On the Horizon
Written: November 2020
Recorded: March 2021
Credits: Liam Johnson (guitar)
![IMG_5109.heic](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/ad75b4_db622e8a51624bdf8c231fd55e17af88~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_435,h_326,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/IMG_5109_heic.png)
Photo: taken at Surprise View in the Peak District
The most recently-composed piece in the whole album, On the Horizon came to me suddenly in a moment of inspiration. As an Indian classical music enthusiast, I like to learn a new raag from time to time. At some point I had been learning and practicing through the raag Tilak Kamod, which is a very specific rendition of the typical western major scale. It has a different ascent to its descent and the notes are treated differently to how we normally treat a major scale. While practicing, a melodic idea came to me that sounded promising. It didn't fit into the raag perfectly but I took the idea and ran with it. The composition was completed over the next 24 hours and stands as one of the quickest tunes that I had ever written.
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The speed at which the ideas flowed through me took me by surprise and led me to reflect on where any of the ideas were coming from. It felt like the music flowed through me rather than something I consciously thought about and chose deliberately. It felt just like pure self-expression in the moment. This made me reflect on my musical journey leading up until that point and acknowledging how far I had come. But also it arrived at a time where I felt worried that I couldn't compose anything of worth anymore. My last composition before this was months ago, which caused me to worry that I didn't have it in me anymore.
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But listening to the piece, I found myself regaining trust in my abilities once more. The melodies sounded joyous to me in a way that connected with my soul. This newly-gained confidence in myself inspired me to make one final push to go all in with my album. After some consideration for the name, I decided to name it after this very album. The piece embodies everything that the album embodied as a whole up until that point and summarizes its message in a nutshell: never give up hope, there's always something on the horizon.