
The fifth transition leads into an adaptation of Expexes Juneti Cypo’s harp theme from the 2015 track “Light of Dawn.” This also used MuseScore generated sound because nobody on the music team owns a full harp.
Jevon Jadin’s guitar theme from the 2015 track “Clockwork Masquerade” or 2016 track “Clockwork Inversion.” There are multiple guitar and percussive hit tracks recorded acoustically by Llyona Fang, while other layers are MuseScore soundfonts.
The remainder of the song uses samples from an unreleased track that is an orchestral soundtrack arrangement of “Wind-Up Storm” from late 2020. Unsettling low and guttural rattling noises start to fade in, like the growl of unknown monsters. These sounds were produced by Llyona Fang rattling loose bass guitar strings against the pickups and recording from a microphone in front of the amp. There are faint high shrieking whistles produced by a kitchen appliance that sounded creepy. Processed human guttural noises were provided by Qwervy. The reversed music box sample came from the 2019 “Still Water” minigame soundtrack, which solely utilized hand-punched music box scrolls by Llyona Fang. Whisper noises are also recorded by Llyona Fang.
The mirrored track, “RainReversal (Ending Theme)” is the reversed version of “ReversalRain (Opening Theme)” with minor changes in mix. These two songs should recursively loop into each other when played back to back in any order. This is inspired by the original predecessor of ReversalRain in 2014, which used to be a webcomic called Mirrorstuck. When Llyona Fang planned the story of Mirrorstuck, the worldbuilding involved concepts of mirrors facing each other to create infinite reflections although each one is further removed from reality.
credits
released February 4, 2024
Features motifs from previous ReversalRain songs: "Cacophony of Rain" / "Wind-Up Storm," "A Tempest Lullaby," "Kindling Flame," "Another Heartbeat," "Light of Dawn," "Clockwork Masquerade," "Still Water," and the unreleased Orchestral version of "Wind-Up Storm"
Music composed by Llyona Fang using MuseScore.
Mixing done by Llyona Fang in Audacity and FL Studio, with help from Naku and Qwervy.
Rain sound effects, acoustic piano, acoustic guitar, minor percussion sounds, rattling monster noises, music box, and whispers were recorded and performed by Llyona Fang.
Flute recording by Clark Ren.
Trumpet soundfont mix provided by AvisLux.
Monster growling noises by Qwervy.
Percussion beat sampled from Soundtrap, heavily modified and processed to achieve the dark timbre.
All other names are fictional original characters created by Llyona Fang for the ReversalRain project and not real people.
ReversalRain is an experimental band and multimedia webcomic illustrated, animated, and composed by self-taught hobbyist A. L. Harjanto (方佳音), who is known by the alias/record label, "Llyona Fang."
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