Whenever I sit down to start a new composition, I always ask myself “What is something I haven’t done yet?” For Atlantis of the Sands, this was a desire to combine an exotic harmonic landscape with my own natural obsession for fantastical sounds.
From the very first few measures, music theory nerds will recognize the “Phrygian Dominant Scale”, which utilizes the seven notes of the harmonic scale, but using the 5th scale degree as the tonic note. This scale can be heard in countless interpretations of the deserts of Arabia and gives the audience an immediate sense of its desert landscape.