# Sarma (Shamanka) - The Deadly Winds of Lake Baikal



## Tatiana Gordeeva (Aug 9, 2021)

​With _*Sarma*_, the fourth and last installment for my _*Shamanka*_ suite dedicated to the female shamans of the Lake Baikal area, we enter again the world of local legends... disturbing, violent and deadly legends. I would hardly call Sarma an ambient piece. Let's agree to call it an anemological piece instead. 

Practically, for all the amateur limnologists among you , Sarma is the name of one of the 330 tributary rivers part of the watershed, or drainage basin, of Lake Baikal in Siberia, the oldest (>25 my), largest by volume and deepest (1632 m) lake in the world. It contains more water than all the Great Lakes combined!

For locals it is also the name of rightfully feared deadly winds usually announced by "the gate", strange looking clouds above the surrounding mountains. If you are unlucky enough to see them you have only a few hours to run for cover before getting hit by hurricane force winds (up to 200 km/h), funnelled along the Sarma river bed. Hundreds were killed this way.

But for us, the poetically minded, Sarma was a beautiful young Buryat girl, living free, in perfect harmony with Nature. One after the other young pretendants proposed to her, bearing gifts. One after the other, she refused, as she wanted to stay free. Nevertheless, one day she fell in love with the mighty Baikal and ran to him, her heart full of hope. But the giant was also wooed by many other rivers and chose to keep her at bay. Feeling angry and dejected she returned home and consulted the shamankas. They soothed her pain by making her sleep for a very long time, and so she woke up old, angry and with her voice now strained.

It is that screechy voice, expressing her frustrated love and fury, that you hear and feel in the deadly winds of Baikal now bearing her name. And nowadays, as she still lives peacefully near Baikal, but stopped believing in love, people who enter the gorge where she flows in a beautiful ribbon, are reminded to behave with extreme caution when they see the clouds harbinging her wrath.

In _*Sarma*_ you will first be able to hear the ominous clouds announcing her coming, then her screams as she unleashes her fury followed by the devastation and death she leaves behind.

You've been warned... Don't antagonize her!... Approach her _very_ cautiously!...
​And make sure you listen with headphones to paint the full sonic picture!






​
For all the geeks among us  I used *Dawesome ABYSS* again on several tracks as an evolving menacing backdrop upon which I added half a dozen custom NI Straylight and Pharlight granular patches to create the witch's crazy screams. More ABYSS tracks took charge of the wind sounds themselves.

I also enlisted half a dozen other synths and sprinkled them here and there for special effects. Finally added TONS of inserts were used to sculpt the final mix of frequencies. distortion and global spatialization. Oh, and add to that a lot of CCs and automation, et voilà! That's it! 

It was a tough track for me to do because of the complex, chaotic nature of it and because I dislike strong winds... _viscerally!_  Apparently _I am not alone__..._


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## Peter V (Aug 9, 2021)

What a gorgeous adventure in sound - I absolutely love this !!!


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## doctoremmet (Aug 9, 2021)

….

….

Next level sound design. I feel like I just watched an entire movie scene.








I take my hat off for thee - Lady Godiva


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Aug 9, 2021)

Peter V said:


> What a gorgeous adventure in sound - I absolutely love this !!!


Thank so much Peter! Means a lot coming from ABYSS creator!! ❤️


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Aug 9, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> ….
> 
> ….
> 
> ...


Haha! Thank you very much Sir !! Very kind and galant of you !! ❤️


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## jbuhler (Aug 9, 2021)

Well done and properly terrifying in places!


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## Double Helix (Aug 9, 2021)

Quite an achievement, Tatiana (1) Admirable manipulation & control of the equipment (2) employing it to bring the legend of Sarrna to life: The sound & the narrative are of a piece.
Majestic and dramatic are two adjectives that come to mind


* In the linked article about the wind, "A fisherman on the Dalmatian coast of Yugoslavia described _hukovi_, the shrill scream that warns of an approaching _bora, _as “ 'a desperate sound that causes a man’s heart to tremble'." Now I have further insight about the famous Maserati of the same name:


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## doctoremmet (Aug 9, 2021)

There was also a VW Bora for a while- a successor to the Vento and Jetta, and sibling of Golf and Passat. This is becoming such an insightful post!

Kidding aside, I don’t think I have heard a piece of sound design this good in a long long time. This is literally storytelling with sound which is what makes it a great achievement.

In my mind’s eye I could see a somewhat frightened giant Baikal, stopped in its tracks to look what the hell causes those whiny screechy sounds… he turns around and the once lovely and innocent girl he knew (Sarma) is standing there, a fierce ruling shamanka, summoning all kinds of evil spirits, to spread havoc over the lands…


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## Dirtgrain (Aug 10, 2021)

I love the evolution in this piece. Please put it on your Spotify, so I can put it on my playlist.


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Aug 10, 2021)

Double Helix said:


> Quite an achievement, Tatiana (1) Admirable manipulation & control of the equipment (2) employing it to bring the legend of Sarrna to life: The sound & the narrative are of a piece.
> Majestic and dramatic are two adjectives that come to mind
> 
> 
> * In the linked article about the wind, "A fisherman on the Dalmatian coast of Yugoslavia described _hukovi_, the shrill scream that warns of an approaching _bora, _as “ 'a desperate sound that causes a man’s heart to tremble'." Now I have further insight about the famous Maserati of the same name:


Wow, thank you @Double Helix !! Such nice words to describe my modest _Sarma _piece: _majestic and dramatic! _
I like that!  ❤️ 

Also impressive: you took the time to fully read the linked article at the very end of my post!! It refers to an interesting book by the great Lyall Watson, _Heaven's Breath: A Natural History of the Wind_






that I read partly so far. Although, in my case, a more appropriate title would be _Hell's Breath_


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Aug 10, 2021)

And I @doctoremmet, who's always a step ahead and a jump further!  THANK YOU!!! ❤️



doctoremmet said:


> There was also a VW Bora for a while- a successor to the Vento and Jetta, and sibling of Golf and Passat. This is becoming such an insightful post!


Ok, now boys, if you want to start discussing car names in my thread then you should know that:

Many of Volkswagen's most famous models are named after winds. The Golf refers to the Gulf Stream, Jetta is German for "jet stream," Passat means "trade wind," the Scirocco is named after Sirocco, a Mediterranean wind, and the Polo references polar winds.
Source: https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a24487598/volkswagen-golf-jetta-passat-polo-name-origin/




doctoremmet said:


> Kidding aside, I don’t think I have heard a piece of sound design this good in a long long time. This is literally storytelling with sound which is what makes it a great achievement.


WOW! Thank you for that!!! 


doctoremmet said:


> In my mind’s eye I could see a somewhat frightened giant Baikal, stopped in its tracks to look what the hell causes those whiny screechy sounds… he turns around and the once lovely and innocent girl he knew (Sarma) is standing there, a fierce ruling shamanka, summoning all kinds of evil spirits, to spread havoc over the lands…


Your mind's eye is 100% correct!  20/20 vision Doc !!!  This is exactly the image I envisioned while composing _Sarma._


doctoremmet said:


>


Are you kidding me?!?!? Suzanne Ciani !!! ❤️


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Aug 10, 2021)

jbuhler said:


> Well done and properly terrifying in places!


Thank you very much!! ❤️ Exactly what I intended with the piece, using only synths, no orchestra nor special effects directly.


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Aug 10, 2021)

Dirtgrain said:


> I love the evolution in this piece. Please put it on your Spotify, so I can put it on my playlist.


Thank you very much for listening!! It will be soon on Spotify and other platforms. For Spotify please check this space:


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## Pier (Aug 10, 2021)

Loved it!

It gave me an idea for a Zebra patch


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Aug 10, 2021)

Pier said:


> Loved it! It gave me an idea for a Zebra patch


Please keep me posted @Pier! as I'm really curious about what you will come up with!!

I recently used _Zebra _in my (completely different) piece _*Technobabble *_and I liked it a lot:




__





Technobabble, now an official demo for Tom Wolfe's new Polaris for U-he Zebra!


UPDATE!!! I can finally stop biting my tongue about it :P and reveal that... Technobabble was made using an advance copy of the new Tom Wolfe soundbank called Polaris for U-he Zebra and has now been selected as an official demo for it! :thumbsup: In my track I used many of the different...




vi-control.net


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## Number Six (Aug 10, 2021)

Wow! This is epic in the most noble sense! Such forces! Powerful and scary! Nature's fury unchained. Bravo!! I really loved it!


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## doctoremmet (Aug 11, 2021)

I have to say Lady Godiva… I like yr operation. It has inspired me to create a playlist that has NOTHING to do with sound design but does contain some fascinating chunes, one of which was this one haha:


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Aug 11, 2021)

Number Six said:


> Wow! This is epic in the most noble sense! Such forces! Powerful and scary! Nature's fury unchained. Bravo!! I really loved it!


Thank you very much for listening!! Yes, it is Nature at its worst!  Over centuries hundreds of people have perished and one can only wonder how many more did in pre-historical times!

The clouds that announce the Sarma winds are called "The Gate of Hell" for a reason. There are over 30 different winds on Lake Baikal, each with its own name, but none as deadly as Sarma! She's a mean lady!


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Aug 11, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> I have to say Lady Godiva… I like yr operation. It has inspired me to create a playlist that has NOTHING to do with sound design but does contain some fascinating chunes, one of which was this one haha:



Haha! One can always count on @doctoremmet to find some obscure (for me) music to illustrate his point!  Now it's "spacey Spacek" with their own rendition of Lady Godiva, of course! There's nothing like _shoegaze_ music to start the day! 

Thanks Doc, you just cancelled the effect of my morning coffee!... Now need another one, stronger! Any more music like that in your collection???


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## doctoremmet (Aug 11, 2021)

Oh don’t get me started on shoegaze music and my undying love for it - especially my personal favourite “best album ever made bar none”:



30 years old! 

And to bring us right back on-topic: a great exercise in controlled noise - much like your composition on display in this thread.


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Aug 11, 2021)

As I never found anything "funny" in Chet Baker's rendering of _My Funny Valentine_




I don't find anything "bloody" in this track but I would admit to it's perfect "shoegazeness". Nice try Doc!


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## Alchemedia (Aug 11, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> Oh don’t get me started on shoegaze music and my undying love for it - especially my personal favourite “best album ever made bar none”:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



On a side note, I purchased Kevin's brilliant Loveless CD the day it was released in Nov '91 and opened it in the car to play on the way home which resulted in a serious gash in my finger from the sharp edged jewel case.


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Aug 12, 2021)

Thank you _*everyone* _for listening, liking and commenting _Sarma, _here and on SC !!!
It is very much appreciated!!!
❤️❤️❤️​
With _Sarma, _my _Shamanka_ suite is now complete and I will soon release it as a playlist that will include all parts: _Ogoy, Stupa, Sarma _and _Olhkon_, in that order. There will also be a video, time permitting.

But later today I will release another piece, completely different, that will involve _no wind at all, _or maybe _just a tiny tiny bit of wind... _ Stay tuned to find out and thanks again!
Tatiana ❤️


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