Aw, come on! When you completed Baba Yeto and delivered it to Firaxis you must have felt something like "with all due respect, here's my work as promised but I think that I deserve a bonus for this work of genius."
I also bought your album on itunes the moment i saw it.
The song that really blew me away was
Sukla-Krsne. Exotic and captivating ... absolutely awesome. The only downside to it is the bad editing: It starts so loud and cut off that it always startles me when I include it in a playlist without the preceding song (erm ... i included the link not for your benefit - i guess you know how your songs sound like - but for the rest of us).
Another favorite of mine is Mado Kara Mieru ... and when I was looking for the apropriate link I found
this version by Corner Stone Cues ... sounds like they did a karaoke of yours. What's up with that?
And regarding Stereo Alchemy: Well done. Kinda like an electric version of The Delgados. But what made you switch style so radically? Or are your earlier works as diverse?
I see a new Yoko Kanno in the making.
Hah! Well, I will admit that the first time I played Baba Yetu for some of my friends and saw their reaction, I thought to myself 'I think I've really done something good here...' Sometimes you know when you've nailed it. Sometimes you're not sure. Sometimes I write a song and it becomes really popular, and I have no idea why (like Sukla-Krsne... I mean, I think it's an okay tune, but a lot of people really dig it!).
As for the Corner Stone Cues cover of Mado Kara Mieru, it's a long, complicated story, but originally they were going to fund the recording of Calling All Dawns, in exchange for owning the album. Towards the end of the process, however, the producer pulled out and decided to instead spend their money on recording a trailer library CD called Eton Path. Why'd he pull out? Mostly creative differences. I wanted to create something artistic, he wanted to create something financially lucrative. I don't blame him at all--just a difference in goals. (The epilogue? I have no idea how much Eton Path made them, but if he had stuck with Calling All Dawns, he would have a Grammy award right now.)
But they really liked Mado Kara Mieru, and so I gave them a license to do a cover for their own album.
And as for Stereo Alchemy, thanks! And yes, it's radically, radically different. I sort of can't imagine anything more different, actually.
But truth be told, I'm interested in all sorts of music, and since I have the means to do different types, why not, right? Most people listen to more than one genre of music... if I can create in more than one, why not? I'm still doing the orchestral/choral/world stuff. My next album, in the works, is orchestral, and I think I've written some of my finest stuff for it... maybe even rivaling Baba Yetu.
EDM, though, is something I've enjoyed for a long time, and my friend Kametron and I had been talking about working on something together for ages.