This month, I found a PlayStation 2 Eyetoy Webcam at CEX for a grand total of £1. It made me so happy to see it because I thought it was the most beautiful piece of garbage I'd ever seen. A camera from 2002 with a resolution of 480p at best, for less than a sausage roll... It was beautiful in a way that was going to be difficult to explain to anyone who hasn't trained themselves to see that kind of beauty. Inspiring. When I took it home, I found out it was completely unable to interface with my modern windows 11 PC, so I went to extreme lengths to set up a virtual environment for it, get the drivers working, and unearth old versions of proprietary software in order to get a functioning webcam. It took a few days, but it worked! And I THEN discovered it had the worst microphone I'd ever heard, so I decided to write a song about it and then record parts of it using my new PS2 eyetoy camera. In order to do this, I needed to download the drivers onto a virtual installation of Windows XP, then track it using a version of Audacity from 2005 while simultaneously tracking in my modern DAW. I would then send the file back to the host computer, bring it into the DAW, stretch it out by 50% and pitch it down an octave in order to not sound like a chipmunk. Lyrics: When you awoke You were in a home, created just for you A dream of ones and zeroes, all to get a better view For 20 years You were locked away, till one bright day came by Cathedrals built by no one, that anyone can find When I call up To the sunbeams, "Pray let down your golden hair" Let it fall over the mountains in a tousle we can share And water melts Into rivers, slow and hazy, through the pines Cathedrals built by no one, that anyone can find You untold life of me, Murmured throughout your leaves The cyclic chemistry Our term has come And in the saline air Of unknown time Cathedrals built by no one, that anyone can find The slated cliffs Don't mistake me, don't pretend that there won't be The outline of her lips carved into rocks by waves at sea Along the beach Something's out there, if we trace a gentle line Cathedrals built by no one, that anyone can find L'inconnu de ma vie Chuchotant sous tes racines La chimie qui nous lie Notre heure sonne Et dans l'air salin, Temps qui décline, Cathedrals built by no one, that anyone can find
An overheard conversation in the park.
I applied to become a living organ donor this month, and while I was reading up on the risks and procedures, I couldn't stop thinking about the intimacy of surgery in general. I found a song about the topic and resonated with it so much I felt the need to cover it.
This is a song I wrote with my friends in a new band I started recently! It wasn't originally in French, but it got stuck enough in my head that I wanted to make more of it, and rather than write more verses without my friends I thought it would be more fun to just recapture what we did write in a different language. My friend Achille came by last weekend to film some social video with me and we had a bit of extra time at the end, so I decided to show it off!
I've spent the last few weeks working on-and-off on a 3D animation designed to look like a 1980's cartoon that's just trying to sell cheap plastic toys.
During a studio recording session for my radio show, me and the other musicians challenged ourselves to write and perform a song in an hour-- While swapping instruments. It was our first recording session together and listening back to the audio brought me so much joy that it honestly just feels so difficult to contain. I don't often get to make art with other people so I'm just really thrilled that we could not only come together to make something but that it came out so well.
A cover of one of my favourite halloween-y songs from an animated show called Over the Garden Wall! oooo scary
When it falls from the twig, from the branch, from the tree As it falls through the air, does the leaf know it's free?
I've been finding new and engaging ways to cope with the changes life has thrown at me recently. Sometimes covering a classic song like this one really helps me get through a rough day.
A short film centred around a week-long retreat into the woods with a collection of musicians, dancers, and artists, all of whom but 2 were strangers to me.
A short piece of music through-composed for a documentary about a camp I went to this month. I tried to "Duplicate" the style of some artists I learnt a little about, as well as put to use the learnings I had done when I was off fiddling in the woods.
A song I wrote this month-- It was originally prompted by someone telling me about a character they wrote who had control over time, and I couldn't get the image out of my head of sands blanketing a small town inside of an hourglass, like how the remains of multiple cities are sometimes found atop each other beneath layers of rock and dust and dirt. Extra vocals courtesy of my flatmate Meg! The mix isn't final, but we're getting there.
A visual for the song I wrote, produced in Blender 4.3. I'd quite like to make a music video from the concept in future, but this month has been really busy with touring.
The soundtrack to my short film-- Felt like sharing because it turned out a LOT better than I thought it would (And was good harp practice!). Special thanks to Meg Louise-Hill for her vocals.
