https://audiosex.pro/threads/a-friendly-contest-1.75684/

Fellow audiosexers, producers, musicians, artists et al.... it's time for Round #2 of our non-competitive creative expedition into imagination, music, art and poetry.

If you missed Round #1 you can check back on the idea in the thread link above.

For Round #2 we will take this collage as our inspiration:



this is called
The Loudest Sound Collage
by artist Erin McCluskey Wheeler

(The inspiration image in this collage piece was a set of glass plate negatives from the 1900's that I found in a thrift store and printed on photo paper with an overlay of a Rilke poem written on transparency film. I love working in black and white and letting my collage of printed, painted, and found papers really shine.
The original work on paper comes mounted on a cradled birch panel with a hanging wire so it's ready to hang without a frame.
Original Created:2018
Subjects:Abstract
Materials:Paper
Styles:AbstractMinimalismModernFine Art
Mediums:PaperPaintGouacheAcrylicPhoto)

Starting today let's see what piece of music we can each make taking some inspiration from the picture.

We'll set a limit of 3 weeks to get finished (or unfinished if you want) entries in. So the final day to submit entries will be WEDNESDAY 7th AUGUST.

As we've said in the link to the Round #1 thread your music can be any style, any length, you have total freedom for it to be your own personal interpretation of the picture.

Be creative, but most of all have fun!

Post your entries here in the thread and depending on how many there are I will probably compile them into a post for easy access for people to listen to and enjoy.

Again at the end of Round #2 we'll put all the names of participants in a hat and draw out the name of the person who will choose the next image for Round #3.

Okay then....let's get going !.........

 

First, thank you!
Second, thank you so much!
Third, eeeehhhh... hhhmmmm... rrrrhhhh... thank you?

And mega thanks to @Lois Lane to have paved the way of #1 until its conclusion!
It's the only thing I can say for now, so I will let others speaks their way.
P.S. Looking forward to hear the new surprising creations of Lois and you! I'm your #1 fan!

 

Hi erebody,

This sounds like a fun contest

here´s my take
https://vocaroo.com/1impm2epd8bQ

 

Holy macaroni that was fast. Wasn't the original idea to make this a yearly thing?

Not that i'm complaining, couldn't finish my thing on time for #1 so hopefuly i get to submit something for #2 without having to wait an entire year.

Theater bois say break a leg, i say may your DAW crash without saving.

 

Wooow! you're super-fast! Can't imagine how you done this, in so little time!

Really like it! It is actually a very special, suspended moment, with different layers, there is this regular, rhythmic bell which sounds like an inevitable fate, and other bell-like, "toybox piano" discrete arpeggios who sound to my ears like a blast from the past, a reminder of an idealized (or not?) epoch / era / childhood...

I imagined a ghost-like, haunted boat, tossed about by the waves of an ocean, wandering randomly where the wind and the currents pushes it, completely lost in the immensity... A big, bloody drama happened one day on this boat, but we're not authorized to know the truth, otherwise the price to pay is to becoming a ghost yourself... The skeletons in the hold start to laugh... Too late, you're already doomed, now it's your turn!!!

 

@Excuse I loved your piece! Very evocative, expansive and cinematic. Great stuff!

To everybody else who might post their track:
You don't have to of course as it's not a requirement, but it would be really good if you could write a brief note about what you 'saw' in the collage and how you interpreted that in your music.
Thanks

 

Is there a higher quality copy?
what is written in the picture?

 

The white patch says "the loudest sound you hear"

 

Sorry @Bassifondi I'm not sure what was written apart from the loudest sound you hear. The collage was on sale at Saatchi and may have been sold by now because i couldn't find it again now when I looked. However the poem is by Rilke.
Here is a link to some of his 'musical' poems.....it may well have been from these?

http://picture-poems.com/rilke/features/braidedstream.html

 

It's still available.

https://www.saatchiart.com/en-ch/art/Collage-The-Loudest-Sound/1135615/7264603/vie

 

Hello, young Poet! , could you tell us which poem exactly you have chosen for this wonderful Collage? Because the handwritten text is very difficult to decipher... Perhaps is it in German?

P.S. DLed the image to see better, the words are not in German, but in English... Though the only words I can decipher is: "Silent friend"

...Found it! Here is the full poem:

 

Last edited: Jul 18, 2024 at 12:17 PM

To be honest, Rilke is not on my A-list of poets. As I had communicated with Aidene, my first instinct was to scavenge lines from a variety of his poems, and like the original artwork by Wheeler, concoct a pastiche or collage of those full or partial lines into a novel poem (and of course wrie music to accompany it). It wasn't working out for me because I wasn't impressed with his compositions and wasn't motivated or excited by them to continue. I dropped the idea like I would a wasp nest if it landed in my hand after falling out of a tree and ran as fast away as I could. My new tack is to explore the multiple voices and personalities that compose my mind, that collage of fools, geniuses, near-do-wells and heros that make me the rather complicated being who I am. The supplied art kinda looks like a head to me and so was a bit of a "gimme", a path of least resistance for my composition. I am a bit busy and as well focusing on our daughter who will be traveling and away for at least three months after graduating from gymnasium and who for the first time will not be with us for this long a time. I hope that I have enough hours to finish the piece within the deadline.

Edit: Perhaps if I was a better German translator I would appreciate Rilke, after all, he seems to be very popular and elevated in the world of poetry.

 

I think for me the pictorial nature of the collage was the most important. What it said to me visually.. but not to relegate the poetry unnecessarily, but that was secondary. I have taken the title The Loudest Sound and used that as the main idea in my music though. Ive just about finished it actually and will post it today.

 

Here is my track:

I thought i saw the overall shape of a head in the collage, what looks like an ear in one part, the photograph meaning memories all in layer upon layer of thoughts, feelings and experiences.

The Loudest Sound
I don't know why you even bother
You will never succeed at anything, let alone music
Everyone else is better than you
Who do you even bother trying, you're just going to fail
You're not good enough
You've failed before, you'll fail again
You don't have what it takes to be successful
Who do you think you are? Hans Zimmer?
No one believes in you, you're a disappointment
You're wasting your time and everyone else's
You always mess things up
You've always been a failure
Remember when you were small and learning the piano?
You failed then didn't you
How you could never play this piece properly
I'm the voice inside your head
The loudest sound you'll ever hear
I'll never go away, even if you wanted me to
I am like layer upon layer of you, Bethany
I'm like a collage of your mind
The loudest sound you'll ever hear......the voice inside your head

 

I searched for French translations to have a better idea about Rilke's Art... and it appears clearly that his style of writing, is completely, radically different than yours. Of course I do not pretend anything in this matter, but what I can see is that Rilke is a very "Impressionist" kind of writer, he doesn't really care about details, his poems are all very condensed, very compact, so I had to read them several times to (more or less) understand where he wanna takes us to.

The result is that I think this author relies very much on the trace, the state of mind that the Poem is supposed to imprint in you even long after an attentive reading. IMHO it is a quite good long-term strategy, in the sense he haves better chances to "mark" people this way, so that they come back regularly to read his poems again, with a "fresh" look, and discover aspects that escaped them the first time...

But for people that relies on the richness of the expression, on the infinite possibilities of the language, on a vast, varied and extended vocabulary and, more intimately, to the special sound, the special music that words create when they are assembled, dispersed, puzzled, planted like seeds then lovingly, patiently, amazingly flourished in your garden... Simply said, for this kind of Artist, for Artists like you, Rilke cannot constitute a tasty cup of tea. He doesn't quench your thirst, nor appease your stomach.

 

Oh boy girl, this is incredible!!! This is exactly what I was feeling during our first "Contest"... Not a lack of ideas, but an inability to realize / achieve them... Horrible doubts, sadness, guilt, anxiety, etc...

Thank you to expose under the Light of day what was hidden by the shame of the night... Plus you have an incredible, wonderful, haunting voice! I don't know if you have any taste / interest for video games, but this is exactly the kind of spiritual voice and deep, meditative music that would sounds wonderful during an RPG / adventure game! If ever one day you're looking for a new professional opportunity, you should turn your attention to this special domain and propose your talent, you can never know!

Whatever you do, your music actually brings something really useful to the mind, a special point of view from where we have the opportunity to contemplate our life, appease our fears, and finally, perhaps... forgive others or, more important... forgive ourselves?
A balm for the heart...

 

@Amore_de_la_Vida you´re really a special person considering how much personal insights you write about your perceptions, me being ADHD i always skip "thick" posts but you really feel these things, it is kinda humbling...

All those words i can only express thru making something or drawing, extreme introvert, and being like that i think it is harder to forgive to anyone really because you always get stuck let alone myself, but i dont have problems with the creative outputs or ideas like you mention, i dont have doubts or anexiety until i get to the mastering stage when i just loose interest and it feels like i never did anything, not worthy to be heard. Seeking for perfection..

I find The Loudest Sound poem to be super dark, i mean, i would call that a demon voice and i´m sure they are messing with people since i had it in my brain too.

We are in the age of spritiual eclipse

Spiritual Eclipse
Thoughts grow like grass
The tallest strand is closest to the Sun
The tallest ones could be the truth
Are they i wonder?
Guess who grows them..

Sometimes..it is not you...

 

Thank you to write that, some people - like me - can't help themselves but being always very personal... If it could help yourself to express more your feelings... Sometimes "dark" is not a bad thing per se, it could offers to you the opportunity to "exorcise" things (mainly, things from the past). Sometimes, the fact to express very bad feelings actually brings them into light, so that you can examine them very closely and see the part that is, in fact, illusion, ghost memories, wrong perceptions...?

Among these shadows, guilt is your toughest, hardest enemy. Many people you meet or live(d) with have a special talent to induce / inject into you useless guilt, shame, or simply an unjustified feeling of inferiority. You have then to work hard to get rid of all that, find your balance, and initiate your next move. A totally free - I hope - liberated move.

 

Last edited: Jul 18, 2024 at 5:16 PM

I agree wholeheartedly with what @reticular says about you @Amore_de_la_Vida. All of your replies are like poetry in themselves. You always see things deeply and honestly and spend the time to listen and express your thoughts. I think that is a rare jewel in these days of tiktok, tweets and short attention spans. So...thank you!

I have to say in the interests of clarity that my lyrics are not totally autobiographical and they are not of a demon voice inside me. There is a grain of truth in them of course...the normal self doubt of a lot of musicians on here feel. The track though was an idea and an exercise rather than a full confession. I've used things from my past so it is a bit personal but its amplified for artistic sake as a composer. I am not totally wracked with self doubt and that little voice in my head is quite low most of the time....of course it's there and always will be.....but it's a track based on my experiences and not a realistic picture of me

 

Last edited: Jul 18, 2024 at 6:44 PM

nah fuck all that, she got a demon lol jk,

i actually like this song better than the last one; more experimental but kinda fresh, even though its still that like cinematic-y, ambient soundtrack style you write in, its different than what you usually share. the voice idea is executed well and i like that the music kinda of changes in feeling and becomes more uplifting, despite the voice - its all very cerebral. i wouldnt listen to this again or in any other context though, kinda feels like youre putting a curse on the listener lol; but in this context, not bad

i would join this one since i like the image and exercise, but im on tour, makes it really difficult to record for the next few months; so ill probably miss it by August 7th. nice selection though

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also @Amore_de_la_Vida , entrer quelque chose! France is counting on you lol