It's Never Dark When You're Here

"He woke up one day, alone, drawn inexplicably to the Apparatus, a massive glowing obelisk in the distance. His city is all but destroyed. He see's old friends and strangers, some awake yearning for the glow of the Apparatus, others lay motionless, stacked high, "sleeping" in piles on the street. Will he find solace in the glow of the Apparatus? Or will he join the trash heap of forgotten technology?"

This piece was inspired by my vision of  game about old media and how our base identities can be shaped and transformed by the art, media, and technology that pervades our life.

The piece is ambient, inspired by Brian Eno, Hiroshi Yoshimura, and classic video game soundtracks. My process involves a great deal of sound design, recording the hum of various appliances around my house to form chorus-like a pad on which I layer a palindromic, childlike melody. To make the song sound identical forwards or backwards, I layer reversed versions of each part with the originals. I ran my recordings and virtual instruments through my tape recorder to get some warmth and hiss, repeating this process as needed to get more depth from the pads and melodic instruments.

My goal is to invoke a feeling of curiosity in a world full of old transistors, vacuum tubes, and weak signals. I want the listener to inhabit a stark yet hopeful atmosphere, wondering where the body ends and the feedback loop begins.

Thanks for listening!
Dixon Hill Beats

https://www.dixonhillbeats.com/portfolio