Jesu: Veiled

I think I was trying to cover a few different things when I wrote this and it kind of worked. I feel that this could use a lot of refinement, however. It’s a bit lacking and doesn’t say enough about the song

Jesu’s “Veiled” is from Duchess / Veiled EP. Specifically it is the alt version on the EP.

I hope you enjoy.

A low rumbling leads into a steady movement of bass, percussion and a dreamy sound floating above. This space seems open and closed, and it drifts upon fragile currents. Vocals come in and echo out as they make clear statements, and soon they stop for guitar to come in.  The percussion and bass line up and the rhythmic flow provides a contrast. It seems a release from what was before a darker moment.

This does not last long and soon it is back to vocals and the vocals echo out in a stark rhythmic session whilst the dream continues on. The guitar then returns and it’s more release and openness. Perhaps its focus and conviction in looking forward, or maybe it’s a melancholic spread. The vocals move in here, less echoing and perhaps more melodic and fragile and seem to express a mournfulness, but soon this too comes to a stop.

Almost silence as a thought is held, then instrumentation changes gear and seems to look inward. A pulsing of sorts whilst dreamy sound drifts onward and keeps its melancholic gentleness. The space is there and it seems a reflection of what came before. The sounds all flow with focus and intent, and soon they reach their finishing point as the song ends.

 

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Final: Light Underground/Dark Overground

The first part of this song is a bit of music I like quite a lot; the second part not so much. I think the whole piece works best listened to as a whole rather than only one part or the other as it’s a bit of a journey.

I wrote this over one listen and I stuck mostly to trying to capture what the sounds were doing. I don’t think it quite worked but I feel I captured a sense of the song quite well.

As a side note, I find myself wondering if this song was in part influenced by The Night Land or something similar.

Final’s “Light Underground/Dark Overground” is from One.

I hope you enjoy.

Flickering sound in a distance in a space that soon fills with a harsh droning that seems to lack aggression. It seems to rise, or at list something within it rises and whirs as it bubbles away. The flickering appears around it as brief moments and then the droning is stripped down to something bare, or at least less layered.

The droning fills in and out and holds its prominence and becomes more like a buzz or a hum, and it peels back and reveals more metallic bone, then fills in and a new flickering comes in for a moment. It remains harsh and it still seems to lack aggression and it is a form that is as changing as it is static. It reveals itself as it moves through tunnels in which only it fits and the flickering echoes at a distance.

The droning shares an oscillation with a static and they move in and out for a short period, gradually revealing more and less and more, and various sounds loop as they spin. Soon something reveals itself among all of the noise, and it is different, and perhaps this is what the droning was trying to reach. Maybe this new sound was looking for the droning, and it is soft and it grows and the droning is unable to smother it, despite seeming attempts.

More layers of this new come forward and take space and hold focus and there is something dire in it, but it also seems hopeful. It seems melancholic and at peace, and it is slow and steady and the beeping in the background stays around but, despite the clash in sound there remains no harshness.

More layers peel away and grow quiet, and there is something that could be the guitar that echoes through the space. The droning comes back and pulls away but the new sound remains, following its steps and creating a bit of space in this dimly lit moment. It sinks and descends as it expands; it holds onto itself and breathes with calm.

Something gradually creeps in, altering the atmosphere, though maybe it isn’t and just revealing a different perspective on what already has come. An idea of a voice echoes loudly through and disappears, and low bass surfaces with a slow ascent, then also pulls back. The reshaping has now taken over completely and this new form seems sadder and perhaps more lacking in hope. The droning bubbles up once more and encloses the new form, but it also pulls back; it continues its movement back and forth and shifts its form, and that loud idea of a voice echoes once more.

The new form seems to start pulling itself apart, or at least moving in a slowly rapid manner. There is a panic and anxiety, and a lowering despair and it is lonesome among an audience. For a moment it is given space and full focus before the idea of the voice echoes once more with a subtle beat underneath.

A brief moment of a scrape underneath before a new drone appears and fades, and the idea of the voice echoes once more and clears all. In this emptiness something harsh drags itself across an indistinct surface and slides away. The wailing of the new form appears and disappears. Possibly keys appear and form a baseline as something drags against the wind, only revealing itself in brief, yet distinct moments.

There’s unease as this minimalisim follows on from what came before. Percussion creates a grounding point but there is little comfort and all presses inward and seems to take the air out of the space. All presses in but it does not crush and so uncertainty remains strong. Sounds mostly indicate an idea of what is happening but, whilst all is distinct, little is clear.

The sound continues pressing in and suggesting and soon it enters the centre with a muffled harshness. It is as though concentrated wisps of light are peering in but cannot completely reach, and yet they keep trying and in a way it is threatening.

Pressing against and into the space like waves, and the keys seem to slowly move and take direction whilst something howls and pierces whilst fading away, but perhaps things are now lifting. Perhaps it is a trick of the mind, but things seem to be lifting as something surges toward the space. It does not clear much, however. It lurks and something else whoops in the distance and some new percussion appears. However, it all suddenly stops, though relief takes a little while longer to arrive. Silence takes hold and the song ends.

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Waking Landscape

This was taken shortly after this photo. The sunlight had started overpowering the clouds… I think. At the very least there was enough to create a glorious display that was akin to sunrise as it was a good few minutes past the event, though maybe it was part of the sunrise…

Anyway, I think this is a nice photo due to how the light is illuminating parts of the landscape whilst also illuminating the clouds. It feels very much like the morning. I also think the bits of visible road help make the landscape feel large and largely untouched. If there was more road visible it’d detrimentally impact the scene’s atmosphere.

I’m going to be sharing a few more photos from this morning and I’ll probably say it in some of those shares too, but I need to stress that this photo does not do the pictured event justice. It was absolutely wonderful in a way that you had to be there for. I was lucky enough to be there at the right time and these photos only capture an idea of what it was like.

This is my submission into the two hundred-and-forty-fifth Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. The theme for this one is “Environments“.

Choosing a photo for this challenge was a tough call for me as it was between the below and a photo involving clouds filling a valley. In the end I chose this one due to having more visible land.

The host of the Lens-Artists challenges cycles weekly between the following people:

Week 1 – Tina

Week 2 – Patti

Week 3 – Ann-Christine aka Leya

Week 4 – Amy

Week 5 – John Steiner

Week 6 – Sofia Alves

Week 7 – Anne Sandler

Week 8 – Donna

Week 9 – Guest host

Tina is curating this one. The next one is curated by Patti.

The challenges are fun to engage with. The themes are specific enough to keep some focus whilst loose enough to allow room for interpretation. I recommend participating as it’s a fun community to be engaged with and it’s a good way to focus on subject. If you don’t participate, you should still check out what others of the Lens-Artists community are submitting.

I hope you enjoy.

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Eduard Artemyev: Solaris – Return…

At the moment I feel I’m on some sort of successful run… of some sort.
This was another one written over one listen and perhaps that was enough. I think I could’ve written quite a lot if I sat here for an hour or so and really dug into the song but this works as it is. It’s rough but I think I cover the song well.

Eduard Artemyev’s (Эдуард Артемьев) “Solaris – Return…” is part of the soundtrack for Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker (Сталкер). It appears as though the soundtrack (or at least part of it) has been featured as part of compilations more than on its own, such as on Solaris, The Mirror, Stalker, a release combining pieces from the three films that form the compilation’s title.

I hope you enjoy.

Sounds curl around with a malaise and sadness. They dance and creep through a thin darkness and something akin to strings strikes forward, then pulls back. Sounds akin to voices echo through an empty hall, and more strikes occasionally move forward and pull back, and it’s almost as though conversation is going on.

Noise builds and it’s almost like a cacophony but it untangles and harmonises and wrenches out a sense of sadness, but it keeps on twisting and turning whilst the original two sounds continue onward. They continue onward and through other sounds that seem to turn into a mass that is unable to maintain shape, or perhaps it chooses its own shape but cannot settle.

That mass soon becomes sharp and pointed and seems to wash everything away before spreading out into a detailed nothingness. Voices and murmurs are left, and a brief pound appears. Various sounds rise from something, having their turn, throbbing and pulsing and scattering and seemingly reflecting what was before. Perhaps it is an understanding of all the prior events, or it is trying to regain distinction, but it is unable to and instead these intense moments rise and collapse.

Near the end the pounding seems as though it is going to rise and burst forth, but, unable to leave the nothingness it too disappears as the song ends.

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Noriko Matsueda and Takahito Eguchi: Yuna’s Ballad

This song is used in Final Fantasy X-2, a game I have but have never finished.
It’s possible that I’ve heard it play in the game but I’ve no recollection so I don’t know when it is used. That said, I know parts of the overall plot beyond what I’ve played and some of that came into this bit of writing, which is less about the song itself but certainly inspired by the song. As such I’m not entirely sure if this is a good descriptor of what was happening with the sound and the flow, but I think that this works as a piece of short writing, or it would if I did a bit of editing.

Noriko Matsueda (松枝 賀子) and Takahito Eguchi’s (江口 貴勅) “Yuna’s Ballad” (“ユウナのバラード”) is from Final Fantasy X-2‘s soundtrack, Final Fantasy X-2 Original Soundtrack.

I hope you enjoy.

Expectation weighs heavily as does sadness and indecision. In this moment perhaps we feel small. Perhaps we want to feel big, but we feel small. In this moment, as piano plays slow and with some space we find our resolve to step forward and not be held back by burden, but perhaps to leave it behind. we stand firm in our conviction as the drama is pulled out from each note and each pause.

Perhaps it is like fleeting memories that we don’t want to let go of. They rush on by and we can only pick out so many at any given time, and that fragility holds an importance and we don’t want to let it all fade away. We don’t want to see repetition of loss and sadness and misery, and we know that it doesn’t have to be the same so we reject the ideas put forward and we choose to strive for something better, and the keys hold that bit of hope and rejection and conviction. They hold that fragility as the weight is understood and walked away from, and the keys fade out as the song ends.

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Hitoshi Sakimoto: Small Departure

I just threw myself into this and I think the result here is verbose.
I tried to draw from the scene I remember this song playing in and went from there, but now that I think about it I could be mismatching the scene and song. In any event, it was one listen and I managed to crap on a bit more than I expected and said little.

Hitoshi Sakimoto’s (崎元 仁) “Small Departure” (“ちいさな旅立ち”) is from Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter‘s soundtrack, Breath Of Fire V – Dragon Quarter: Original Soundtrack. The soundtrack was also released as part of Breath of Fire Original Soundtrack Special Box a soundtrack collection of the soundtracks for Breath of Fire I through to V.

As a side note, the song is also known as “A Small Journey” and “A Small Beginning”.

I hope you enjoy.

With gentle steps and a firm conviction the decision to move onward is made. There is a sense of relief in knowing that a decision has been cast; in knowing that a refusal to tolerate what has been set and decided as what should be, and so a looking upward to the sky and dreaming, and letting that dream build into hope for discovery for something better, so as to improve on one’s quality of life.

The keys continue making their mark as the decision to help is set. Bonds form as the keys step and reinforce the decision as the one made not as some grandiose statement, but as one true to one’s character and desire. It’s a small statement but it’s one with certainty and its echo is far more appreciated than perhaps can be said, and maybe there is some uncertainty, but the will is unwavering when it comes to see the journey out.

On that last moment a sound draws out as the keys lighten themselves to find the tenderness, and it stops and the song ends.

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Hat Hill During an Overcast Sunrise

Another photo from the sunrise at The Blue Mountains two Thursdays ago.

I think it’s mostly due to the cloud cover, but Hat Hill feels a bit ominous, especially compared to this photo.

I hope you enjoy.

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Eduard Artemyev: Stalker – Meditation

I’d planned to write about this song yesterday but it didn’t happen. I think I ran out of time and so was unable to start. I think that writing about it now wasn’t the best idea as I’m pretty tired but I managed to get something across.

This was written over one listen which was fine as the flow of the song allowed a good deal of time to write. However, I think I may have focused too much on describing the flow rather than drawing enough out of what was happening.

Eduard Artemyev’s (Эдуард Артемьев) “Stalker – Meditation” is part of the soundtrack for Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker (Сталкер). It appears as though the soundtrack (or at least part of it) has been featured as part of compilations more than on its own, such as on Solaris, The Mirror, Stalker, a release combining pieces from the three films that form the compilation’s title.

I hope you enjoy.

It begins with silence. The silence holds until a bright humming approaches. It strengthens and weakens in cycles whilst various sounds form a fractured melody. Calls outward and stringed instrumentation cut in and out, and woodwind comes from those calls and it thickly flicks and wafts. It is comforting, but it is also unknowable and perhaps uncomfortable.

The woodwind seems to grow louder and more intense, but it also pulls back and relaxes. There is mystery carried upon it and it seems to harmonise and clash with the hum, as well as an electronic wave that appears among the sounds. The hum from earlier seems to move in and out more and there is something that could be unknowable among it all.

Harshness scrapes against gentleness and there is a moment to work it all out and work out what was just experienced. There is a calm, but there is no clarity, but there is realisation and it sinks in and holds fast, and it stays as the sounds fade out into silence at the song’s end.

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Looking Somewhere Outside the Frame

June of 44’s bass player playing bass rather than brass, but the bass is not visible.
I’m not sure what the context is here. I think he was kind of staring off, though he may have been locking in with one of the guitarists.

I hope you enjoy.

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A Moving Pause

Last time MONO performed I didn’t take enough photos of Tamaki Kunishi and so I had a small amount I could use outside of these two. This time around I took a lot more such as the one.

I think there’s a strong sense of motion and stillness here, and I feel this is more atmospheric than it is properly representative of a performance. Maybe that makes it wholly representative of performance. I don’t know.

This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s “Monochrome Madness” for this week. Participating is pretty straightforward and something I recommend. If you do, then include the tag “monochrome-madness” in your post.
If not participating, then at the least check out Leanne’s photography as well as what other people submit.

A lot of what people are submitting will likely end up here.

I hope you enjoy.

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