P I X E L S
Pixels is an audio-visual album that depicts two sides of the same imagery and two presentations of the same musical compositions.
The A-Side features five piano pieces and images in the style of impressionist paintings that evokes melancholic themes. The B-Side consists of the same five compositions and corresponding images, but produced as electronic synthesized music featuring my 8-bit alter ego artist infante, accompanied with pixel art.
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Read more below...
Orange
the end of the day feeling...
Decompose
lost youth in a harsh world...
Clockworks
love at first sight...
About
This work is inspired by emotions I felt during the pandemic-nostalgia, melancholy, and a sadness I could not explain.
It is difficult to put these feelings into words, one of the most appropriate might be the Welsh expression hiraeth - an unexplainable longing for someone or something, without knowing exactly who or what you miss.
It’s the kind of feeling you get when staring at the stars at night, or out at a boundless ocean, wondering what lies beyond.
This concept came to me while listening to classical piano compositions that had been re-recorded as 8-bit tracks. This inspired me to bring together two distinct, yet oddly connected, passions of mine: French impressionism and retro video games.
While the two media could not seem more different, I feel they have similar themes: the ability to capture movement, light and moments in time; the human perception and experience; and the impressions they create.
They both give me a feeling of hiraeth: longing for a time or place to which I cannot return, or perhaps have never seen.
Why Pixel?
To me, music is not just an aural experience, it is also visually stimulating. Every note is a component of a whole, creating a picture in the mind. Like a pixel or a brush stroke, each note carries little meaning in isolation, but without it, the picture is incomplete.
I translated my compositions into imagery for this project. These visuals are based on the emotions I felt during a challenging period of my life.
Edited by Daniel Mendelssohn
Still Life
as still as nature...
1891
an impression of children playing on a Sunday afternoon in 1891...