Tag: music

The Long and Lonesome Skyway

On the long and lonesome skyway
Where the broken vessels go
Black hole martyrs lead the way
To worlds we’ll never know
In the seashell, in the circuit
Every fragment holds the whole
On the long and lonesome skyway
Lost between machine and soul

UPDATE: I didn’t like the guitar solo and coda of the initial version, which felt like it was tacked on because it quite literally was, so I remade it from that point. It’s now considerably more epic, with not one, but two guitar solos.

I’m not going to lie. It feels like I finally wrote my Orpheus, which is something I’ve wanted to do for more than 30 years. That may not mean anything to anyone else, but if you know, you know.

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Cruel Dominions

I found this old mix of THE WORD DESCENDED that I’d forgotten I did back in December, and was frankly kind of blown away by it. I think it’s going to have to go on the Soulsigma CD. Anyhow, it’s up on UATV for the subscribers. If you’re feeling down at all over the Espstein coverup, I think this will prove a salutary reminder that it doesn’t matter what they do, because they will never win.

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Sacris Solemnis

“Sacris solemniis” is one of the five beautiful hymns St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) composed in honor of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament at specific request of Pope Urban IV (1261-1264) when the Pope first established the Feast of Corpus Christi in 1264. Today Sacris Solemniis is used as a hymn for the Office of the Readings for Corpus Christi, as well as during the procession of that day.

Being a massive and inveterate fan of Enigma, I’ve tried repeatedly to do something in that vein even before the appearance of AI-generated music and repeatedly failed. However, yesterday, thanks to the philosopher and Suno 4.5, I was finally able to create something that I found to be worthwhile. In the process, I also learned a valuable lesson in always using a DAW rather than a sound editor to make track edits. You can listen to Sacris Solemnis and even download it from Unauthorized if you’re a subscriber.

Sacris solemniis
iuncta sint gaudia,
et ex praecordiis
sonent praeconia;
recedant vetera,
nova sint omnia,
corda, voces, et opera.

Those interested in AI music beyond just listening to it should definitely visit AI CENTRAL today, as it features an article by the brilliant sound engineer, who has analog-mastered all of the Soulsigma tracks, concerning his thoughts on Suno’s new feature that provides multi-stem downloads.

I also completed a second song utilizing the second half of the six-stanza prayer in a different style and with a more conventional song structure, entitled Accipite Bibite that can also be heard on UATV.

Accipite, accipite
quod trado vasculum;
omnes ex eo bibite.

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No, He Whispered

The airwaves are extended gutters and the gutters are full of dirty water and when the baths finally overflow, all the tubcuddlers will drown. The accumulated filth of all their alleged misdeeds will foam up over their heads and all the VP readers and UATV subscribers will look up and shout “for the love of all that is good and holy, will you PLEASE show us some fragment of mercy and stop releasing tracks about the Tubcuddler?”

… and I’ll look down and whisper “No.“

The Transgressions mix just might be my favorite. It doesn’t have the amazing guitars of The Corinthian mix, the funk of the Coraline’s Eyes mix, or the effervescent contempt of the Hot Water mix, but it has a dark and grinding vibe that could almost be a Soulsigma song. And that now marks 50 songs in the Voxophonik catalog on UATV, a number almost certainly destined to grow rapidly now that Suno has added a feature that allows the remixing of organic tracks, which has already produced mindblowing results.

You won’t get clean again no matter how you scrub and scrub.

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The Fatal Kiss

I’ve been working a bit on the next Soulsigma album, which is going to be entitled BYRONICS and will consist entirely of songs based on the poetry of George Gordon Byron, better known as Lord Byron. And while I’m not playing any of the album songs publicly or putting them up on UATV now, I have been playing a few of the experiments that didn’t make the cut on the Darkstream.

THE FATAL KISS is a song based on EUTHANASIA, which is one of Byron’s less-known, but more intense poems. It is mordant, obviously, but for some reason, it reminds me of Plato and The Death of Socrates, in which the philosopher wonders why anyone should fear something akin to the best night of sleep one has ever known.

Then lonely be my latest hour,
Without regret, without a groan;
For thousands Death hath ceased to lower,
And pain been transient or unknown.
“Aye but to die, and go,” alas!
Where all have gone, and all must go!
To be the nothing that I was
Ere born to life and living woe!
Count o’er the joys thine hours have seen,
Count o’er thy days from anguish free,
And know, whatever thou hast been,
‘Tis something better not to be.

Now that is a wordsmith! In any event, a UATV subscriber requested this one be added to what is now a 46-song music library available for listening and downloading to subscribers.

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Why Were They Even There?

I don’t care in the slightest about Eurovision, but in light of the “controversy” I’m astonished that the Eurovision people permitted Israel to compete at all.

Around 4,000 musicians, artist and music industry pros from five Nordic countries signed an open letter denouncing the Middle Eastern country’s entry in the 69th Eurovision song contest in Basel.

Those who signed the statement, including some previous Eurovision winners, dubbed Israel’s involvement in the competition as a bid to ‘whitewash and divert attention’ from the Israel’s bombardment on Gaza.

It argued that Israel ‘should not have the opportunity to polish its public image on the Eurovision stage and thus use this to cover up and continue its human rights violations.’

Elsewhere broadcasters in Spain, Ireland and Slovenia have called for a debate on Israel’s involvement. Last week, 70 former Eurovision contestants signed a letter calling on the organisers to ban Israel from the competition.

More than 53,000 people have been killed by Israel’s bombardment of the besieged territory, with all aid blocked from entering Gaza since March.

Israel should never have been permitted to compete in Eurovision in the first place. First and foremost, it’s not in Europe. Second, it makes zero sense for Israel to be permitted to participate when Russia is banned from participating. And third, there was zero chance that the Israeli competitor was going to be received well by the Eurovision audience.

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Go With the Flow

On last night’s Darkstream I provided some examples of what is possible with the new Suno 4.5 system. It’s definitely an improvement, especially in terms of vocal quality and overall audio quality, and it does a much better job of sticking to the lyrics. Probably the most useful change is that the initial song limit is now 8 minutes, which means that it won’t keep cropping fully-outlined songs short and requiring an extension, although it still can’t do short extensions to simply end a song very well and the Replace Section editor appears to have its selection timing off by a few microseconds.

What impressed me most was the way it finally let me finish SIDDHARTHA in the way I wanted, as no amount of previous extensions and remasterings using 3.0, 3.5, or 4.0 succeeded in producing what I was looking to do. However, 4.5 allowed me to turn out a beautiful five-minute song that combines David Sylvian and Enigma with Herman Hesse, and it turned out so well that I intend to construct a full album around it once I finish the Byronics project this summer. But in the meantime, UATV subscribers can listen to it in higher-quality than any of the audio streaming services provide.

Speaking of UATV subscriptions, this is the right time to get on board with the new subscription-and-payment system if you haven’t started the process yet. I’ve also got the Darkstream up-to-date, and we’ll get Arkhaven Nights caught up sometime next week.

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