Bargaining with the Beast

By Thomas Ferkol (
,
,
).
Cover art by Killian Ng (
,
,
).
Released 10/25/2011.
Duration: 4:13.
Listen on Bandcamp or YouTube.
Read artist commentary.
Tracks that reference Bargaining with the Beast:
Tracks that sample Bargaining with the Beast:
Artist commentary:
Thomas Ferkol:
Bargaining With the Beast was a doozy. With little conscious attempts at maintaining structure (other than the section after the intro, which appears a few times to hold things together), it can come off as a wild ride through a bunch of interesting ideas just sort of strung together like a glass mobile made with craft glue and shiny twine. And that is a pretty accurate description.
The piece was sort of an experiment for me, filled with a lot of concepts that might even have needed a separate piece to flesh them out properly, but I made this piece with the Volume 8 submissions deadline looming over head (I think it was a little under a week until final decisions on tracks were supposed to be).
This is also an example of a piece where I set out with a clear mindset for what I wanted. Seeing there was no piece based on Echidna and Jade's encounters (Radiation didn't show us his tracks until around when the order was being decided hehe), I wanted something majestic and regal, something befitting of a monstrous queen in ancient stone halls of a frozen world. Eventually it developed into a sort of audio tour of Echidna's palace and highlighted the conversation, never fully revealed, that took place between Jade and Echidna as they struck a deal.
Killian Ng:
(Original crop of artwork as presented on Bandcamp page:)