Elektro 80: Shelter From The Storm

[elektro80]

Shelter From The Storm - The last voyage of Wlhelm Gustloff.



The wreck of the Wilhelm Gustloff lies on a bed of sand and shingle at 45 meters depth. Large parts of the ship is still intact, but the 7700 who died with the ship are long gone. Only some personal items and some clothing can still be found within the wreck.

The 25,484 ton ship had been built as a cruiseliner for the "Kraft durch Freude" organisation, providing Mediterranean cruises at bargain fares

At 12.30 January 30th 1945 Wilhelm Gustloff left Gotenhafen for Kiel and Flensburg carrying mostly women, children, elderly men and 1.200 heavily wounded soldiers. The ship was filled many times its normal capacity. as a luxury cruiseship. Even the recrational indoor swimming pool had been drained and filled with passengers. Every room and corridor was filled with people. A storm was raging across Europe and the lucky ones who managed to get on the ship were on their way to safety.

One can imagine the ship filled with the dreams of the passengers, dreams about a new life in a shelter from the storm.

At approx. 20.35 the ship was discovered by the russian submarine S-13. Soon after 4 torpedoes were fired at the ship. Then the dying started.


The music: "Shelter From The Storm" - - link removed


Many of you have probably already seen the Discovery Channel documentary about the WIlhelm Gustloff.

Trivia: In Europe the Wilhelm Gustloff has become a legend. It was believed by many that the ship actually carried the russian "Amber Room". The treasure was taken by the germans from Leningrad in 1941. The Amber panels were supposedly last seen in Königsberg a few days before the WIlhelm Gustloff left on its last voyage.

Neonazi websites are still using this incident as a defence of whatever... One completely disgusting site can be found here: http://www.ety.com/HRP/rev/pierce1.htm
The same nasty article is posted all over the web.. one example: http://www.patriot.dk/gustloff.html
It seems like fascism is hiding behind the term "revisionism".
I cannot quite understand how it is possibly to use the Wilhelm Gustloff disaster this way. The german atrocities during World War 2 will not go away. They are now a part of our recorded history.


Moreinfo about the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff: http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/articles/wilhelmgustloff.aspx


About the music:
This piece was written for grand piano, synthesizers and strings. Hiring musicians is pretty expensive so I decided to play the lot myself. The string parts were done using various sample instruments and synths. Another version of this piece has been travelling around on the internet some years ago in the shape of "The Last Voyage of Wilhelm Gustloff - a concerto for grand piano, strings and synths". I am more pleased with this rewrite and the smaller scale of this version. My working method for this kind of piece is working out the notation first, then record the lot. The piece consists of two stereo tracks of synths, a stereo track with strings and then of course the piano. I guess I have spent a 3 weeks or so creating this piece: 2 weeks for the actual writing/rewriting and then a week rehearsing and recording the parts.

[astroid power-up!]

thank you for writing up the techniques you used to do this piece. the notation first method obviously provides the substance for what you do. I would love to hear this with some live strings!

very melancholy, very sad. if there could ever be a thing such as anti-war propaganda which could not be used as a justification for another atrocity, this is it.

[elektro80]

THX. I did not quite go into detail here. Yes, notation is often a vital part of my writing process. I have some difficulty with putting into writing some of the patches and signal chains and I should really spend some time figuring out a sensible way to do that. The string parts.. well.. I have done some tests.. and it seems like I will have to invest a fair amount of money into making recording of acoustic ensembles possibly.. in the living room. Soon.. However, I think I did take into consideration that I would have to drop the string parts now.. cello, violin and bass .. and the piece does in fact sound quite decent without these instruments.

I have another piece here somewhere.. " The Wild Blue" which is about the allied bombing of civilian targets in Germany. I actually did some tests with strings there too, but in that case I gave up using real string instruments because of the rehearsel time required. That remonds me, I should make a new mix and mastering of that one and put it online. The version which can be found here now has some level problems and some nasty distortion.

[paul e.]

great track

very visual..depicts the watery grave

[seraph]

"Shelter From The Storm" is a nice piece even if it's not your best one.
You are resurrecting things from the past at a very fast pace

[mosc]

This is another fine piece. I like it. A great mood of underwaterness, but not overly gloomy. I didn't comment on this because I thought I'd done so before, but realize now that that was a PM or something off of the forum.

[elektro80]

[elektro80]

The link to the music file has been removed. We wouldn´t want the RIAA to raid this place...