Miracle of Sound - Sovngarde Song

I wrote a post about Miracle of Sound in June 2013. Miracle of Sound is a one-man band created by Gavin Dunne, and under this banner he had created this beautiful song about the video game “Bioshock Infinite” and I was forced to realize that some nerd making a song about a video game could result is an amazing piece of art. To me it was a sign that the whole world was changing, and music production could now be seized by anyone thanks to the internet and we could hope and dream of such things that previously sounded absurd; it was going to be awesome, and it is.

Gavin is many ways is a perfect sort of musician for what I like to write about. A talented, largely unknown entity, with a very interesting concept and story, and most importantly good songs. I suspect there is literally no one in my social life who listens to Miracle of Sound, except the one friend who discovered his music with me, and probably my roommate. There is nothing I want to do more than share music with people they have never listened to before, and I hope they enjoy it at least as half as much as I do. Miracle of Sound is a perfect Music in Review band.

Now the to point.

I have been facing some financial difficulties lately so I decided I needed to do something to keep myself out of trouble. I needed some cheap means of entertaining myself, so when the July Steam sale happened I bought Skyrim.

I had played Skyrim before at a friend insistence, he was right to push it on me, it was an insanely fun game with a huge fantasy world to explore and I really enjoyed it. When I do the math, at this point, Skyrim has effectively cost me $0.15/hr of game play; a very affordable means of entertainment. I have successfully stayed out of trouble.

Now back to Gavin Dunne and Miracle of Sound.

Gavin has written multiple songs about Skyrim. I mentioned in my “Dream of the Sky” review that a friend and I got drunk on mead one New Year’s in honour of “Nord Mead” a rock and roll drinking song:

Nord Mead:

Another comical song is “Khajit Like to Sneak,” which is my least favorite of this set, but he does a pretty good job of making his singing voice sound like a Khajit:

Khajit Like to Sneak:

Gavin has also written an instrumental called “Winter Still” inspired by the themes and score of the game which I find very enjoyable:

Winter Still:

One of my favorites is Gavin’s duet with Malukah “Legends of the Frost” which is very beautiful and sounds like it really belongs in the game:

Legends of the Frost:

When I started writing this I forgot how many songs about Skyrim Gavin had written, but with all of that chronicled we must now discuss the best Skyrim inspired song by Gavin “Sovngarde Song.”

For those unfamiliar with Elder Scrolls lore I will have some quick information by methaphor that should assist in making deeper sense of the song’s content. Skyrim is a province in the continent of Tamriel, it is effectively Scandinavia and its inhabitants, the Nords, are effectively Vikings. Lastly Sovngarde is Valhalla.

This is a mystical song, calling us into Skyrim, and the mythos of the Elder Scrolls using relatable Scandinavian and Viking like imagery that is fitting of both the real culture and fictional setting. But there is something unique about the customizable protagonist in Skyrim, the Dragonborn, as they are titled, is born with the soul of a dragon and thus has the Thune, or voice, of a dragon and can use it to great affect to unleash great force sending their enemies flying backward or stunned sternly in their place. Which gives us this perfect line:

“And my voice is my violence.”

Bravo Gavin. This is the best possible sentence anyone could have ever hoped to have included in a song about the Dragonborn. It could be taken as symbolic, that the words of this warrior are of war and rage, or it could be taken as musical, as this song is about battle and bloodlust, but this line must be taken literally, the voice of the Dragonborn is aptly described as violence.

The chorus is equal parts Viking and Nord and could and probably should be song on appropriate occasions for celebrating either:

“And we stand tall,
Sons of the snow,
We will not fall,
Under these blows,
For our hearts they are hardy,
Our spirits are strong,
And our voices are lifted into,
This Sovngarde song.”

As satisfying as the chorus is, I would be remiss if I did not point to the highest energy part of the song where tempo picks up and the volume rises, and this great battle lyrics come roaring out of Gavin:

“Conquer the anger and ravenous rage!
Make it a part of your power.
Pummeling down let your bloodlust engage!
Under your force they will cower.”

Just badass is what that is.

And like any great song, the tempo slows and returns to the same mellow melody that brought us in, and ends with a feeling of mythic wonder, in a frozen land.

It need not be said, but I really enjoy “Sovngarde Song,” but more so I really enjoy Gavin’s 2016 remastering of it:

Sovngarde Song 2016:

Everything is just a little more rock and roll in the this version, which in turn makes everything a little more battle strong which is not only more appropriate but likely necessary to properly capture the spirit of Skyrim.

In summary, Vikings are awesome, Skyrim is great source of entertainment, and Miracle of Sound is a highly unique and enjoyable musical creation in whatever subgenre of music we can classify it as.

- King of Braves

Miracle of Sound - Dream of the Sky

Miracle of Sound is a one man band on the Internet. This one man, Gavin Dunne, started Miracle of Sound as a side project during a lull in his music career. He decided to write songs about his favorite video games and such. Geek Culture has been on the rise for the past decade (or more) so by writing songs about this subject matter Gavin has tapped into a large growing niche market, and hey, good for him.

You can listen to all of Gavin’s work on http://www.escapistmagazine.com/ or http://miracleofsound.bandcamp.com/

If you are gamer there are probably multiple songs in Gavin’s catalogue that will appeal to you. Though I frequent Escapist Magazine I had not noticed Miracle of Sound until my good friend Tyler, who unlike me, qualifies as a gamer, told me to listen to a few of Gavin’s songs. At first I thought the music was good, but not great, but I did find it very charming that one dude was doing as good as a job as he was with this sort of hobby. Miracle of Sound is not the first musical endeavour I have heard attempting to write original music for stories and characters in “Geek Culture” but it was the first effort that had any real quality of production even if I did feel it was somewhat amateurish at first.

Notable songs I liked were “Wasteland Soul” a song about Fallout 3, which I have never played, and “Sovngarde Song” which is about Skyrim, which thanks to Tyler I have played. More fun than both of those tracks is “Nord Mead” a drinking song inspired by Skyrim. “Nord Mead” inspired Tyler and me to drink three bottles of mead on New Years, good times.

I have never written any music or recorded anything in my life, so I always try to be fair when judging struggling musicians. Most musicians never write a great song; hell most successful musical groups never even accomplish the feat of writing one great song, or often even one decent song. So when some guy hanging out in his house is throwing songs together I try to be fair and appreciate what is being accomplished given their resources and the challenge sitting before them. I appreciate Gavin is primarily just one man goofing off, so the fact we are getting mediocre to good songs from him is very impressive. I never would think much more of Gavin Dunne other than just a cool nerd who was better than most at writing songs about cool stuff that is until his last track “Dream of the Sky.”

“Dream of the Sky” is about Bioshock Infinite. I have never played Bioshock Infinite but after watching videos like “Dream of the Sky” I kind of want too.

One of the things that really impresses with me with the visuals of Bioshock Infinite is this girl,
Elizabeth.  I don't know anything about Elizabeth and I don't know the plot to Bioshock Infinite
but I really want to help this person.  The character emotes so brilliantly in every image I've seen
of her.  They did a really, really good job of facial expressions in this game.
I really like the second image, she looks so determined.

There are two things Gavin has done that I think are very wise in creating “Dream of the Sky.” He brought in a violinist Gwen Boyle and the addition of the violin is not only very affective at adding something of an Irish feel to the song but also with that an atmosphere of romantic revolution which the starving fighting Irish spirit always spurs in our hearts and minds. Also Gavin brought in vocalist Lorna Dollery, and I do not know who Lorna is but she is the secret to this song.

The first half of “Dream of the Sky” qualifies as a good song. As stated earlier there is an Irish feel to the mood and theme and the chords are jumpy and fun. But at the half way mark the song slows, the violin goes silent and some great acoustics slowly play, and then Larna’s voice hits;

“Songbird, take me home.
I’m lonely wherever I go.
Sanctuary is all that I know.”

These long words are very emotional in delivery and Lorna’s voice is just majestic. The song picks up once more for a dramatic conclusion with all three Gavin, Gwen and Lorna singing to the accompaniment of drums and Gwen’s violin.

“And I dream of the sky.”

And then, most wisely, the song fades with the acoustic guitar playing and Lorna repeating the most haunting line;

“I am lonely wherever I go....”

Beautiful.

Perfect.

Fantastic.

Great job Gavin, it’s your best song yet and I will never use words like amateurish to describe your hobby ever again.

I am always eager to encourage support to not so famous musicians. You can buy digital versions of all Gavin’s songs at his website: http://miracleofsound.bandcamp.com/. Do so.

Until next month, keep on rocking in the free world.

- Colin Kelly