This is the final week before the first hand-in, so I spent some time refining what I have so that the point of each project is articulated well enough in my proposal for me to hopefully not fumble the presentation on Friday, which is the main part of this week since I am the first to present out of the whole year. I also got the first disc to a finished enough state to show off to people, so I will send the full draft to my friends to see what they get out of it, which I feel like would be more informative and generate more ideas than reflecting on what I get out of it, having that kind of separation and more impartial outlook on the work after spending so long with it at this point.
Also, I got together my ideas for distribution, which is something I have been neglecting to mention in these blog posts for whatever reason. The likely idea at the moment is to have the set released alongside a 5 Year Anniversary comp of Silver Dove material I have asked Stere De Nacht to put out, since they are a good friend and did a good job putting out the pinniped/silver dove split earlier this year. Another idea is to have Perpetual Abjection put it out since they are my favourite Wall Noise label, and I find their physicals completely gorgeous as they incorporate the sonic imagery of the work into the packaging (for example, Arboreal’s Contemplation matches its organic woodland sound with a jewel case full of dead leaves). These ideas, though, are restrictive because of the goal of the work being to breach a new audience for the genre, so the label is an important factor in determining who is reached, because, as nice as it would be to have friends work with me on this, we only really distribute within our own little niche. I want to do the equivalent of what I am doing with Luc’s gig next week, where I am hopefully turning people onto Hard sound who were never aware of it, but in a recorded setting. It is something I need to work on, not something that can be immediately decided, obviously, but something I should search for to get this work somewhere interesting.
A while ago, I mentioned this work to a few friends and asked them if they could contribute some visual elements, as I love everything that our little community produces immensely. I want to share some of the results that I got as a way to use this final blog post as an accumulation of all the work so far.
My friend Kole Grey sent me this moody cat image to use for a visual element, I really like the colour grading on the photo so I am planning on using it for an inner sleeve.
My friend Angel Brügger made me some collage work related to the aesthetic of Silver Dove as a project, incorporating the cuteness and idealist aesthetic but within a more sinister, fleeting haziness, matching the route that this one has taken compared to my other music under this name. Most likely I am to use these, unless the work is to change more dramatically.
Some work that I have been sitting on with a bigger project in mind, similarly collage-based with more manga panels reinterpreted and with more extreme colours tacked on, I feel like it is very pretty.
This is the finished project file, structured out and with each track transitioning into the next to flow as seamlessly as I could make it. I am very happy with how this turned out and am excited to continue the project further and explore other avenues of this sound. I had a 1-to-1 session with Jose today right before the hand-in just for extra assurance regarding what is expected of me, as well as to ask about some particulars regarding the project proposal, but ultimately, I am feeling way more confident with my work now than I was a few weeks ago, and have found that I work much better and am much more excited about work when it is encompassing everything I’ve been doing. As an encompassment of 5 years of obsession with Wall Noise, I feel like so far this is appropriate and successful, as well as helpful for me to understand the point of what I do beyond self-appeasement (in a kind of uncomfortable way). Below, I have attached MP3s of each track so that they can be heard/skimmed through in the condition they are in. I’m not sure if they will change beyond this state, but I have a tendency to change my mind very suddenly, and they likely will see some alterations.