dacca

I used an FX repeater and staggered double-tracked guitar lead to create that Groundhog Day blues feel. I hope you like it.

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Music: David Coutts

(roots guitar, hard rock guitar, Liverpool bass, vintage drum kit [manual], vintage drum kit [smart instrument], FX Repeater)

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Image modified from: 'Groundhog Day 2016' by 7th Street Theatre, Flickr

I'm approaching 200,000 plays and I created this new version of my track Shooting Stars https://soundcloud.com/dacca/shooting-stars to celebrate.

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Interestingly, for me at least, I discovered a "feature" (problem) in Logic Pro X whilst creating this version of Shooting Stars. I normally start with a blank slate in Logic Pro X, and select the option to add a software instrument. Logic Pro X loads an electric piano instrument by default, which I would then normally replace with whatever instrument takes my fancy (so I keep the track but load in another software instrument in place of the electric piano). But the volume of the instrument that I then select is inherited from the electronic piano instrument track, even though the electronic piano no longer present (as I've loaded another software instrument in that track). So, when I first tried an ambient guitar lead on this it was way, way too quiet. Try as I might, I couldn't seem to boost the volume sufficiently. Then I read online (on an Apple support forum for Logic Pro X) that all you have to do is unload and reload the software instrument patch you're using and the volume returns to normal (and ignores the stupid default electronic piano software instrument's volume).

So, there you have it, still learning.

Creating this made me think back to some of my tracks on my "I ♥ Stars" playlist https://soundcloud.com/dacca/sets/i-stars, so I added it that collection.

Trust me, I know the signs when space melancholia sets in. Mine started soon after the unfulfilled promise of the Apollo program...

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Don't me me wrong, I am a HUGE Elon Musk fan. This is not any form of criticism of Musk, this is my agreement with his throwaway statement "It’s 2017. We Should Have A Lunar Base By Now." The 'Space Melancholia' concept is my own sad interpretation of that statement.

For a more upbeat track of mine celebrating Musk's vision, try:

https://soundcloud.com/dacca/elon

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Image taken from: Moon Base Alpha, Space X

Inspired by the very successful - IMHO - sequel to Bladerunner. I was lucky enough to see it in 3D IMAX, on the world's largest screen, in Melbourne.

I wanted to create a majestic synthesiser piece backed by various machine drum kits.

Enjoy your future. The future is theirs.

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I revisit the world of Bladerunner, Blackout 2022, and Bladerunner 2049 in my epic 18 min piece "The Fall Of The Tyrell Corporation":

https://soundcloud.com/dacca/the-fall-of-the-tyrell

Two of my favourite things to think about are...nothing and infinity. These are most certainly mathematical concepts, but to me they are also questions of philosophical significance.

Zero to me represents nihilism, a belief in nothing. This is a devastatingly powerful concept, I feel.

Infinity, on the other hand, is a good numerical symbol for human creativity...especially when it comes to music, or art in general.

So, bearing that in mind, I offer this open collaboration freely for you to create music, and expand the meaning of the word infinity.

The image I've chosen is an example of infinite Mandlebrot beauty.

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For another recent track of mine on the subject of Infinity, you might like to try:

https://soundcloud.com/dacca/infinity

As I was creating this ambient rock piece I kept thinking about our memories, and how they sometimes cry out to us when we least expect it.

The backing track was created recording live loops from Blocs Wave, to which I added manually played GarageBand double bass, and ThumbJam guitar played through the "Metal On A Mountain Top" amp from AmpKit. With the guitar I turned down the volume and switched between various distant pan settings to give the impression of surfacing memories crying out.

I hope you enjoy it.

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Art: "Old man" by MinioN2 on DeviantArt

The young sorceress gathers arcane energies around her, focussing on the dark runic stone in her hand.

An ancient evil stirs, answering her call. But can she control the creature?

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Artwork for inspiration: "dark magic" by furk on DeviantArt

(image proportions adjusted by me to square the image, and I added the runic symbol in her hand).

"Strange is the night where black stars rise,

And strange moons circle through the skies,

But stranger still is

Lost Carcosa.

Songs that the Hyades shall sing,

Where flap the tatters of the King,

Must die unheard in

Dim Carcosa.

Song of my soul, my voice is dead,

Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed

Shall dry and die in

Lost Carcosa."

"Cassilda's Song" in The King in Yellow Act 1, Scene 2

from "The King in Yellow", Robert W. Chambers, 1895

The fictional city of Carcosa was invented by Ambrose Bierce in 1886, and used by both Chambers and H.P. Lovecraft in their later works.

I am a space explorer...a space traveller...some call us star finders. It's a lonely life sometimes, exploring distant sights only accessible through the ancient transit points.

Star gates - nobody knows who built them, but they still work. I am one of thousands of star finders that map the transit system. Yes, we star finders may number in the thousands, but the universe is unimaginably vast and so we almost never meet. I haven't see a human in decades, though I've met my fair share of aliens including many species who find me about as interesting as an ant.

Today I took a jump and came across this magnificent quasar, 12 billion light years from Earth. A quasar is a like a hungry beast - it's a black hole that consumes so much matter that death rays of enormous energy shine with the light of a million dying suns from the torus-shaped accretion disk.

Yet life is possible here. In fact, my instruments tell me that the accretion disk of gas and matter - I call it 'the torus' - surrounding quasar contains 140 trillion times all the water in the Earth's oceans. Wouldn't want to get too close, though...

I'll probably spend a few weeks here, exploring the outer regions of the torus in more depth. So beautiful, but there's nobody here with whom I can share that beauty.

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I hope you enjoyed my little space fantasy. It's actually mixed with some facts, including the vastness of the water resources in this quasar system 12 billion light years from Earth. Here's the NASA JPL article I based it on, from which I cut the image that I used

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2011-223

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I can't lay claim to the phrase "star finder"...it's derived from the hot new science-fantasy roleplaying game "Starfinder" by Paizo, which I only just purchased. The game is about space exploration and adventure!