A full day of work. I need to learn to play the guitar version of my new Bruce Springsteen-inspired song before Wednesday so have been practising throughout the day. I reasoned that 10 mins of practice every 2 or 3 hours is more efficient than playing the same thing constantly. My finger tips and arm muscles can't play for long.
Most of the day has been spent working on new videos for the new Flatspace Soundtrack remaster. I've put lots of work into these, even though they are relatively simple animated videos. Each pushes things as much as I can given the time budget. These will never be stunningly popular, but they are better than nothing; pretty, and more interesting to watch than blank screen. Artistically, they are something like animated versions of the album artwork. Here are a few screenshots:
The track 'Conversion' uses an innovative spinning letter-box type shutter, which looks rather nice. 'Virtual L1', below, uses decals which flash to different instruments, the same sort of thing I did years before with the 'Challenger' video. I won't be making videos for the new Spiral Staircase tracks on there, I'll save those for the future Spiral Staircase remaster...
Will history ever wonder why I bothered making these videos? I sometimes wonder myself, except for the feeling of neatness, order, and completion; those essential qualities that define life. Most of my music, 40 original albums-worth (over 90 albums if you include remakes and unreleased albums), is unheard by anyone but me; though the odd track gets the odd listen by a few fragments of the 9-billion souls on this earth at this moment.
Perhaps one reason is that my family brought me up to know that being ignored was normal and to be expected, and that avoiding the terror of other people's attention was a vital survival skill; but another reason is that I've made about half of my total musical output in the last 5 years, at a time when the entire world seems to be making music. Music is now the most dominant form of art made by humans, due to technology and the ease with which music can now be made. The 5-year comment is of vital importance. My most popular music is the instrumental music I made 15 years ago. It takes a long time for music to gain traction. I've not promoted the new 'half' much and it still needs remastering and perfecting before I'll be happy enough to do so. Perhaps in 15 years, the things I'm making now will begin to become popular.
Onwards!
