𝕭𝖆𝖘𝖘𝖕𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖔𝖑 🎬

All alone, somebody is dancing. Their dance partner has been lost, yet the dance goes on. But then, suddenly, there come others, joining the dance. The sorrowful atmosphere dissipates. Now there is joy and laughter. A new light has come.

This is Damhsóir Uaigneach, an original composition which I am rather proud of. It has been written between June and September 2026.

Music written by: Bas van Haastregt

In a time where new creations arrive with overwhelming speed and scale, it sometimes helps to acknowledge how hard and time intensive it really is to make art. I always try to find the rare moments of flow, when I can sit back, take the time to explore ideas deeply, without the goal to create something stunning at all costs.

Some weeks ago I had the pleasure to meet long-time online friend and US-based J-Pop artist shinkawasaki who was visiting Berlin to play at Ramen Festival – and we met in my studio in Potsdam for a little jam session to do exactly that. I wired up my drums with Senode on the iPad, to be able to control a bass line and some sequences using just my drum hits, and we improvised on that material. Here is a small excerpt from the session.

I'm looking forward very much to continue this collaboration soon! Please visit Shinkawasaki's linktree and find his music on Bandcamp to learn out more about his work.

یک داستان واقعی درباره جنگ، فداکاری، عشق و امید که یک مبارز زن کرد علیرغم اینکه از لحاظ نفرات، اسلحه و مهمات در وضعیت بدی قرار دارند، هم رزمان خود را در مقاومت راهنمایی می کند تا از شهرشان "کوبانی" در برابر تهدید های مرگبار داعش دفاع کنند.

(English translation below)

Zusätzlich zu den Zimmern der Bewohner,

Laut einem Zeitungsbericht,

We discovered this retirement home in Belgium

In addition to the residents' rooms,

According to a newspaper report,

Yo amo a las mujeres - Manifiesta 2026

German prog-spy label that was popular in my neck of the woods around the end of the previous millenium. Launched in 1997 and closed in 2001.

Just noticed I didn't have this video uploaded to Peertube yet, so here's it is.

CREDITS:

Unknown Pseudoartist - arrangement, programming, mixing, production of both music and video and... okay, practically everything except composition.

STORY / WALL OF TEXT:

Yeah, this sounds a lot like MIDI. That's because... well, IT IS MIDI. Grass generally looks like grass, cats looks like cats. Nothing rare or offensive about this at all!

This arrangement was kept in my shelves for over a year already. Initially planned as a participation in a "brevity" (all songs should be no longer than 1 minute) month for Pixel Mixers' contests. Then not too long ago it was planned for another month dedicated to Simulator games (since E.V.O. is technically a "simulator for evolution of species"). That's also when I started to work on the video and quickly had something done.

But for a reason or another, there's always some trouble preventing this project to simply be finnished and publicly uploaded. And now even though I managed to reunite an excellent team of musicias ready to play for this, I decided to simply release the whole thing in the state it currently is: with the music as 100% MIDI (just like how music sounds when it's in tracking/arranging phase) and the video using the "choco-ghosts" as placeholders for the performers.

This might be seen as a bit too sloppy and raw, but it is what it is. My priority nowadays is more about the raw ideas and less about the more tedious and superficial aspects of music making, and I think non-prejudgemental people will be able to see the value on this regardless. If you prefer the more generic, boring stuff just keep checking somewhere else.

Anyways, for what truly matters... this is a multi-genre arrangement of the "dinosaurs" theme from "E.V.O. Search for Eden". A game that combines elements from Action RPG and Platformer, as well as the theory of evolution with a touch of fantasy and mythology. You begin your journey as a small fish to eventually go out to the ground as an amphibian and keep evolving until... I dunno, maybe a human or something?

And this particular arrangement is dedicated to the Dinosaurs era. The original source is a very short and repetitive but catchy melody that repeats pretty much during the whole chapter to the point that you might easily get tired of it. I alwys felt like that tune has that somewhat "meme-ish" vibe, and it's a matter of time I make something with it, just like I did with a couple other E.V.O. tunes (the fish and the amphibian eras, or arguably also the demo for the prelude).

For this project I separated the Dinosaurs era into 4 different sub-chapters: Triassic (when the first dinosaurs, still small and shy, "appears" in Earth), Jusassic (the period we all know well, especially because a certain superpopular movie), Cretaceous (where the fiercest and strongest creatures rules the world) and Extinction (when that damn comet destroys most of them, leaving place to a totally different new era that had its own particularities).

I'm not a biologist, archeologist, historian or whatever. But these are topics that always fascinated me since I was a kid. You know; when we are kids we often dream of whatever we'll become as adults, and then life often brings us to unexpected, unplanned scenarios.

Anyways... just posting this thing as it is. It's not ideal, but I'm proud of it and what it represents and that's okay. Not pretending to be a pro at all but just doing the kind of stuff I'd like as a passive listener/watcher/whatever (I refuse to use a general but self-denigrating word like "consumer" for that). Just like commented in my latest YT post, I'm gonna be more impulsive with what I do and use more my heart and less my brain, so you know what to expect. Hopefully over time we'll be able to make a safer and healthier place for all those who dedicates to some kind of art, that becoming more of a way to express our ideas and less about bratting and obsessing. I'm happy with the direction I'm taking in, even if not everyone's cup of tea, and that's what matters. If you too like that, then cool! If not... well, fortunately the internet is full of other stuff that might better fit your taste, no problem!