Chicory: A Colorful Tale "Að leggja höfuðið í bleyti (Lay Your Head in the Water)" 5:42

Happy birthday once again to Lena Raine! (Wanna get her a present? Go wishlist her new game on Steam, ANOTHEREAL!) She's a rare breed, a Leap Day baby, and last year (a leap year) we had a great time featuring three tributes to her music, one for each day she could conceivably celebrate her birthday! She was even kind enough to share quick thoughts on those ReMixes that we shared with the artists. With no leap day this year, we're pulling a two-fer for February 28th & March 1st, and we're proud to do it with a pair of arrangers who also honored Raine a year ago, Emunator and Navi! Emu's been busy chillin' & creating his new Curaga Records album Video Game LoFi: Cozy Games (get it now!), but now Emunator returns to lay his head in the waters of Chicory's Sips River once again, only less Cisco, more Sigur Rós, thanks in part to some Arizona homies and a sprinkle of twin magic:

• Emunator: Arrangement, production, orchestration, sequenced bass/guitar/percussion, mixing, mastering
• Ergosonic: Additional arrangement, guitars (acoustic)
• pixelseph: Guitars (rhythm, lead distorted)
• paradiddlesjosh: Drums (kit)

Just as deep in thought for this rendition as last time, Emu spoke on the special role Raine's piece has for him as well as the imagery of his most recent transformation:

"This is now my third time covering "Sips River" since Chicory released - the original has become my top-listened to song of the last 5 years and has truly become my comfort song. It's such so simple in its beauty and infinitely fun to play along to. This arrangement is based off of an arrangement that was done for the second installment of my Cozy Games LoFi series with Curaga Records. It includes 3 brand-new chill/lo-fi arrangements from Chicory, featuring a relaxing version of this piece that more prominently features Ergosonic on the acoustic guitar, and a stunning vocal performance by Laura Intravia. They're my favorite lo-fi productions to date, so I'd love for you to check it out!

During the Cozy Games LoFi production process, I had a studio session with Ergosonic, who laid down some impossibly beautiful guitar parts that formed the basis for the lo-fi version of this. He recorded so many good takes and the fires of inspiration were still burning, so I wanted to craft an alternate version that was unbound by song length or genre requirements. It so happened that there was a Dwelling of Duels Free Month competition going on that had a few days before the deadline, so I challenged myself to see how fast I could actually do this.

It's no secret that I love post-rock at this point. In fact, on my first remix of this theme, I remember DarkSim commenting that the track sounded a lot like "Untitled 3" by Sigur Rós. And I took that personally - I'll show you what it sounds like to really go full Sigur Rós! To do that, however, I needed some extra muscle from the Pixels & Paradiddles team, who are always down to accommodate my rush deadlines. You guys made the track come to life in the second half and gave me everything I needed to make it a true wall of sound. On the morning of the deadline, with about 3 hours to go, I decided to add orchestration to the arrangement and quickly knocked out the string and brass section, gave it a quick mixdown, and finished in the nick of time. All said, this song came together in 4 days, and it ended up placing 9th out of 32 entries against some very fierce competition. I fixed the mixing on this final sub version.

The title is an Icelandic phrase that literally translates to "lay your head in the water". It essentially serves as an invitation to slow down and let life flow over you, and just take a moment to reflect in peace. When I was working on this song, I had a picture in my head of laying down on a rock in the middle of Sips River. You are the only constant in an endless stream of fleeting thoughts and turbulence, and I wanted to capture the feeling of being surrounded by chaos and noise but still maintaining your peace regardless. This idea is also reflected in the arrangement itself - the iconic "Sips River" arpeggio is present throughout the entire song without much alteration, but in the periphery, everything is awash in a stream of reharmonization and noise and evolution. It's an ode to maintaining your sense of self even when everything around you is conspiring to disrupt you."

Emunator opens his ode with a delicate but deliberate rise in the textures ornamented by lush sound design and SFX, followed by bowed strings at 1:28 that boldly punctuate the build-up. A swelling transition leads to impactful beats joining in at 2:54 as things ramp up with the strings also filling a stronger, more critical role before things finally rock out at 3:41 and the boys "really go full Sigur Rós" with their unapologetic wall of sound. The soundscape opened back up at 5:19 for the last few moments, nicely bookending the finish with a similar texture to the start. The performances are strong, and I love the arrangement, though I don't hold a candle to prophetik music's appreciation:

"this is a real journey of a piece. the melody is such that it feels a little noodly in the original, but the pathway it takes you down feels very familiar and comfortable. it's neat to see that same melody used in such a different manner, to take you down such a similar yet different path. this is an excellent example of a significant genre shift without losing the soul of the original piece. nice work."

When you're inspired, you're inspired (see: Video Game LoFi: Cozy Games - GET!), and Emu loves this source tune so much that I could absolutely envision him approaching it down the line and having something substantive, different, and meaningful to say with it once again. Coincidentally, I saw Raine mention online that she'd had a really shit day the day before her birthday, so her week could be improved by folks wishlisting ANOTHEREAL and drawing her game's characters. It'll sound trite of me to say but is sincerely offered: when needed, I hope it lifts Raine's spirits to know that -- even when she's having a bad day -- each & every day, her music makes many people around the world have a great day. A big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Lena Raine, and cheers again to Emunator for helping us make it special in this neck of the Chicory woods. :-)

You think you can just leave Navi behind? I don't think so. Let's do this again tomorrow with his ReMix of Celeste! ;-)