Armonía (Autorretrato Sugerente) by Remedios Varo

* The submitted track must be an original piece created for the occasion, with the above image as inspiration.
* The creative process is your own, there are no bad entries.
* If possible, please provide us with a little insight into your interpretation of the image alongside your track.
Deadline
* March 1 - 0:00 UTC+1

Past contests:
#0 - The origins – https://audiosex.pro/threads/battle-for-everything-created-for-a-friendly-forum-contest.75670/
#1 - https://audiosex.pro/threads/a-friendly-contest-1.75684/
#2 - https://audiosex.pro/threads/a-friendly-non-contest-2.76333/
#3 - https://audiosex.pro/threads/non-contest-3-has-concluded.76618/
#4 - https://audiosex.pro/threads/not-a-contest-4.76970/
#5 - https://audiosex.pro/threads/non-contest-5.77309/
#6 ‐ https://audiosex.pro/threads/friendly-non-contest-6.77712/
#7 - https://audiosex.pro/threads/friendly-non-contest-7.78214/

I dated #8 a bit over a month as well because February is short and that will put it back on a month rotation for a while. I picked this last minute so not sure what I'll make to it yet!

Have fun!

 

damn. appreciate it yo

 

Fantastic fodder! Nice choice!!

 

wow complex!!

 

...now how do i turn a D–A–Bm–G progression into something which juxtaposes historically devalued fragments into a music montage-like manner which enables me to yield up new meanings within a new aesthetic unity?

Good choice @macros mk2 !

 

You'll first need to gather up those fragments...and may I suggest a pretty broom like this?

 

Oww nice ! We're up for some alchemy ! Time to brew[,](the) philosophal(e) stone[r]

 

Interesting concept, will participate.

 

well shit. the first song i whipped up seemed to fit pretty good. normally wouldn't post something like this cause it is sorta boring loop arrangement and because as someone once told me "your voice is ok but your singing is bad." lol summed it up, i barely sing so i sound like an off key guy in a shitty musical or something. ce la vie, thats what i made for the picture so it goes. did like a few takes before i got mad and quit, didn't bother to comp anything so its just the last take i did.

harp is the coolest part of the song imo. maybe i'll make something else based off the harp down the line and submit something again, got a month and half to go but thought id get the party started with this. probably make something more electronic like my "normal" style is, though it was fun putting real sounding kontakt instruments through the distortion pedal (unnecessarily of course except the harp sounds awesome). i'd rate this song like a C- or D but it was fun making it quick. maybe those really bad notes i hit sometimes will inspire me to practice more lol.

 

@macros mk2 I like your track and your voice. it's not boring it.s short. sometimes the tracks you hate the most can be successful.

 

You'd think that people would have had enough of shitty musicals, what's wrong with them? I need to know, cos here i go again......I love 'em

@macros mk2 i really like your track and the tone of your singing voice, the melody and lyrics too. At times the phrasing did remind me a bit of a story song from a larger concept like musical theater....that's a positive though not a negative for me. Bottom line, did i enjoy listening to it and the answer is yes i did and would I listen to it again.....and again it's a yes from me....... much higher than a C minus or a D (you are harsh on yourself)

 

Whispers on the walls
Carefully place melodious memories
As the motif seeps through the tiles
The wood in the stool
Had come from a tree
The tree had once been alive
Where the dove returned to her eggs
Fragments in scale
Fragments in proportion
Fragments in harmony
Think for themselves
And question authority
As the penguin on top of the television set
Explodes into a self portrait

(excerpt from a poem written on an underground wall beneath Shabby Road Studio A, Liverpool, circa 1767)

 

@macros mk2 very very cool bro ! As El Capitan & Aidene said, you're being harsh on yourself, it is not boring at all. Your voice sounds great and even if the track is loop based it is evolving (i like the distortion a lot !). Would you mind sharing the lyrics tho ? Although i understood most of them and got the overall feeling and meaning, my ears can't help but focus on tones and their combinations rather than wordings ..

Very good track, felt emotionally charged, thanks a lot !!

 

@Aidene the music by itself felt very personal, the poem opened it up to a broader perspective for me. But then, it's all connected still... Quite hard to put into words so here's a collection of thoughts:

memories, both a curse and a blessing, catalyst for sadness and joyfullness, holding back or moving on
but as relentless as time flows, things do never stay
and Human, old but still a child, shall not lose himself to the present state of things
shall neither get lost in his feelings about what was, could or never be
since as certain as everything comes to a end, he's but a droplet in a motherly sea
mortal but part of all, as memories he fades and becomes what's for next

Really enjoyed the track, as always, got me there thinking.... thank you

 

@macros mk2 .. If we were going by the grading system I'd have to give you an F for your own personal view on your
song. Looking at it objectively I myself will give you an A minus, the minus bringing it down for it's cursory length. It is a haunting, beautifully sad and reflective song that to me uses the notes of the harp to fling tiny darts at both at yourself and your love interest's emotional hearts. The string arrangement is wonderful, and your use of the melody, slowed to employ just the gist is impactful there at the end Also, you have a fucking killer voice, odd slightly off notes be damned as they can be fixed with Melodyn or whatnot. I watched an interview with Maynard James Keenen this morning, and if he is willing to tweak a falsely hit note in an otherwise well delivered vocal take then why the hell not you or I?

Your's is a cool toon and you can be well proud of it.

 

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​

so this seems like a comfortable place, birds feel safe enough to put a nest in a chair, got a bed in there. its somewhere far off though, like in another world but its helpful and kinda magical; just being there in that space the walls even help you. even though its in its own place, its very grounded, nature is everywhere, its coming out of the floors; its even being used to create harmony and balance in your life

i really relate to this piece, a lot of my time is spent like this; which im grateful im able to pursue my passion for music like this. same instruments ive used in past entries, though i used my Crumar Seven electric piano, havent done that since the first non contest; went better with the electric guitar though and this style imo. also got a better software to play my electric drum kit through

ive also been on this site for one year today. 2024 was a great year for me honestly, this non contest was apart of that

genres: post-punk & dub

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@Aidene

Is this real?
Or perhaps just a dream?
I feel a prick in my vein
A warm rush like morphine
My mind swimming around
My head now a bowel
Each thought like a fish
And as slippery to hold
But then just before,
I'm flung, lost down the well...
Of finally losing myself...
A penguin explodes
And am led home by an Elf
Who listens to me
But says not a word.

And then...
Upon reaching my door
Let's go of my hand,
Turns into a bird,
Flies high in the air...
And just when I think,
Believe that it's gone,
My ears hone in on,
Hear a slight whistling sound.
Then the next thing I know
There's some pressure, a plop
In my hair lands a turd
The bird/elf's so dropped
Some they say, that it is luck
When a bird poo's your hair
I have no idea
But the next time I will duck

 

Last edited: Feb 12, 2025

@Grape Ape i love the rythm ! The note combinations of the drum, guitar and piano are popping in the head like a wonderful fireworks painting, while (like everything i could hear from you yet) still on the fly, free like the bird you're evoking from the painting. I mean, the way the track begins with your fingers sliding on the bass cords already conveys this feeling. A digit imprint in musical time almost, in a one-man-experiment, exactly :D
Loved it. Thanks !

 

@Aidene so lovely! I DIG the drenched verbs. (just dont use more than one reverb of course! ;p lol) super cool to pull from an old poem like that. great little drum fill too. i like your sampling as always.

@Grape Ape congrats on the year anniversary! we are lucky to have you around. the song sounds great, like space/mix wise especially to me. super clean. great guitar, love the motif if thats the word the electric piano plays, the little run that gets repeated. man that guitar sounds good with the piano they really play off each other well, artfully done.

yeah on my song i didn't mean to be like woe is me so much, have a pity party but i'm at a low point currently on the arrangement/song writing judgement of myself. feel like a few years ago i was writing good songs that sounded really bad on the mix side, so i started working on getting better at mixing the last few years and now i feel like the songs sound better (or more distorted and louder anyway haha) but are more boring. also i was singing a lot more.

so something i'm gonna try to break through, like this song initially had a part after the harp ended where it went into a weird scale and got all techno but i scrapped it, but would have extended it and made it more interesting to me. i guess i should say this one makes a decent short idea less of a good song in my mind. i might grade myself harshly, but like in my mind an f is somewhere from 0-50 on a scale of 100 so like a 65 outta 100 isn't so bad, way better than a 0. elements are cool to me, plus this kinda reminds me of something which might be on like a 70/80s cartoon. it ties into the picture well i think too which is like the most important part to me for these contests, like its def inspired from the painting i picked. so A+ for that!

@Lois Lane melodyne is king! i think i graded it poorly cause i know i can do better, it wasn't necessarily a low effort song but i skipped a lot of the "work" part of song making, just did the fun stuff. made me laugh reading your comment, thanks

@aschnt im a bit crazy so whenever i bust out the microphone good chance it'll become emotionally charged, dead on ha! i just sing whatever comes to my mind and out then write them down and repeat, editing as needed. i was gonna say making music is cheaper than therapy but it's probably not actually lol. i keep looking at this $$$ bus compressor to buy when i know what im frustrated with in my songs is something else... but damn id still like that compressor. anyway here are those lyrics i came up with... of the person in the picture of course, not ME- that'd be ludicrous!

I sit here and compose
Partly because you're gone I suppose
It pains me to recollect our time together
But like the weather things change
And I'm swept away
From emotions that came
with yesterday's tidings
I'm hiding and wasting my life
Forever regretting the time I told you
I loved you
And how that must be
The most dreadful thing
You could hear from me

 

Last edited: Jan 17, 2025

hahaha truely magnificient once again brother ! some amazing verb gymnastic as we know you :D