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disworl · 2 years ago

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Homestuck Music You Might Not Have Heard

[NOTE: Tumblr's formatting is really finicky so doing dual updates to this thing is not worth my time. If you want the most recent list, find it on Ao3.]

Yes, “MeGaLoVania” and “Time On My Side” are damn good songs, but a music catalogue this large is certain to have several diamonds in the rough. Here’s a selection of likewise lovely Homestuck music that you might not have heard.

V 1.0, updated 2022.10.10

I wrote this as an appreciation for all the wonderful music this comic has, and to give spotlight to the works that aren’t as well-known as “Black” and the like. Homestuck is a truly unique piece of media, and the soundtrack is one of the reasons why.

Great thanks to the HSMusic Wiki, which is what I used to check a track’s artist and contributor credits, whether it had been used in a flash, and what, if any other tracks it referenced. In my write-ups, I try to be as accurate as possible, but I’ve no music education aside from half-remembered childhood violin lessons. Apologies if I make a mistake.

I’m slowly working through the catalogue, so when I listen to more albums I’ll update this.

Full Playlist

Some Vague Guidelines

Official music only on Disc I Side A, with good semi-official unreleased tracks from the Homestuck Sound Test and some fan music on Disc I Side B. Disc II is the same, except in a bulleted list of every track covered, who it’s by, and what album it’s from, for the sake of readability.

The official music section is split into three categories: Deep Cuts From Popular Albums (popular being somewhat arbitrarily defined as Vol. 5, Strife!, Alterniabound, and both coloUrs and mayhem), Lesser-Known Takes on Something Else (for tracks that are well, primarily an interpretation of a pre-existing track, usually something more popular like “Doctor”), and Cool and New Music is for original compositions (though they may have minor references to other music).

Tracks are organized by chronological album release date pre-merger and the Vol. 1-4 re-release, and then by track order within the same album.

Nothing readily available from a Flash (so phonograph tracks and something like “Pony Chorale” are fine) is allowed.

Neither is anything with 1 million views or more (based on the most popular video at time of writing) on Youtube for Deep Cuts, and then for Lesser-Known Takes that threshold is halved, and again for Cool and New Music.

Themes from Alterniabound and the two ColoUrs and Mayhem albums ("Vriska’s Theme", "Green Ghost", "Rust Servant", et cetera) will not be included regardless of popularity because their obvious theming gives them an obvious profile for any fan of what character they’re for.

I will not be covering any albums released after Homestuck Vol. 10.

I want to keep featuring Toby Fox to a minimum – he’s a wonderful musician, but he is also by far the most well known member of the music and tends to overshadow everyone else by a wide margin.

Disc I - Side A

Side A Playlist.

Deep Cuts From Popular Albums

Deep Cuts Playlist.

“Light” by Erik “Jit” Scheele off of Homestuck Vol. 5 is a sort of comfortably adventurous composition that uses 413 as a chord progression. The piano melody that that leads off the track combined with the wind instrumentation gives the feeling of just a wonderful day, helped by the fan art for it in the Vol. 5 track art anthology fan project.

Also off of Vol. 5 , “Softly” by Robert J! Lake is a sweet toned electronic tune driven by a fuzzy, bouncing melody – though the beat gives it just a bit of an edge.

“Atomic Bonsai”, from hard-going solo album Strife! By Joren “Tensei” de Bruin, is the only kid strife track to not get used in some sort of official Homestuck-related thing (“Time on My Side” is a flash track, “Heir of Conditioning” was rearranged into flash track “Heir of Grief” in addition to being a phonograph tune in [S] Kanaya: Return to the Core, and “Dance of Thorns” was used in the Kickstarter video), and that’s a shame. It brings as much energy as the other three, and the combination of bass guitar and East Asian musical influence gives an equally unique sound with hook after hook.

Compared to the effervescence of Nepeta’s preceding music, “Catapult Capuchin” by Toby “Radiation” Fox off of AlterniaBound is nothing but the fierce hunter’s prowess on display in Video Game music fashion, as it was constructed from Mega Man X samples. It’s a high powerful ride throughout, but my favourite part is the bit at 00:33.

“Clockstopper” by viaSatellite and infiniteKnife off of coloUrs and mayhem: Universe B arguably counts for the first category, too, but I’m putting here because it’s specifically a symphonic rock mix of Beatdown, Atomyk Ebonpyre, and Upward Movement. The tension-building intro launching into the full force action of the flying strings always gets my blood pumping. My favourite take on Beatdown so far.

Lesser-Known Takes on Something Else

Lesser-Known Takes Playlist.

Humorous and infectious, “Pony Chorale” by Michael Guy Bowman with Tavia Morra off of Homestuck Vol. 4 is – well, it’s certainly a song! A mournful Western whistle on “Chorale for Jaspers” set to the beat of cartoonish hoof noises, punctuated by cymbals, all wrapped up with one simple word: neigh. And if you want some visuals for your viewing pleasure, there are two (probably not so) secret Flash pages for this song.

“Squidissension” by Mark Hadley, off of Homestuck Vol. 6 does an admirable and unique spin on the difficult job of combining the hyper-pop sugar-overdosed “Squiddles!” theme and the slightly ominous guardianstrife theme for Jade, “Dissension”. Serving as the main running melody, when shifted into minor key and given “Dissension” as a complement, “Squiddles!” becomes frantic instead of desperate, while “Dissension” is given that extra jump in momentum to keep pace, making for a track that’s something different, more adventurous, and more dire than either of its progenitors.

While it’s close to blowing the 500k Youtube requirement, “Anbroids 2.0” by Malcom Brown off of Homestuck Vol. 9 is still in the clear, so I’m putting it here as an early favourite of mine. With a very synthetic Strider sound, the track’s got a nice bouncy melody that serves as a fuller-realized version of the original “Anbroids” in the flash. Perfect for a rap-off.

“I’m a Member of the Midnight Crew (Post-Punk Version)”, by Michael Guy Bowman with Erik “Jit” Scheele and Marcy Nabors, from Homestuck Vol. 9, is a seedier, sharper, and stabbier take on the Victorian original and the acapella cover featured in the comic proper. The vocals just kill.

“II – Sarabande” by Clark “Plazmataz” Powell for her solo album Symphony Impossible to Play , is, unsurprisingly, a symphonic cover of “Sarabande” by Erik “Jit” Scheele. What might be surprising, however, is how much restraint is employed in it – the difference from the original is subtle, bearing a slowly rising string backing before the cello solo of the main melody kicks in around the minute mark.

Where “Homestuck Anthem” has a weird, portentous and artificial atmosphere, “Homestuck” a more present and traditional rendition, “Elevatorstuck” a dedicated – and listenable! – parody of muzak, and “Homosuck Anthem” a… copious amount of animal sound effects, “IV – Anthem”, also off of Symphony Impossible to Play brings a triumphant fanfare to the thematic melody for the comic. It is powerful and keeps the tension in the original throughout, driven by the backing – my favourite part is when the brass first cuts and you’re just left to bask only in the beat and the strings. “I – Overture” might have been the track to finish the comic, but I can’t think of a better track to end the album.

While the popularity of “Penumbra Phantasm” is debatable given that it’s never been released in full, “FantasyP”, by Erik “Jit” Scheele off of his solo album One Year Older, is a wonderfully hopeful and free take on “Penumbra Phantasm”, instead of referencing it as part of a larger composition. If you don’t know what “Penumbra Phantasm” is, prepare for roughly four minutes of “hey, that sounds familiar” while listening to just a really nice song – though, notably, it omits that one haunting piano riff from the original that serves as a code for a great many of the flashes. (One Year Older is available for free on Scheele’s bandcamp.)

“Another Chance”, a bonus track from One Year Older but done by Eston “silence” Schweickart”, is a synth remix of “Walk-Stab-Walk (R&E)” that gives the already good track some serious extra juice.

Starting off as a far-off sounding piano rendition of “Ruins” before crackling into a mechanized-backing of “Flare”, then bringing in clear, present electric guitar at 2:00 and finally adding in “Explore”, “Solar Voyage” by Marcy Nabors (with several others, check Disc II for full credits) off of Homestuck Vol. 10 definitely feels like a journey. The twists and progression on these recognizable musical staples are a sound to behold.

“Conclude” by Seth “Beatfox” Peelle, also off the same album, is the closer to the final volume of Homestuck music, and it lives up to the challenge. Beginning with a flying rendition of Sburban Jungle that turns the frenetic rush of the original into a hopeful retrospective, before switching to a bittersweet refrain of “Showtime”, the song then dives into original territory with a fanfare at 4:13, backed by “Skies of Skaia”, before closing with a soaring rendition of “Homestuck”, free and full of light in comparison to the pounding might of “IV – Anthem”. It’s a wonderful encapsulation of the complicated feelings flowing into one another that come with the end of a comic that means so much. My favourite bit is the far-off echoed “Showtime” at 1:19 – looking at the early morning of that April 13th, 2009. It did turn out to be a very long day, after all.

Cool And New Music

Cool and New Music Playlist.

“Squiddle Samba” by Michael Guy Bowman off of the album Squiddles! (no longer for sale, do with that information what you will), a thematic concept theme giving a whole extensive soundtrack to a fictitious children’s television show, is an energetic and bubbly jam that does not take the concept so far that an excess of irony is needed to enjoy it (though, the sugarily crystalline Squiddle voices appear for a scant fifteen seconds near the end, if that’s what you’re for).

Also off the same album, “Ocean Stars” by Mark Hadley is a calming, sweet and savoury treat to top off the excess of sugar cubes (and occasion tentacles) put on your musical plate. The layered build-up of the various elements is simple, befitting a children’s show, but done oh-so-well in a way that gives it meat.

“The Lemonsnout Turnabout” by Toby Fox for his solo album Alternia is a narrative piece wherein a young Trollian girl has an intrumental motif established (Neo-baroque harpsichord), and sets to take in a certain neon yellow draconian senator (represented by an oboe) for adjustments. In contrast to “Terezi’s Theme” and its more faster action, there’s a certain cerebral, well-plotted atmosphere to “The Lemonsnout Turnabout”. You can see the wind-up of the machinery fueling Terezi’s long noose in nailing Lemonsnout, echoed by the fearful groan of that oboe and the sharp jabs of the harpsichord in turn.

Also from Alternia, “dESPERADO ROCKET CHAIRS,” establishes Tavros with a Latin theme the way “The Lemonsnout Turnabout” establishes Terezi with the harpischord. It begins a short intro, before the horns really come in blaring – a far shot from the dying string reference of “Rex Duodecim Angelus”. Tavros is a dork, but he’s got fire behind him, and “dSPERADO ROCKET CHAIRS,” does a good job of showing that.

“Shade” by Clark “Plazmataz” Powell off of her solo album Medium, themed around the kid’s lands. A mixture of synthetic and often industrial noise combined with more organic instrumentation helps express the strangeness of these game worlds. In “Shade”, the shimmering melody that drives the track forward expresses the quiet and curious nature of the bioluminescence of LOWAS, before transitioning into a piano tune made for Typheus.

“Heat”, off the same album, takes a more hard-pressed approach, utilizing scissoring violin backdropped against industrial swirl to conjure up the swelter of churning lava in LOHAC. When the violin breaks free of that rhythm to climb, it only adds to the drama, and the song ends by sonically pulling away from the ebb and flow to leave the planet behind.

Starting off with thunder, “Exodus” by Tyler Dever for his solo album Sburb and performed by Erik “jit” Scheele, Exodus balances the apocalyptic severity of the meteors sent during the beginning hours of SBURB with skittering notes of the various players attempting to enter the medium. It closes out with a stark, last-second rendition of “Sburban Jungle” before quietly fading. (Sburb is available for free on Dever’s bandcamp.)

“Carapacian Dominion” by Seth “Beatfox” Peelle, opening the exile-themed album The Wanderers (also unavailable for purchase), sets the stage for the rest of the music by combining more unexplored, ethnic sound with a more Homestuck-typical industrial beat that’s perfect for the long trek along the desert of earth, years in the future (but not many).

In contrast to the forward-hiking rhythm of “Carapacian Dominion”, “Aimless Morning Gold” by Michael Guy Bowman off the same album is a track for staying in one place. Glittering synth (?) notes linger and warp in the heat, contrasted by the lazy ramble of the bass, all punctuated by a slight turn to Westerns with rattling machine gun shots.

And taking a strong turn from both of them, “Years in the Future” by Robert J! Lake, still off of the same album, is track following in Lake’s style of slightly eclectic, slightly choppy, but nevertheless catching and catchy electronic noise tunes. It takes a bit for the track to get going, but the combination of blips and bleeps that all call up the idea of electronic communication in the Can Town of the future makes for a wonderful swirl in the end.

“Derse Dreamers” might be one of the most famous songs in Homestuck, but that isn’t to say Prospit is lacking in terms of good music. “Center of Brilliance” by Solatrus for his solo album Prospit & Derse, themed around, well, you guess, begins with a shimmering chiming intro before bass and piano step in to bring a more full view of the center of the golden moon. The regal fanfare and drum setup ties things to Prospit’s formal atmosphere as a contrast to John and Jade’s instruments of choice. Something I like for all of the Prospit songs in the album is the bass guitar – it stands out as a driving instrument rather than just backing, and it’s true here, too. (Prospit & Derse is available for free on Solatrus’ bandcamp.)

“Song of Skaia” by Mark Hadley with Tarien Ainuvë, off of the same-titled album, is probably most recognizable as the bursting upswell chorus three minutes into “Creata”. Compared to that triumphant recital, however, “Song of Skaia” takes a more singular approach. It’s more minimalistic, and generally has the feeling of looking down from a thousand miles out in space.

“Cancerous Core” by Erik “Jit” Scheele gives a very short moment in the comic – the descent into Skaia – a full musical backing. The subtle brush of the air in combination with the restless roll of the piano in Locrian mode, accompanied by the ancient call of the wind instrumentation. It’s a track that definitely calls a strange and perhaps unsettling journey into some unseen world.

Alien and enchanting, “Voidlight” by Thomas Ferkol off of Homestuck Vol. 10 bears a flowing atmosphere that still contains a sense of drama. From commentary, it’s based on Calliope hiding in the Furthest Ring, which makes sense for the quiet not yet calm nature. The strings in the intro help convey the quiet, secluded landscape, and all around it’s a wonderfully ethereal piece.

“Feel (Alive)” by Luke Benjamins and Robert J! Lake from the same album, on the other hand, is a straight up chiptune rocker. It’s got raucous energy that absolutely earns its title.

Disc I - Side B

Side B Playlist (incomplete, not every track is on Youtube).

Homestuck Sound Test Gems

Sound Test Playlist (incomplete, not every Sound Test track is on Youtube).

“Cuttlefish Rag” by Alexander “Albatross Soup” Rosetti is a jaunty little ragtime tune originally written for Squiddles! , though you could also easily interpret it as a track for Feferi.

All memery aside, “Karkalicious (Guitarkind)” is a rockin’ guitar addition to a short excerpt of the Broadwaystuck classic. Yes, it’s hilarious. It also has some genuinely sick riffs. I daresay “Karkalicious” has never sounded so good.

“Mother (Davekind)” by Erik “Jit” Scheele is a take on “Mother” from One Year Older (can you tell I really like this album?) but in the style of Dave instead of John, trading out the slow, matured piano and strings for synths and turntables with a more energetic beat.

“Sea of Derse” got more instrumentation for the jazzy and relaxed “Breeze” in Homestuck Vol. 10, but in some ways I like the slightly more melancholic, stripped-down piano original.

“today i butchered a homestuck song (three in the A M)” by James “soselfimportant” Roach is a slightly weird, catching arrangement on “Three in the Morning”. In some way, it’s a precursor to what Roach did with “Karkat’s Theme”, “Terezi’s Theme”, and “Davesprite” for the Pesterquest soundtrack.

“Aggrieve (Piano) v2” by Toby Fox is… well, it’s a piano arrangement of “Aggrieve”, the second of three, and the best of them. I might be biased in terms of instrumentation, but what makes this track so good personally (and in fact, my favourite version of “Aggrieve”) is that it brings a level of energy that tends to be sublimated for a more measured and cerebral Lalondian pace – even in “Aggrievocation”. There’s a lot of great moments in this track, but my favourite bit’s around 1:42.

Fan Music Gems

Fan Music Playlist (incomplete, not every fan music track is on Youtube).

Found in the ~2011 Fan Music compilation of the Homestuck Archives, “Sunrise” by Yan “Nucleose” Rodriguez is a cheery guitar cover of the previously mentioned “Light”. It brings a sharper edge to the main melody, definitely befitting those first cracks of light over the horizon. I might like this more than the original. (Ironically, a later track by Scheele for One Year Older used the same title, and also referenced “Light”.)

“Sunshaker” by D. Crystal off of Land of Fans and Music is a very faithful jazz arrangement of “Sunsetter”. It’s mellower than both “Sunsetter” and “Sunslammer”, but still upbeat, all pinned together by that rolling piano.

Done by “Tarranon” for the concept album Sburb OST, “Amongst Smiling Faces [Prospitian Dignitaries]” is a theme for the agents of the Prospit. As its title might suggest, it takes a much more relaxed tone than Prospit & Derse’s regality, going downright pastoral with a sound not out of place for a first town in a JRPG.

“Waste of Space” by therosielord off of Songs for Monsters , is a lamentful fansong for Jade H arley on the occasion of her death in the Game Over timeline. The lyric s have some really clever moments underscoring Jade’s rise in agency, only to see that same agency fall by the wayside through death and grimbarkification. The ambling, almost slee py guitar backing only underscores the tragedy. (“Waste of Space” is the first of a quartet of songs for the Beta kids – the girls’ featured on Songs for Monsters , and the boys’ featured on Songs for Gods .)

The third in the Beta Kids quartet by therosielord and off of Songs for Gods, “Out of Time” is a fansong for, of course, Dave Strider. It’s a rambling, wordplay-laden tune that’s set to the relentless pace of Sburb on a single day in April, before scratching and resetting to a layered repetition of information and elements. The verse at 2:12 is my favourite of all of the Beta kid songs.

The twelve fansongs for the trolls might be PhemieC’s most famous contribution to Homestuck fandom, but the songs off of their other album, Songs for a Doomed Timeline aren’t slacking, either. “The Path” is one of their less well-known works – a fansong for Alpha Dave and Rose. Prognostic and methodical, it’s sung with the unclouded and heavy knowledge of the events to come, and the lyricism is sharp at every corner.

Yeah, I’m waiving the no character themes rule for Fan Music, because Fan Music is already niche enough. “♐Broken Strings♐” by psithurist off of Ancestral , an album dedicated to the ancestors, is an off-beat math rock styled string track for E%ecutor Darkleer. The odd rhythm and combination of strings and percussion is perfect for the loyal agent of the empire turnt exile.

“Of Rust and Royalty” by Grace Medley and off of the same album is a thudding nu disco take on the fight between the Handmaid and the Condesce, splicing up various elements of Rust Servant/Rust Apocalypse, Fuchsia Ruler, and Eternity Served Cold in a way that sells the power of the two (three?) individuals involved.

“The End of Something Really Excellent” by Rhyselinn off of Lands of Fans and Music 4 is, itself, a r eally e xcellent medley of “ The Beginning of Something Really Excellent” and a lot of narrative Homestuck hits. The tone is mostly relieved and a little nostalgic, like finally being able to catch a real breath after two very long days and three years of a suspense-building in-between – a nice contrast to the more triumphant and energetic musical recaps in Homestuck. The commentary has both and outline of how the song follows the plot of Homestuck and timestamps for each song referenced.

“Calming Quartz” by PoisonedElite is the opener for Xenoplanetarium, an album in a similar vein as Medium, only for the trolls’ planets instead. Whereas Medium touches on the at least tangential familiarity that comes with the kids’ planets by utilizing industrial sounds with organic instruments, Xenoplanetarium at its best gives an odd and isolated soundtrack to its subjects, and “Calming Quartz” is exemplary in that. The bounding piano reflects the glacial nature of the quartz in LOQAM, backdropped by music box melody fitting with the cardinal movement. That melody’s isolation and eventual fade into mechanized hum at the end might be my favourite part of the song.

Continuing in the steed of “Calming Quartz”, “Sandy Skyline” by Aris Martinian from the same album brings the ever-stretching dunes of LOSAZ with some notes in the breeze and strong low stringwork, set to a clicking rhythm. The echo processing effect is noticeable but not too excessive, all making for a track perfect for that orange expanse.

Disc II - Side A

Side A Playlist.

Deep Cuts From Popular Albums

Deep Cuts Playlist.

“Light” – Erik “Jit” Scheele (Homestuck Vol. 5)

“Softly” – Robert J! Lake (Homestuck Vol. 5)

“Atomic Bonsai” – Joren “Tensei” de Bruin (Strife!)

“Catapult Capuchin” – Toby “Radiation” Fox (Alterniabound)

“Clockstopper” – viaSatellite, infiniteKnife (coloUrs and mayhem: Universe B)

Lesser-Known Takes on Something Else

Lesser-Known Takes Playlist.

“Pony Chorale” – Michael Guy Bowman with Tavia Morra (Homestuck Vol. 4)

“Squidissension” – Mark Hadley (Homestuck Vol. 6)

“Anbroids 2.0” – Malcom Brown (Homestuck Vol. 9)

“I’m a Member of the Midnight Crew (Post-Punk Version)” – Michael Guy Bowman with Erik “Jit” Scheele” and Marcy Nabors (Homestuck Vol. 9)

“II – Sarabande” – Clark “Plazmataz” Powell (Symphony Impossible to Play)

“IV – Anthem” – Clark “Plazmataz” Powell (Symphony Impossible to Play)

“FantasyP” – Erik “Jit” Scheele” (One Year Older)

“Another Chance” – Eston “silence” Schweickart (One Year Older)

“Solar Voyage” – Marcy Nabors with Michael Guy Bowman, Clark “Plazmataz” Powell, Erik “Jit” Scheele”, Joren “Tensei” de Bruin”, Paul Henderson, and Jamie Page Stanley (Homestuck Vol. 10)

“Conclude” Seth “Beatfox” Peele (Homestuck Vol. 10)

Cool and New Music

Cool and New Music Playlist.

“Squiddle Samba” – Michael Guy Bowman (Squiddles!)

“Ocean Stars” – Mark Hadley (Squiddles!)

“The Lemonsnout Turnabout” – Toby Fox (Alternia)

“Desperado Rocket Chairs” – Toby Fox (Alternia)

“Shade” – Clark “Plazmataz” Powell (Medium)

“Heat” – Clark “Plazmataz” Powell (Medium)

“Exodus” – Tyler Dever and Erik “Jit” Scheele” (Sburb)

“Carapacian Dominion” – Seth “Beatfox” Peele (The Wanderers)

“Aimless Morning Gold” – Michael Guy Bowman (The Wanderers)

“Years In The Future” – Robert J! Lake (The Wanderers)

“Center of Brilliance” – Solatrus (Prospit & Derse)

“Song of Skaia” – Mark Hadley with Tarien Ainuvë (Song of Skaia)

“Cancerous Core” – Erik “Jit” Scheele (One Year Older)

“Voidlight” – Thomas Ferkol (Homestuck Vol. 10)

“Feel (Alive)” – Luke Benjamins and Robert J! Lake (Homestuck Vol. 10)

Disc II - Side B

Side B Playlist (incomplete, not every track is on Youtube).

Homestuck Sound Test Gems

Sound Test Playlist (incomplete, not every Sound Test track is on Youtube).

Cuttlefish Rag – Alexander “Albatross Soup” Rosetti

“Karkalicious (Guitarkind)” – Joren “Tensei” de Bruin

“Mother (Davekind)” – Erik “Jit” Scheele

“Sea of Derse” – Erik “Jit” Scheele

“today I butchered a song (3 in the A M)” – James “soselfimportant” Roach

“Aggrieve (Piano) v2” – Toby “Radiation” Fox

Fan Music Gems

Fan Music Playlist (incomplete, not every fan music track is on Youtube).

“Sunrise” – Yan “Nucleose” Rodriguez

“Sunshaker” – D.Crystal (Land of Fans and Music)

“Amongst Smiling Faces [Prospitian Dignitaries]” – Tarranon (Sburb OST)

“Waste of Space” – the rosielord (Songs for Monsters)

“Out of Time” – therosielord (Songs for Gods)

“The Path” – PhemieC (Songs for a Doomed Timeline)

“♐Broken Strings♐” – psithurist (Ancestral)

“Of Rust and Royalty” – Grace Medley (Ancestral)

“The End of Something Really Excellent” – Rhyselinn (Land of Fans and Music 4)

“Calming Quartz” – PoisonedElite (Xenoplanetarium)

“Sandy Skyline” – Aris Martinian (Xenoplanetarium)

#Homestuck #Homestuck Music #Playlist #Writing #Homestuck Music Recs #Music Recs #Andrew Hussie's Earthbound Fanfiction

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watusichris · 4 years ago

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A Mile or Two in Joe South’s Shoes

My 2016 Joe South career retrospective, restored from Internet Purgatory.

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If you know anything about the true breadth of Joe South’s talents, it’s remarkable to consider that if he is known for anything at all today, it’s for just two songs.

For a hot minute in 1969-70, South looked like he was on the way to a major career. “Games People Play,” the tune that introduced him to the public at large, rose to No. 12 on the national singles chart; a radio ubiquity, it captured two Grammy Awards in 1970, as song of the year and best contemporary song. A year after that breakout hit, he rose to the same chart slot with the stomping, soulful “Walk a Mile in My Shoes,” a number that would be covered in short order by Elvis Presley.

After those two signature songs, Joe South pretty much disappeared off the American pop landscape. It was an astonishing vanishing act, for, in terms of sheer reach and ability, he came as close to genius as a musician can get. He was one of those cats who could do it all.

He wrote almost all of his own material; before his late-‘60s emergence, he had already made his mark writing for others – most notably fellow Georgian Billy Joe Royal – and one of his songs, “Rose Garden,” became one of the biggest country hits of 1970-71 in Lynn Anderson’s hands.

South had all the chops to put across his material. He was a terrific, expressive baritone vocalist. Perhaps more importantly, he was a dynamite guitar player who had honed his craft as an A-list session man in New York and Nashville. And he knew his way around the studio booth, too. He produced nearly all of his own records, and they were big, opulent sides, dressed with strings, horns, and chorales (in the manner of Chet Atkins’ countrypolitan sessions, Atlantic Records’ castanet-snapping R&B outings, and Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound). Yet at the core of South’s early records was the gutbucket sound produced by his family band, the Believers.

Though you could broadly categorize South’s music as “pop,” there was nothing weak or watered-down about his stuff. Like any musician who grew up in the South, he was reared on country music, and all his singing and picking reflected those roots. His style also had a strong R&B backbone and backbeat – not surprising, since one of his early hits as a songwriter, “Untie Me,” was for the Atlanta beach music act the Tams. And he could rock hard, and was unafraid to use the studio tools at his disposal for up-to-the-minute effects: Many of South’s most interesting tracks are overtly psychedelic.

Joe South was primed to go places – almost anywhere he wanted to go, really – but a predisposed dislike for the necessities of the music business, the usual rock ‘n’ roll pitfalls of drugs and alcohol, and, most critically, a devastating family tragedy knocked him out of the game when a brilliant career appeared his for the taking.

He was born Joseph Souter in Atlanta in 1940. His family was attuned to music and the arts: His father played guitar and mandolin, and his mother wrote poetry. He began playing guitar at an early age, while his younger brother Tommy took up the drums. Like many Southern households, the Souters tuned in to the Grand Ole Opry on Nashville’s WSM, as well as the popular local DJ Uncle Eb Brown on WGST.

“Brown” was the air name of Bill Lowery, who had been a mover and shaker in Atlanta’s music community since the early ‘50s as a broadcaster, station executive, and music publisher. It’s said that in an attempt to advance his musical aspirations, young Joe Souter boldly went to visit Lowery during his radio shift. No doubt impressed by his spunk, Lowery took the wannabe performer under his wing. One of his first pieces of advice was that Souter should change his name to the regionally reflective Joe South.

Beginning a professional and personal relationship that would survive for nearly five decades, Lowery brought 18-year-old college dropout South on board at his new independent record label, National Recording Corporation. The young picker was at first employed as a member of NRC’s house band, which also included the future recording stars Jerry Reed and Ray Stevens.

South began cutting singles in his own right for NRC, in varying pop, rock ‘n’ roll, and rockabilly settings. His lone chart record for the company came in 1958: “The Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor,” a sort-of-sequel to two recent novelty smashes, Sheb Wooley’s “Purple People Eater” and David Seville’s “Witch Doctor.” Bouncing onto the chart briefly at No. 47, it was the only bright spot during his time on the label, which went bankrupt in 1961.

He continued to work as a performer, cutting singles unprofitably for the indies Fairlane and AllWood and for MGM, the former home of Hank Williams. But he began to hone his chops as a behind-the scenes player with his writing, playing, and production. He made his first mark with “Untie Me,” which became a No. 12 entry on the U.S. R&B charts in 1962.

He made his biggest impact in 1965-67 as writer and producer of Marietta, Georgia-born Billy Joe Royal’s hits on Columbia Records. Their partnership was announced with the propulsive poor-boy-loves-rich-girl saga “Down in the Boondocks,” which climbed to No. 9 in 1965. Royal road-tested such other South compositions as “Leanin’ On You,” “Rose Garden,” “Yo-Yo,” and “Hush.” The latter track reached No. 52 on the Hot 100 in 1967, but became better known in a 1968 cover by British hard rockers Deep Purple.

South also left his imprint via several noteworthy sessions. He played guitar on Simon & Garfunkel’s first bona fide electric sessions, which became the bestselling 1966 folk-rock album Sounds of Silence. He contributed guitar and bass during the Nashville recording dates for Bob Dylan’s groundbreaking two-LP 1966 set Blonde On Blonde. And in 1967, in the company of FAME Studio’s crack Alabama rhythm section, he laid down the signature guitar licks on Aretha Franklin’s hit “Chain of Fools.”

By 1968, Joe South had little left to prove, and Bill Lowery helped midwife a deal for his protégé at Capitol Records, already the home of such progressive pop-country talent as Glen Campbell and Bobbie Gentry. South was given extraordinary latitude for his first album: He produced the collection, wrote all of the material, and played lead guitar, backed by the Believers, a group that included his brother Tommy on drums and his wife, Barbara, on keyboards.

The resultant LP, Introspect, is an impressive piece of work that didn’t sound quite like anything else on the market. It was a widescreen sound, immense and layered, but at bottom down-home and funky. It drew from several stylistic tributaries. Its lead-off track “All My Hard Times” was an updated rewrite of the old spiritual “All My Trials.” The mocking “Redneck” was a loping countrified lampoon that can be seen as an early anthem of the New South; “These Are Not My People” was an alienated piece of similarly styled, Dylanesque social commentary. The strikingly trippy “Mirror of Your Mind” bore a startling out-of-time passage in its middle, while the equally expansive “Gabriel” was a psychedelic parable cut straight out of the Old Testament.

As great and unique as it was, Introspect was a marketplace failure, and Capitol’s accountants yanked it off the market just as a single drawn from it was beginning to make some noise.

Sporting a unique lead guitar line -- fabricated by South on either, depending on which source you believe, a Coral electric sitar or a Gibson Bell guitar fed through an outboard Echorette echo unit -- and a lyrical hook derived from the title of Eric Berne’s 1964 pop-psychology bestseller, “Games People Play” became a slow-rolling hit. Realizing they may have deleted Introspect prematurely, Capitol decided to capitalize on the song with a hybrid new album.

The Games People Play album – essentially a second debut album for South – resuscitated the title track, “These Are Not My People,” and, in an expanded psyched-up version, the song “Birds of a Feather” (which would appear on three of South’s six Capitol collections). To these were added a couple of new originals (including “Hole in Your Soul,” a frenzied vocal version of the Believers’ two-sided psychedelic instrumental single “Soul Raga”), remakes of several early-‘60s compositions for the Tams and Royal, and a potent rendition of South’s Brill Building-styled 1963 single for MGM, “Concrete Jungle.”

This bizarrely reconfigured opus failed to make any waves, but South gained some name recognition with his “Games People Play” Grammys. Moreover, he made some longer commercial strides with 1969’s Don’t It Make You Want to Go Home? The LP, which ultimately reached No. 60, sported not one but two hit singles: the title cut, a poignant look at the toll wreaked by modern life upon the Southern landscape, and the visceral, gospel-styled “Walk a Mile in My Shoes.” It also contained the most hallucinogenic entry in the South catalog: “A Million Miles Away,” a dense instrumental overlaid with a recitation of the album’s personnel and an extract from a telephone call between South and some staffers at the Nixon White House.

These ambitious records might have suggested to some that South’s potential was unlimited. But there was a problem: He didn’t like to tour, and was at heart a studio animal. He also didn’t respond well to the intense pressure of coming up with material that wouldn’t just equal the sales of his chart records, but would better them.

Perhaps in a hope of shaking things up, the 1971 album Joe South was recorded on home turf at Atlanta’s Studio One, where the Atlanta Rhythm Section was the hot session band of the hour. But -- save for “Rose Garden” (included to cash in on Anderson’s enormous hit with the song) and the “Brown Eyed Girl”-like “Birds of a Feather” (it was the third time around for this belated single release) -- the material, a mix of tepid new tunes and recut warhorses, was scarcely South’s best. The disinterest seemed to carry over on the second LP South issued that year, So the Seeds Are Growing; only seven of the album’s 10 tracks were original compositions.

The disenchanted South’s drug use had begun to escalate, and his brother Tommy, who suffered from depression, was also self-medicating. A turning point came on Oct. 11, 1971, when the younger South took his own life.

The immediate result of this tragedy was South’s final Capitol album, A Look Inside, released in 1972. The LP jacket bore a cover photo of South with an open window in his skull, and the most confessional songs on this dark, unsettling record mirror the graphic perfectly. Its first two songs, “Coming Down All Alone” and “Imitation of Living,” are candid and frightening reflections on drug addiction, and they have lost none of their power. But the record’s true killer, which kicks off with a tart quote of the “Game People Play” melody, is the ironically titled “I’m a Star,” possibly the most blunt, world-weary, and self-reflective deflation of the music industry ever released.

It was a record made by an artist at the end of his tether. As South said frankly in the notes to what proved to be his final album, “I flipped out. I just went completely into the ether in the wake of my brother’s death. I just had to get away, so I went out to the islands, caught Polynesian paralysis and just lived in the jungles of Maui for a couple of years.”

He returned, briefly, in 1975, for his lone release for Island Records, Midnight Rainbows. Though it began promisingly with the fittingly introspective original medley of “Midnight Rainbows” and “It Got Away,” the album – again employing members of the Atlanta Rhythm Section – is disappointingly short on new original material; its strongest tracks are wrenching covers of Jerry Butler’s “For Your Precious Love” and Johnny Adams’ “You Can Make It If You Try.”

The last track on Midnight Rainbows is an instrumental titled “Cosmos,” and that’s exactly where Joe South headed. He was virtually invisible on the public stage from the release of that last LP until his death on Sept. 5, 2012, in Flowery Branch, Georgia. Before Bill Lowery’s death in 2004, he issued a couple of singles on his old sponsor’s independent labels: “Jack Daniels On the Line” for 1-2-3 Records in 1981, “Royal Blue” for Southern Tracks in 1986.

The last work he released during his lifetime arrived as a bonus track on the Australian label Raven’s 2010 repackaging of So the Seeds Are Growing and A Look Inside. Sung by South in a charred latter-day voice, “Oprah Cried” is an apparently faithful account of his appearance on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show, where his story of life’s hard knocks moves the hostess to tears. “Son, I thought I’d heard it all,” she tells him.

Considered in light of what might have been for Joe South, it’s one of the saddest damn songs ever written.

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infinitelytheheartexpands · 4 years ago

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Mefistofele (San Francisco, 2013): Reactions and Thoughts

It’s strange what time can do to you and your thoughts.

The only previous time I had watched this opera was a little under two years ago, in the fall of 2018, when I was preparing to write an Opera Simplified (there it is!) on Mefistofele in an ultimately-failed quest to do an installment for every opera in the Met’s 2018-19 season. (Ironically, Mefistofele was actually the last one I wrote. But I digress.) And as I said yesterday, I loved the Prologue and, perhaps because of the sheer awesomeness of the Prologue, was disappointed by pretty much everything else.

But now I’ve gone and watched it again, and lo and behold...I actually really liked it this time???

The Prologue is still far and away my favorite part, and indeed, it may very well be not only one of my favorite choral scenes in opera but also one of my favorite scenes in opera period. But there’s a whole lot more to enjoy.

I will say that discounting the Prologue, the second half of the opera (Acts III and IV, as well as the brief Epilogue) comes across to me as significantly stronger overall than the first half (Acts I and II). This is probably because I felt like the first half focuses more on Faust (who I feel like is the weakest major character in both this opera and in Gounod’s version) himself while the second half focuses more on the two women he meets (Margherita and Elena, who is actually Helen of Troy! more on that later) before briefly focusing back on Mefistofele and Faust’s relationship. Of course, after saying all this, the main focus of most of the opera is Mefistofele himself, which I love. The Devil gets to have all the fun, and it’s so much fun watching him go, especially when it’s none other than Ildar Abdrazakov, who was amazing in every way possible. I mean:

Mefistofele is also significantly more relatable and sympathetic than in the Gounod take, partly because we never actually see him screwing up Margherita’s life (and others’; there is no Valentin or Siébel equivalent in this cast) and partly because he just keeps dishing up almost nihilistic witticisms and truths throughout. He’s entertaining as hell, especially in this production, which a) seems to update the opera to...the 1870s, maybe? (so around time of composition). Robert Carsen also sets the opera at least partly in an opera house: the Helen of Troy act is not a mirage of Ancient Greece but a glitzy, decadent scene of opera life where Helen is a prima donna and excellent tragedienne with an entire chorus of rose-bearing admirers and the company shares in her little idyllic world. I had mixed feelings about this because I’m not entirely sure how well that carried over, but it was gorgeous and I’m a sucker for 19th-century opera aesthetic so yeah there’s that. Also I love that Helen at least has something good going for her, because she’s gotten so much crap that she doesn’t deserve. But anyway.

Also, apparently heaven is an opera house where everyone stands in the boxes and is dressed in all-white versions of Venetian carnival outfits. If an afterlife does in fact exist, I would...not be opposed to it being like that.

And a quick shout-out to the costume designer, especially for this:

Confession: I haven’t read the Goethe on which both this and Gounod’s take are based (after the suckiness that was The Sorrows of Young Werther, which is infinitely worse than the Massenet opera, I don’t have any inclination to do so right now) but to my understanding, this opera is more faithful to that. This was both a good and bad thing; one of the chief ways this was bad is that we lost a LOT of the detail and development that Marguérite gets; imagine Faust cutting from the end of Act III to the prison scene, having already cut everything involving her from before Faust shows up in the middle of Act III, and you see what I mean. HOWEVER, the prison scene is much more extended here, and you get to see every ounce of just how far Margherita has fallen— she’s absolutely gone mad and she sings a PHENOMENAL aria about it. And then it proceeds more or less in the manner of the final scene of Gounod, except that Faust and Margherita have a gorgeous love duet (’Lontano, lontano, lontano’). I love. And the reprise of a key tune from the Prologue as Margherita is forgiven? I died. Absolutely incredible.

Also incredible: Patricia Racette, who played both Margherita and Elena and was utterly convincing as both. For comparison:

(sane Margherita)

(insane Margherita)

(Elena, aka Helen of Troy, doing her best Cheryl Studer impression. at least, that’s kinda what she looked like to me. with which I am absolutely okay because Cheryl Studer is also amazing. but seriously, someone needs to cast Patricia Racette as Adriana Lecouvreur if they haven’t already because she is such a great diva and she would be STUNNING.)

The Prologue and ending of the Epilogue (which is essentially a very short version of the Prologue): amazing. choir, orchestra, the soloists in the Epilogue...blown away yet again by this. and of course, it looked insanely beautiful...

To quote the opera, “Arrestati, sei bello!” (”Stay, you are beautiful!”)

Good opera. I’ll leave you with that.

#opera #opera tag #Mefistofele #Faust #Boito #Arrigo Boito #thoughts #analysis #really enjoyed this this time around

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1714-konzertmeister · 5 years ago

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Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis

The Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV; English. Bach works catalogue; German: ( Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis ) is a catalogue of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was first published in 1950, edited by Wolfgang Schmieder. The catalogue's second edition appeared in 1990. An abbreviated version of that second edition, known as BWV 2a, was published in 1998. BWV numbers were assigned to 1,126 compositions in the 20th century, and more have been added to the catalogue in the 21st century. The Anhang (Anh.; Annex) of the BWV lists over 200 lost, doubtful and spurious compositions.

The first edition of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis was published in 1950. It allocated a unique number to every known composition by Bach. Wolfgang Schmieder, the editor of that catalogue, grouped the compositions by genre, largely following the 19th-century Bach Gesellschaft (BG) edition for the collation (e.g. BG cantata number = BWV number of the cantata):

Kantaten (Cantatas), BWV 1–224

Motetten (Motets), BWV 225–231

Messen, Messensätze, Magnificat (Masses, Mass movements, Magnificat), BWV 232–243

Passionen, Oratorien (Passions, Oratorios), BWV 244–249

Vierstimmige Choräle (Four-part chorales), BWV 250–438

Lieder, Arien, Quodlibet (Songs, Arias and Quodlibet), BWV 439–524

Werke für Orgel (Works for organ), BWV 525–771

Werke für Klavier (Keyboard compositions), BWV 772–994

Werke für Laute (Lute compositions), BWV 995–1000

Kammermusik (Chamber music), BWV 1001–1040

Orchesterwerke (Works for orchestra), BWV 1041–1071, originally in two separate chapters: Concertos (BWV 1041–1065) and Overtures (BWV 1066–1071)

Kanons (Canons), BWV 1072–1078

Musikalisches Opfer, Kunst der Fuge (Musical Offering, Art of the Fugue), BWV 1079–1080

The Anhang of the BWV listed works that were not suitable for the main catalogue, in three sections:

I – lost works, or works of which only a tiny fraction had survived (Anh. 1–23)

II – works of dubious authenticity (Anh. 24–155)

III – works that were once attributed to Bach, but for which it had been established they were not composed by him (Anh. 156–189)

Within each section of the Anhang the works are sorted by genre, following the same sequence of genres as the main catalogue. Schmieder published the BWV's second edition in 1990, with some modifications regarding authenticity discriminations, and more works added to the main catalogue and the Anhang. Several compositions were repositioned in the over-all structure of chapters organised by genre and Anhang sections. In 1998 Alfred Dürr and Yoshitake Kobayashi published a small edition of the catalogue, based on the 1990 second edition. This edition, known as BWV 2a, contained a few further updates and collation rearrangements.

New additions (Nachträge) to BWV2/BWV2a included:

BWV 1081–1126

BWV Anh. 190–213

An upper case R was used as an addition to a BWV number to indicate a reconstructed version, that is a conjectured earlier version of a known composition. Numbers above BWV 1126 were added in the 21st century. A new revised version of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis has been announced by the Bach Archive for publication in 2020.

#bach-werke-verzeichnis #bwv #bach works catalogue #j.s. bach #johann sebastian bach #german composers #baroque composers #text post

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carleymacintosh-blog · 5 years ago

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Love Music? Love To Sing? Join The Chester River Chorale!

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geethasomayajula · 6 years ago

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5 things you should know about studying music in India

January 1st, 2019: Mid-point update!

What is it like to learn music in India?

For the last four months, I have been immersed in the vibrant musical culture of Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. As an alumna of the University of Southern California’s renowned Thornton School of Music, studying music here in India is an exciting new journey (certainly a change from the Los Angeles music scene!).

Here are a few thoughts and learnings from my time in Visakhapatnam.

1. Studying music is hard work

I am so happy I chose to pursue music. Being a musician is extremely fulfilling and uplifting. However, it is A LOT of hard work too! I start my days at 7:30am, and finish my last class around 8:30pm. My days are filled with voice lessons, theory and history courses, language tutoring, choir rehearsals, concerts, and long hours of practice. For musicians, practicing their instrument or voice is a never-ending task that takes a huge amount of dedication and patience. I practice singing and study my compositions for a few hours each day, and keep a practice log on a Google Sheet so I can keep track of my progress. Oh, did I mention, musicians don’t get holidays? Music classes are rarely cancelled for holidays, and I attend classes seven days a week.

Most days, I collapse into bed around midnight, completely exhausted, but happy with the work that I have done during the day.

Bright and early outside of BVK college— a little sleepy, but ready for the day!

2. It’s really rewarding when you hit that note perfectly

Studying music takes determination and grit, but it’s so rewarding when your hard work finally pays off. After days, months, and even years of working on something, the moment when it finally clicks is worth the countess hours of practice. The fruits of my labor are even sweeter here in India. Carnatic music is so new and different to me, that even the smallest victories are exciting.

In India, I’ve also gotten the chance to share my progress in concert halls and classrooms. Seeing faces light up in an audience, or watching a student smile during a lesson is the best feeling. Knowing your musical knowledge can spark joy in someone else is the best motivation. When I remember my enthusiastic students, my passion is always renewed, no matter how tired I am.

Learning music and sharing it with others in Visakhapatnam has been an amazing and unforgettable experience.

Receiving an award at Vidyadhari School of Music’s annual day from my mentor, Pantula Rama and her family (she’s in the pink sari). She actually wrote one of my letter of recommendation for the Fulbright!

Singing with my cohort!

Teaching at St. Joseph’s College for Women— these students have the most beautiful singing voices.

3. It can be discouraging sometimes

Before coming to India, I did everything I could do to prepare for the unknown ahead. I set up meetings with former Fulbrighters, met with a professor who was an expert at conducting research in India, brushed up on my Telugu skills, and began reading about Indian classical music.

But that’s the thing with the unknown—no matter how much we think we can prepare, it’s never enough. My first month of classes was disorienting and challenging.

At first, learning music in Telugu, an unfamiliar tuning system, and singing in languages I had never sung before was a daunting feat. It seemed like I couldn’t get anything right. Everything I sang sounded like it was choral music, not Carnatic music. There were even a few days where I asked myself, “am I supposed to be here? Am I the right person to carry out this research project?” Many musicians experience imposter syndrome, and studying a new form of music in a brand new country really exacerbated the feeling that I didn’t belong.

However, as the days, and weeks passed I settled slowly into Visakhapatnam and into my music classes. Soon, my Telugu improved and I could stay on top of the class material. My tongue grew more adept at shaping Telugu and Sanskrit vowels and consonants, and my voice settled into the richly nuanced Carnatic style of singing. I still get discouraged sometimes, but I know that my discomfort means that I am in the right place. I acknowledge that things won’t always be happy or easy, but rather than thinking that means I’m not supposed to be here, I know it means quite the opposite. When I feel challenged, uncomfortable, or discouraged, it means that I am GROWING, which is the goal after all!

4. Music is interdisciplinary

When talking to people about my research, I often get the question “so what do you actually do on a music research project?” Although I am learning to sing Carnatic music, there is more to my project than just singing! I do sing quite a bit, but there are actually many other things I have to study in addition to voice! Music is one of the most interdisciplinary careers out there. In addition to being proficient in an instrument or voice, musicians also study language, theory, history, pedagogy and more!

During my time at USC, I took courses in voice, conducting, piano, theory, history, ear training, pedagogy, and more. Here in India, I take Telugu and Sanskrit classes, private voice lessons, theory tutoring, choir, and study history independently. I am also taking a Hindu spirituality course on the weekends at my local Chinmaya Mission, to better understand the themes behind the pieces that I am singing. The variety of courses keeps me busy, but I am never bored exploring so many different facets of Indian music!

Just a few of my textbooks!

Working hard on my Sanskrit homework— I have also been studying Telugu here.

5. It’s a lot of fun and opens you up to new opportunities

So far, I’ve talked a lot about how much work studying music is, but it’s definitely a lot of fun too. As a Fulbright scholar, I’m so lucky I get to completely dedicate myself to music this year. For most of my life I’ve been balancing music, academics, and extracurriculars (at USC, I balanced both music and business courses!) and here, I get to do all music, all the time. It is so uplifting and inspiring to fill my days with song.

I’ve also had some exciting opportunities through music! Hindus have lots of holidays, which means lots of concerts! So far, I’ve performed in concerts for Janmashtami (Lord Krishna’s birthday), Ganesh Chaturthi (Lord Ganesha’s birthday!), Diwali, and I have even done some Christmas singing. I’ve also had the chance to do some seasonal recitals, and I’ve loved sharing what I have learned with Visakhapatnam’s receptive audience.

An experience that really stands out to me was just a few weeks ago, when a group of 20 Australian exchange students from Victoria University visited my affiliate institution, BVK college. To commemorate the exchange, I helped organize a fusion concert where BVK students and Australian students took turns performing songs that reflected their cultures. To close out the concert, I taught everybody a small Carnatic song that we sang with Indian and Western instruments in harmony! Being a bridge between these two cultures was a really powerful moment, and I can’t wait to play that role in my choral communities back home.

I’m in the back left corner, getting ready to conduct a group piece featuring Indian and Australian students.

These last few months have been so full of learning and growth, and I am so grateful for my musical family back in the U.S. and my new musical community here in India. I can’t wait to see what the next 5 months have in store!

#fulbright #music #choir #carnatic #india

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rococospade · 2 months ago

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Chapters: 30/? Fandom: Bloodborne (Video Game) Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Characters: Original Characters, Background & Cameo Characters, Laurence (Bloodborne), Ludwig (Bloodborne), [Anastas Volkov] - Original Character, [Ascelin of Carim] - Original Character, Original Male Character(s) Additional Tags: Pre-Bloodborne (Video Game), Emotional Manipulation, Worldbuilding, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Racism, Canon-Typical Violence, Horror, Mystery, Gallows Humor, WIP, Child Abuse, Childhood Trauma, Body Horror, Corpse Desecration, Unethical Experimentation, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sexual Themes, Coming of Age, Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Victorian Attitudes Series: Part 1 of Before the nightmare Summary:

Yharnam was never a friendly place, but it seemed to get worse every year, even for the people living in it. Another outbreak of the blood plague had the Healing Church occupied, and anyone who could not hunt kept their head down. You could maybe venture out, in the daylight - but not after dark, and not on the days of the hunt.

In the middle of all of this is Anastas, sixteen, sickly, and not especially talented. His older sister and only family, a Hunter for the church, has gone missing.

… So against all advice Anastas is talking to strange hunters and considering going out of doors, of course. If his sister wanted him safe, she should have been around to keep him so.

(Updates when life allows, at this point :’D)

#fic update #chapter 30 hooray #choral composition fic

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rococospade-main · 3 years ago

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Choral 18 is half edited! It is 10k…

We also had to cut a bunch because I rewrote most of it a few dozen times :’D unused things are are being saved to the scrap pile for possible use later.

#fic update #choral composition update #fic stuff

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choralcomposition · 3 years ago

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Choral Composition is one year old! This is so weird :’D I unfortunately don’t have an update ready but here’s a sketch of the boys I drew for today.

There’s a spoiler/excerpt from chapter 25 (chapter 24 is an interlude) under the cut as an apology for the hiatus.

Once again, spoilers for Choral up to the start of chapter 25 below. Don’t click if you’re not okay with spoilers! ... there are too many A names in this goddamn scene, by the way :)

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Anastas couldn’t help it. He burst into tears.

Ascelin startled a little at the noise, though he didn’t seem to have the energy to do much besides. Which was a good thing — Anastas threw himself across the man’s lap and clung to his shoulders.

“What—hey? Ki—Anastas, hey, come on, what’s with you?” Ascelin’s voice was rough from disuse, and horribly welcome after so long without it. Anastas buried his face in the man’s shoulder and tried to stave off his shaking.

Ascelin wasn’t always kind, it was true, but he was there, and Anastas needed him. And he’d already lost so much this year, he couldn’t—

Don’t think about her like she’s gone.

He made himself stop the thought. But the tears wouldn’t quit, now that they’d welled up, and he felt a little sick with himself for crying on Ascelin’s shoulder.

Ascelin didn’t speak again. He made a soft noise, and something touched Anastas’s back. It hesitated a moment, then pressed between his shoulder blades — Ascelin’s hand, like the man meant to hug him.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Ascelin murmured, near his temple. Anastas was mortified. He kept his face hidden. “Whatever happened, it’s over. What’s got you acting like this?”

Anastas tried to force ‘I don’t know what happened’ and ‘you weren’t responding’ and ‘we’ve been down here ages’ out at once and didn’t manage anything more coherent than a sob. He hated it, but what else could he do?

“Anastas?” Amelia mumbled, sounding half-asleep. Anastas twitched; he must have woken her. “What’s going on?”

“The kid’s crying,” Ascelin said, puzzled sounding.

Amelia yelped. “Sir Carim?!”

Anastas heard her scramble to a sit, and Ascelin made a soft noise. “What’s with the both of you? Stop acting like I died. Oh—wait, did I die?”

“Yes!” Amelia threw herself against them, and Ascelin huffed like she’d startled him, while Anastas wheezed and then tried to get back the air Amelia had forced out of him. “You came from the Cathedral lamp looking half-dead and grabbed us!”

“I did?” Ascelin couldn’t have sounded more surprised about it than they had felt, but he came damn close. Anastas kept his face buried, ashamed of his red eyes and the tear stains on his cheeks, and the ugly relief coursing through him. Ascelin was alright. He was.

“Yes!” Amelia must have smacked the Choir Hunter on the chest; Ascelin grunted.

“Sorry? I don’t think I intended to—oh.” Ascelin took in a sharp breath, and Anastas drew back to see if Amelia had hit him somewhere sensitive, but she looked as shocked as Anastas. Ascelin, wide-eyed, said, “No,” Very quietly, then again, barely above a whisper. “No. I… I meant to.”

“Why would you mean to die?” Amelia asked, brows furrowing. “And—Carim?”

Ascelin was shaking. He tried to form a word, but no sound left his lips. He shook his head, and Amelia seemed to decide — a little late — that discretion was best. She stopped asking, and laid her hand on Ascelin’s wrist in what she probably meant as mute support.

Anastas felt uneasy all over. He shifted a little closer to Ascelin and held out his hand. Ascelin looked startled by it.

His fingers closed around Anastas’s a moment later. He breathed and breathed, shaking, and said, “Don’t worry about it.”

But he didn’t sound sure himself, and Anastas was unsettled by the idea of something that scared a Hunter, and worse because Ascelin was hiding it.

#choral composition #spoilers #choral composition art #rococospade art #ascelin of carim #Anastas Volkov

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waalm · 6 years ago

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NEW ZEALAND AND CONSCIOUS MUSIC

New Zealand is famous for its indigenous people who are descendants of Polynesian explorers who settled the Pacific Ocean more than 1000 years ago. The Maori word for New Zealand is Aotearoa which means 'Land of the Long White Cloud'.

The First person to conquer Mount Everest, Sir Edmund Hilary came from New Zealand.New Zealand was one of the first countries to give women the right to vote. It was the filming location for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Their cheese, wine, chocolate and meat are absolutely world class, but perhaps less is known about their musicians and their artistic talents. Recently WAALM discovered ‘Shannon Maree’, a creative talented young musician with sweet Kiwi accent and got the chance to invite her for a collaboration on a single release, ‘You Made Me Whole Again’ – written and arranged by Canadian renowned songwriter, Mosi Dorbayani.

The following is a short interview with Shannon:

WT: How did you enter the world of music, what inspired you?

SM: I was brought up in the world of Music in a musical family, my mother a jazz singer and my father a guitar teacher. I decided as a young adult to study jazz performance, in which I receive an honors degree. After which I began travelling the world studying analog electronic music production/composition and different music from cultures such as Bulgarian choral music, Classical Cambodian music and Sargam from India.

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Now I am working full time on my solo project 'iamLawn' and am planning a world tour to promote my new album - Debut. I create music because it is an excellent platform to connect directly to the hearts of many people at one time, it makes me happy and I wish to use my life to spread happiness across the face of the planet.

WT: How do you see the role of music as a form of art for humanity?

SM: Music can connect and transform us. I want to use the power of music to uplift humanity. The need for conscious music more than ever it right now.

WT: 'You made me whole again'- is your first collaboration with WAALM and its songwriter, Mosi Dorbayani. How do you feel about the project? How did you connect with this particular song?

SM: The song is very sweet and a lovely little collaboration. I think the project is brilliant. The platform which Mosi and WAALM has created is a fantastic way to connect with people and promote artists from around the world. It has been a pleasure to be a part of it.

WT: What did you like most about this song and what you hope listeners take from it?

SM: The song is very delicate. I love the feeling of the chordal movements and its arrangement. I hope this song and my voice can add a little joy into a person's day.

WT: As an striving artist, what are your main goals?

SM: My main goals are to enjoy my life and bring happiness into other human's worlds. With music, I can write the story of my own path through life, so I may look back when I am older and know that I left my world in a slightly more beautiful state than when I arrived. That is all I ask.

WT: For those who wish to follow your career and music, tell us about your upcoming projects and that how they can stay in touch with you?

SM: The best way to follow me is to become a patron of my work. Patreon is a platform that is allowing me to continue my mission and be sustained by people who dig the work I am doing. People can connect with me directly, have an input in my travel and work and receive cool updates and perks that my normal blogs and content don't share.

www.patreon.com/LAWN www.lawnofficial.com

‘You Made Me Whole Again’ is scheduled for September 2018. Stay connected to find out more.

Related links:

WAALM Productions:

www.facebook.com/waalmawards

www.twitter.com/waalmawards

Project Songwriter:

www.facebook.com/mosidorbayani

www.instagram.com/mosidorbayani

#newsongs #jazzmusic #mosidorbayani #waalm #Shennonmaree

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davidkaplanrussianbusinessman · 4 years ago

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David Kaplan successfully leads the project of the Bolshoi Theater restoration in Moscow

David Kaplan, a brilliant Russian businessman, was born in 1963 in USSR in a traditional Jewish family. After school, he attended University with a concentration in mathematics, system programmer, game theory. David Kaplan is often perceived as a Russian businessman from Moscow, it is because he lived and worked in Moscow for a long time and has implemented many successful projects on the territory of the Russian Federation. Now David Kaplan resides in his historical homeland Jerusalem. From early childhood, he asked questions, searched for answers, and generated ideas.

Besides being punctual and hard-working, the qualities that David inherited from his parents, he has a special talent for visualizing the result of the coordinated work of all parts of a single mechanism. Over time, this helped him learn how to find the most complex technical solutions for the implementation of the assigned design tasks, and not only for the sake of the result, but also for the process of finding the right solution, which gives him great pleasure.

What makes David Kaplan’s projects so successful? He personally selects the team, he scouts the best minds around the world, he puts on his shoes and helmet on and goes into the field. He is always present in person or remotely at each stage of the project, carefully checks every detail, and provides strong management. Entrepreneurs often work hard, not because they see the business as a job, but because they love doing what they do. This is where hard work meets passion and becomes such a strong force to willing an entrepreneur forward in their chosen domain

David Kaplan has always been interested in architecture, project management, and engineering, that is why when he had a chance to lead the restoration in the last stage of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, he had not hesitated to dive into the the project.

For more than 200 years of its existence, the Bolshoi Theatre, like the Red Square, has become a visiting card not only of the capital of Russia but of the whole world. Getting into the main theater of the country was and remains the main dream of anyone who finds himself in Moscow: for the whole world, it is the Bolshoi Theater that personifies the great Russian musical heritage. The restoration and reconstruction of the main building of the Bolshoi Theater have become a colossal world-class project. The theater building has long been perceived as one of the symbols of Russia. The building of the Bolshoi Theater is a monument of architecture and history of the federal security category and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This was one of the most important projects of the president of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev, which construction he supervised personally. The historic building of the Bolshoi Theater has been closed for reconstruction since July 2, 2005.

In July 2009, David Kaplan entered the project for the reconstruction and restoration of the complex of buildings of the State Academic Bolshoi Theater of Russia. Russian entrepreneur from Moscow became the general contractor and achieved a significant increase in the pace of work in the shortest possible time.

The history of reconstructions and restorations of the Bolshoi Theater building began almost from the first years of its existence. By the time of the beginning of the current reconstruction, the deterioration of the building was, according to various estimates, from 50 to 70 percent. Various options were proposed for its restoration: from a trivial major overhaul to a complete reconstruction of the existing building. As a result, a project was chosen that was approved by the theater troupe, architects, cultural figures, etc. The project provided for the scientific restoration of the spectator section of the theater and a cardinal reconstruction of the stage section with deepening of the underground space. At the same time, the historical appearance of the building as an architectural monument was to be preserved.

In the early years of the project, a thorough study of the building itself took place, scanning its position in space, the state of its walls, and foundations; and only in the fall of 2009 when the Russian entrepreneur from Moscow David Kaplan took over, the huge and badly worn-out building of the Bolshoi Theater has been moved. Over the next two years, record volumes of work on the restoration and reconstruction of the theater were carried out. Every day, over a half thousand professionals worked in the building, of which about a thousand were restorers. And a thousand more specialists worked for the benefit of the Bolshoi in restoration workshops outside the theater.

In addition to restoring the historical appearance and interiors, the designers were tasked to provide the theater with new premises. It was successfully solved by creating an underground space.

Another equally important task was the need to combine strictly scientific restoration in the historical zone and the installation of the most modern technological equipment in the stage part and new spaces of the theater.

The Bolshoi Theater even in many respects restored the historical appearance that had been lost during the years of Soviet power. The auditorium and part of its suite have acquired the form in which they were conceived by the architect of the Bolshoi Theater, Albert Kavos. The halls of the former imperial foyer were restored as of 1895 when their interiors were changed in preparation for the celebrations that accompanied the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II. For each recreated or restored element of the interior, a special project was created, separate documentation was developed based on the results of numerous archival and field studies.

In 2010, the premises of the auditorium suite were restored: the Main Lobby, the White Foyer, the Choral, the Exposition, the Round, and Beethoven Halls. Muscovites saw the restored facades and the updated symbol of the Bolshoi Theater - the famous Apollo quadriga, created by the sculptor Peter Klodt.

The auditorium has regained its original beauty. And now every spectator of the Bolshoi Theater can feel like a theater-goer of the 19th century and marvel at its magnificent and at the same time "light" decoration. The bright crimson draperies of the inner rooms of the boxes strewn with gold, plaster arabesques of various kinds on each floor, the picturesque plafond "Apollo and the Muses" - all this gives the auditorium the appearance of a fairytale palace.

Particular attention has been paid to the restoration of the legendary acoustics. International experts carried out numerous acoustic studies and strictly followed the implementation of all technical recommendations. The auditorium is completely wooden that allows you to create the necessary conditions for a better perception of the sound of singing voices and musical instruments. Russian businessman from Moscow David Kaplan is well educated in musical instruments and acoustics. He knew that the exceptional sound of the legendary violins of Stradivarius and Guarneri was largely due to the special grade and composition of the wood used. Wood panels are the main component of the acoustics of the auditorium of the Bolshoi Theater. They create the effect of "room sound" due to amplification timbre of sound made from the scene with simultaneous “echo absorption”. Russian entrepreneur got busy searching for a specialist in wood, which would meet all the required physical and acoustic properties. International experts have conducted numerous acoustic studies of pine trees following the strict implementation of technical recommendations. After that, the right pine was found in the forest of Finland and David Kaplan brought it to Russia. The unique decks were completely restored as well as the auditorium, nodes of wooden pendants, ceiling lags, supporting ceiling panels and other related elements. The overwhelming success of the project and rave reviews from acoustic experts spread across the world.

The most modern solutions in the field of stage mechanization found their application in the project. The historical stage of the Bolshoi Theater consists of seven two-level lifting and lowering platforms. These platforms can easily change their position so that the stage can become horizontal, inclined, or stepped. You can combine the space of the stage and the backstage, which creates an incredible depth of stage space.

The new upper stage mechanization made it possible to fully use light, sound, and visual effects. The stage space is equipped with special modern devices for placing lighting fixtures, equipment for special effects, and acoustics.

On October 28, 2011, the opening of the country's main stage took place. The Bolshoi Theater in Moscow can welcome visitors around the world of art and culture. The Bolshoi Theater presents one of the world's main theater stages and played an outstanding role in the formation of the Russian musical stage school and the development of Russian national art, including the famous Russian ballet.

#KaplanDavid, #DavidKaplan, #DavidKaplanphoto, #KaplanDavidphoto #DavidKaplanPhotographer, #KaplanDavidPhotographer, #KaplanDavidTraveler, #DavidKaplanTraveler, #DavidkaplanJew, #KaplanDavidJew, #DavidkaplanJewish, #KaplanDavidJewish, #DavidkaplanIsrael, #KaplanDavidIsrael, #DavidKaplanZionist, #KaplanDavidZionist, #DavidKaplanRussianBusinessman, #KaplanDavidRussianBusinessman, #DavidKaplanRussia, #KaplanDavidRussia, #DavidKapkanAuthor, #KaplanDavidAuthor, #DavidKaplanWriter, #KaplanDavidWriter, #DavidKaplanBuilder, #KaplabDavidBuilder, #DavidKaplanFuber, #KaplanDavidFuber. #DavidKaplanBuilder, #KaplabDavidBuilder, #KaplanDavid, #DavidKaplan, #DavidKaplanTraveler, #DavidKaplanArt,#DavidKaplanMusic, #KaplanDavidMusic, #DavidkaplanJew, #KaplanDavidJew, #DavidkaplanJewish, #KaplanDavidJewish, #DavidkaplanIsrael, #KaplanDavidIsrael, #DavidKaplanZionist, #KaplanDavidZionist, #DavidKaplanRussianBusinessman, #KaplanDavidRussianBusinessman, #DavidKaplanRussia, #KaplanDavidRussia, #DavidKaplanSport, #KaplanDavidSport, #DavidKapkanAuthor, #KaplanDavidAuthor, #DavidKaplanWriter, #KaplanDavidWriter, #DavidKaplanPhilanthropist, #KaplanDavidPhilanthropist, #DavidKaplanCharity, #KaplanDavidCharity,

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doomedandstoned · 7 years ago

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It’s A Dark World, But There Were Sparks of Light In 2017

~By Justin Cory~

Photo by Alyssa Herrman of Foto Phortress

Making angry, dark, dissonant, morose music is a necessary catharsis...

Cheers! I am excited at the prospect of writing and contributing to Doomed and Stoned and honored they’d consider running something I wrote. 2017 was a rollercoaster of a year, though that is generally true of every year. After the tumultuous political campaigns of 2016 that engrossed even the most fervently apolitical of us out there, we all knew 2017 would hold a lot of anxiety and darkness. We were not wrong in our wary assumptions. In spite of that darkness and sometimes in direct response to it, 2017 was a great year for art and music. Certainly for those of us who crave dark, intense, and mournful art, there was much to be had. I have said this before in interviews I’ve given for my band, Usnea, but for me and many others, making angry, dark, dissonant, morose music is a necessary catharsis. It stands to reason that the more of that we are enveloped by, the more catharsis we tend to need.

CHELSEA WOLFE

Artistically, 2017 seemed to be a year where many of my favorite artists came back to the fore with more daring and bold statements than they had ever before. Chelsea Wolfe delivered a brilliant and brutal record full of massive sounds and upheaval. Hiss Spun is a much heavier album than any that have come before it, and while it was not unexpected to see her go this direction after Abyss, it has been beautiful and satisfying to watch the evolution of her and her band. I had the privilege of attending Psycho Las Vegas in August and she was one of the highlights of that whole festival, even though I’ve seen her several times before then.

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I have very eclectic tastes, and so for much of the year I didn’t listen to as much metal, as I was consumed by the recording of Usnea’s newest record, as well as progressions involving my newer anarcho-death rock side project, Over. Towards the end of the year, I did finally catch up with some of the incredible metal records that came out.

SPECTRAL VOICE

Spectral Voice is probably my favorite of the bunch. I’ve been a fan of Paul Riedl’s output going back to his murky early work with Merkstave and Leech in Salem, Oregon and then catching up with renewed vigor to his contemporary releases with Blood Incantation and Spectral Voice. With Eroded Corridors of Unbeing, Spectral Voice deliver on the promise of all of those demos they put out over the last few years and some. They ratchet up the death metal tension and when the floor drops, the listener is pummeled into oblivion with their warped death-doom riffing. They are by far the most interesting band making death-doom at the moment and they provide an incredible update on the genre-defying legacy of diSEMBOWELMENT and Inverloch.

Eroded Corridors of Unbeing by Spectral Voice

UFOMAMMUT

In October, Usnea had the incredible fortune to tour on our new record with Ufomammut throughout Europe on their newest record, 8. Seeing them play the whole record night after night, one can’t help but fall in love with the psychedelic drone fever dream they weave. On their newest record, they have crafted a masterpiece of heady, massive music. I am biased, having toured with them in the US and Europe now, but I truly believe that their music is best experienced live. As good as their compositions are, seeing them live is being transported into their spaceship and taken on the otherworldly journey that they intend.

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Ufommamut Live in Helsinki - Film by iceaxvideo

BELL WITCH

While we were driving across Northern Europe in the deluge of Autumnal rain, our friends in Bell Witch released their newest record, Mirror Reaper. So much of what can be said about that record has already been said. Hearing the album under those conditions for the first time was ethereal, but I didn’t really get to delve into the 83- minute long opus until weeks after we were back at home. When I did, I was moved beyond what I can write here will convey.

Mirror Reaper by Bell Witch

Beyond being a fan of Bell Witch, and a fan of pretty much everything that Dylan and Jesse -- and Adrian before him -- had recorded previously (Samothrace, Lethe, Sod Hauler, The Makai, Black Hole of Calcutta, among other exceptional bands), I am friends with all of them. We played our very first show with Bell Witch back in 2012. Being able to watch their evolution has been both brilliant and painful. Everything about this new record is an elevation of their craft, of the possibilities of extreme heavy music, and also a eulogy to Adrian Guerra. I loved that man, have many beautiful memories of him, and I hope that if there is another plane of existence, that he is listening to his old bandmate’s soulful work, and smiling uncontrollably. I don’t know what else to even say about this record; it’s that good and so hard to describe without getting choked up.

There is power in this storm, and we have the ability to tap into that power and actualize a better world.

LOSS

This year also saw long awaited new records by several other longtime personal favorites. I was blown away by the new LPs from Loss, Primitive Man, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and Monarch! First, with Horizonless by Loss, one knows that they are going to be submerged beneath the crushing weight of anguish upon the first note. I really love this record and I hope that they will tour on it soon. I also hope that their singer has evolved beyond his crappy opinions of feminism in metal, but not knowing them personally, I can’t say.

Horizonless by Loss

PRIMITIVE MAN

Primitive Man, true to their name, unleashed an utterly beastly record with Caustic. There is no let up, just un-fuck-with-able, brain-rattling rage and fury. Ethan has one of the most depraved screams I’ve ever heard, and I love it.

Caustic by Primitive Man

GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR

The latest manifesto from Godspeed You! Black Emperor fits perfectly in this year of global calamity and strife. As the virulent strains of nationalism and anti-immigrant/refuge scapegoating rear their depraved heads once again, having the intellectual clarity of Godspeed and the dynamic optimism of their music, however mournful at times, is encouraging. Even in the face of unthinkable darkness and with horrible aspects of history seemingly repeating themselves, Godspeed You! Black Emperor have this uncanny ability to remind us that there is power in this storm, and we have the ability to tap into that power and actualize a better world.

"Luciferian Towers" by Godspeed You! Black Emperor

MONARCH!

Capping my musical crushes here are Bordeaux’s Monarch! who return with Never Forever. With this record, they’ve tapped into the unforgiving brutality of bands like Thorr's Hammer and Burning Witch, while managing to imbue their newest record with the lightless atmosphere and crushing disorientation that only they could concoct. Even better is seeing them perform these dirges live. From delicate clean sections and choral vocal passages of deep melancholy to filthy dark doom riffage, this record is a monster.

Never Forever by MONARCH!

Art and music are a language older than words.

FESTIVALS

There are a few other rad things that I’d love to give shout-out to this year. Psycho Las Vegas, Northwest Terror Fest, Soul Crusher Fest and Blow-Up Helsinki were some of the best festivals I’ve ever been to and, along with Roadburn, are expertly curated. It is a great time to be a fan of this music when the passion and hard work of so many artists, promoters, sound engineers, and other persons are putting so much into these events for our community to enjoy and connect.

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Usnea at Blowup Vol. III - Film by iceaxvideo

ART

This year also brought some amazing works of art into the world. In Finland, I found and fell in love with the artworks of Tekla Vály. The cover art of previously mentioned albums was also astounding, most notably Mirror Reaper by the artist Mariusz Lewandowski and Horizonless by Loss, whose cover artwork was painted by Adam Burke of Nightjar Illustration. I also love the painting that our good friend Orion Landau created for Usnea’s Portals Into Futility and I hope to work with him again.

'Lovers' by Tekla Vály

FILM

Film-wise, when I finally got around to seeing Blade Runner 2049, it far exceeded all expectations I had for it. I was expecting a cheesy Hollywood cash-in on the incredible legacy of the original film. What we got instead was a complicated update on the happenings of the world of replicants, the core question of humanity, and what it is to be a human being with a “soul.” I don’t want to post any spoilers so I will stop there.

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In parting, these things and more are what inspired me in 2017 and beyond. For me, art and music are a language older than words. We communicate unutterable emotions and concepts with this language and we burn down the castles of tyrants, we stamp out the dens of ignorance, and we open ourselves to the possibilities and opportunities ahead, in spite of this dark world we inhabit through this communion of artistic expression that we share. I am not saying that I have any optimism to offer about the present or future fate of this world, only that I know what I will be doing to assuage the onslaught it provides and find some sense of purpose and meaning within it.

Justin Cory is a Portland-based musician, vocalist, and guitarist for Usnea and Over. This is his first piece for Doomed & Stoned.

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