Combustion #2: "I Am a Blind Man" is finally complete!

It has been a long journey. Now, the animation has finally been realized!

Watch it here: https://vimeo.com/200537395

The lyrics are available for reference here: http://kindlyn.wikia.com/wiki/Combustion_2:_I_Am_a_Blind_Man

This work represents the general fear of commitment that people often have, and the idea that we can become so concerned with setting up walls and protecting ourselves that we forget to live.

The protagonist here is in a closed off environment (a house) that is suspended in space. He has isolated himself from all of the world, and plans to stay there indefinitely so that he can always be sheltered. He is horrified of the outside world, and believes that even if he is unhappy, as long as he sits there and waits, adventure will eventually come to him. In complete denial, he ignores the fact that he is suffering from the situation, and convinces himself that anything would be better than leaving his safe haven. So he stays there until the bitter end.

It was our goal to have all of the media merge to create artistic resonance, so the lyrics, the music, and the video represent different facets of this story, along with some allusion to a larger narrative. It is our hope that this work can be enjoyed many times over and still reveal nuance to a critical eye.

Without revealing too much, we now invite you to share below any thoughts, questions, and comments you might have regarding "I Am a Blind Man"!

This animation was funded in part by The Regional Artist Project Grant Consortium, York County Arts Council, and The North Carolina Arts Council. A very hearty "thank you" to those organizations.

Combustion #3

Hello people, this is Luke. I'm not sure if there's anybody still out there reading our blog at this point. If they're are still readers out there, then I apologize for our lack of content. If they're aren't any readers, well that's fine, too. I think I'll just use this as somewhere to voice my thoughts.

Things have slowed down a bit for Kindlyn, and I'd say a lot of that is my fault. Jordan and Hayden finished writing and recording our second piece, I am a blind man, and Jessie has made a lot of progress on an animated video to accompany it. I'll try to get those posted on here at some point. As for me, I've let myself get distracted and I haven't focused on writing in quite a while. I'm trying to fix that now.


Anyway, here's a link to the lyrics for our third combustion:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/14U4f9aDREyRe4hJMV2YT7aVFetqHNSVCxOO8fK9O4l0/edit?usp=sharing

I'm calling it Kindlyn in Flames. If you're wondering what it's about, it's about giving up on the things you're worried about and just trying to be happy for the next couple of seconds. A temporary solution, if a solution at all, but I think it's one that we've all thought of before.

That's all I've got to add at the moment. I hope you enjoy it.

Combustion #2 Music Progress 11: A Glitchy Mess!!

After listening to the latest version of Combustion 2, Jordan and I determined that the A' section needed to be longer. However, that wasn't going to be easy, because when we began this song, we allotted a certain amount of lyrics to the A' section. We had run out of lyrics.

This left us with a few options:
1. Repeat lyrics
2. Have Luke add more lyrics
3. Take some of the lyrics designated for the C section, and use them in the A' section instead

As a reminder, this is the structure of the song:
A B A' C A''

I was particularly against the first option because I didn't see any reason to repeat an entire sentence or more, and I felt like it would lower the quality of the song.
The second option was my favorite, but we knew it was putting extra work on Luke. It can be difficult to have a completed product (the lyrics), then have to cram something in the middle of it.
The third option would have put lyrics in an area where they contrasted with the musical idea. In other words, the feel of the music and the words being sung would not have resonated well.

We talked to Luke about the second option, and he was cool with giving it a shot.

So Jordan and I moved ahead in the A' section by writing a melody without any lyrics to go along with them. In the mean time, Luke is going to try to come up with something that fits in that section.

But we also came across another problem when we were composing. I wanted another layer of interest in the A' section, because it didn't feel musically developed enough. So I layered a bunch of effects on the piano. Right now it's sort of a glitchy mess, with pops and crackles... But the idea is there! Our next step is to fix those up, and to refine the raw idea for the melody that we have. We also need to determine whether or not we have the right feel.

Let us know what you think!
http://picosong.com/4Eeg/

-Hayden Davenport

Lyrical considerations for the Big Number Three

Hey guys, it's been a while, but here's your friendly lyric-writer guy coming in with an update or two on this side of the project.

With my contributions to #1 and #2 (Flamespitters and I am a bind man, respectively) mostly complete, I've been working along trying to get the lyrics set up for our third Combustion. So, I'm getting on here to try and work out some ideas and get a bigger picture for this one.

The idea for this combustion is based on tarot cards. If you aren't familiar with them, they're those cards with the pictures on them that you always see the fortune tellers use in the movies. Each image on the cards represents something (an emotion, life choice, a situation, etc.) Without going into too much detail, a deck of tarot cards usually consists of Major and Minor Arcana. The Minor Arcana is almost exactly the same as a normal deck of playing cards, with four different suits divided from one to ten and then the royal cards. The Major Arcana is where things get really interesting, in my opinion. This part consists of usually 22 cards, each one with its own particular title rather than a suit. Each of these cards represents a stage in a journey. The scale of this journey could be large or small (the size of life or maybe an afternoon in the park), but the formula is more or less always the same. These cards represent the self-discovery, hardships, and emotional transformations that occur in life, from beginning to end.

(As a quick side-note, anybody who finds this interesting may also wish to check out the Monomyth, also known as the Hero's Journey. Not quite the same as the tarot cards, but it still has the same idea of an overarching formula defining life choices. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth)

Anyway, people like to use the cards to try and figure out what they should do in the future. There's a certain ritual that one does for this endeavor: you shuffle the tarot deck and place 10 cards on the table in a certain formation. Each card in each position is supposed to tell you something about the one getting his or her fortune told. The first 9 cards are entirely based in the present. They tell you who the person is and what his/her problems are. Only the very last card, the 10th card, is used to infer any kind of advice for the future. This struck me as an interesting concept. All these cards, all these images and concepts, all this work to try and help a confused and worried individual understand who they are and what situation they're in; all this is only for the sake of one final card that is supposed to alleviate all the worries by telling you what you should do. It struck me as a huge waste.

I have never wanted to know my future. I think life would be incredibly dull and unsatisfying if I did know what was going to happen to me. However, I have worked all my life to try and better understand who I am and where I stand in this world. I think that is the true value in the concept of tarot cards, and I wanted to illustrate that idea for this Combustion.

It all sounds a little self-serving now, but so far the plan for these lyrics is to be a narrative from the point of view of a fortune teller in the circus, one who has decided not to rely on this 10th card, but rather trust in what he knows about himself to guide his way. All in all, I'd like it to be a more uplifting and casual theme this time around (the last two have been fairly serious, and I think variety is important). And considering the subject matter, I'd like to have something of an occult motif. That sounds a little contradictory, but I think it could work.


In addition to all this, I've decided I should be a little more open with the beginning stages of my work, so I'm including the very early thoughts and doodles that I've written down so far for this Combustion. For most of these, I just kind of write down the first thought that comes to my head, but I thought it might be nice to show a little of the actual writing process.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1E9zEFd4j5Kw228btYB6I6BA6nW5Wxuf2TRyKDEGO6_8/edit?usp=sharing



Lastly, I've decided it would probably be a good idea to start working on the overarching stories in Kindlyn and planning ahead a little, provided that's what we want to do. It's nice to have a direction to work towards, but at the same time I find these random vignettes to be quite charming.

Sincerely,
Your Dear Writer, Luke Jeffrey.

Combustion #2 Music Progress 10: Back to Blogging!

I took a short break from blogging, but we've still been working on the music, and we actually have something to show today!

http://picosong.com/fHym/

As you'll likely be able to tell, Jordan and I have been focusing in on A' and C over the past few weeks. Progress has been slow, and we still aren't done with what is there. Right now I think the parts are a bit out of balance time-wise. Things happen a bit too quickly, and I think the violins toward the end should come in sooner.

The very end, which is the beginning of part C is really only a skeleton of an idea at this point.

The good news is that we will probably be able to work more rapidly now that we have a general idea of where we are headed.

Conceptually, we decided to make a few more alterations. We are venturing out to new keys from A' to C. This is a more large-scale representation of what the character is doing. He's make an even greater attempt to venture out into the unknown. Not just by daring to move to a C section, but also by daring to change keys. Even the tonic (the chord that feels like home) changes.

But it's only temporary because, as any of our readers might know by this point, this character will not commit to new things. He intentionally stays with the familiar. So when we finally make it back home to A'', so too will the music make it back home to its original key. But that won't happen on the arrival of A''. The music will stay in a new key at first, giving one last half-hearted effort to make something of the unknown... But it will fail. It will give in to the familiar, and remain there, sputtering out in exhaustion and defeat.

As far as the other members of Kindlyn, lyrics are being worked on, and the art should start back up soon. Those interested in hearing more about the story, and finally seeing some artwork should get excited!

-Hayden Davenport

Combustion #2 Music Progress 9: Back to Work!

Hey everyone. Jordan and I took a break for the past week, mainly so I could catch up on school stuff. But we met today and worked briefly. We made slight alterations to the current melody in A', but decided that we will finalize it tomorrow. Wednesday we hope to complete the A' melody.

Not much to show in the way of audio today, but hopefully we'll have something tomorrow!

Combustion #2 Music Progress 8: A'

After a pretty slow day of not making much progress, Jordan and I sat down today to move forward to the next part of the song: A'.

The main thing we worked on was the chord progression. Here are the lyrics for this section:

"My house is a home, and these four walls are my grace.

Don't look.
Don't look out on the void."

We decided to start the progression with brighter chords, just like the beginning of the song. However, we wanted to get to a darker sound for the "Don't look" parts. The progression currently ends in A minor, which we will use to darken things up (the first A section is in the very bright key(s) of A Mixolydian/Major). We will still probably wind up tweaking what we have now though.

Also, it would make sense now to make a comment on what happens after the B section in more detail, since it is more clear in my head now, and since a few things have changed.

Essentially, we want the song to sound like it has started over. In an attempt to reflect the lyrics (which could be summarized by "the fear of commitment"), we have the song beginning with a simple melody. That melody is home. And that melody does not want leave home. But it tries to give it a shot anyway. And when it does (the B section), it as if the music is struggling to get back home. It gets completely frustrated, becoming agitated with the new tonal area and new melody... until it eventually comes to a complete stop.

It is here that we arrive at A'. Attempting to completely ignore what just happened, the melody tries to go right back to where it started. But this time it gives a stronger effort (with the added strings). However, as previously mentioned, things will get dark more quickly as the music finds it harder to stay home.

Eventually, this will lead into the climax of the piece (the C section). And once again, that section will decay in frustration back to an A section (A''). From there, the music will give one last half hearted effort to actually try and stray away from the familiar. It will change keys momentarily. However, like the speaker in the song, it will demonstrate that it finds change is too dangerous to be worth it.

The song will end with the same melody as the song begins. And the music will die out, as if weary from being so stubborn.

Sorry about the audio this time. There is some sort of piano glitch toward the beginning of the melody. Not sure what caused that to happen...

http://picosong.com/fPvF/