Singled Out: At The Soundawn

'Caofedian' is the heart of 'Shifting'. Or at least to me it is, since I consider this song as the most complete and essential at the same time. The title comes from a metropolis projected by Chinese government intended to be the third millennium city, green and self-sufficient thanx to a so-called "energy tower" placed in the heart of the town and capable of producing energy from wind, sun and water. The project is pretty fascinating but the idea behind it is quite unsettling. It's the same old story of challenging nature and human limits, to go on and on and on at any cost.

This is what the lyrics are about, reporting the story of a man building the highest tower ever (something like Babel also). The most he's climbing high, the less oxygen he can breathe in. However, blinded by his aim, he keeps on going until he blacks out. At this point his instinct forces him to flop down. During the fall he keeps repeating himself: "So far, so good. So far, so good".

The music follow this flow, starting from very far and low echoes and slowly building up the whole orchestration. It's a constant crescendo that finally explodes with huge walls of guitars and tight drumming. That's what I truly love in the song, the fact that music and lyrics are strongly connected.