2025-Apr-19 - Poseidon's Abyss
This week's randomly selected song Poseidon's Abyss is track #14 from disc #3 of my triple CD album It Was All Just a Dream.
Poseidon's Abyss was never officially released on an album or as a single prior to its inclusion on It Was All Just a Dream, but I had posted an early version of the song on YouTube. I re-recorded the entire song for this official release.
The Story Behind The Song
The story behind this song is an actual story. The song originally came to me when I was given a prototype TigerLuv guitar to test drive, made by my friend Jeremiah. It was a beautifully designed masterpiece of a guitar made from a deeply figured golden Hawaiian Koa wood. As I sat and played with the instrument, a fictional story began to play out in my mind.
I envisioned a young couple fleeing their besieged village, making their way to a ship at the local dock. As the ships set sail under the cover of darkness, the young couple embraced in tears as their burning village faded into the departing horizon. But their troubles were not over yet! The fleet of ships were then struck by a rapidly intensifying storm sent by Zeus. As the violent sea crashed into the ships, one of the lovers was swept into the stormy black sea.
As the storm dissipated and morning arrived, the ships made landfall on a new foreign shore. The devastated lover stood heartbroken on the shore, staring out at the sea that stole his partner. But unknown to him, during the height of the storm, the mighty Poseidon saw that Zeus had infringed on his domain by sending a storm over the sea and became furious. When Poseidon saw the lover get swept into the sea, he guided the currents to rescue the lost lover by leading her to a plank from one of the ships damaged in the storm. As Poseidon chased Zeus and his storm away from his ocean domain, Poseidon then summoned the ocean currents to guide the lost lover to the shoreline to reunite with her lover.
The song Poseidon's Abyss was the resulting soundtrack to this imagined short story. Many thanks to Jeremiah and Blue for helping me come up with the song title.
The Music Theory Behind The Song
I won't go overly nerdy with the music theory on this song. Instead, I want to guide you through my process of how I structured the song to correspond with the story and what compositional techniques I used to evoke the imagery and emotion of the different parts of the story.
One of the overarching techniques I used in the song is the element of time. The first 3/4 of the song is in 7/8 time signature. To me this time signature accompanies nautical themes very well because there's no even subdivision to make for a steady beat -- it's always some subdivision of 3+4 or 4+3 leading to a feeling of never really being steady or sure-footed, just like being on a boat. As the song reaches an apex in tension, the time switches to 4/4 time, giving the end of the song a much more even-sounding beat.
The beginning of the song features a very stark and lonely piano melody accompanied be an equally lonely sounding guitar. This corresponds with start of the story where the scene is set: a seaside village coming into focus, an incoming siege, flames beginning to overtake the edges of the village and spreading quickly, and a young couple coming to the realization of what is happening. The couple realize that their only hope for survival is to leave by sea, and there is no time to second-guess their decision. They make their way in secret, under the cover of darkness to their passage by sea. The quiet and somber arrangement is meant to convey the sadness and desperation of having to leave everything behind in the blink of an eye.
As this quiet theme reaches its end at [1:31], the full orchestration of drums, bass, and heavy guitars enter, signaling a significant change in the theme. In the story, this would correspond with the departure of the ships into the rough night sea, along with visual imagery of the burning village gradually becoming more and more distant.
At [2:11], a new guitar melodic theme enters to signal both the disappearance of the village behind the rear horizon, as well as a storm brewing on the horizon ahead.
At [2:50], the song changes key as the storm arrives. I used a relentless 16th note arpeggio under the soaring guitar melody to convey the chaos and intensity of the storm. As the melody reaches its apex, this is the part of the story where the lovers are separated.
At [3:29], the feel of the song changes dramatically, and this signifies the change in perspective from the lovers to Poseidon. The darker, more sinister sound of the guitar riffs in this section were meant to convey Poseidon rising in anger from his oceanic abyss to confront Zeus and his storm.
At [3:50] while the sinister riff continues, the timing of the song shifts to 4/4. This signals the ships making landfall on the new foreign shore. But simultaneously, the tension continues to build, as there is still another story playing out in parallel.
At [4:12] I introduce a variation on a previous melodic theme (from the approaching storm at [2:11]). This theme corresponds with the convergence of the two story lines. On one hand, the lover who made it to the new land stands on the shoreline alone confronting the angry sea. His mind is flooded with the images of his village being destroyed, the cold desperation of leaving by ship under the cover of night, and the raging storm that stole his love. On the other hand, there is the unknown battle between Poseidon and Zeus, with the sea-swept lover being caught in the raging sea, culminating with Poseidon commanding the ocean to deliver her to safety.
At [5:00] as the storm clears and and sea begins to calm, the sea-swept lover is washed ashore. The lovers are reunited, but there is still the overwhelming sense of sadness from having lost almost everything -- except each other.
Isn't it wild what picking up a can guitar can result in?
Guitars and Amps
I used six guitars on Poseidon's Abyss. For the heavy rhythm guitar parts, I played my Swirly Ibanez RG470 and my Solar S2.6 both through my Mesa Boogie Mark V:25 IIC+ voice. For the clean guitar part I played my Fender Telecaster through my Mark V:25 Fat voice. The nylon string parts from the intro were played on my Ibanez TOD10N. And for the lead guitar parts, I played a combination of my Ibanez S5521 and my Sully Guitars 625 through my Mark V:25 IIC+ and Fat voices.
Rhythm Guitars:
 1999 Ibanez RG470 “Swirly” |
 2020 Solar Guitars S2.6 |
Clean & Acoustic Guitars:
 2021 Fender Telecaster |
 2023 Ibanez TOD10N |
Lead Guitars:
 2014 Ibanez S5521 |
 2022 Sully Guitars 625 |
If you love what you hear and want to support the music I make, please consider purchasing It Was All Just a Dream on CD or digital download. I will gladly personalize and autograph your copy.
https://chrisstark.com/it-was-all-just-a-dream
Keep an eye out for next Saturday's song spotlight, and as always, thank you sincerely for all of your support!
Love, Aloha, and Rock!
❤️😎🎸