Infinite Synthwave 2

Frostbytes (Directors Cut)

Prisms

Polarize

Voyage

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/76XoNpUWrMNs0TbRagMIVA
Google Play Music - https://play.google.com/music/m/Bobuhs77fmcv4mai7z6khp52cwq?t=Skyward_-_Whilefalse

Cover art by https://www.behance.net/ZemskovaE_D

Skyward

Cocoro - A song born out of the inspiration found from some new instruments and from the thoughts provoked whilst watching two movies recently;  My Neighbour Totoro and Gravity. Its style is a slight departure from music I have been making recently but It was a fun one to put together. I hope you enjoy. 

Free Download can be found here:
https://nielsir.bandcamp.com/releases

Socials:
https://www.instagram.com/nielsir/
https://www.facebook.com/nielsirmusic/
https://nielsir.bandcamp.com/releases

Music, Video animation by Niall Mulcahy (NI ELSIR).
Moon image provided by Neven Krcmarek on Unsplash

Cocoro

This whole piece originated from a sequence I recorded on the Moog Matriarch - I was running it through a lot of effects (distortion, chorus, delay, and reverb) when suddenly it started sounding interesting and I decided to hit record. 
A different vibe than music I have been listening to/making in recent months.

Drifter

Y’all know what to do.

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/6uvmJl0N558DOgjFcYVxOl
Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/m/Brdxkxaq5xxlllis4swsg2foqja?t=stay_-_whilefalse
Electronic Gems: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLFMiEAjSoA

Cover art by www.behance.net/ZemskovaE_D

Spotify

stay

impression synth

Wires

Theta is another chillwave inspired song that owes it's birth again to the Moog Matriarch and Novation Peak. 

I have learned a lot from working on this track, about letting go of ideas - moving in different directions mid-project and a general lesson on getting from the start to the finish through tonnes of uncertainty, doubt, and frustration. How this song started out is hard to believe, the initial parts are all now gone, they were recorded from the Moog Matriarch, a big 32 bar sequence with a lot of effects on the chain which created this huge synth soundscape that I thought would be the basis of the whole song, but after some time working on it I felt that the accompanying bass guitar lines and counter melodies that I wrote against the original sequence held their own - so I reluctantly considered lowering the main part to the back of the track (and a day later - it was deleted completely) - something which I traditionally would have struggled to do, a guess that is a form of "sunk cost" - but in the music creation sense. In the following days, I tried to finish the track off fast and move on but somehow it just wasn't flowing out of me as easy as normal - it became something different, requiring a lot of ideas and again - further changes of direction. 

Finally, when I felt that I had it to a point of completion and I was fortunate enough to submit the work in progress to a private Chillsynth discord feedback group which was extremely helpful. When the song was playing on the "feedback radio" and the handful of listeners were now listening at the same time I was I started to hear things differently, it was almost like having a fresh set of ears to listen to the song for the first time once again. I quickly make a few notes from my own "fresh" ears, meanwhile, people were giving positive feedback and some suggestions that the song would really do well with an additional change up - a new bridge section or some different chords. I knew they were right, and again reluctantly decided that the "finished" work was actually not finished. The next morning I sat down and spent hours trying to key changes, new chords, a new bridge and finally very late that night I felt I had gotten something - I woke up the next morning expecting to experience that first listen with a feeling of "what was I thinking last night?? Did I actually think this was good yesterday??" - something all too common, but fortunately I was still feeling that it was nice and the song had once again evolved itself into something new. It was a great experience writing this track, it was opened my mind and thought me more than I could have imagined. 

Thank you to all those who gave feedback and suggestions. I hope you enjoy. Once again - the view is from the living room windows in my flat - another overcast evening with a rainbow.

Theta

Vega

Decaf was born the same weekend I decided to stop drinking coffee  (after about 10 years and thousands of double expressos - I needed a break for a while). 

This song and my experience in quitting coffee lived almost parallel lives, the first week I had headaches, I was agitated and didn't sleep too well. During this time I was working on this track, frustrated with the ideas, and putting in a lot of hours and making no progress. Things continued like this throughout the week and I considered just putting this song into the "in progress" folder where it likely would be forgotten forever.
 
After that first week, In a last attempt to salvage something from the work I had done I scrapped the core of the track(which at this point was some chord stabs and a big sequenced part from the Moog Matriarch synth) - I removed the tracks and practically started again, keeping the chords but moving from stabs to huge long decaying pad sounds - the sequenced melody remained but now for just 1 bar of the song (before the second verse). Suddenly the track built itself over a few evenings - at the same time, I was no longer feeling so agitated or suffering caffeine withdrawal headaches. 
 
The song, whilst it was so close to being dumped after the first week suddenly started sounding good to my ears again - I guess in some way it was the difficulties and progressions of quitting coffee portrayed into music production.  
Anyway - I hope you enjoy it.

Decaf

Copiloto

Blue Waves

Akrasia had a hard start in life, It took me a lot of time to start to connect with this track when I was making it, a lot of trial and error and a lot of time spent playing the OB-6 by Dave Smith Instruments over the basic Pad sounds to try to make its subtle melodies carry themselves in a way that was not too overpowering but at the same time, not too apologetic either. After this stage, some additional sounds fell into place and the structure of the song started flowing together. 

I never realised that this song was about 2 times the length of the majority of my recent music until I first exported it to listen to an early structure. I was a bit worried that the 6+ minutes was too long and that it would result in a boring outcome but somehow I felt that the song kind of moves through some phases, almost blending one song to another, to another, and back again. After some poor attempts to shorten the song, I decided to keep the original length and hope for the best. 

I named it Akrasia (the state of mind in which someone acts against their better judgment through weakness of will), based on the feelings I experienced after trying so many ideas and not arriving at one I liked. The motivation to continue working and finishing the song was hard to gather some days but thankfully a few lucky ideas here and there helped pull it together. 

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it

Akrasia

Release on streaming platforms: August 24th

Arbitrary Ordinary

Immersion

Rainbows

🎧 Available on all platforms :
found.ee/crystalshores

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© VIQ
Composed, produced, mixed and mastered by VIQ

🖼️ Artwork by Nicolette Passerello :
www.novanicolette.com

Download/Stream

Illusion

“The people dreamed and fought and slept as much as ever. And by habit they shortened their thoughts so that they would not wander out into the darkness beyond tomorrow.”

― Carson McCullers, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

Infinite Synthwave 2

Tethered Wanderer