the cacophony of light - bits (2005) |
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Epignosis
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: December 30 2007 Location: Raeford, NC Status: Offline Points: 32524 |
Posted: February 26 2010 at 07:36 | |||||||||||
"Prima Ballerina" is your best work yet (from everything I've heard). That lead at nine minutes was phenomenal.
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Dean
Special Collaborator Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: February 26 2010 at 07:52 | |||||||||||
Thanks Rob, I think I must have been listening to a lot of The Enid that week
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SaltyJon
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: February 08 2008 Location: Location Status: Offline Points: 28772 |
Posted: February 26 2010 at 09:53 | |||||||||||
Woo! New album! I'm downloading it now, I'll listen when I get some free time.
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Negoba
Prog Reviewer Joined: July 24 2008 Location: Big Muddy Status: Offline Points: 5208 |
Posted: February 26 2010 at 10:58 | |||||||||||
I must admit that of the 20 or so albums I've downloaded, borrowed, and bought outright lately, that Moments may be the one I listen to the most. Intelligent dark ambient. Thanks Dean.
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You are quite a fine person, and I am very fond of you. But you are only quite a little fellow, in a wide world, after all.
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paganinio
Forum Senior Member Joined: November 07 2008 Status: Offline Points: 1327 |
Posted: April 20 2010 at 22:42 | |||||||||||
I was just enjoying the OP's artwork and text description of his albums. I don't listen to much music these days, but a picture of two are always welcome
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Dean
Special Collaborator Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: February 26 2011 at 06:05 | |||||||||||
spunos - by the cacophony of light
I have been playing around with a couple of online vanity presses to see if they are a worthwhile method of self-releasing CDs. The two I have looked at are www.lulu.com and www.createspace.com - both are fairly well known for self-publishing books and both offer a service of converting your album tracks to a hardcopy CD-R (called CD On Demand) complete with full-colour artwork and disc label. To try these services out I have released one of my early CDs by this route.
My aim for both methods was to produce a CD as cheaply as possible, forgoing any profit on my part, so the prices shown are the minimum that these sites will allow you to set (ie production costs+profit for them).
For both sites you prepare the "mastered" version of the music (.aiff or .wav) and all the necessary artwork (they provide sizing templates) and simply upload them. They do the rest.
They produce a CD-R on demand with a black jewel case tray and a single page inlay booklet - which to my mind is not quite good enough. The proof copy of the CD-R had a pretty poor label print otherwise was fine. The price was set at £3.25 ($5.23 or €3.81) which was excellent, however the CDs are made in the USA so the postage and packing to the UK is a scary £8.99 (€10.53) - hopefully the postage to the USA is considerably cheaper.
The cost to the artist is minimal - you pay for one proof copy and that's it, there are no set-up charges or minimum order quantities.
CreateSpace.com: https://www.createspace.com/1950952
CreateSpace is part of Amazon.com and they also produce CD-R on demand, this time with a transparent jewelcase tray and a 4-page full-colour inlay booklet - which is perfect. The proof copy of the CD-R had a good label print. The price was set at $9.99 (£5.59 or €6.25) which is a little more expensive than lulu, but I think worth the extra for the better package - these are also manufactured in the USA so shipping is again expensive, but not as much as Lulu coming in at $5.35 (£3.22 or €3.89) - again, I assume shipping within the USA will be cheaper.
The cost to the artist is minimal - you pay for one proof copy and that's it, there are no set-up charges or minimum order quantities.
MP3 Download from CreateSpace is not free (unfortunately) but will cost you $5.99
The advantage of using CreateSpace is the direct link into Amazon.com, so anything you publish using CreateSpace can be made available via Amazon - though it appears that it is only Amazon.com and not Amazon.co.uk.
Anyway, here's the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/spunos-Cacophony-Light/dp/B004MYG6WG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1298508734&sr=8-2 ... which is kind of sexy to see in an egotistic vanity induced way.
Conclusion.
CreateSpace/Amazon make the better product, and taking postage into account, they do it cheaper. For anyone out there making music wanting to self-release it as a hard-copy CD-R this is definitely the way to go.
anti-plug: please don't buy my CD (unless you really, really want to) - download it by all means (edit: I'll be uploading it to megaupload in the next few days). I only chose this title because it is linked to a book I wrote and was publishing on both sites at the same time - it's far from my best (though the artwork is rather sexy).
Edited by Dean - February 26 2011 at 07:08 |
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Snow Dog
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: March 23 2005 Location: Caerdydd Status: Offline Points: 32995 |
Posted: February 26 2011 at 06:16 | |||||||||||
I downloaded one of your albums ages ago. Never got to listen I'm sorry to say. Are the song titles meant to be lower case? (for tagging purposes I ask) Also the band name?
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Dean
Special Collaborator Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: February 26 2011 at 06:28 | |||||||||||
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AtomicCrimsonRush
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: July 02 2008 Location: Australia Status: Offline Points: 14258 |
Posted: March 10 2011 at 17:12 | |||||||||||
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Dean
Special Collaborator Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: March 17 2011 at 12:25 | |||||||||||
spunos - free download version
..as promised - the free download version of "spunos". This was the second CD of music I ever recorded, so features the 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st pieces of music I ever composed. It's like a very poor curates egg - good in parts, (it's just that those parts are quite tiny).
001 : feldspar (7:00) Total playing time 49:00
Track 6 includes some rhythm guitar by a Mr T. Gifford-Hull, (ex Season's End and ex Razorblade Kisses), all other noises were made by me.
download link - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=34SE2TNQ |
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Dean
Special Collaborator Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: March 18 2011 at 08:02 | |||||||||||
The Mathematica Cacophony - 2004 three principals of mathematical principles
In 2003 I created The Gaia Cacophony - a three disc concept album that was a simulacrum of a classical symphony in electronic form, a bit pretentious perhaps, but hey, it's not hurting anyone and doesn't cost anything so quit whinging. The following year I decided I really liked the notion of 3 hour albums and set about creating another - this time based upon mathematics, its relationship to music (Harmony, Rhythm and Melody) and as a homage to three "giants" of mathematics whose shoulders we all stand upon.
All Music and Artwork by Dean Cracknell, composed and recorded as 'the cacophony of light'. All the artwork shown below is included in the downloads in print-ready format to construct the 8-page inlays for each disc in the set should you feel so motivated to do so.
The Mathematica Cacophony - Disc 1 - Geometric
Geometric is centred on Pythagoras and his concept of Musica Mundana, The Music of the Spheres - and relates to the Harmony of music, the relationship of one sound to another and the tensions between them.
total playing time: 56:49
note: The artwork for this album was produced 18 months before Octavarium was released, so you can imagine how "miffed" I was that Dream Theater had used Newton's Cradle on their cover - anyway, mine's far cooler .
The Mathematica Cacophony - Disc 2 - Derivative
Derivative is centred on Sir Issac Newton and his laws of motion and relates to the Rhythm of music, its pace and tempo. its meter and timing.
total playing time: 68:12
note: "(Na, K)AlSiO4 [Nepheline]" is a reworking of "nepheline" from spunos - I make no apologies for that, it needed reworking and it is now 3 times longer than it was, so that's bonus.
warning: my voice can be heard on "My God! It's Full Of Stairs" - and for that I do apologise.
The Mathematica Cacophony - Disc 3 - Quantify
Quantify is centred on Albert Einstein and his ideas of quantum mechanics and relates to the Melody of music, the quantisation of music into movements, verses, bars and individual notes.
total playing time: 72:00
This download includes 7 bonus tracks that don't strictly form part of the box-set (they won't fit on the CD!), but since they were composed and produced as part of the composition process for Quantify (by way of binary progression) they are in essense part of the suite.
total playing time of all three discs:
(without bonus tracks) 3:17:02
(with bonus tracks) 3:40:53
The "Disc 3" download also includes the artwork to make a slip-case for the three CDs:
Since putting this download together I've had chance to listen to this in full for the first time in many years - I think this one possibly could be "Prog" - I was always striving to make that 1 prog album but IMO never really managed it, it was all too easy to drift off into random noises or psuedo classical/new age soundscapes, but on this album I was more constrained, and in that a little more controlled (of course those elements are still there, just not as "flighty") - I'll be damned if I know what kind of Prog it is, but I think it's possibly Prog never the less.
enjoy. Edited by Dean - March 18 2011 at 10:35 |
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Dean
Special Collaborator Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: March 18 2011 at 12:31 | |||||||||||
The quotes from Mathematica Cacophony inlay booklets As you can imagine I put a lot of thought, time and effort into the research and the artwork for The Mathematica Cacophony. One of the more time consuming, but ultimately enjoyable, tasks was finding apt and appropriate quotations to fit the theme and concept of the album. Those quotes themselves, while not being directly referenced in the music did influence its composition and the thoughts that directed it. They are probably a little hard to read in hte jpegs above, so here they are in full:
Geometric - Harmonia Est Discordia Concors (harmony is discordant concord)
"...Look how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patens of bright gold.
There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins; Such harmony is in immortal souls, But while this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it" - Shakespeare Derivative - Standing Upon The Shoulders Of Giants
"Against that time, if ever that time come,
When I shall see thee frown on my defects, When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum, Called to that audit by advis'd respects; Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass, And scarcely greet me with that sun, thine eye, When love, converted from the thing it was, Shall reasons find of settled gravity." - Shakespeare Quantify - Simplicity Is The Ultimate Sophistication
"And, when he shall die,
take him and cut him out in little stars, and he will make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night, and pay no worship to the garish sun" - Shakespeare |
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Dean
Special Collaborator Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: March 23 2011 at 06:20 | |||||||||||
The West/Wind Cacophony - 2004 ... the last of my 3-hour/3-disc suites (thus far...)
My house faces east, so from the kitchen window at the rear of the house, I get commanding views of the sun as it sets over the fields in the distance. The downside of this enviable vista is the West Wind that rips over the fields, leaps over the back hedge and bludgeons my patio with relentless fervor. I saw three ways of exploiting this phenonomina: make a windmill, build an aeolian harp or write some music. I did the last two.
The West/Wind Cacophony is a piece in three movements
Xolotl
The West, Land of the Setting Sun and entrance to the Underworld. It is odd, concidering that we live on a globe floating in space, that we have a concept of Eastern and Western cultures, because like it or not, if you travel far enough east, you arrive in the west. And vice versa. If you stand on the shores of China looking out over the Pacific Ocean towards the America's, you would be facing east. From where I'm standing, people of the east come from Sussex and those of the west come from Whiltshire. For the Aztec and Toltec people of Central America, there were no people in the east or the west, just endless ocean. However, the west was more than just where the sun set. It was the place where Xolotl pushed the Sun into Mictlan, the underworld, and guarded it through its journey until it emerged in the east the following morning, for Xolotl was Lord of the West and the god who guided the dead into Mictlan.. Yaponcha
The Wind God of Sunset Mountain The West Wind always blows from the west towards the east. If it changes direction, then it is no longer the West Wind. This sounds a little too obvious when you actually write it down, but it is not true of peoples. Western people remain Westerners regardless of which direction they travel in and western culture remains Western culture even when it is transplanted into other cultures. A burger from the golden arches is pretty much the same in every country I've ever eaten one. For the Hopi Nation of central North America, the West Wind blew from the mountains where the sun sets every evening. Zephyrus
The God of The West Wind. The West is somewhere that can never be reached, like the end of the rainbow it is just over the horizon in the land where the sun sets. Similarily, the West Wind is just a conceptulisation of the wind that blows from that place that-can-never-be-reach. And so the gods of the west wind can still exist even if there are no followers who believe. This is more than just semantics - a falling tree still make a sound if there is no one to hear it - it creates the same compression waves in the air - eventhough it takes an ear to convert those pressure waves into sound, they still exist. Thus a Wind God will still create the wind, but without humans to interpret that wind and to speculate on it's origin, the god that created it would not have a name. But still the wind blows. download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IE4PD8S0 (206Mb)
The Aeolian Harp:
(more details >here<)
Edited by Dean - March 23 2011 at 06:25 |
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Dean
Special Collaborator Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: April 07 2011 at 13:02 | |||||||||||
Part of perhaps. My philosophy is generally inclusive, but I recognise that some artists can be "progressive" without being Prog. Since much of my stuff is neoclassical/electronica I don't see that as being Prog as such.
Yes and No - there is no easy answer. Originally the Prog Archives was intended to be of "signed" artists, ie those who released albums commercially through a record label... The argument for that was simple enough - if the artist hadn't released anything then there was nothing to review, and we are a review site, so there is no point in listing an artist with zero discography.
Of course times have changed and now artists can release albums without the need for a label and they can release them for free if they wish, so we adapted our policy to permit "unsigned" and "free-release" artists to be included at the discretion of the evaluation team for each subgenre. In theory this would enable anyone who recorded anything to be eligible - the provision still has to be - release a readily available product that people all over the world can write a review for.
As I have said in an earlier post, I don't think that amateurs like myself should be included - and I don't mean "amateur" in a derogatory way either - any "amateur" who is unhappy with that I would call an "aspiring musician" - ie they would be pro or semi-pro if they could - I wouldn't - I'm happy to be an "amateur". I believe the site should be for "serious" artists - those that are signed, or could be signed - those that produce a professional product in a professional manner that people would be prepared to spend money if free-release wasn't an option.
Ironically I do not qualify as an "unsigned" artist by the "rules" of this site - I have released albums commercially since 2002, and still do. Technically I am eligible for evaluation by virtue of having an album available for purchase on Amazon.com alongside Yes, Genesis and Tangerine Dream.
Sorry, no - and I'm not sure which other one-click sites would be a viable alternative - places like SendSpace limit the number of downloads and that's a pain. "Someone" else has had a problem with Megaupload and I don't know why - I've just tried it and it worked fine - wait for the timer to countdown from 45seconds to zero and click on the "Regular Download" button when it appears.
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Snow Dog
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: March 23 2005 Location: Caerdydd Status: Offline Points: 32995 |
Posted: April 07 2011 at 14:25 | |||||||||||
My god this a long one...........
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Epignosis
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: December 30 2007 Location: Raeford, NC Status: Offline Points: 32524 |
Posted: April 07 2011 at 14:28 | |||||||||||
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Snow Dog
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: March 23 2005 Location: Caerdydd Status: Offline Points: 32995 |
Posted: April 07 2011 at 14:29 | |||||||||||
^ Did she?Not to me.
BTW..Cultural info alert. In Britain we say "As the actress said to the bishop" (did I already tell you that?) Edited by Snow Dog - April 07 2011 at 14:30 |
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Epignosis
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: December 30 2007 Location: Raeford, NC Status: Offline Points: 32524 |
Posted: April 07 2011 at 14:33 | |||||||||||
Nope- news to me! But wait, in Wales, don't you speak in an unpronounceable language? Like "Crwyerrf Cnwmarg Llannegemff yr Gymraeg?" |
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Snow Dog
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: March 23 2005 Location: Caerdydd Status: Offline Points: 32995 |
Posted: April 07 2011 at 14:34 | |||||||||||
It isn't compulsory (yet)
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Dean
Special Collaborator Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: April 07 2011 at 15:01 | |||||||||||
Fel y dywedodd yr actores i'r esgob
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