lost in the misty rain

Stéphane Horeczko presents ‘Matin Calme’, a serene and cinematic piano piece that carries a deeply contemplative mood. With gentle phrasing and mist-like textures, it feels like the soundtrack to a quiet, foggy morning. Released by the reflective neoclassical label ad21.

Matin Calme

Listen

We’re thrilled to welcome Polish pianist and composer Jakub Szybiak to the ad21 family. His new single Colours drifts with serene elegance, carried by the intimate warmth of a felt piano tone. With a soft touch of melancholy, it slowly unfolds like a quiet thought, inviting stillness and introspection. Blending classical sensitivity with influences from across genres, Jakub crafts deeply emotional soundscapes that feel both timeless and contemporary. ad21

Colours

frayed

playing with the metaphor of musical collaborations being analogous to sexual collaborations.
basically a "mr squiggle" type listening test to see if there was a way to compose music around those intimate moans that would otherwise be too explicit and attention-seeking to be interesting, trying to choose delicate sounds, avoiding using any masculine sounds in the mix which often accompany similar samples in industrial / breakcore. 

Idea stemmed from thinking about composing music for languages that are pitch dependent...so originally was thinking of exploring microtonality in order to achieve that if required, but here the very basic consonant sounds harmonized well enough for some reason...perhaps precision is a good thing in science but a bad thing in art? Or do people instinctively moan in tune? (only Adam Neely could answer this with an hour long academic video essay!) 

Also there is the liberation of allowing the rhythm of the moaning to set the track tempo...while also resisting the urge to cut it up and lock it to the grid. It produced unexpected outcomes. 

Programming the VOPM synth was much harder than i expected (the graphic envelope display is so small it is only of homeopathic effect). So some of the patches would sound better if duplicated and panned with slight adjustments but FLstudio was crashing too often and I took that as a sign to come back better prepared next time. (also patches that would be easy with 8 stage envelopes require more thought with only ADDR) It was problematic to use my usual hard limiting settings to "master" the Casio MT-18 drums without them clipping, so i had to attempt using an actual compressor which I then mixed in parallel with the original to restore the transients while making sure the bass was as phat and creamy as possible. 

The samples of the voice in the middle section are a reminder not to dehumanize people...people are multifaceted, playing many different roles in life and can't be merely reduced to their sexual preferences, kinks or fetishes. It is important to have a message or express something...even if that thing is perhaps embarrassing, not merely be making gear demos to shill equipment which just enables the capitalist mindset that everything is about consumption and individual gratification. The mind and the body are...unfortunately...interconnected...they are not always in alignment...but the idea here is to allow those contradictions to co-exist and be public rather than suppress one or the other leading to shame, toxicity, false dichotomies and violent projections.

The obvious critique of this work is that I did not achieve my original intention of completely REPLACING the moan with an instrument. This is because A) My hardware is all broken / offline / in storage so I can't process the vocal with a Casio VA-10, Roland Gi-10 or some such pitch to midi converter. and B) I think there is a plug in that does this in the DAW but I have forgotten which one it is, where it is on my hard drive and how to use it. and C) I have some appointments to get to and other ideas to incubate so I wanted to upload it before the computer dies.  A fully realized version of this track would be playable in any environment, to people of any age as the "adult" elements would be fully obfuscated and sublimated into the music.

Wilma Bessel - Rythmes Harmoniques

VOPM (OPM), MT-18 samples, chipsynth portaFM (OPL), newtone, flstudio

Wilma Bessel - Rythmes Harmoniques (blurry brass mix)

*most* of the instruments are in tune now., but the rhythm no longer lurches...that needs to come back. 

Wilma Bessel - Rythmes Harmoniques (purrversion mix)

Wilma Bessel - Rythmes Harmoniques (purrfect mix)

Polish pianist Dawid Nowaczyk, known as Davilyn’s Piano, presents a luminous felt piano piece that shines with serenity and quiet optimism. 
With the character of a gentle allegro, it radiates warmth and hope. 
Released by the reflective neoclassical label ad21.

Don't Leave me Now

pixyblink = kyra. a one-girl music project. self produced. all my music is intended to be listened to with a subwoofer or some form of bass-boosting. no AI is or has ever been used in any of my work

albums: https://pixyblink.bandcamp.com

vocalist for...
@winter-umbrellas
@anotherAntidote
@feverflight
@cave-dwellers