Solstice

marching

EMU
Music by Overdrive
Lyrics by TN2

Check out the promo videos:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0XDqxFRFe3/
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0etSKaulic/

EMU stands for "emulator" in Information Technology. The track is inspired by the cyberpunk culture of Japanese anime/manga, especially the classics Akira and Ghost in the Shell.

The idea was completely insane -- to produce an industrial/cyberpunk track sung in Japanese by a female vocalist with a very soft voice (to contrast with the dark atmosphere). The first time I verbalized this concept with someone, it sounded even weirder. So it's no surprise that none of the numerous Japanese female singers I invited accepted the proposal.

It's true that Japan is known for its innovative musical ideas -- like the death metal band Baby (with three little girls as singers); or the virtual singer Hatsune Miku (a hologram with synthesized vocals) and so on. But industrial music with female vocals is not a common occurrence. Björk and How To Destroy Angels are some of the few exceptions in the music world. And without a Japanese singer, the EMU project would never get off the ground.

Fortunately, Dreamtonics' artificial intelligence synthesized voices and its amazing Synthesizer V software are getting better and better, and I was able to use the sweet voice of Mai, a synthetic voice package created for J-pop (!).

This work wouldn't have been possible without the invaluable help of TN2 (Toku-no-2ri), group that wrote the lyrics in Japanese. Their extraordinary sense of musicality in the choice of phonemes during the creation of the lyrics proved to be a very pleasant surprise. Japanese kanji are famous for their ability to embed multiple meanings in their symbols and the first draft of TN2's lyrics was written in kanji (later rewritten in hiragana to feed Synthesizer V). The apparently simple verses carry several meanings that are unfortunately lost in the English translation.

TN2, or "Toku-no-2ri", is a psychedelic trance unit of "MASH" and "NORI". They had been inactive for a few years, but restarted the project in 2021. The group has formidable composers and I recommend checking out their incredible electronic music tracks available for free download on SC:
@user-160598336

Hope you enjoy the track.

LYRICS

ささやきにしげきされ
しょうどおがかけめぐる
やみにうもれたひびに
ひのひかりときはなて

だれもがゆめをみてる
さめることのないゆめ
とわにとらわれている
とわにとらわれている

[Ghost in the Shell narration]

すべてがまぼろしでも
あなたのねがいはなに
とわにとらわれること
それともめざめること

だからおしえてほしい
わたしがだれであるか
あなたがめざめるなら
わたしはうたをうたう

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Stimulated by whispers
An impulse runs through me
In the days buried in darkness
Release the sunlight

Everyone is dreaming
A dream that never wakes up
Trapped forever
Trapped forever

[Ghost in the Shell narration]

Life is like a nodal point born in an overwhelming sea of information.

And life, when organized into species relies upon genes to be its memory system.

So, man is an individual memory system only because of his intangible memory.

And a memory cannot be defined, but it defines mankind.

When the advent of computers made the externalization of memories possible, you should have taken its meaning more seriously.

My code name is Project 2501.

I am a living, thinking entity who was created in the sea of information.

[End of Narration]

Even if everything is an illusion
What is your wish?
To be trapped forever?
Or to wake up?

That's why I want you to tell me
Who I am
If you wake up
I sing a song

EMU (ft TN2)

Thank you for your support.
Original Version By Jahgan Olivier.
℗ 2023 Jahgan Olivier
© 2023 Jahgan Olivier.

Fascination

In The Cave

deep, dark, pretty, cinematic, and mechanical. had so much fun layering sounds to this fella and building a world of its own for this track to live in. thx 4 listening as always <3

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YouTube Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxaM3S2FDH8

What U See

Watch on youtube:
https://youtu.be/TS1Atd0aKHc


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