This is a work for contraforte and electronics (with possible live electronics) that pays homage to Electronic Dance Music (EDM) forms (such as Techno) but does not attempt to emulate a specific form. This particular version of Paleo Set was produced with a sampled contraforte sound (due to Covid-19 circumstances). I thought the sampled sound quite fitting to the feeling of a DJ-remix set, so I kept the artificial, rather square character of the sampled sound for this release. However, a live version is also possible (largely improvised in terms of choice of pitch and rhythm), and I can even imagine a version with two live contrafortes could be possible.

There are a number of scientists who believe that restoring the Pleistocene flora and fauna to the arctic will slow permafrost melt. Dr. Sergei Zimov is one of this theory's main proponents, and has established Pleistocene Park in Siberia to this end. One way of restoring the fauna is to introduce large herds of herbivores, only, there aren't really enough of them nowadays to make much impact. His answer? We need mammoths, 50,000 mammoths. There is a lot of mammoth DNA emerging from the melting permafrost; combine that with eggs from Asian elephants and re-introducing mammoths may one day be possible.

Once I heard about this, my imagination ran wild. A time-traveling DJ finds him/herself partying with a herd of mammoths. They are exclusively adult females and their young. (Adult male bull mammoths roam alone. This is known from the fossil record). The live contraforte takes on the role of a dominant female, but her voice is not always dominant; there are always others clamoring for attention. Her impact is, however, definitely felt.

As in the other movements of "Time Bomb" all sounds are derived from the contraforte. However, in this movement I added a drum synthesizer in order to maintain the connection to EDM. The challenge here was to create enough of a beat to give the feeling of dancing giants who can sense rhythm, but are not physically adept at keeping a steady pulse.