# Music v3 pilot

2026-06-16 — base + all ladder levels, 3 independent takes per concept. Read each take's notes, then audition calm → activity → danger.

## caves-vaulted

### take a — Caves Vaulted — The Patient Dark (v3 take A, faithful)

Take A is the faithful, idiomatic reading of caves-vaulted: the spacious house voice slowed and opened into a cave register, fully diatonic A dorian at 66 BPM, same tempo throughout (the underground.xm replacement). The bed is hollow-fifth softPads over a darkDrone foundation with a once-per-bar sub; each phrase the bare A–E fifth gives way to a D chord whose F# is the dorian sixth — the open door where the old theme had a locked one. The activity branch states the VAULT family motif from A-3 (root–fifth–octave reach, then the warm 6–5 settle); activity L1 is the celesta line plus ONE stereo echo trail (left, short delay), while L2 ADDS the second echo trail (right, longer delay, more octave lift) and a low pad counter-voice tracing the settle an octave down — the twin echo trails fully realized and the space opening, never just louder. Danger is rising water / distant rockfall: danger L1 is deepBooms spaced far apart with lone pitched water-drips (first signs); L2 ADDS a closer rockfall boom landing on the bar plus an accelerating drip cluster that tightens row-by-row — new rhythmic density, dread by proximity, with no chromatic darkening. All noise is one-shot percussion (the deepBoom); no looped noise bed.
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2

### take b — Caves Vaulted (The Patient Dark) — Take B, A-dorian felt-piano cave

Take B is the bolder, more fully-arranged reading of the spacious house voice: the stylistic risk is making a FELT PIANO the bed's defining voice. Where a conservative take leaves the hollow fifths to sustained pads, this scores the patient dark as a lone pianist in a cathedral-sized cave — root+fifth dyads struck on felt piano and left to ring into a low darkDrone foundation, the sub heartbeat once per bar, and the dorian major sixth (F#) opening in the pad voicing once per phrase (the open door). Fully diatonic A dorian throughout — dark is allowed, spooky is not: no raised 7th, no b2, no tritone, and no chromatic intent. The VAULT motif (root→fifth→octave, 6–5 settle) is stated on the caveCelesta from A-3, then developed: statement → falling response → the statement lifted to the dorian IV (D, brightened by F#) → cadence and the only full arrival. Activity L1 (ch4–5) is the celesta statement plus ONE stereo echo trail, reading on its own over the bed. Activity L2 (ch6–7) adds genuinely NEW material, not the line louder: the SECOND stereo echo trail (the twin trails the rejected theme is remembered for, now fully realized) AND a low felt-piano counter-voice walking under the celesta's reaches — the pianist's left hand answering the right, so the space opens underneath. Danger keeps the same patient 66 BPM and stays diatonic, building dread by proximity: danger L1 (ch8–9) is the mountain muttering — deepBooms spaced far apart over a low drone — and danger L2 (ch10–11) compresses the spacing into nearer booms with crack-tick drips that quicken toward the wrap, rising water/rockfall closing in. No looped noise bed anywhere: the cave air is the felt-piano fifths ringing and the struck crack drips, never a sustained hiss.
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2

### take c — Caves Vaulted (The Patient Dark) — take C, the swaying vault (v3)

Take C of caves-vaulted: the spacious house voice in a cave register, recast with genuinely different bones. (1) Groove — a slow, swaying LILT instead of a square 4/4: the sub lands on long pendular downbeats, the gong blooms on the swing downbeat, and the stereo glints answer at wide uneven delays, while the VAULT core is stated on a stretched 5-rows/beat grid so its three reaches breathe slowly with long rests. (2) Lead instrumentation — the VAULT statement is struck plainchant on FELT PIANO, with caveCelesta demoted to the answering glint; the canonical reading's lead/echo timbres are swapped. (3) Bed color — a soft GONG is touched at pattern boundaries through the calm bed (a long one-shot bloom) over hollow-fifth pads and a darkDrone foundation; the dorian major sixth (F#) is voiced once per phrase as the open door. Fully diatonic A dorian, dark but never spooky — no chromaticism used. Activity L1 = the felt-piano VAULT statement + one near celesta glint trailing it; L2 ADDS a second, wider/later celesta trail AND a soft warm-pad counter-voice a third below holding under each reach — the twin echo trails realized plus a counter, the space opening, not the lead turned up. Danger L1 = first signs, deepBooms spaced far apart over a low drone with a single slow drip-tick; L2 = the water arriving — boom spacing compresses, a low gong swell beats against them, and the drips quicken toward the wrap. Dread by proximity, fully diatonic.
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2

## magma-forgeheart

### take a — Magma Forgeheart v3 — Take A, the faithful work-song (C mixolydian)

Take A is the faithful, idiomatic noisy/percussive WORK-SONG: a full drum kit drives it and the percussion is the piece, but every struck sound (anvil, kick, snareDrum, ride, hat) is a one-shot — there is NO looped noise bed, and the design note's 'heat haze' reads through the ember pad's baked glow-flicker rather than a sustained hiss. C mixolydian, 96 BPM, speed 6 in every section: threat is rhythm/register/density and a rising drone OF THE TONIC, never speed or dissonance, and the bVII (Bb) of the work changes C|Bb / F|C is load-bearing mixolydian color, not chromaticism. Carries the HEARTH motif octaveShift(-1) into the low-mid work register ('the hearth grown into a forge'). Calm is bed-only: low brass-like warm pads + a working sub pulse + the ember glow-flicker — the forge warm at rest, complete standing-still music. Activity L1 (ch 4–5) is the sturdy HEARTH work-song melody and its soft echo with anvilTink accents struck OFF the beat — one clear work-song voice over the bed. Activity L2 (ch 6–7) adds NEW material, not volume: the full drum-kit groove arrives — a four-on-the-floor kick with a snareDrum backbeat on one channel, ride shimmer plus a low pluck COUNTER-MELODY answering the round a third/fifth below on the other — so L2 is the kit and the counterline showing up (the noisy/percussive payoff), not L1 turned up. Danger L1 (ch 8–9) is the chamber tremor: distant deepBooms under a slowly swelling pressure drone of the tonic C, the kick just beginning. Danger L2 (ch 10–11) is the floor's glow brightening: the kick DOUBLES into an urgent pulse, the booms land closer and the pressure swells — escalation purely by density and register, fully diatonic mixolydian throughout.
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2

### take b — Magma Forgeheart — take B: an industrial forge-shanty (C-mixolydian work-song, hearth, v2)

Take B reads magma-forgeheart as a noisy industrial FORGE-SHANTY: the drum kit is the protagonist and the work-song chant rides the groove, rather than a tune sitting on a bed. Strictly diatonic C mixolydian (the bVII/Bb is the mode's own color, no chromatic darkening). The bed is brass-like low pads, the ember pad's glow-flicker, a working sub pulse, and a soft anvil heartbeat once a bar — a complete banked-forge ambience. Activity L1 is ONE worker: the hearth round dropped an octave into the work register (octaveShift(-1) per §7.2) plus a soft echo and lazy off-the-beat anvil sparks — a lone smith keeping time. Activity L2 adds genuinely NEW material, not volume: a half-time hammer-and-bellows drum groove (kick on 1, backbeat snare on 3, ride on the offbeats, syncopated anvil) AND a fifth-below counter-chant — the whole forge floor joining the song. Danger runs hotter (108 BPM): L1 is first signs — a rising drone OF THE TONIC (pressure, not dissonance) under wide deepBooms; L2 brightens the glow — the forge kick doubles to an urgent four-on-the-floor with offbeat anvil flares and closer quakes. Menace is pure rhythm, register, and density; the mode never darkens.
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2

### take c — Magma Forgeheart — Forge Heart (Take C): Hammer & Striker Shuffle (C mixolydian, HEARTH work register, v3)

Take C re-bones the NOISY/PERCUSSIVE work-song concept as a swung compound 12/8 hammer-and-striker shuffle instead of the obvious square 4/4 backbeat reading: each 16-row bar is four swung beats, every beat a long-short triplet pair (the smith's heavy hammer on the beat, the striker's lighter answer two rows before the next — a 2:1 lope, not a march). The lead instrumentation is the structural swap — the work-song melody is HAMMERED OUT ON ANVILTINK ITSELF (pitched metal-on-metal as the lead voice, dropped into a bright work-mid register), where the obvious reading would sing it on a pluck. HEARTH is stated recognizably, octaveShift(-1) into the work register and re-seated onto the shuffle so its 3-5-6-5-3 rock and 2-1 settle land on swung hammer beats; a low pluck bellows line breathes underneath. Calm (ch0-3) is the forge at rest, bed only: warm brass-like pads, an ember glow-flicker pad, a working sub pulse, and a slow off-beat anvil heartbeat — no melody. Activity L1 (ch4-5) is the anvil work-song plus the low pluck bellows answer — the sturdy line alone over the bed. Activity L2 (ch6-7) ADDS genuinely new material, not volume: the full striker's-crew kit (kick + snareDrum on the shuffle backbeat, ride loping the swung beats) AND a pluck counter a third below the anvil — the noisy/percussive payoff. Danger L1 (ch8-9) is first signs: a rising darkDrone OF THE TONIC (C) as pressure, with chamber-tremor deepBooms beneath, spaced far apart. Danger L2 (ch10-11) is the floor's glow brightening — the kick doubles onto every swung beat and intensified anvil flares + ride wash pile on, peaking in the last danger pattern. Fully diatonic C mixolydian throughout (no chromaticism); the bVII Bb is the mode's own work-song color, the only harmonic pole besides the tonic, and the eruption is pressure-as-rising-tonic-drone plus rhythm and density, never dark harmony.
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2

## ocean-sailing

### take a — Ocean Sailing v3a — Beneath Sail (take A, faithful full-melodic, G mixolydian)

Take A — the faithful, idiomatic reading of the FULL MELODIC brief: a small ensemble in G major leaning mixolydian, one broad 100 BPM throughout. The calm bed is the becalmed deck — swellPad cresting once per two bars over warmPad chord body, sub on the roots, and waterLap struck against the planks as percussion (no noise bed). The activity branch is the arrangement's whole point: L1 (ch 4–5) is the HORIZON lead stated recognizably from G-4 with a soft echo, the b7 (F natural) keeping the crest hungry rather than triumphant. L2 (ch 6–7) ADDS new material, not volume — a mutedBrass counterline answering a fourth below (a real second instrument, per the brief) plus a soft-pluck comping arp under both — so three distinct voices work together. Danger (ch 8–11) is a storm front / sea-monster wake left ambiguous: L1 is first signs — a deepBoom ground swell on the bar, a slow kick heartbeat between, over a darkDrone pressure pedal that darkens the swell without changing the harmony; L2 is it's here — the pulse doubles and gusting spray one-shots rake the deck while the booms land like waves on the bow. Fully diatonic throughout; the menace is built from density and register, not speed (the clock never changes) and not chromaticism.
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2

### take b — Ocean Sailing — Beneath Sail v3 Take B (maritime brass-band shanty, G mixolydian)

Take B leans hard into the FULL MELODIC brief by recasting Beneath Sail as a maritime brass-band shanty: a confident muted-brass cornet carries the HORIZON lead where the reference take used a pluck, comped by a felt-piano wardroom upright — a real lead+counter+accompaniment ensemble, not pads with a tune. Fully diatonic G mixolydian; the b7 (F natural) keeps each crest hungry rather than triumphant (no chromaticism). Calm is the becalmed deck, bed only: swellPad cresting like the hull, warm color, sub roots, and a struck waterLap one-shot against the planks. Activity L1 is the brass HORIZON line (G-4: 1-2-3 to a crest on 5, brushing 6, ending open on 2) with a soft-pluck echo; L2 adds a NEW second instrument — the felt-piano counterline answering a fourth below — PLUS a shaker-and-piano accompaniment figure, so layering up assembles the band rather than turning the lead up. Danger L1 is first signs: a ground-swell deepBoom on the bar over a slow kick heartbeat and a darkening pressure pedal; L2 is the storm arrived — a ship's-bell gong tolling against the booms, the heartbeat doubled, and gusting shaker bursts raking the deck, the whole section lifted to 116 BPM. Menace is density, register, and the bell, never harmonic darkening.
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2

### take c — Ocean Sailing — Beneath Sail (Take C): Gull's-Wing Lilt (G mixolydian, HORIZON home, v3)

Take C re-bones the FULL-MELODIC ocean concept as a rolling 6/8 barcarolle lilt instead of the obvious broad 4/4 pluck reading: each 16-row bar is two dotted beats and the sub rolls a 'ONE-two-three' sea-gait, so the hull rocks rather than strides. The lead instrumentation is swapped to a mutedBrass reed/concertina voice — the sea-song instrument — carrying HORIZON (stated recognizably from G-4, its crest landing on a dotted downbeat, the open b7/2 swinging into the next bar so the line stays hungry, not triumphant). Calm is deliberately sparser and more open than the v2 reference: swellPad cresting once per bar, the rolling gait sub, and waterLap as a percussive one-shot against the planks — no melody. Activity L1 (ch4-5) is the reed lead plus a soft pluck echo — the singable line alone. Activity L2 (ch6-7) ADDS genuinely new material, not volume: a feltPiano counterline a fourth below AND a rolling pluck arpeggio 'wake' on the lilt's inner pulses — three distinct voices, the full-ensemble payoff. Danger L1 (ch8-9) is first signs — a deepBoom ground swell on the bar with a slow kick heartbeat between, over a darkening pressure pedal that does not move the harmony. Danger L2 (ch10-11) is the storm arrived: the pulse doubles onto every dotted beat and gusting frameDrum bursts rake the deck, all at the raised 112 BPM — menace by rhythm, register, and density. Fully diatonic G mixolydian throughout (no chromaticism); the b7 F-natural is the mode's own color, not a borrowed tone.
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2

## overworld

### take a — Overworld v3 — Take A, the faithful house voice (D dorian)

Take A is the faithful control: the overworld benchmark's own house voice — warm/soft pads, a singable pluck line, breathing sub — in D dorian at 100 BPM, the threat carried by register and density rather than speed (same tempo in every section). Calm is the bed alone: a two-chord pad sway (Dm9|G6 / Fmaj7|Dm9) with a breathing sub, complete standing-still music. Activity L1 is the traveling pluck melody (HORIZON loosely stated from D-4 — rises 1–2–3, crests on 5, brushes the dorian 6, ends open on 2) plus its soft-pluck echo: one clear singable line. Activity L2 adds NEW material, not volume — a felt-piano counterline voiced a third/sixth below the lead (moving where the lead holds, a true second voice) AND a light chord-tone arpeggio threading the changes, so the melody is filled out into a small arrangement. Danger L1 is first signs: a slow low-kick heartbeat (two beats per bar) under a darkening drone leaning on the Am7 minor color. Danger L2 escalates by adding material — the kick pulse DOUBLES (extra hits between the heartbeats) and an urgent shaker-and-hat motion arrives, raising density and motion while the felt house harmony holds. Everything stays diatonic in D dorian; the darkening is the natural minor lean of the mode, no chromaticism.
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2

### take b — Overworld v3b — Morning Hymn (felt-piano house voice, take B)

Take B re-reads the house overworld voice as a felt-piano 'morning hymn' — the stylistic risk is moving the traveling line off the synth pluck and onto feltPiano, kept in the house register, so the theme reads warm and folk-song singable rather than electronic. D dorian, 100 BPM, fully diatonic throughout. The calm bed is more arranged than the v2 control: a slow two-note inner-voice rock keeps it breathing with motion of its own, so standing still already has character. Activity L1 is the felt-piano hymn-line (loosely tracing HORIZON: it rises 1-2-3 to a crest on the fifth, brushes the dorian 6 as an open door, then comes home open) plus a soft-pluck echo. Activity L2 ADDS new material, not volume: a sustained warm-pad counter-voice harmonizing a third/sixth below the hymn AND a rolling pluck arpeggio under it — the tune filled out and harmonized. Danger L1 is first signs — a slow kick heartbeat under a darkening D/A drone; danger L2 ADDS the doubled heartbeat plus an urgent shaker-and-hat rhythm, so the weather arrives by register and density. No chromaticism: the menace is rhythm and density at the same tempo, true to the control's design.
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2

### take c — Overworld (Take C) — the wandering-gait reading (felt-piano 6/8 lilt)

Take C re-angles the house overworld benchmark away from the obvious straight-4/4 pluck reading into a compound 6/8 wandering gait, with a FELT PIANO (not the bright traveling pluck) carrying the singable line — same somber-transient D-dorian world, different bones (meter, lead timbre, rhythmic shape). The lilt lives in the bed: the sub walks a long–short dotted-quarter sway and the melody sits on a 3-row compound subdivision, so wandering reads as footsteps. Calm (ch0–3) is the gait at rest — warm/soft pads breathing over the dorian changes with the swayed sub, complete standing-still music. Activity L1 (ch4–5) is the felt-piano HORIZON-shaped line (arcing up, ending open) shadowed a few rows later by a quiet soft-pluck; L2 (ch6–7) ADDS NEW material — a low soft-pluck counter-melody a third/sixth below that answers on the offbeat pulses, plus a gentle dorian arpeggio on the dotted-quarter grid — the line filled out, not louder. Danger L1 (ch8–9) is first signs: a slow kick heartbeat on the compound downbeats under a darkening A-aeolian-lean drone, fully diatonic. Danger L2 (ch10–11) ADDS the threat arriving — the heartbeat doubles into the in-between pulses and urgent shaker drives the lilt while hat-ticks accent the dotted pulses; menace is register and density, never speed and never chromatic darkening. No chromaticism used.
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2

## pillars-cloister

### take a — Pillars Cloister — Stone Quiet (v3 take A, faithful piano ambiance)

Take A — the faithful, idiomatic reading of Stone Quiet: quiet BotW-esque piano ambiance in E♭ lydian at 58 BPM, melody-forward but very spacious. The bed is an open-voiced choir chord that changes once per pattern over a soft sub, with a gong touched at each pattern boundary to ring across the silence; the lydian #4 (A♮) glints once per phrase in the upper choir voice rather than as a hook. The melody is the VAULT motif (root, fifth, octave, then a 6–5 settle) sung as a plainchant felt-piano line — single notes left to ring. Activity L1 (ch4–5) is that piano line alone plus one sympathetic low piano ring per phrase: a clear, standing-on-its-own statement. Activity L2 (ch6–7) adds genuinely NEW material — a caveCelesta canon answering the line a fifth above (transposeDegrees +4, entered a bar late) with a faint echo trail, plus a slow choir swell blooming underneath; the cathedral fills gently rather than getting louder. Danger L1 (ch8–9) is the first tremor: the gong migrates here, struck harder and lower, beating against a single low boom. Danger L2 (ch10–11) is the monument waking — rockfall pebble-ticks scattering across the bar and a doubling boom on the off-beats — density and register up, fully diatonic, awe-adjacent: rockfall, not wrath. No chromaticism.
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2

### take b — Pillars Cloister (Stone Quiet) — Take B, Eb-lydian piano cathedral

Take B is the bolder piano-ambiance reading: the felt piano is the literal star, scoring the cloister as a quiet, near-pianistic piece rather than bare celesta plainchant — fuller and more harmonically alive (the chords move once per pattern through Eb–F–Bb–Cm) while staying BotW-quiet and sparse. Diatonic E♭ lydian throughout; the lydian #4 (A♮) is used only as a passing glint at the top of the F chord and in the free chant, never as a chord that hangs on it (no chromatic intent). VAULT motif (root→fifth→octave, 6–5 settle) is stated on the felt piano and answered a fifth above in a true bell-canon — the columns calling across the nave. Activity L1 is that chant + canon alone over the bed: single notes left to ring, generous space. Activity L2 adds genuinely NEW material, not the line louder — a slow ringing felt-piano arpeggio (the cathedral filling with its own overtones) and a choir bloom on each chord's third (the only thirds in the piece), so the space opens underneath the melody. Danger slows to 54 BPM; danger L1 is the first tremor — the gong migrated over, struck soft and low, beating against a single distant boom — while danger L2 is the monument waking, hard low gong strikes with booms beating right behind them and a scatter of rockfall crack-ticks across the bar. Rockfall, not wrath; awe-adjacent and fully diatonic.
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2

### take c — Pillars Cloister (Stone Quiet) — Take C, the processional descent (v3)

(no author notes)
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2

## ruins-oldmusic

### take a — Ruins / The Old Music — take A: the reconstructed salon combo (A♭ jazz, HEARTH)

Take A — the faithful jazz reading of The Old Music: a diegetic salon combo reconstructing the dead city's courtly 3/4 evenings. A♭ major, 88 BPM, 3/4. Calm is the ballroom at low light — felt-piano comping on each bar downbeat with a left-hand oom-pah, warm pad, sub on beat one — bed alone. Activity L1 brings the courtly MELODY: a muted-brass lead (two free strains, then HEARTH stated as the dance's second strain with ornamental celesta turns on the 6–5) over the calm sway. Activity L2 adds the SALON BAND as genuinely new material — a walking upright bass in steady quarter-steps plus brushed-snare/ride swing comping — the rhythm section arriving, not the lead louder. Danger L1 is the dance developing a LIMP: beat 3 of each bar doubled by a low vault-boom and the first stone crack-ticks, the swing turned wary; danger L2 is COLLAPSE, adding downbeat booms, crack-ticks scattered across the barline, and an uneasy celesta upper voice — rockfall joining the dance, not horror. CHROMATIC INTENT (the jazz exception): the beds run ii–V motion (Bbm7→Eb7→Abmaj7) and a secondary dominant C7→Fm7 whose E-natural is the deliberate leading tone into vi, the lead brushes 7th/9th color, and the danger section sharpens that color into anxiety — every chromatic tone is a functional jazz color, never accidental atmosphere.
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2

### take b — Ruins Oldmusic — salon jazz combo, Ab 3/4 (take B, fully arranged)

Take B leans hard into the jazz assignment: a fully-arranged diegetic salon combo (felt-piano comping, walking upright bass, brushed-snare + ride swing, a muted-brass reed lead) playing the courtly Ab-major 3/4 dance — a real band, not a pad with a tune on top. Chromaticism is the deliberate, named jazz color invited by the concept: ii–V motion (Bbm7→Eb7→Abmaj7), a chromatic passing diminished (Adim7) wedged between I and ii, and 7th/9th comping tones. Calm is the band at rest — felt-piano chords at quarter-light, upright bass on beat one, warm pad holding a I–vi–ii–V turnaround. In ACTIVITY, L1 is the melody and its first voice (muted-brass courtly lead + celesta HEARTH second strain, each shadowed by a soft felt-piano echo); L2 adds entirely new material — a WALKING upright bass (quarter-note steps with chromatic approach tones, distinct from the bed's beat-one bass) plus brushed-snare + ride swing — the rhythm section arriving, not the lead louder. In DANGER (quickened to 94 BPM), L1 is the first signs (a wary felt-piano tremor leaning on the chromatic Adim7 with a beat-3 limp boom); L2 is collapse — scattered stone-crack ticks across the barline and a second boom, the harmony thickening into diminished/whole-tone anxiety. Rockfall, not horror.
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2

### take c — Ruins Oldmusic — after-hours jazz ballad in Ab (take C)

Take C — a structurally different angle on the Old Music: an after-hours jazz BALLAD rather than the obvious swinging courtly-dance combo. Same Ab major / 88 BPM / 3/4 as the brief, but the bones differ three ways. (1) Lead-instrument flip: the melody is the felt PIANO right hand (the v3 jazz showcase patch), not a brass/reed/celesta lead; mutedBrass is demoted to a counter-line and celesta is a sparse echo/ornament. (2) Melodic shape: the spine is a DESCENDING ii-V-driven line of falling thirds, not a rocking round; HEARTH is stated recognizably but as a quiet closing TAG (its 3-2-1 settle in A3), the pianist remembering the old tune, not the subject. (3) Groove/density: a spacious ballad in 3 (calm is sparse) with a gong tolling each phrase top like a clock in the empty hall. Layering per branch: activity L1 (ch4-5) is the piano line plus a soft celesta echo over the bed; L2 (ch6-7) ADDS the combo as new material — a walking upright bass, brushed-snare+ride swing comping, and the muted-brass counter-line a tenth below — never just louder. Danger L1 (ch8-9) is the limp's first signs: beat 3 doubled by a low boom over a darkening reverb-tail drone; L2 (ch10-11) adds the ceiling joining in — stone-crack ticks across the barline and a second boom. Chromatic intent (named, per concept 3 / guardrail 2): the harmony is functional jazz ii-V-I in Ab with secondary dominants, a D7 tritone-sub leaning into Eb, an Eb7b9, and a D dim7 passing chord in the danger turn; the piano line colors with the b9 (Fb=E) over the V and the natural maj7. Every chromatic tone is a ii-V / passing / tritone-sub event resolving by step — warm period-salon color, not accidental spookiness.
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2