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Serial Dreams - Project Overview & Descriptive Information
The Serial Dreams Project, for me personally, was an undertaking I wasn't too confident about at the start of it. Never having any prior experience at attempting such an endeavor, or publishing a full album, was a challenge. Most of my previous works were independent ideas, and experimentation with genre styles, and such. Usually based on an initial idea or inspired response to someone elses' creative entities; movies, books or other media generated by the entertainment industry. So, you could understand my apprehension at starting, conceptualizing, producing, and completing Serial Dreams.
What started it all, was my experiences of having the phenomena of Serial Dreams, and trying to process them, into something coherent. Which in itself is, psychlogically speaking, an improbable task to undertake in itself. Serial Dreams are a phenomenon, of having related dreams over the course of several days, weeks, and in some extreme cases months. These dreams are significally different from ordinary dreams, in the aspects of their evolution, and cohesion to each other, in which the dreamer is taken through a storyline. Night after night, I was living another reality, sharing time with various people, having conversations, relationships, everyday life things, but in a lucid dream state. When the dream ended, it picked up right where it left off the previous night, and evolved as the night progressed, each night adding another episode. Realizing what was happening upon awakening, I was understandably a bit shaken up by these dreams. I have had similar recurring dreams prior to these, where certain elements were present, but they weren't as vivid or cohesive as what I was currently experiencing. I had two distinctively different Serial Dreamscapes, in three separate time spans. One was a single experience, and the second series was split up, with the single dream between the two other occurences.
In the early part of 2007, I began work on the idea of Serial Dreams, but only as a single work, not as a conceptual collective. Serial Dreams was born, and subsequently re-born, as I was having some issues with the first attempt (at sonically) visualizing what I wanted it to become. The track became Serial Dreams and Serial Dreams [ Neuro-Synaptic Mix] but during the course of re-working them, it seemed to wish to coagulate itself into one entity. An alchemical transformation which in Latin is essentially 'solve et coagula', as described by C. G. Jung, in Vol.14 the Mysterium Coniunctionis of his collected works. Although this work indeed did coagulate into one entity, it was broken down again into Serial Dreams Part One and Part Two, due to its sheer size, and also due to the relevance factor of 'tie-in', to the scope of the conceptual idea.
In December of 2008, is when the idea of a collective work and conceptual album, built around Serial Dreams, finally manifested. With Serial Dreams the song versions being problem children, due to various issues within themselves, I proceded to focus my attention on other aspects of the experiences. Falling In Or Without, In Memory Of Our Dreams, Serial Dreamer and Hyper-Sleep (both sections), were all built during January through March 2008. Sensoria, had been written and finished in December of 2007, but I didn't have any conscious idea why I made that track. It Never Sleeps was made earlier in 2007, and was being considered for addition to the Serial Dreams Project, but only Sensoria made it to the finalized project.
With a pretty good idea of what I wanted to belong in the project, and having produced the additional pieces to add to it, I began assembling it into the storyline. I dropped the tracks into CD Architect as I envisioned them to play out, and played them in sequence, (minus Serial Dreams Part One and Two) and after several different sequences, I was forced to go back to work on Serial Dreams Parts One and Two. There was just too much unknowns in the equation without the bedrock pieces in place. I managed to get reasonable working versions of Part One and Two completed, and added them in. Again, I mucked about with sequence, and was still not very keen on the whole. So I shelved the project for a bit, while I created WebOfDistress, and killed off Depression as my primary page.
Having made the transition from Depression to WebOfDistress, and getting mostly everything re-posted, and organized, it was time to get back to work. Still facing the quandry of the sequence order, I practiced some avoidance and went back to the individual tracks, made some slight edits, and tweaks, and re-renderred them to a more stream-friendly VBR. It was during this process, when the issue that was bothering me, revealled itself, and I ended up trading names on Falling In Or Without, and Serial Dreamer. Repositioning the re-named tracks to their respective places in the sequence, quickly resolved a large portion of my issues with the collective work. Some feedback from Gabriel Jones about Hyper-Sleep [Suture] was employed and Hyper-Sleep [Reprise] was born, and incorporated to the project. Placing it between In Memory Of.. and Serial Dreamer [Part Two] finally made the sequence order fluid.
Once I had made the decision to procede with the Serial Dreams project, there were other issues to face, in regards to sound design. Selecting and matching sounds used, to fit the already established parameters, the original Serial Dreams track had set. Then, how to apply those parameters to the works to be produced, and how to differentiate the separate individual components, against the theme components, while maintaining the conceptual theme as a whole. Identifying the need for the separation of real and dream ideas, was a key element, in sound selection. Not only to acknowledge the reality in the dreamscape, but to differentiate the real and surreal elements within such a complex environment. So, in order to portray the dream aspects, I chose to use soft-edged sounds. While keeping the real aspects sharp edged, for example the percussive elements. Not very original I will admit, but archetypal, hence their effectiveness. To determine the masculine and feminine aspects of the dreamscape, was a bit tricky, having already assigned the percussions to another element. I succeeded here by representing them in bass and treble instead of just assigning a particular instrument to one or the other. Which overall, I am exceptionally pleased with the interplay expressed, in all tracks associated with the woman series. The vocal clips, I used for accentuating the duality of the phenomena. So unreal, yet so sensationally stimulating, almost to the point of physical side effects.
I hope this little summary, helps you the listener, to experience the storyline on a more subconscious level. Or, on a more conscious level, where you can apply the descriptions to the interplay of instruments and sound to a world that exists in my head. Thanks for the support, D.
What started it all, was my experiences of having the phenomena of Serial Dreams, and trying to process them, into something coherent. Which in itself is, psychlogically speaking, an improbable task to undertake in itself. Serial Dreams are a phenomenon, of having related dreams over the course of several days, weeks, and in some extreme cases months. These dreams are significally different from ordinary dreams, in the aspects of their evolution, and cohesion to each other, in which the dreamer is taken through a storyline. Night after night, I was living another reality, sharing time with various people, having conversations, relationships, everyday life things, but in a lucid dream state. When the dream ended, it picked up right where it left off the previous night, and evolved as the night progressed, each night adding another episode. Realizing what was happening upon awakening, I was understandably a bit shaken up by these dreams. I have had similar recurring dreams prior to these, where certain elements were present, but they weren't as vivid or cohesive as what I was currently experiencing. I had two distinctively different Serial Dreamscapes, in three separate time spans. One was a single experience, and the second series was split up, with the single dream between the two other occurences.
In the early part of 2007, I began work on the idea of Serial Dreams, but only as a single work, not as a conceptual collective. Serial Dreams was born, and subsequently re-born, as I was having some issues with the first attempt (at sonically) visualizing what I wanted it to become. The track became Serial Dreams and Serial Dreams [ Neuro-Synaptic Mix] but during the course of re-working them, it seemed to wish to coagulate itself into one entity. An alchemical transformation which in Latin is essentially 'solve et coagula', as described by C. G. Jung, in Vol.14 the Mysterium Coniunctionis of his collected works. Although this work indeed did coagulate into one entity, it was broken down again into Serial Dreams Part One and Part Two, due to its sheer size, and also due to the relevance factor of 'tie-in', to the scope of the conceptual idea.
In December of 2008, is when the idea of a collective work and conceptual album, built around Serial Dreams, finally manifested. With Serial Dreams the song versions being problem children, due to various issues within themselves, I proceded to focus my attention on other aspects of the experiences. Falling In Or Without, In Memory Of Our Dreams, Serial Dreamer and Hyper-Sleep (both sections), were all built during January through March 2008. Sensoria, had been written and finished in December of 2007, but I didn't have any conscious idea why I made that track. It Never Sleeps was made earlier in 2007, and was being considered for addition to the Serial Dreams Project, but only Sensoria made it to the finalized project.
With a pretty good idea of what I wanted to belong in the project, and having produced the additional pieces to add to it, I began assembling it into the storyline. I dropped the tracks into CD Architect as I envisioned them to play out, and played them in sequence, (minus Serial Dreams Part One and Two) and after several different sequences, I was forced to go back to work on Serial Dreams Parts One and Two. There was just too much unknowns in the equation without the bedrock pieces in place. I managed to get reasonable working versions of Part One and Two completed, and added them in. Again, I mucked about with sequence, and was still not very keen on the whole. So I shelved the project for a bit, while I created WebOfDistress, and killed off Depression as my primary page.
Having made the transition from Depression to WebOfDistress, and getting mostly everything re-posted, and organized, it was time to get back to work. Still facing the quandry of the sequence order, I practiced some avoidance and went back to the individual tracks, made some slight edits, and tweaks, and re-renderred them to a more stream-friendly VBR. It was during this process, when the issue that was bothering me, revealled itself, and I ended up trading names on Falling In Or Without, and Serial Dreamer. Repositioning the re-named tracks to their respective places in the sequence, quickly resolved a large portion of my issues with the collective work. Some feedback from Gabriel Jones about Hyper-Sleep [Suture] was employed and Hyper-Sleep [Reprise] was born, and incorporated to the project. Placing it between In Memory Of.. and Serial Dreamer [Part Two] finally made the sequence order fluid.
Once I had made the decision to procede with the Serial Dreams project, there were other issues to face, in regards to sound design. Selecting and matching sounds used, to fit the already established parameters, the original Serial Dreams track had set. Then, how to apply those parameters to the works to be produced, and how to differentiate the separate individual components, against the theme components, while maintaining the conceptual theme as a whole. Identifying the need for the separation of real and dream ideas, was a key element, in sound selection. Not only to acknowledge the reality in the dreamscape, but to differentiate the real and surreal elements within such a complex environment. So, in order to portray the dream aspects, I chose to use soft-edged sounds. While keeping the real aspects sharp edged, for example the percussive elements. Not very original I will admit, but archetypal, hence their effectiveness. To determine the masculine and feminine aspects of the dreamscape, was a bit tricky, having already assigned the percussions to another element. I succeeded here by representing them in bass and treble instead of just assigning a particular instrument to one or the other. Which overall, I am exceptionally pleased with the interplay expressed, in all tracks associated with the woman series. The vocal clips, I used for accentuating the duality of the phenomena. So unreal, yet so sensationally stimulating, almost to the point of physical side effects.
I hope this little summary, helps you the listener, to experience the storyline on a more subconscious level. Or, on a more conscious level, where you can apply the descriptions to the interplay of instruments and sound to a world that exists in my head. Thanks for the support, D.
Comments
The closing song Death of a Dream was never mentioned in the original post, so to address that issue now.
Death Of A Dream was made earlier in 2007, again for whatever reason, I don't consciously have a reason why I made it. Originally titled Mourning A Dead Hope - Backlash, it was supposed to be an extended introduction to Backlash. For some reason, now clearly evident, I could never get around to adding the Backlash part to it. So when the Serial Dreams project evolved, I decided to also incorporate Mourning A Dead Hope and thusly re-named it. There are many other intricacies, and details, and thoughts behind this project, that even I am still processing.
I checked out both (i) Serial Dreamer - Part 1 and (ii) In Memory Of Our Dreams because I was hooked by your narrative and undertaking to translate the brain's retrospective memory of a semi-conscious ("dreamlike but nonetheless real mental state) into present aural sensibilities.
This is a fascinating and challenging experiment to determine if you can identify a common "signature" of mental activity that can be shared by all but stemming from one's individual creative insight. In my view, those trying to push out the envelope of "experimental music" should help us more [as you have undertaken to do] to give us the "real-time" impressionistic factors that go into the aural production - otherwise so-called, experimental music, all too often blends together as background ambient sound [which also may be OK but of less architectural significance and, thus, incapable of iterative development].
Upon listening to the two pieces thrice over, I myself detect the beginnings of a collective signature of "dreaming" but this may be because of (i) the haunting repetition of sounds that become urgent as often happens when our minds hover at the edge of consciousness in our dreams and (ii) your own descriptive preconditioning of my mind and ear by letting me know in advance that this was "all about dreams". All of this is OK by me because that is what experimenting with our mental and aural sensibilities is all about. However, I think this series could well benefit from complete album play [which I understand is in process] coupled with some more specific narrative throughout about what is different and what is similar about the dream series [such as your sharing the dream with a woman in Part 2 of your series - how indeed is this possible? it would be instructive to know how you came to this conclusion with your dream-sharer and how it translated to mood and concept]. In so saying and requesting, I fully appreciate that this is an exceedingly difficult artistic challenge.
Due to the length of my mental ruminations as I listen, I will also post this as a review to see how my [and your listeners] views evolve regarding your Serial Dream pieces. In the meantime, thanks for your artistic endeavor and your explanation of the direction in which you are heading with these pieces.
[NB: a note to readers of my reviews: the text of my reviews at this site may change from time to time. As I listen for futher nuances in a song or body of work, I keep modifying or adding to my thoughts, making my reviews an organic "moveable feast". Since Fuzz Artists are constantly evolving, as are our own perspectives, I think Fuzz reviews should not be frozen in time. It's time to extend the power of real-time, web-based music discovery, by making our reviews, "wiki-reviews."]