/~ Music

music as a creative outlet

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I go through periods of creative bursts and create music to express my thoughts, feelings, or whatever is going on around me.

I'm no musician, so my works probably sound off-beat and unstructured, but they're my expressions all the same. Don't expect the exceptional.

The Ambient Years

I love ambient music but never allowed myself to create in this space until recently. Here are some of my recent works where I decidedly turned towards ambient soundscapes.

Cemetery (ambience)

A creepy ambient track, this is what you might hear when walking through a moonless night in a large, empty necropolis on all hallows eve.

Note: this track loops forever.

Doorways (ambience)

I had just moved into a new place and it didn't feel like a home yet. I wanted to create an odd and hypnotic ambience to capture that feeling, that disassociated feeling you are displaced somewhere unfamiliar.

I was also facing an imminent and devastating loss, and needed to express it. I went around the house, recording the sounds that all the doors and cupboards made.

In between recordings, I watched a lot of black-and-white films, and the dialogue from "Carnival of Souls" felt apropos; the plot is about passing through the veil of death.

I created this track twice.

First time in Audacity, working with raw audio data. I stretched, compressed, and performed all kinds of data mangling to get that eerie undercurrent. It's very free-form.

Second time I used LMMS, which gives a more structured rhythm.

July 2025.

Life Repetition (ambience)

I recorded the sound of an empty medication blister pack as I twisted and bent it, time-stretched it by something ridiculous like 1000% percent, and passed it through a band filter to mute the higher frequencies.

The other sound I recorded was of wind-chimes, used two ways. I de-tuned one sample to create a sense of disbelief, the other sample was slowed down and filtered to create space.

No rhythm, just feeling.

July 2025.

The Minimalist Years

This age was spent with Milkytracker. I was particularly fond of using Milkytracker's drawing tools to create hand-crafted samples. This led to modules with absolutely tiny footprints at ~20Kb each.

All tracks circa 2013.

The Industrial Years

In this age I was influenced by industrial music & sounds — hard hits, grinding overdrive, gears and machinery.

I used Psycle music tracker for these creations.

All tracks circa 2008.

Invader Zim

I love invader Zim! These silly tracks use sound clips from the show.

Manson

Among the many dark things I was fascinated with, none haunted me as much as the musician and cult leader Charles Manson. The power he held over his followers was frightening. His speech was in riddles and metaphor, and gave the impression of subliminal coercion.

The vocal clips used in this track were taken from various interviews conducted with Manson while he was incarcerated.

Dark Passenger

My 20's was a time of chaos & turmoil. While there were many positive and memorable moments, there were equally scary and painful ones.

One evening, roughly 20 years ago, I was busy making audio recordings, when one of these distressing events happened in the shared flat where I was living.

I had to intervene, only to realise afterwards that I left my recording running. It would be nearly a year later when I made this track using clips from that night.

And just in case anyone was wondering, nobody was hurt. However this snapshot of reality serves to remind us that pain is part of life.

DISTRESS WARNING: This track contains recordings of distressed voices and screaming. Expand this spoiler to play it.

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