Also launched on April 5th, 2024, Hey, Barely is a Lo-fi glitch pop side project that lets me explore the more whimsical side of electronic music. It’s a stark contrast to the gloomy discomfort of Akin to Being, and should put any listener at ease.

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Today I’m announcing one of two new side projects! Akin to Being is a dark ambient venture that uses sampled sounds and droning synths to create grim sonic landscapes. Some of the ideas originally were used as background material in Eliz of Sword’s Twitch streams, but after layers of new sounds they hardly resemble the originals any more.

“Passage” contains four droning tracks that evoke bleak sci-fi landscapes with small moments of wonder and beauty, chronicling a doomed intergalactic voyage.

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Yup, you read that right. I spent a lot of time this year composing background music for my wife’s new Twitch channel. She started streaming a Tarot card experience in the last quarter of the year, and a big part of that is the overall mood and ambience. She set up the visuals with a green screen, cloth and crystal covered table, candles, incense, and multiple cameras, and I purchased and dialed in a new boom mic for the setup. I then got to work writing music she could use in the background, as Twitch Soundtrack wasn’t yet available.

It’s honestly been a really important and rewarding experience, despite the music not being the focus. It has been fantastic to be able to play around with ideas and not worry too much about each one. Instead I’m focusing on creating many possible moods that ElizOfSwords can choose from, sometimes using dark and edgy synthesizers, sometimes focusing on warm and welcoming chords. I even composed several original holiday tracks and made arrangements of “Silent Night” and “We Three Kings”. I’m particularly proud of the “Auld Lang Syne” arrangement, which was (obviously) the last piece I worked on in the year. Take a listen:

I created nearly 30 total tracks with a run time of over 3 hours, and I’m sure I’ll keep working on ideas as they come to me. It’s been an amazing opportunity that still has plenty of potential left to explore.

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After several years of focusing almost exclusively on my rock/folk band projects, string quartet arrangements, running live sound, and recording projects, I took a recent, quiet weekend alone at home to write a piano sonata. Read the rest of this entry »

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It’s been another long writing, recording, mixing, and mastering journey, but the end is nigh! {ELSE} released a two-track preview of our new album, Through What We Knew. Take a listen!

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I’ve been in the groove of an album review every Thursday for a while now, and with the sporadic reviews I made earlier this year, I’ve now reviewed 16 albums for the website. It’s a great opportunity to hear some new music, exercise some critical thinking skills, and provide some good publicity for local and independent bands. There’s a lot of great music to be found, so read Those Who Dig’s album reviews »

I also take the time to write some longer pieces, like this write up comparing Pomplamoose’s and Direct Hit!’s articles about the financial realities of touring with your band. I really enjoy writing these and it reminds me a lot of writing papers in college. I usually begin with a disorganized swirl of thoughts and through organization and editing, find my theory, and then build around it. Read the result »

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