2024 Retrispective
2024-12-12 00:00:00 +0000
Thursday, December 12, 2024 at 12:00:00 AM (UTC) |Welcome to the first and hopefully-not-only annual Retrispective, where I give highlights of the music I’ve composed this year.
(Get it? Retrispective? Har har har)
Think of it like Spotify Wrapped if I was the only musical artist on the planet.
…anyway, despite how busy this year was, I made a bit of music here and there. I hope you enjoy.
Table of contents
- Click here to skip to the releases.
- Click here to skip to the sketches.
- Click here to skip to the end.
Releases
Star Catalyzer was quite the experiment. I truly don’t work with synthwave very much, but when the SMC group announced a collab album, I decided to give it a shot.
I think it proved to me that I can work in any genre if I put my mind to it.
"My contribution to a collaborative techno-synthwave album named “Jumpship”. The album was themed after science fiction, so I tried to come up with something that would play in a space-themed video game… In particular, this track was inspired by the idea of constructing a star, from the perspective of some kind of celestial being. It didn’t start off with that premise, but once I matched the … "
Markmaker was a really fun one this year, I took the sketch style and really pushed it to the limit.
Truthfully, I missed this kind of VGM style, so it was nice to get back to it.
I think the MIDI-esque sound is something I’ll be exploring more in the future.
"This is somewhat of a “re-imagining” of an old track I made, Markmaker. The rabbit hole for this one goes pretty deep. So, back in 2018-ish, I had a project named “Dotishtale”, that was based off of the game “Undertale”. Markmaker was a battle theme named after a spell that the Dotishtale protagonist learned. That project is abandoned now, but recently I wanted to sketch … "
This year, I was privileged to compose a second short soundtrack for my friend’s D&D campaign, Severity Nexus. (You can listen to the first one here.) This was about twice as long as the original, and I worked more closely with the DM to get the right feel. It really shines with the player character themes, in my opinion.
"The soundtrack for Severity’s sequel, Severity Nexus: Second Semester. I was lucky enough to get the chance to contribute to this passion project, much less compose seven new tracks for it. In essence, it’s a continuation of the first campaign, but running through alternate universes. I will admit that I have grown quite attached to Severity, despite never even attending a session! The D… "
In September was the 9th anniversary of the release of UNDERTALE, a game I hold dearly to me. I wanted to remix something cool that represented that game, so I decided to make a medley of Hopes and Dreams, which I think I’d consider the ‘main theme’ of the game, despite it playing during the final boss battle.
"A tribute to UNDERTALE, a game that changed my life. This is a medley of a few songs related to the final boss of the game, tacking on some that I thought would flow well. Specifically, using Hopes and Dreams as the base, I included sections from His Theme, SAVE The World, and Last Goodbye. Yes, that’s me playing piano at the end. I’m not very good at it. I created this to c… "
Sketches
🥁 Drumroll please 🥁
This year, I composed:
4
releases
3 tracks — 1 collection
7
sketches
… Thanks for reading this far. It’s been a fun, albeit stressful year.
I know what you’re thinking: Retri, I really want to listen to more of your music.
Well, you’re in luck. I have lots of finished music right here on this site, and you can listen to to it without ever leaving.
If you want to hear more sketches, I’m usually posting those on social media like Mastodon.
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