VEILS - liminal ambient
Image by sophiavangoethem99 from Pixabay
The first track of the VEILS series is now available here and on Soundcloud.
What is VEILS?
VEILS is about time, a sense of place, and emotion. Belonging, displacement, here or between. An exploration of feelings and the spaces we inhabit, physical and in our minds.
Everything I do is at its heart a simple exploration of sound and emotion. 51GN5 was very much aimed at a dystopian sci-fi feel of isolation, tension and dread. Heroes’ Journey before that was a journey into orchestral high fantasy, thumping drums, soaring strings and piercing brass. VEILS switches gear into something that is more about familiar places, everyday noise and the isolation that can be felt from the environment. A sense of displacement or altered perception through time, situation or mood.
Some of these emotions that I am intending to explore are emotional reactions to life events, others will be exploring the isolation that an ever-increasing noisy digital world brings. There has never been such ease and availability of a multitude of methods of communication, yet it appears that isolation in this digital world is becoming more of an issue.
The internet and social media which should bring people together is full of AI, false images portraying nonrealities dressed as reality, the few second reels that degrade concentration and doomscrolling that provides instant hits but long-term emptiness. The latest trending dance to be performed for likes, endless adverts invading everywhere from social media to video platforms to websites, faked news designed to draw you in. It is hard to know what is real.
The ‘real’ world has changed. The high street has died to on-line shopping and a casual wander down that high street brings with it a feeling of displacement. The once familiar high street stores have gone, empty shop fronts abound and people wander aimlessly in hope that maybe something is there. It isn’t. We reminisce about what was. The library so often visited as a kid to ‘gain knowledge’ has been replaced by articles online. A few years ago, you could have given credence to the information provided, but now? Who wrote or ‘what’ wrote it? The Internet itself is a liminal space. Not real, but real enough to fool us. People wander through streets and park eyes glued to screens. Half here, half there wherever ‘there’ is. They occasionally share their virtual ‘there’ with the person walking with them the others ‘there’ broken for a second before eyes return to screens. Coversations are texts.
Through VEILS I intend to explore these themes with a mixture of real-world sounds and music. This is nothing new and since 2020 and the isolation that many people went through leaving an unreal world outside with empty roads, airports and shopping centres. ‘Liminal spaces’ and feelings of isolation or disconnection have been a theme of liminal ambient music and associated genres for quite some time with the scene evolving into sub genres.
However, I missed all of that. I worked through the lockdown driving those empty roads and at work every day and as such I also missed the seeming boom that took place in internet projects, podcast launches and the flourishing of the backrooms and liminal spaces genres. Creating 51GN5 and exploring creating feelings and perception of spaces has just naturally led me on to wanting to explore more ‘down to earth’ spaces and feelings. I am envisioning that the overall tone will be once again somewhat dark but not in the way 51GN5 was dark as a sci-fi based set of tracks. It will be entirely more down to earth and in some ways nostalgic.
They will be spaces that I think we all will have experienced at some time in life. The out of season seaside town, the motorway services at 2am, the hospital waiting room in the early hours, the suddenly empty house, the long night drive. Familiar places that the time of day or simple emotional state can change into something else. Familiar but somehow different, ‘in time’ but somehow feeling outside of time.
The first track Departure is set in an underground tube station. The feeling – I’ll let you bring your own perception and experience to the table. I know what it brings to mind for me.
It’s raining right now as I type this and that has already set the tone for the next track.
Departure & Tears in the Rain are now available to download and is free to use in non-commercial projects with credit to Charlie Creek.
Real World sounds used
Train arrives and departs Queen Street Station, Glasgow. August 26, 2022. 1330 hours. by Robert.Crosley -- https://freesound.org/s/730018/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
01_ambient_subway_busy_station.wav by 15GPanskaHladikova_Danuse -- https://freesound.org/s/461090/ -- License: Creative Commons 0
More information can be found on the music page along with the opportunity to ‘buy me a coffee’ on Ko-fi if you like, want to see more or use any of the music or soundbeds.
Until next time...
If you are interest in talking about sound design and music requirement for a project, please contact me at blackcreekpodcasts@gmail.com
Free to use music and soundbeds can be found on my SoundCloud Artistspage.
