On the prairies of North Dakota, there were many abandoned houses, sheds, garages... whole properties of nonapparent or perhaps nonexistent owners. While this texture specifically looked at one shed in a field of long swaying golden grass, the concept of abandonment was a pervasive one which exists in just about all of these pieces.

Day 10 "Abandonment"

This texture was far different from the others. There was monstrous wind and hail and a massive hill of black volcanic rock. At the top, there was a twisted tree and orange rocks jutting out from the surface. The whole horizon was pitch black mountain ranges fuzzied by the thick and unrelenting storm. This song emphasizes that moment one opens the door to weather like that and the power, beauty, and fear instilled by a mountain of volcanic rock.

Day 9 "Craters Of The Moon"

U.S. Route 50 NV was named the "Loneliest Road in America" by Life magazine. When standing off to the side of the road on the coffee-cake-like land, one notices the most oppressively lonely sound: nothing. There is something unnerving about seeing nothing but mountains in the farthest distance breaking up an otherwise open landscape, yet it sounds as dead silent as being buried alive. Cars would intermittently blast by (and honk their horns), but when they left, again encroached a suffocating silence.

Day 8 "Lonely Road"

This texture describes the dreary and quiet streets of San Francisco. The soft drums are the intermittent drizzles of rain, and the old vinyl crackle adds a lo-fi sound to a low fidelity scene. There are also vocal adlibs in the background to mimic the background chatter of the city.

Day 7 "San Francisco"

This texture describes the sense of accomplishment upon reaching the pacific ocean combined with its complicated yet rhythmic movement by utilizing a polyrhythm created with djembe.

Day 6 "Pacific"

The Salton Sea is a landscape of bittersweet serenity. The sunset casts varying shades of pink, orange cream, and lavender on a body of water which stands as a totem to humanity's eternal struggle against entropy. Standing on the shore, one can't help but observe the beauty of the gentle waves peeling away from the white chunks of sun-bleached bones that line the shore. This texture emphasizes the beauty of a sunset with wide, major arpeggios followed by a haunting diminished chord.

Day 5 "Salton Sea"

Amistad is a town with a population of one in the great plains of New Mexico. This texture describes the strong wind which blew across the impossibly flat landscape and through a town of equal parts healthy-looking buildings and obliterated houses. It creates discomfort with atonal vocal lines as well as some background subharmonic singing.

Day 4 "Amistad"

This texture describes the decaying, sinister overtones of the abandoned Village Community Center in rural Oklahoma. Inside what seems to be an abruptly left-behind school, there is an out of tune piano which sits in a wide cafeteria-esque room lacking in furniture. The second section is that piano slowly falling out of tune, referencing the decay and unease of the building as well as the ambiguity in when music is music. At what point of detuning does it stop being what it is?

Day 3 "Village"

This texture describes the dark, spacious reverb produced by a hollowed-out grain silo. This wide space contrasts with later ambient textures because despite it being a smaller space than some other areas, its geometry creates long-tailed  yet louder early reflection reverb. A lot of our comprehension of sound lies in higher frequency information so a low pass filter slowly cuts out all of the higher frequencies to better understand how information/meaning is lost over time.

Day 2 "Silo"

This song is a contemplation on the perceived monotony of northeastern infrastructure and landscapes. It grounds itself in comfortable musical elements such as the pervasive I, IV, V, I (perfect-authentic cadence), as well as single sustained piano chords. A monotonous tuned percussion keeps tempo in the background.

Music By Lou