To the Flights that Haven't Flown
Commentary
This album is a compilation of musical works for others' creative projects, so I include information about the respective works below.
1. Kobold Concoction
Often, I'm commissioned to make musical themes for characters that owners have played in tabletop RPGs. This was one of them: a theme for Gladys, Cosmignon's character in the Dicefunk podcast! I aimed to capture her frenetic personality in the music, as well as some of the incidental sounds from inside a potion shop.
Cosmignon's commentary:
Gladys Antimony could be described as small, nervous, and afraid of most things. She's also endlessly curious, and braver than she knows. This kobold alchemist is a ttrpg character invented and played by Cosmignon. She starred in a campaign as one of three draconic-aligned characters that traveled through a post-apocalyptic world in search of a new home. Her special talents included potion brewing and observation; she acted as the one in charge of documenting every discovery the team made in her trusty notebook.
Cosmignon is @cosmignon on Tumblr/Bluesky, and @cosmignon_sd on Instagram.
2. The Home of Fear Herself
This is a theme for Phobia, belonging to The_Crafty_Vampire. The embodiment of fear, Phobia is the founder of a company called Trusting the Unknown Chaos, or T.U.C. Her mind is inscrutable, though she seems to favour those who pull their weight in the company and follow its rules.
I was asked to go electroswing and the result is something I'm quite pleased with!
3. Between the Walls
This is a moody theme for TLverse, a project by 123penguin64 and lbqfm. I think the focus on the guiro and pizzicato upright bass give it a really fun texture I've never achieved in any of my other music before.
123penguin64's commentary:
TLverse is about learning how to live with oneself and the different ways people can coexist with themselves. Two people keep reincarnating and change significantly within each iteration, drawing on the premises of nature vs nurture. How they live with themselves is up to them, though each different self has very different opinions on the previous self... Between The Walls captures the feeling of growing together, the cognitive dissonance of looking at yourself and seeing a different person, but together you are all the same in the end ✨
4. From Nowhere
This track was made for 5word's animation project From Nowhere. Attending to the project's inspirations in the Western genre, I went for the breezy, optimistic feel of an adventure beginning, with some tense, gritty sections.
5word's commentary:
From Nowhere is a personal world building project revolving around the goings on in the supercontinent of Somwyr. In this world, the present time is akin to our world's 1800s. The dominant races are humanoid elementals. Separated into their own kingdoms, their tumultuous relationships are coated in conquest, innovation, and outworldly faith. Within the far reaches are unsung stories of heroism, hope, and wonder. Once revealed, they share lost lore that history books don't share in the lands of Somwyr.
5. Rhine
A theme for Waltz's wandering traveller, Rhine! From Rhine’s profile:
A strange young girl walks by along a forest trail, a pack upon her back, boots well-worn and dusted with the dirt of the road. Softly, she sings to herself, a song that sounds both ancient, and timeless, a melody that feels as though it's drifting in from another world. The sun filtering through the trees glints off her glossy hair. A fragrance of distant flower fields lingers behind her.
Where is she going? How many sights lie behind the light in her soft grey eyes? How many stories have her ears heard? What could she be looking for?
This track has a special place in my heart as the first music commission I did after officially opening them.
6. Avaula Memani
It was my pleasure creating a musical theme for quidest's character Avaula Memani. From Avaula's profile:
Just your average woman with a box full of monsters or spirits.
Fun fact: I could not find a balalaika among my instruments so I EQed a santur until it sounded close enough to evoke the feel.
7. Songs along the Riverside
It's Rhine again—this is a theme for her and the neighbourhood musician ensemble she joins on her travels.
Waltz's commentary:
Along a wide, quiet river that snakes through plains sits a certain small port town. Though far from the open sea, and nearer to the mountains' placid lakes, it is strategically situated, serving as a trading hub for all the villages in the region.
Though the markets lying along the shore are always bustling, life moves slowly elsewhere in town, where the shops and smithies thin, bleeding out into the farmlands and rolling meadows beyond. In this fairly humble everyday, the people find simple pleasures, and despite the normal disagreements to be had, at the end of the day, most folks will find themselves brought together by their common loves—such as a love of song.
It was this love that saw a small ensemble—a collection of neighbors, nothing more, entertaining their families and friends, now and then playing a song or two at harvest fairs—welcome into their midst a strange girl who wandered into the town one day. She called herself a traveler, telling strange stories of far and wide. And yet, for all her apparent worldliness, she seemed rather happy to stay in this sleepy place a while. It was perhaps serendipity that she too was a lover of music, her voice clear, strong, true, exuding something from deep in her soul without the slightest pretense.
8. Vonalee’s Boots
This is a character theme for Waltz's D&D character Marilla—doubling as a favorite "show-off" piece of theirs to play on the flute.
From Marilla’s profile:
A young noble from a lesser branch of a wealthy house, touched with celestial blood. Marilla lived a life of privilege, told from a young age that they were always meant for great things. With a talent for music, their family believed that perhaps they would become a bard of legend, their lineage a boon to the magic what was surely within them. However, that greatness never came to pass, and though talented, Marilla fell into a comfortable life of mediocrity, until one day a chance meeting with a kirin, a noble celestial beast, granted them all that they were missing, and more...
9. Lisolia in Limbo
A musical theme made for 5word's animation project In Limbo, I had a lot of fun developed the layered complexity of the track. If you look through 5word's In Limbo update logs, you can see its various instrument layers being used as accent music in different videos!
5word's commentary:
When two siblings, Matilda and Matthias, lose their parent's photo album, they find a water well that leads them to a whimsical yet mysterious world known simply as the Mindscape. The two must work together to pick up the pieces of the album, whilst navigating through family relationships, loss, and what it means to grow up.
12. Tales of the Dreaming
Music for Among the Dreaming, a storytelling roleplay group that delves into themes of dreams, fantasy, and elements of horror. I strove to evoke a sense of a dreamscape that ebbs and flows between wonder and horror. This track was commissioned by Kirrw.
11. 2041 C.E.
A theme for 2041 C.E., a project by Waltz and Firo. This story is set in a futuristic world in the throes of an epidemic and follows the exploits of two scientists amid it.
Waltz's commentary:
In the not too distant future, the world's populations have been struck by a wave of strange and violent mutations. Though not often referenced through public channels, the affected sectors kept under strict isolation, nothing widespread can be contained for long; despite a government response, efforts from officials are too little, too late, and thus the private sector has begun to take matters into their own hands.
Though a handful of influential institutions and corporations have begun research into the mechanisms of this epidemic, what can be learned from it, and potential cures, what is perhaps the most groundbreaking research will never be found in any journal. A certain institute, established by a wealthy private investor with dreams of personal grandeur, sits well outside the public eye. Though employing some of the top scientific minds from across the globe, their work is highly classified, rumored to be incredibly fringe in nature. Free from oversight of the government, the law, and most other aboveboard review, researchers of the institute push the boundaries of what should and should not be, in pursuit of the ultimate secrets of the world's current crisis.
10. Supernova
"Disco at the end of the world"! This is the musical theme for the third and final season of the comic Stardust by Holly France. It's the fifth track I've made for this comic (the first four being here), and I've really enjoyed crafting its musical identity over the course of its run.
Holly France's commentary:
Season 3 theme for the Stardust comic series.
What does it mean to be alive?—‘With everything on the line, a group of dysfunctional demigods must come to terms with their previous lives in an attempt to save their current ones—and everyone else’s too that is.’