Christ Under The Rubble

Breakcore shit that doesn't fit with anything else I'm making at the moment, so have at it.

Direct Action

Noun

horror vacui (uncountable)

    1. (historical, sciences) The Aristotelian principle that there are no vacuums in nature.
    2. The abhorrence of a vacuum; the general tendency to dislike empty space.

1991, Kant: Political Writings →ISBN, page 212:

    It is merely the horror vacui of human reason in general which leads it to recoil when it comes across an idea about which no thought is possible, […]

    3. (art) In particular, the tendency of an artist (or of art) to fill an entire surface with detail, leaving no blank space.

Horror Vacui

Day 2: Drown
https://www.instagram.com/p/CE1y0j5n7IL/

Creep Along

Drown

2. Drown

Day 3: Solar.

This one was a little more thought out and planned than the others. It's all done on the Microfreak, which has 4 voice paraphony; So I tried to use each voice as an instrument.

Solar

3. Solar

Day 4: Luna.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CE1y0j5n7IL/

Luna

4. Luna

Curse

5. Curse

Day 6: Demon.

This was a fun one. I was trying to interpret the prompt in a non obvious way, and focused on the relationship between demons and other folk tales, imagining something more akin to a fairy trickster. There are three pianos, each playing a variant of an A and a B part, over a drone, but each one plays a longer or shorter variant of the riff in a different time signature  5/8, 7/8 and 9/8 in the A, 3/4, 4/4 and 6/4 in the B, which causes phasing in and out of sync at different times, though they're occasionally forced back into syncronicity.

Demon

6. Demon

Guide

7. Guide

Day 8: Composite.

One of the less inspired creations, but the mellow synth tones are nice I guess.

Composite

8. Composite

Day 9: Horns.

This one has a pin in it as something I'd potentially like to revisit as whilst none of these tracks are as fleshed out as they could be due to the time constraints of the challenge, this is the one I'm the least happy with how it sounds relative to the idea behind it.

Horns

9. Horns

Day 10: Fairy.

File this one under an interesting idea that didn't pan out; I took the melody from the hornpipe "King of the Fairies", and mashed it into 6/8 time to make it feel off balance. It half works but would be much more interesting to play on trad instruments; something I might try in future.

Fairy

10. Fairy

Day 11: Victorian.

The Victorians ruined everything and I hate them.

Victorian

11. Victorian

Day 12: Forest.

This one started very differently from where it ended up, and I think you can tell as it fits together in a very janky way. I would've liked to include some guitars but time constraints impeded this.

Forest

12. Forest

Day 13: Claws.

Finally, one I like. For thematic reasons I've been relying more on VSTs to get more naturalistic sounds, but actually working with a synth works wonders.

Claws

13. Claws

Day 14: Stone.

Not much to this one. It has an A part and a B part but uses different chord phrasings and minor melody adjustments each time it switches between them, which I think makes it not too repetetive.

Stone

14. Stone

Day 15: Witch.

I was looking forward to this one, and I hope I did it justice. I thought of it as a sequel to an earlier track of mine, Ossa e Pelli, which is a title from Carlo Ginzburg's Storia Notturna (Ecstasies, in English) where he attempts to establish a linkage between the European folklore that was the basis of the Witches' Sabbath mythos, and Siberian Shamanism. So I dialed in some of the same virtual instruments and went to town. I think Ossa e Pelli is probably better overall as it has a more interesting structure, but for a one day challenge done in spare moments, I'm happy with it.

Witch

15. Witch

Day 16: Cryptid.

On the one hand, this is considerably more dynamic than a lot of the other things I've produced as part of this challenge. On the other, I'd definitely like to actually play rather than program this. Definitely one to revisit.

Cryptid

16. Cryptid

Day 17: Insect.

Made out of a sample from an earlier track, largely. I would've perhaps liked to add another synth but I ran out of time.

Insect

17. Insect

Day 18: Ghost.

Started off well, although using pads, chorus and reverbs in response to "Ghost" is hardly a novel approach, but ended up being something considerably less spooky by the time it was done. I'm okay with the tune itself, just not so much in relation to the prompt.

Ghost

18. Ghost

Day 19. Children of the Night.

Unusual in that I scrapped something almost complete as I didn't feel it fit the theme well enough. I'm not sure this is that much better - it feels more early morning than nocturnal, but I suppose ambient music is fairly open to interpretation.

Children of the Night

19. Children Of The Night

Jester

20. Jester

Day 21: Scream.

On the one hand, this was done very lazily and I couldn't even be bothered to plug in a midi controler and just programmed in some chords by hand. On the other I think it most nicely catches the theme of the prompt. Aiming for old movie theme vibes, chromatism and atonality, and some use of polyrhythms and tuplets to make it feel unbalanced and off kilter.

Scream

21. Scream

Day 22: Shapeshifter.

I had fun with this one, and connected with the prompt. Due to the Halloween nature of this project, "Shapeshifter" I think is meant to imply something decietful and dangerous, but I thought it could just be easily interpreted as a metaphor for coming into oneself, which is the feeling I wanted to go with this piece.

Shapeshifter

22. Shapeshifter

Day 23: Festival.

This was what I came up with on the 4th attempt. Short on time today. Misses the theme by a mile, but I don't mind the concept.

Festival

23. Festival

Day 24: Beast.

I cheated. I completely blanked on today's challenge and realized at ten minutes before midnight that I hadn't made anything, so hurriedly went through an old project that fit the theme. Which ironically means it's probably one of the best ones to come out of this month as it's much more thought through.

Beast

24. Beast

Day 25: Corpse.

I was trying to get a sort of lurching march, but it sounds more like an orchestra playing a reggaeton beat. Eh.

Corpse

25. Corpse

Day 26: Guard.

At this point I want this to be over as I really don't have the time to develop these ideas properly. I wasn't sure what I was expecting out of doing this, other than a challenge, but increasingly I'm just frustrated that I can't give any of the concepts I come up with proper breathing room.

Guard

26. Guard

Day 27: Bogle.

This started off with a clear intention but in the end I just let my ears guide me; it doesn't fit the theme at all or sound even remotely sinister to my ears - maybe the ghost is misunderstood - but it's one of the tracks I've most enjoyed making as part of this project.

Bogle

27. Bogle

Day 28: Hunter.

There are a lot of ideas I like here but I'm not sure the overall execution is very convincing. At the very least it could be mixed a lot better. I might revisit it and change up some of the synth sounds later.

3 more to go!

Hunter

28. Hunter

Day 29: Lake.

Not the most imaginative composition; chorusy pads, lots of reverb, a 'wet' sound. Good enough.

Two more to go.

Lake

29. Lake

Veil

30. Veil

Day 31. Jack O'Lantern.

DONE. A piece of music every day for 31 days.

Most of them aren't very good. But at the very least I've learned some lessons and have some things I can go back and rework later. I will leave them up for a bit, then maybe compile them into a single download somewhere.

Happy Halloween, folks.

Jack O'Lantern

31. Jack O'Lantern

it's all punx

album: https://norainu.bandcamp.com/album/winter-maladies

folk stuff as Knaves: soundcloud.com/knaves

norainu

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