Truth be told, a large element of track 10 (the MIDI percussion track) was generated by random mouse-clicking.  At the time I wrote this piece, I was frustrated by the way my percussion tracks had all started to sound the same.  So, I resolved to write a percussion track unlike anything I’d done before.  Several hundred mouse clicks later, the first rendition of “Lost Islands” was born.  I tweaked my favorite random-clicking percussion track, added several other percussion tracks (taiko, tom, wood block), picked sweep for the main instrument (I still don’t know what a “sweep” is), wrote a choir track and added a couple other mystery instruments (like the shakuhachi).

I’m still amazed this piece turned out as coherent as it did.  The song has a sweet groove and the dissonant-ish choir adds rather than distracts.  The percussion blends well and the instrument mix really is one-of-a-kind.  I don’t know that I’ll ever find the patience to write a percussion track more complex than this one.