This is probably the first time I’ve done an entire album as a Music to Write Realmgard to entry, but you can pretty easily understand prolific New Age musician (and man with basically the coolest name ever) David Arkenstone‘s Atlantis: A Symphony Journey as one piece with multiple movements.
Also, it basically fits perfectly with the theme of the Tales of the Sea Giveaway I’m involved in.
US Residents only.
After all, Atlantis is probably the most famous Tale of the Sea in history.
The story of Atlantis in fact originates with Plato, specifically the Timaeus and Critias dialogues. In brief, Plato introduces Atlantis as an allegory, using the story of the decline and ultimate destruction of a powerful and utopian polity to make a philosophical point.
Incidentally, Plato says that Atlantis was made of orichalcum — which, as you’ll recall, is what William Newgate‘s treasure primarily consisted of. It’s not a reference. I just think “orichalcum” is a cool word.
While there are a few either unequivocally historical events of plausible theories that could have inspired Plato’s account — the Minoan Eruption of the 1600s BC, the destruction of Helike by a tsunami in 373 BC, the collapse into the sea of the Mycenaean site known by the modern name of Pavlopetri at some point around 1000 BC, even the posited flooding of the Black Sea that is believed to be the basis for the numerous Near Eastern Deluge Myths — Plato’s clearly legendary account has also set off a lot of crackpot theories over the centuries.
But, like, don’t get me started on the crackpot theories…
David Arkenstone is a New Age-slash-World Music, um, musician who has been active since the late 80s. Notably, he’s contributed various soundtrack pieces for World of Warcraft as recently as 2022, in addition to doing several other video game soundtracks.
While not exclusively instrumentals, the vast majority of his pieces that I’ve actually listened to are purely instrumental. Arkenstone (incidentally, that should sound familiar) draws a lot on mythology, history and folklore for the thematic aspect of his music — in addition to Atlantis, he’s also got an album called Avalon.
In terms of his actual musical style, he draws heavily on some pretty eclectic instrumentation and utilises a lot of different styles of World music. As you’d expect, Atlantis sounds very Mediterranean, specifically Greek, while also capturing a suitable ethereal, symphonic grandeur.
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