Category: Music Appreciation
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Album Review: Paradigm Drift by Michael Vignola
Michael Vignola is an American composer who has had a long career scoring films and television shows. His music is a unique take on ambient minimalism and on his latest album, Paradigm Drift, he explores the spacier side of synthwave. The album will be released on August 12, 2019. As a whole, Paradigm Drift takes…
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An Interview with Finnish Synthwave Producer Ferus Melek
Ferus Melek is a Finnish synthwave producer who creates what he calls “pre-apocalyptic synth music” that has a retro ’80s flair to it. In an emailed interview, we discussed his influences and approach to creating music. We also talked about his latest album We Don’t Belong Here. Karl Magi: How was your passion for making…
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Music Review: Cruise Control (Neon Arcadia feat. Tom Selica)
Cookie-cutter synthwave songs are becoming an unfortunate reality as the genre becomes more popular. People can, if they’re so inclined simply find some drum patches, some synth patches and VSTs and kind of assemble all of the elements into something roughly approximating synthwave. This, thankfully, is not what Neon Arcadia does. Their latest single Cruise…
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Tales of Berseria
Tales of Berseria, part of the Tales series of RPGs and the latest one. This is not a story about heroes. Most of the characters are self-proclaimed bad guys, and while they aren’t overtly villainous, you can easily see why people would consider them the bad guys. Things generally take a turn for the worse…
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An Interview with U.K. Synthwave Artist Aeronexus
Aeronexus (Harry Rowlands) is a synthwave artist based in the U.K. He creates unique synthwave music that incorporates ambient elements as well as strong science-fiction/fantasy influences, I talked to him about how he got started as a music maker, his approach to creating new music and where he finds inspiration. Karl Magi: How did…
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Interview With Musician, Film Composer and Music Educator William Carlos Reyes
William Carlos Reyes is a classically educated guitarist, film composer and music educator with an interest in a wide variety of guitar-based music. As well as having collaborated with musicians across many genres of music, he also performs with several video game music cover bands and has contributed to a number of albums in…
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An Interview with Video Game Composer, Performer and Music Educator John Robert Matz
Karl Magi: How did you first get involved with making music? John Robert Matz: I initially got involved in music because of my parents. My father was a trumpet player and my mother was a classically-trained soprano. They were both involved with music at our church; one thing led to another, and I found…
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An Interview With Video Game Composer Ryan Fogleman
Ryan Fogleman is an American video game composer. At the age of 13, after teaching himself how to play the guitar, he created his first unofficial compositions. His video game soundtracks explore sonic textures that mimic the emotional arc taken by the story of the game. I talked to Ryan about his creative process, his…
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The square over there
Four sides, four right angles Equal in size, a pair of parellels Waiting over there, waiting for you A sheer, wispy sheet dangles An enticing sound of jingling bells Enter the square, for it is true