Hello.

I've been taking some time to pick myself up after that "incident", attempting to do some damage control and recovering the scraps. Long story short, that wreck of a drive is irredeemably dead. Not only did the head get likely disintegrated but the platter might have actually separated from the case leading it to vibrate and gleefully erasing data left and right.

Lesson learned.

It's funny because I was planning to release some 3.4-something GB of unreleased material from my past KK days, back when I thought stretching, looping and pitch-shifting my own samples was so oh-my-god cool (vaporwave before vaporwave, huh). Oh, the irony. Not that it was anything groundbreaking. In fact, most of it was either made of dead end experiments or whole album outtakes. Still, I thought it would have been interesting to let everyone see how far I've come from then. I guess it's all in my memories now. There's still my old released stuff for the really curious.

So, what now?

Well, I've been trying to get into a composing mindset again. I've been kinda set back by a number of real life commitments, then that thing happened and it pushed me further back in hibernation mode. However, I still have some plans and thoughts for the sort-of-immediate future.

1) Possible 1-hour long lo-fi dark ambient music video series.

Following the release of this video here, I have been slowly, but steadily receiving some positive feedback about trying to do something similar in the future or a straight follow-up. I love creating ambiances, so if I do have a niche audience liking this kind of music, I might as well give it a shot. I generally don't like the prospect of spawning sequels to my own music unless there's a recurring motif or underlining theme/concept wrapping everything up that I find particularly interesting, but hey, they're ambiances, whatever. Be it one minute or 12 hours, it doesn't really make that much of a difference. Versatile. They're versatile.

2) Work in progress soundtracks.

This year I have been largely working on a number of soundtracks for different game projects. Since I'm contractually bound by them, I can't unfortunately disclose any details concerning these works. I can just tell you they're indeed in progress and they're being pretty substantial. In terms of sound, they feel close to the soundtrack work I have publicly released so far, with perhaps a further emphasis on dark cinematics and ambiances. As with most indie projects, there's no release date as of yet, so everything will be done when it'll be done.

3) Personal works and possible future albums.

The other day while I was in the middle of salvaging some papers scattered across my room, I realized I still have a wealth of ideas regarding future albums that I'd like to figure out somehow. I feel like I'm giving my mind a creative rehab session just to get into the groove of creating/composing again. Whatever will fly off my head in the future weeks or months, I might finally dedicate some time to my own personal aural explorations.

4) Patreon...?

Yeah, I don't know. It's been in my head for a while, but I'd like to be real with you guys for a sec. If I opened a Patreon right now, I think it would be a bit problematic for me to sustain. There's the issue of constance; I don't deliver content regularly since I multitask and have to mind many things at the same time. Burnouts happen and when they hit, they tend to hit pretty hard and I'm assuming any hypothetical donor would be in the right to expect some new content from me. If I'm not able to deliver for whatever reason, then it could be a problem. Then there's the relative lack of a following leading to a potential crawl in monthly earnings (a.k.a. zero). Any earning I would theoretically generate from Patreon would be treated as a nice extra "something" to put under the mattress for as long as it's needed, but it definitely won't be enough as a would-be full time job unless I experience a sudden miraculous overwhelming support from very dedicated donors with more than a pocket to spare. Maybe in the future considering Youtube is becoming more and more small channel-unfriendly, but I just think it's premature as of right now. What do you think? Any Patreon experts in the house?

5) Game projects.

They're in an undefinite hiatus for as long as I'm mentally, psychologically and materially able to work on them again. Also, at least 70% -if not more- of those development files were lost forever, so I think it would take me a while to rewrite some of those ideas from scratch, if I'm still in the mood to do it.

So, that's it for now. See you folks next time.

//FD

Hi there, bad news.

One of my HDD has failed me recently. It caught me off guard since I wasn't able to fully backup my data, meaning I lost a good portion of my own work and ideas for the future including games, albums and soundtracks.

Since I'm still trying to recover from the blow, I might go on a hiatus indefinitely, enough for me to come up with a viable road map.

I'm considering data recovery, but I'm negotiating the option as it would cost me an eye and a leg for something that is not 100% guaranteed to work (and would still have to pay no matter the result).

That's about it for now.

//FD

Yay.

Current progress:

1 sub - Mom's favorite Youtuber award

50 sub - Someone actually gives a shit award

100 subs - Toilet paper award

200 subs - Bottom of ELO Hell award

500 subs - Still doing better than your neighbor award

Next goal: 1'000 subs - You're still giving yourself awards award

Oh, and feel free to join my newly created Discord server if you wanna have a chat.

EDIT: New links now available.

Personal albums Bandcamp: https://forgottendawn-main.bandcamp.com/

VGM Bandcamp: https://forgottendawn-vgm.bandcamp.com/

Hey folks, what's good.

So, I've been preparing a secondary Bandcamp account. Why? Because I've been needing a place to host my personal albums, i.e. a collection of organized noise unrelated to video game music.

Since I'd like to create my own album series (plural), each with their own kind of sound, I figured it this would be a good incentive for me to start churning out albums and focus on my own creative research. I've been holding two oldies in particular ("sixteen" and "mangled.bits", made in 2015) because I've been in the process of figuring out how to better organize my own material. When my website will finally be finished and fully optimized for both desktop and mobile, my series structure will be much clearer and hopefully more evident.

For those who missed out my older posts about how I'm envisioning my personal discography, here's a quick summary: think of a tree with many unique branches and leaves. Each branch represents an entire series of albums (the figurative leaves), as they all belong to the same tree (a.k.a. me). Refer to the infographic below.

It's a way to avoid spawning different aliases and projects every time a new series is born whilst giving everything a sense of unity. This categorization also leaves me plenty of creative freedom in the long run, as I can come up with as many different styles and stories as I can.

So, in short, expect more albums coming out before the end of the year, and I hope you guys won't mind the two accounts for everything. Of course, both VGM-related material and personal albums will be fully streamed on my Youtube channel, so nothing is lost.

Will put links once I'm done prepping everything.

Later

//FD

Care to take a look?

Hey folks,

I just wanted to announce that I am going to publish a full soundtrack version of my _fade prototype/demo game, which is already available on Gamejolt and RMN, featuring nearly all the audio you can hear in-game.

The soundtrack isn't representative of what the project _fade will be in the future, so take it as an idea that will be developed at some point.

The soundtrack was made between 2014 and 2016.

I will post the soundtrack link when I'll be done arranging each loop.

See you guys later,

//FD

EDIT: Feel free to get the full album here: https://forgottendawn.bandcamp.com/album/fade-prototype-complete-ost

Hey folks, just a quick PSA.

My website will be temporarily unavailable until it's actually finished and fully optimized for mobile. It might take me months or even years due to how busy I am, but I just wanted to let you folks know.

Some of my related links are back in my profile page, so nothing is lost.

Personal albums will be available again at some point in the future.

Summer.

I don't honestly remember when this particular season has ever felt utterly relaxing and refreshing to the point I feel nothing but joy and pure careless bliss. I don't, do you? Me neither. Anyways.

I'm back... ish. Sort of. I still have some music commissions ongoing, but I've been taking my time thinking about my projects and any possible comeback tracks here. Despite experiencing a bit of creative burnout, it's been largely a time of experimentation and self-reflection for me. I've been trying to understand what kind of output feels the most "genuine" to me, and I'm referring to my own musical output.

When I look at some of my "cinematic" tracks, I feel as if they've reached the point of stylistic stagnation. Too standardized. In my eyes, the "cinematic" trailer-like genre as a whole has become a dead weight. The carcass of a glorified musical ready-made. It has never really felt mine enough. If there's something I really stress myself during production is genuinity. I need to be honest with myself before even opening my DAW. It's not just feeling a certain emotion or being in a certain mindset. Rather, it's one flow, it's one conscious. It's energy. In that moment, music is my language. I am one with the music I feel from deep within.

At least, in theory. I think genuinity also brings a level of uniqueness to one's creative work. I often find myself admiring musicians who are dedicating or have dedicated their lives to their craft, not conforming to standards and following their own brand of daring, at times challenging approach to music. It's what makes them an evergreen example in my mind of how individual creative freedom should be expressed. Enough with standards, enough with genres, enough with overproduction, enough with "functional" music, enough with these narrow-minded one-liner definitions. Music is music. Sound is sound. It doesn't come from anything but ourselves.

Woo, I'm rambling again. It's late, I'm off to bed.

Ciao~

Hey folks, just passing by to inform you I'm gonna be dragged IRL by exams and work for at least a whole month and more.

I've got my hands full at the moment, so I cannot accept any paid commission for now.

I'll see you guys around,

//FD