For All Seasons by Andreas Müller is a wonderful example of mixing computer animation with typography. Andreas takes a sheet, and writes about a memory, then explores those memories using the text on the sheet. Words take the form of shoals of fish, flowers, leaves in a cyclone and a tree with leaves. Each of these memories has the theme of a season, and the feeling of each season comes through remarkably well despite the stark white background and simple geometric shapes.
Here are the system requirements for the piece for Windows users (there’s a Mac version too):
Windows PC, Pentium 3 800 Mhz or higher running windows 2000 or later.
- A decent graphics card. If it has 16MB of memory or more it’s probably adequate.
- Forcing Full Screen Antialiasing in your video settings could help it look nicer, but depending on your videocard, performance will be affected.
- Also chances are you have “Wait for Vertical Sync” turned off, this will cause an effect called “tearing” where you will see parts of two different frames on the screen. Turning this on will result in a smoother display.
Mystified & Stephen Philips – Texture One is another epic slab of ambient darkness released on Webbed Hand Records. This one is particularly interesting because it is the first in a series of collaborations between Thomas Park (Mystified) and Stephen Philips (of Dark Duck Records). This piece is a remix of Mystified’s Fishery with Philips’ own input layered throughout. Texture Two and other followups will appear on other netlabels.
Texture One takes the same format as many Webbed Hand releases; a long single file available for download. Texture One is also stylistically similar to other releases – almost like drone works but speckled with pockets of complexity, revisiting established themes throughout the track without needlessly introducing new material. In fact, this is something that often defines seasoned ambient musicians, themes and ideas are used sparingly, allowing their material to develop in an elegant manner.
Each texture within Texture One occupies a particular sonic realm. The limits are defined by an airy, bass drone, with high frequency whisperings at the opposite end of the spectrum. The overall feel between these extremes is on the surface much like water, as found in Fishery. As the water appears to surge and retreat over time, other sonic events occur that often bring to mind eerily life-like echoes of real-world sounds.
Before you download Texture Two, I’d like to remind you again that it is a long track (approximately 83MB), so make sure your mp3 player has space before you download!
It’s a long time since I’ve written about visual arts, because of my dedication to netlabels, but since I saw the video for Reign by Unkle I kept thinking ‘who the hell came up with that?’ It turns out Daniel Askill is the man behind this video, and several others, including the wonderful use of photography as a metaphor in Breathe Me by Sia.
The image for this post comes from Daniel’s inspiring short film, We have decided not to die. You can watch this, along with most of his other works, on the Academy Films site (navigate through the Flash to find his videos). The accompanying music was composed by Michael Askill.