Thursday, December 22, 2016

CTF trivia

Ok, as an icing to the cake for those massive afterthought sessions, I'll write some curious details about "Cosmic time foundation" - more like trivia, things that only I know about ... until after this blog post you know about them, too. Simple facts that might expand the listening experience on some levels - or then not - it depends on person(ality) I guess. Some details are also very personal, you'll be able to see what I mean as you read on. And I have to say; I thought this wouldn't be as long post but ... see what happened.

The oldest song in the album is ... "Cosmic scale cloning" - that song's riffs were created during the so-called labor day (1st May) in 2011. Only 2-3 weeks after the release of debut album in April 2011. And the riffs were not created at home, but instead in the wilderness, far away from civilization, playing with an acoustic guitar which neck is badly twisted, too (I no longer have that guitar, it was the fist ever real guitar I received as gift around mid'1980s when I was a kid). I didn't even save the riffs to my phone like I usually did in such cases but the riffs sticked my mind ever since. Made the early demo sketch during the same weekend as I returned home from the wilderness.

The second oldest song in the album is ... "Atom model emit" - This song's riffs were created in August 2011. The screechy main riff idea was born from listening to Incantation. Incantation has inspired me a lot ever since early 1990s, but not necessarily this doom metal project though. Ok, about the other songs "ages" so to speak; "Dissolian energy foundation" and "Rewriting pnagraph law" date back to 2012-2013.

The "happy sounding song" that I was wondering in the blog earlier this year, first whether it could be doom metal material or not, then suddenly it made perfect sense - in a sad way though - namely "M-Light formation" ... I came up with the riffs in Autumn 2014. Ever since I was wondering that it's not M4D material, or is it. I was actually thinking it could be a start for some all different metal'lish project with one (or few) friends but for some reason that didn't make sense either. Then some dramatic happened, not in 2014 but only in early 2016; a death in the family, not my family but very close anyway. Little girl died suddenly. A girl I saw just some days before she was gone. Girl who was pure light and joy, no matter what was happening around her. I remembered the "too happy riffs" after the initial shock and sadness had passed and suddenly it made sense: Those happy riffs depict her to me. Girl who was pure light and joy. Think about the song title? Yeah. It's a musical obituary for someone special. Tribute, more than obituary. Both the music and the lyrics, even the vocal style reflects all that.

The newest song in the album is ... "Leaving the giant molecular clouds". That song was made last and also very fast. Even that it's not fast, ha! It's a different song from the others, musically, and there's a reason for that: It's a song purely inspired by Godflesh, as I've been fan of Godflesh since their debut album. The other two new songs which were created last summer and don't base to any past years' riff demos are "Star birth machine" and "Nebula wisdom". Out of these three, "star" was composed and recorded first, then came the little rocker "nebula" and like said, "leaving" was crafted as the last piece.

Originally the opening song of the album was going to be ... "Cosmic scale cloning", simply as it was the oldest song, ancient monster and it also felt so debut albumish to me. At first it made perfect sense, just because it felt so debut albumish ... so it was at the opening song slot for a long time, but there were few things that made me swap its' place with "Star birth machine". The biggest reason was that it started to feel like too similar opening song stylistically if compared to opening song of debut album ("Another species falls"). It's not necessarily so similar, but both are long, slow, brooding songs. Another equally big reason was, that as I had composed "Star birth machine" and the longer time passed and I listened to that "star" song, I started to feel more and more like "this song so deserves to be the opening song!" ... that combined with the fact, that it's also very different song compared to "Cosmic scale cloning" (or debut album's opening song, too) ... suddenly I was 100% sure about the swapping and looking back that was exactly the right thing to do.

Originally the closing song of the album was going to be ... "M-Light formation". You see, here's another trivia bit for you (something I haven't mentioned anywhere before I think); debut album's closing song ("the silent galaxies") is another musical obituary, even if it's an obituary for a cat, not a human being. So, at first I was thinking that it would be logical that CTF album would close with the musical obituary like debut album did, right? What changed that original idea, was the mood of "M-Light formation". Unlike debut album's closing song, it isn't brooding, gloomy song - it could be debated to some extent, whether it's even a doomy song. Well it is, kind of, but it's ... different. The mood is not doom - see the irony while thinking the band's name? That song has no real doomy mood, it's doom metal executed intentionally in a sort of joyful mood, even if it has a sad background story based on real life. Joy, yes, because like said the girl was pure joy. Doom, because she no longer walks the earth. Instead ... she's somewhere travelling in the space, take a look at the lyrics and you might see the symbolism, some of it anyway (I won't explain all the hints). So you can see the problem I was facing ... if you could call it a problem: I wanted the closing song to be doomy, brooding, something mysterious. The song that was composed as last piece, became the perfect last piece also for the album. And the way the soundscapes end after the actual music is gone, it's also ... perfect. The album has ended, time to wake up from the M4D dimension. The lyrics connect to many of the other songs on the album, as well.

About the "Rewriting pnagraph law" song: Originally when I composed this song, I / we didn't have cats living with us. Nowadays we have two cats (british shorthair breed) and the other one of them was reacting to this song notably. It became evident when I was preparing, practicing and recording the song ... because our cat called Sofia was meowing according to riffs and clearly came to me, listening to the riffs. When I stopped playing, she was like "why?" and went away. I restarted playing, she came fast back and settled into sphinx position, listening carefully and looking as I was playing the riffs. As this song of course didn't have a name back then, I started to call this song "Sofia's song" because Sofia seemed to like it so much. Even cats enjoy doom! ;)

About the space / ambient soundscapes on the album: I had a vision about what kind of "space soundscapes" I want to get for the album early on. I kept thinking about it during the early summer already, knowing that some day during the summer it will happen and so it did: It was July 17th, a very hot and beautiful summer day when I recorded all the darkest spacy soundscapes outdoors in the neighborhood. I didn't have anything planned, I simply went walking outdoors and recorded both nature sounds and some chosen city sounds. Machinery sounds as well as animal sounds. And funnily as I kept having problems with recording just sound (did sound tests few days before the chosen date) I didn't record just sound but I shot videos outdoors and at home I separated the sound from the videos, post processed the soundscapes and that's what ended up on the album. At that point I knew it's the first stage of "space sounds" - I thought I'd also record some crazy sounds with guitar and/or bass and use them combined with the outdoor sounds. That's what happened, too. Most of the space soundscapes audible in the album are the outdoor soundscapes though. The most audible guitar "space sound" recording is perhaps the ending of "Nebula wisdom" where you can hear strange accelerating'like sound of ... something. That's me playing some guitar, not aliens roaming in forgotten space station, ha! What I did not plan though, was the third ambient soundscape recording session. It was about following intuition, once again: I went and recorded some machinery soundscapes also at home, and these three ambient soundscape recording sessions form everything that ended up finally into the album.

Oh, almost forgot; it's worth mentioning that the bell sounds you can hear at certain key moments during the CTF album ... it's not just some freeware sounds fetched online or stuff like that. It's genuine singing bowls: I bought three singing bowls during last winter and I had a feeling I'll play them for some music project. I didn't think about M4D then, but during the ambient sound creating process I realized the singing bowl sounds would also expand the soundscapes nicely. So ... singing bowl recording sessions could be labeled as the fourth ambient recording session. The points and songs the bowls are used (not just hitting sound) is not random at all, either. They have certain meaning and the most obvious one is the way the album / last song ends. If you know anything about yoga and/or meditation, about different states of mind, you'll understand why the album ends the way it does.

That's it, yeah. You can bet this blog goes into dormant mode for now. What am I doing in the meanwhile, musically speaking? Some other music projects of course. ^_^ ... I was not planning to start any other project soon after this CTF album completion, but what happened ... well, first I put up a blog for Focus Minus and thought it might be next up ... but I thought quite wrong. If you want to know what happened, you can read about it here. In any case, feel free to enjoy CTF album and have a happy holidays, too!

PS: One more thing worth hinting. While I wrote about lyrics in the afterthought session vol2, I think I didn't mention this there: If you happen to know the tales in the lyrics of Scumfusion's past few albums, you'll be able to spot different kind of cross-references to those space tales, just from different viewpoint. Places, names, characters, events ... and you might even spot cross-references to other projects like Focus Minus (even that FM has no lyrics at all), etc. ^_^

Afterthoughts, vol2

So, let's see ... continuing from where I left off yesterday, this time I'll write about how it all felt / feels from musician's point of view. Were there obstacles, or surprises, ... things worth mentioning? Yes there were.

Musically speaking, something was very obvious to me as soon as I started structuring the songs for "cosmic time foundation" in last June. I had saved melodies and riffs beginning from Spring 2011 already, continuing into Autumn 2014 and I had a rough idea about what kind of songs I would be making out of them. When it comes to tempo, they came down very much like I thought they would come, yes. But the obvious thing that kind of surprised me at first was the fact, that the "more silent / peaceful elements" in the demo material got dropped during right at the start of song structuring process. I didn't feel at all like doing / adding the peaceful elements into the songs according the early demos I had saved during past 5 years. It was about following my heart & intuition. I could feel it right from there, that this album will be more ... it's hard to put the feeling into fitting words, but you could say it felt it was going to be more "straight to the point", or perhaps "more metallic approach" in style - there wasn't going to be much if any mellow moments like there were in the debut album back in 2011. Or there would be (take "leaving the giant molecular clouds" for example) but it would be dark ambient / space soundscapes, not piano/synth etc interludes. And that's also what happened. I could have crafted mellow moments and material for the songs but it simply didn't feel fitting.

Thinking about it now afterwards, I can see one explanation why it went down like this: The oldest riff / melody ideas (and rough demos) I had done, were done under one month from when "the misery quadrant" got released (April 2011). Very soon after debut album. And the next oldest demo package was from August 2011, so it too was just some months after the debut album. So this first and primary explanation is; those oldest demos were done in the 2011 album style / mood, so of course there were ideas for mellow sections, doing the material in the same style than the material is on debut album. That was 5 years ago, and it's a long time. If I had done the songs back then, they would certainly had turned out quite differently - time is the key, as it happens to be the key in the lyrics in "cosmic time foundation", too. Not exactly a coincidence, ehh. The material wanted to come out this way at this exact point of time and that's the biggest explanation, I believe.

Well, of course there's another big factor which affects the way the material turned out: The fact that Timo dropped out from M4D in late 2014 which didn't come as a big surprise back then, really. Simply a lack of time and as he had (and still has) lots of music projects of his own, couldn't participate 100% anymore. Yes, it's a story already known. But yeah. considering that he had a major role especially with the mellow material (on debut album) that's one, if smaller reason, too. On the other hand it's worth noting that it wasn't just Timo who planned the mellow moments on debut album; it was us both - some of the mellow moments (like f.e. song "dormant") were originally planned by me, and then taken further by Timo by composing piano interludes etc.

Okay, composing mellow moments aside, another big fact is that back in 2011 Timo was handling all the synth/pianoworks, most of the ambient sounds, wrote all the lyrics, recorded bassguitars as well as real drums and also handled all the vocals. Yeah, as you can see the list of what he did is a long one. It was a strong and dedicated teamwork that resulted into "the misery quadrant" album back in 2011. We shared a strong vision of that album and I still rate that album as the best result of our teamwork sessions during the years (you know, we did 3 albums for Scumfusion together, too, and "lost constellations" is my personal favorite ouf of those - even that it was getting clear during the recording of "lost constellations" that it shall be our last teamwork together).

All this is also one reason it took me so long to really put the second album into motion: Originally I was thinking about starting to record the album in late 2014 already but as Timo's leaving got confirmed then, I had to take some time off to think about how I'll continue from there. I knew I could do it all by myself (as I have been doing one man band projects since ... ages ago already) but I needed time since I value M4D high, and I wanted to make sure I was continuing it in a way I could myself genuinely respect. I know, it is my own band project and not someone else's, but it only underlines the need to be sure about matters. I wanted to be 100% sure from art(ist)'s point of view about the art itself. So, it took notably more time than I originally imagined to get "restarted" so to speak, but the end result is something I can be proud of. Sure, it was a big work for me to do pretty much all on my own, but as it's a hobby and something I love to do - it was a smooth and pretty much a very natural process as it got started.

Okay, there's this specific thing that deserves some attention from musician's point of view and no longer technically speaking like in previous blog post: The vocals. I wasn't at all worried about anything else in the music, not about recording guitars, nor bassguitars, not a bit about the programmed drums and not even about the dark ambient / space elements. All that is something that I love to do and am inspired to do - there was nothing to worry about in any of that. What I did worry at first was the vocals. Since Timo used to be the vocalist, I didn't have to think about the vocals in past - you know, I didn't even have to think about the lyrics. Even that lyrics aren't a problem for me either, I've been writing lyrics for 20+ years by now when needed. But the vocals. Yes. Or should I say: Yikes! I am not at all a growler type vocalist myself, I've always struggled with growling and that's why I even developed some abnormal vocal styles in distant past (which partially resulted into the birth of Scumfusion amongst other things) ...

So, ... to begin with, M4D had several different vocal styles as can be heard on the 2011 debut album. Originally the idea for that debut album was to have different characters in the stories (lyrics) and different vocal styles representing different characters / sides of the parties involved in the space tales. For example robot voice for machinery / artificial intelligence, low growling for desolate mankind, high pitched "mad" screaming for a lone traveller, survivor from Lossidia, our main character in space, rather normal male clean vocal sound for ... etc. Time became the problem and in the end the lyrics / stories didn't turn into tales containing different characters / parties but different vocal styles were still used. Some of them experimental like high pitched screaming vocals which were the first of that kind that Timo ever tried. This background explains why I felt "a bit worried" about the vocals on the second album. Will I ask some musician pal help me with the main vocals? Will the main vocals be low growling or what will they be? What style would fit these new songs the best? What if I myself recorded the vocals, even if it would mean something else than growling? Should I still ask someone else to help me with the vocals, still, or not? Etc.

I took a rather long break from crafting the album as I started at new work 1st September. Actually that break came at perfect timing, it gave me some time totally away from the album and as I returned to it over 6 weeks later (after mid'October) I could both listen the material with fresh ears and confirm my thoughts with vocals. The idea of doing the main vocals myself, and also not doing it the growling way - not just because "I can't growl well enough" but probably even more because I feel there are more than enough doom death bands & material out there, slow metal and growling. Another important factor was that I had been thinking about the lyrics; I had started to feel that I want the vocals to be recorded in a way, that it would be possible to hear the lyrics to some extent at least. Not just hear growling (or screaming for that matter). So yes, I started to think about clean'ish vocals more and more, it felt like the perfect solution for the album.

Then I got the idea of combining two vocals styles (as sung by me); clean, yet intentionally rather monotonic vocals and the vocal style I came up around year 2000; a style I labeled as "sewer vocals" back then - style that partially led to Scumfusion back then, too. Clean vocals would be more audible, and the "ugly" sewer vocals would be mixed more on the background. Icing on the cake came in the form of idea about recording background vocals for selected lines in selected songs with another vocalist; my wife! Who has (unlike me) been practicing singing in her youth and has in recent years wanted to get back into singing. Never recorded any vocals though, just have had clean singing as a hobby. It felt like interesting idea well worth trying even that the schedule was getting pretty tight, deadline getting closer.

In the end we succeeded pretty good, even that the vocals recording was all new thing to do for her. The tricky part is the beginning as they say, and I sure had to do my part luring her in for singing - since extreme metal music isn't exactly her style (and M4D is in some ways quite extreme). Considering the tricky starting situation with the planning of vocals, the end result is enjoyable. Some uncertainty can be sensed occasionally, perhaps (and unfortunately the lack of pop filter for vocal mic!) and that's the combination of tight schedule and someone recording vocals for the first ever time, for music style that isn't one's favorite. It was definitely what this album needed though - it gave all new edge to the material and it also gave me personally courage to sing some clean vocal parts probably most honestly I've ever sung anything in my whole life. So, not exactly a small matter in the end. I think I crossed some lines within my mind's limitations, too, when it comes to clean singing. When it comes to my own vocals, I'm mostly happy how I got the vocals recorded and there are even some moments of being extra successful: For example take the song "nebula wisdom". Listen to that song and if you didn't look into credits, you might think there's female voice doing background singing in that song, too, sure? There is not! Ha! It's all my own vocal experimentation, and you can bet I myself am the one who's most surprised with cases like this.

Okay, only one more thing to examine from musician's point of view: The lyrics. When I started writing the lyrics for "cosmic time foundation" I did have a vision about what I'm going to write, sure. I was visioning certain kind of fictional space tales, which would have a sort of believable edge to them, too, if possible. Well, believable edge ... at least for those equipped with vivid imagination. As I started writing the lyrics, things started rolling - it was bit the same than how the mellow moments were cut off from the early demos ... just the opposite way; the more I wrote, the bigger the space tales grew. From descripting one life in cosmic drama play ("m-light formation"), through tale of neighbouring planet's fall into doom ("dissolian energy foundation") ... into a interstellar machine giving birth to stars while passing by ("star birth machine") or even bigger something cloning galaxies like child's play ("cosmic scale cloning"). While the stories came and grew, it was interesting to note how time was playing a role in most of the songs. It felt so obvious that I even recorded some of the vocal lines where word "time" appears, intentionally in a more powerful way, or using multiple voices, etc. The album title came at very late stage completely out of blue and it felt as a perfect description of what those eight tales on the album form; together they form a cosmic time foundation, of course. Yeah. ^_^

Well, I guess that's more than enough afterthoughts for anyone to read - if you read this far, go and have a cup of coffee or tea to celebrate! Tomorrow I'll write still one extra thing (not even nearly as long as this, but let's say it might be interesting to some) related to this album on this blog, and then it's this one cosmic case closed.

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Afterthoughts, vol1

So, ... some time has passed and the dust is starting to settle once again. Time to write some afterthoughts about "Cosmic time foundation". This will be a longer writing ... Let's start with the clearly more boring subject (huh?), namely technical viewpoint.

Am I happy about the album, how it turned out technically speaking? Actually I am quite satisfied. It could had been better in some ways, but these things are pretty much just some minor details. First of all, the lyrics were rather long and at times technical, kind of, I thought I had lots of time for recording the vocals, but I do think that I might have been able to do better vocals with more time. Not talking about the way the vocals are / sound, but simply some timings / sync details. There are some sections in some of the songs where it could had been recorded better. And the same goes with background vocals - considering it was first ever recording for her, it went well - but it was also demanding since it was all new action for her. It was a good starting point though, and promises good for the future, methinks.

Still from technical viewpoint; Afterwards I was quite annoyed by the embarrassing fact, that I didn't have a simple pop filter for my vocal microphone. Yes, ugh! ... and yeah, you can certainly hear it from listening the album, too. Even that I managed to tone down worst "xplosives" from vocals (often simply by recording again and again), but there are sections in some of the songs where it annoys me personally, listening to the album now, afterwards. You'll be able to hear "xplosives" at times, and also some other sounds that could well had been filtered out with the help of decent pop filter. Well, in past I haven't recorded vocals myself (or I have, years and years ago, but with extremely lofi style, hardly serious music projects) so yeah, another lesson learned; I will buy pop filter in the near future, you can bet on that. And it's not just about this M4D project, but naturally any project with vocals. I guess is also tells something that I even had one nightmare'ish dream about listening to the opening track of the album and being horrified about how bad the vocals sound (and also that I was singing something that I shouldn't had been singing, I was really happy when I woke up from that "nightmare"). Ha!

I also noted bit too late some minor details (still technically speaking) in the programmed drums. Or the way I programmed some of the drums. I could had done some very small things bit differently, because I didn't think some of the things through and it made mastering of the album notably more demanding & sweaty. What happened was that I used some drum samples twice at the exact same moment - thus creating a double times louder sound. I didn't think it would be problem when I was doing that, and I honestly thought I had a good reason doing that, too (getting certain kind of natural sounding impact) but in the end ... it was bit of a problem, oh yeah. The album might have ended up being mastered a nod louder if it wasn't that drum programming detail. My mistake, yeah, and another lesson learned - though at the same time it's not that serious; I do rather have an album sounding in a way oldschool in the so-called loudness department instead of trying to "win the loudness war" = make/master as loud sounding album as possible. No thanks. Perhaps this little drum programming "error" actually served me right in that way. But I will not repeat that formula in the future, though.

Okay, ... that's the technical viewpoint pretty much. Let's see, ... what viewpoint could this be called? Viewpoint of how I personally feel about the material musically speaking, how it turned out musically, etc. How it feels sort of compared to debut album musically, etc? That's what I'm writing next ... later. Perhaps already tonight, but in these coming days anyway. Stay tuned.

Friday, December 9, 2016

CTF lyrics

You'll be able to find the lyrics to "Cosmic time foundation" from many sites by now for sure, but I'll post them as one mass here, too, to make easier reading for those who are interested about them space tales.
______________

'Star birth machine'

Mass particles float in space
Remains of former settings
Radiating in circular forms
Molten system was analysed

What was once living here
Can now be seen anywhere
In this part of irregular galaxy
Solarized points of machinery

Incubation

It is coming now
Size of all planets
Can't be visualized
About to birth a star

Conservation

Particles are gathering
Former setting dissolving
Radiation to be erased
Reaching out to labor stage

It has reached this space now
Size of all former planets
It can't be visualized as
It's about to birth a star

Giant machinery humming
Measurements all completed
Setting forth the creation
Erasing the former settings

M4D - Light will bleed
M4D - Stars will seed
M4D N5E - Light will see
M4D N5E - Star will feel

New star has been created
Floating inside all new setting
Solar system taking now shape
Forming illusions to be seen

Star birth machine gave seed
No more new light shall bleed
Heading towards new doom
Under new cosmic full moon

Incubation
Conservation

'Atom model emit'

Zero time on all levels physical
Endless is the worms' name of time
Emitting invisible measurements
Tweaking space and time devices

White outbursts noise creates
Crates under dust labeled by time
Opening of third atomachigatorian
Blinding light shines and expands

Atom model emit
Atom model emit
Doom metal time
Doom metal time

Worlds being formed on spheres
Spheres being divided by three
Triangular shaped vessels crafted
Given life by future's great ancients

Marking the beginning of time
Emitting visible measurements
Zeroes morph into endless numbers
Numbers shaping reality now

Atom model emit
Atom model emit
Time metal doom
Time metal doom

Zero time on all levels physical
Endless is the worms' name of time
Emitting invisible measurements
Tweaking space and time devices

White outbursts noise creates
Crates under dust labeled by time
Opening of third atomachigatorian
Blinding light shines and expands

'M-Light formation'

Data sealed into hidden stars by a travellord
Rays of light once hiding within cosmic night
Shapeless towers bound by one infinite might
Through distant inner glow created with sound

Central Lautrivian system was barely found
Touched by the brightest star in this constellation
Given life a vessel with its' ultimate destination
From years of light into blinding M-light so divine

Devices cloaking in space melting all memories
Joy of galaxies exploding into yellow eternity

Portal of colors formed under spacebow gates
Ancient knowledge enters the memorized soul

Timeship has chosen target and locked all cells in
Molecular shift into seventh dimension felt staged
Starting point reaching behind the ending point
Capturing the essence of just one life's formation

'Dissolian energy foundation'

No one wanted that planet's end
It was never meant to happen
Action reaction sudden devastation
Civilization fast collapsing
If only they would had foreseen the fall
Prepared for the doom that will follow

Massive bolts of the Lossidian energy
Skies were turning all bright red
Planet nearby was expecting this war
Rebelling against their space neighbours
Energy domes on the Dissolian surface
Maximum load for emergency foundation
Just in time to reflect expanding patterns
Waves of cataclysmic blast surrounding

No one ever wanted that planet's end
It was never meant to happen at all
Action reaction sudden devastation
Civilization soon collapsing
One escape pod blinking in the chaos
Only one survivor from this mighty doom

Massive bolts of the Lossidian energy
Skies were turning all bright red
Planet nearby was expecting this war
Rebelling against their space neighbours
Energy domes on the Dissolian surface
Maximum load for emergency foundation
Just in time to reflect expanding patterns
Waves of cataclysmic blast surrounding

This was the Dissolian energy foundation

'Rewriting pnagraph law'

Pnagraphial intelligence still hanging slowly growing
Under scorched black devices all forgotten inside time
Liquids freezing while in the light cold surface begins rising fast
Within deep polymorphic colors near bottomless ancient passages

Layers of time's dust and atoms waver
Reaching out for all ships passing by
Traveller docking on one nearby planet
Wanting to witness the eternal return

Through the colorless infinity horizons
Sounds washing the corners of one galaxy
Distant humming fill parts of multiverse
Invisible laws being shaped by movement

The eye on the surface is still monitoring
Lacking the structural nervous systems
Controlled by the laws of the invisiblous
Entering codes to a thing that can't exist

Unless what exists has been rewritten
Rewrite the pnagraph machination law
Unless what exists has been rewritten
Rewrite the pnagraph machination law

Pnagraphial intelligence is currently slowly decreasing
Under molten white devices none forgotten outside time
Liquids flowing systems heating dark surface now contracting
Within nine polymorphic colors under bottomless ancient passages

'Nebula wisdom'

As labium endows
So audibles mown
Until bewails mound
Within bawd emulsion
Nebula wisdom! Nebula wisdom!

As waled omnibus once knew
Winning the nobelium wads
Some cosmic mails unbowed
While the great animus bowled
Nebula wisdom! Nebula wisdom!

As labium now endows
So audibles mown slow
Towards the final resolution
Backed by flow cosmilution
Nebula wisdom! Nebula wisdom!

Nebula wisdom
Unable wisdom
Labium process
Audibles recess

'Cosmic scale cloning'

Choose lenticular galaxy 1N53A
Paint this one out of local group C
Drag and close all the data capsules
Copy the contents into nucleus cloud
Transferring systems out of space
Moving between these selected points

C.S.C.
Cosmic scale cloning

Until reaching out to the speed of light
Opening of capsules outside known time
Colorless area begins emitting light
Data capsules burst open as planned
Confirmation point has been reached
Cloned system settings all preselected

Cosmic scale cloning
Cosmic scale cloning

Moving in side of the chosen time
Cloning process demands precautions
Giant elements of data gathering
Everything that is could now be withering
Matter of clicks have to be timed right
That's why operating outside all time
Everything that was is and will ever be
Will now be anything that ever has been

Successfully completing cloning that system
Deselection of all components after the process
Where used to be black inside pure dark matter
Spiral galaxy now shining light and self-creating

C.S.C.
Cosmic scale cloning

Chose lenticular galaxy 1N53A
Painted this one out of local group C
Dragged and closed all the data capsules
Copied the contents into nucleus cloud
Transferred systems out of space
Moved between those preselected points

C.S.C.
C.S.C.

Moved in side of this chosen time
Cloning process demanded precautions
Matter of clicks had to be timed exactly right
That's why they operated outside all time
Everything that was is and will ever be
Will not be anything that ever has been

Cosmic scale cloning

'Leaving the giant molecular clouds'

Coming in
Directionless
Motionless
Emotionless
Timelessness

Going out
Somewhere
Anywhere
Elsewhere
Nowhere

Glowing red
Flashing green
Turning blue
Enter unseen
Stop

Incoming sound
No direction
No motion
No emotion
No time
Anywhere
Elsewhere
Somewhere
Inside time

Warping in
Directionless
Motionless
Emotionless
Timelessness

Warping out
Somewhere
Anywhere
Elsewhere
Nowhere

Glowing red
Flashing green
Bright blue
Enter unseen
Stop me

Thursday, December 8, 2016

Doomin' thy spotify

'Cosmic time foundation' is being distributed to the online streaming services, seems to have been successfully submitted to most of the services already through cdbaby and you can find it from f.e. Spotify by now. So there are more places to stream them new scifi doom. Enjoy! :)

I'll be writing some thoughts about the album in a week or two. Technical viewpoint, composing viewpoint and things like that. Currently I'm really satisfied how the album came out and that I got it completed according to the deadline I set for it. It might sound bit harsh / primitive all in all, but in the modern world where most of the metal sounds so polished, clean and overproduced - I kind of prefer the organic vibe this album has. Autopsy of doom metal, ehh? ;)

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

'Cosmic time foundation' released, vol4

I got confirmation from cdbaby already several hours ago that "Cosmic time foundation" has been checked & verified and is being forwarded to streaming services around (Spotify etc). It will take from few days to two weeks that it's at the streaming services for playing - but it should appear rather soon at M4D's cdbaby page at:

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/mooddoom2

PS: After some time has passed and this release isn't freshly squeezed, ... or let's say shortly before Christmas ... I think I'll share some thoughts about making of this album and also some trivia bits about the songs right here in this blog. Some observations and stuff. I might also post a mention here when the new album hits Spotify.

'Cosmic time foundation' released, vol3

Now the album can be found also from Mikseri as high quality (320 kbps) mp3 files for streaming. While that service is finnish one, the link below points to english page of M4D at Mikseri.

http://bit.ly/2hdwDvm

PS: Also updated something I haven't probably updated since 2011 ... Reverbnation page, so M4D facebook page's band profile should now have two new clips and also that lyric video for "Star birth machine".

'Cosmic time foundation' released, vol2

Now the massive full album video (with visual lyrics) can be found from youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5dgDyP5EJE

Here's also the embedded thingy for the video:


Monday, December 5, 2016

'Cosmic time foundation' released, vol1

It's 0:30 am here, which means it's ... 6th December by half an hour! :)

Bandcamp is the first place you can check out the album. Fully streamable & and listenable there, of course - and with the previously mentioned cheaper-than-cheap buying option (with some extra digital things, artwork and lyrics in graphic format).

We'll see if the album appears at CDbaby during 6th December, too or not. I'll be adding the album into Mikseri for streaming as well, and I just finished a massive video edit ... going to put the full album into youtube as visual lyrics video. It was easily one of the most timetaking video edits I've done for any of my music projects so far ... mainly because this album has quite a load of lyrics and I had to time/sync each line for each song in that video. 56 minutes long video, with long space tales. Yeah!

I'll be making more blog posts as I get the album into other online services.

Oh, and here's the album coverart (click to open them in larger size) to spicy thy imagination. ;)



Sunday, December 4, 2016

Album being submitted to online distros

I'm currently submitting the album in the selected services; just got cdbaby finished already but it won't be at least until tomorrow before it appears there. Next up is bandcamp, I think. Those two will have option for buying the album (with a huge price of 2 $, ha!) in digital format. Unfortunately cdbaby doesn't support adding extra material to albums but I think bandcamp supported it - so I'll be able to submit back cover of the album there and also the graphic lyrics package (in pdf format).

Elsewhere the album will be of course freely streamable from start to finish, like f.e. Youtube and Mikseri. And as cdbaby gets the package inspected etc, it will start going to streaming services as well, like Spotify.

Ok, here's the tracklist with the final track lengths ...


Star birth machine (lyric video)

Here's the promised clip for the opening song of the album ... enjoy!

... and oh yes, the album title is 'Cosmic time foundation'. Grand enough? :)


Two of thy masters, and the 2nd one made it through

By taking full day's rest yesterday, I've recuperated from the nasty disease so well that ... I'm glad to state that the release is about to be unleased. Yeah!

First master version I crafted, contained some very small problems, so after fixing those (hardly half an hour task) I got the 2nd master and yes, that's the final master version. Listened it once through during this afternoon and that's what the final version shall be. But as it's only 4th December today, I have 1-2 days time to still listen and feel how it is. The feeling is, anyway, that I've given all that I can to this release and there's nothing to be fixed. Nothing's perfect, but for me this comes very close to that, especially musically speaking.

... and oh, I've already had time to craft a taste of things to come. I've been making a lyric video during this afternoon and it's coming out nicely. Aiming to get it into youtube tonight so prepare to experience the first bit of new scifi doom! 

^_^

Saturday, December 3, 2016

Good news. Bad news.

Good news first: Got the very final extra vocal lines recorded yesterday evening and it came out in a way I hoped. Even better; I went and started doing mastering tasks and got major task done - It was almost midnight when I went to bed grinning and thinking how this will get finished easily for 6th December release.

Bad news then: As I went sleeping yesterday evening, I wasn't long in bed as I felt like ... perhaps I have to visit the toilet yet, strange feeling. (I don't usually go to toilet that late). Stomach bug hit and was started then. Ouch. I could hardly sleep during last night, I felt so bad. Slept perhaps 3-4 hours. And the whole saturday has been spent both laying in bed and visiting the toilet. Often. The worst could be over already, I sure hope so ... so that I could finish the project in time. Another sad matter was, that I simply had to miss a concert I had promised to go with my wife.

A sad, sad day. But sometimes it's like this, life can surprise you. In many ways.