Finalising Burn of God yesterday and preparing for a release on Good Friday, April 15th 2022. I also created some previews for the 50 or so sound effect packs, I programmed a feature into Prometheus to create these.
I'm feeling isolated and battered by life, perhaps this is usual between projects. Thinking about my music, Burn of God follows a pattern set back with my first work, Synaesthesia. There is narrative, a story in images, and an eclectic range of styles and moods which reflect an idea from different perspectives. There are catchy melodic works, and longer or slower more complex pieces. All of this comes from the Jean-Michel Jarre influence, of albums like Rendez-vous. Other albums of mine, like The Spiral Staircase and The Love Symphony were similar in structure, but more unified in tone and instrumentation, and with some closer structural form which lent more unity.
The Myth of Sisyphus followed Burn of God, originally, and follows the same patterns. The Dusty Mirror, which, like my album of electronic tunes Bites of Greatness, was a collection of songs or tunes made over a long period and assembled; so those albums are not conceptual of 'symphonic'. Nightfood, still my current favourite album, pointed to something new because the tracks of the first half were more unified. A longer album, a traditional 12 tracks, doesn't lend itself to symphonic unity, so it was (and is) my aim to create works of 3 or 4 tracks to emulate or point towards more classical structures. In the age of streaming, any timing or structure of musical work goes, which is liberating.
Burn of God 2022 is a step up again in my production and performance skills, but already feels old. This is good. All artworks should generate this feeling for the artist. Those who are satisfied with their work are self-delusional; art will have pros and cons, but all art should be moving forwards to something better.
Apart from a change to the date and a slight addition of equipment to the credits, the artwork is identical for this release. For the first 40 copies or so - I will use the 2020 artwork. I'm unlikely to sell those (well, I have already sold one), or any albums, but I still prefer a physical format to the cheap, dead, ephemeral music of streaming. When I can afford to, I'll make CD versions of my more recent works, and keep them in mock-storage here; but they will remain on sale via Bandcamp. Perhaps the generation who now use vinyl will, tiring of the rubbish quality, short length and tedium of flipping the disc, will evolve back towards CD players.
