Positive thoughts about 2021 and my experimental electronic music tracks debut

Following up on my previous post on my last music track "Time" (here), I just wanted to briefly write about 2020, some positive thoughts about 2021, and my experimental electronic music tracks debut.

2020

In 2020, the entire world stopped and watched in dismay what was unfolding, (or, at least, that's how it felt like). Everyone was wondering how things will turn. Human activities came to a halt and the earth finally had a chance to take a needed breath of fresh air, after about 260 years of industrial revolutions (since 1760), technical evolutions, technological progress, overproduction, over-consumption, and population growth (multiplied more than 4 times in 100 years, from roughly 1.9 billion people in 1920 to 7.8 billion in 2020).

All of which greatly contributed to a rapid and unprecedented rise of all sorts of problems and consequences, including pollution (earth, water, air, and space), and, directly or indirectly, increased the need to live in a contrasted and paradoxical world that has become, over recent decades, both, an ever-growing garbage dump (landfills, sea dump, etc...) contaminating both soils and water sources (streams, lakes, rivers, estuaries, seas, oceans, etc...), as well as the air due to gas release (methane, etc...) further damaging the ecosystems, on one end, and a very sterilized, sanitized, aseptic world, on the other end.

As the COVID-19 Pandemic was gradually spreading in China, by late December 2019, and was officially revealed to the rest of the world by January 21st, 2020, countries started shutting down their borders. Travel was limited and even banned in some cases for some countries. Wearing a mask became mandatory. Physical contact was limited by psychologically hurting physical restrictions. The usual embraces, kisses, hugs, and other common ways and gestures to physically say "Hello" and greet someone slowly disappeared. Elbows bump gradually became the new handshake.

Geographical, physical, and mental boundaries were closed. Planes were no longer flying, boats, buses, and trains were used at minimum capacity. People were asked to work at home instead of returning to the office and order food rather than going out, as most public places (bars, restaurants, clubs, cinema, museum, library, etc...) were closed for months. It led to the loss of jobs and complicated domestic situations, and all the consequences we all know too well.

At least, something positive came out of this chaotic and catastrophic situation, mother nature found relief in the middle of this pandemic by reclaiming its rights in the urban concrete jungle. Here in Hong Kong, the sky had never been so blue and clear and, maybe if not pure, at least easier to breathe. The weather was clement throughout most of the year and 2020 ended up being one of the sunniest and most enjoyable years (weather-wise) out of my 11 years in the Fragrant harbor (or Pearl of the Orient, as you prefer).

Like for everyone else I know, 2020 was filled with ups and downs, physically, emotionally, and psychologically. It was a year of self-reflection and reflection on people and the population too. A year to make amends. The possibility to make a fresh start by changing things, our attitudes and behaviors first, the way we interact with each other, and also the way we do things for the better at all levels. Change the pattern. Change course.

For once in our human lifetime, we had this chance to "somewhat" be united and start to find solutions to eradicate the problems, rather than simply adapting to the consequences as we normally do. Did we?

2021

On the eve of 2021, reflecting on all that happened in 2020, you would have thought that we would have learned from our mistakes, correct our path, and work together to make the world a better place. But, no... Once again and unavoidably, human nature took over, the COVID mutated, and all the saddening, frightening, and unfortunately recurrent unstable, political, and conflictual situations, as well as bad global health issues in the world, came back right away as if 2020 never existed.

Despite a "somewhat" return to certain normality (or what has become the "new normality"), in many countries, 2021 was, overall, a very difficult year for most of the world, probably even more difficult than 2020 in some ways, with most people facing countless challenges and difficulties throughout the whole year, as direct consequences from the previous year. It was hard for most to see past a few weeks ahead, much less foresee the next 3-4 months to come, or even expect a desperately needed silver lining (for most people).

And, I won't even elaborate on the even "stronger' return of wars, famines, genocides, immigration, migrations, social unrests, civil unrests, civil disorders, strikes, rebellions, "coup d'etat", and everyday life difficulties most people may encounter (make ends meet, lack or loss of jobs, etc..), resulting in the rise of violence (both domestic and public) and insecurity around the world. As 2021 unfolded, the situation worsened in many countries.

Yet, on a positive note, if 2020 was the year of "standby and wait", 2021 seems that it has also been the year of changes, as people could no longer wait or face dire situations. Life had to resume, one way or another, for themselves, for their family, and people organize themselves to bounce back any way they could, to regain some sense of normalcy and security, some semblance of a normal life.

Personally, 2021 brought me the opportunity to self-reflect, somehow face my fears, doubts, and anxieties, as well as understand certain facts about myself and who I really am. It has also enabled me to reflect upon myself and the things I should change about myself, for me, but for others too. It enabled me to confront and fight back against my character and personality, my bad habits, my attitudes, my ICD (TIC), my OCD (TOC), and my many other facets. As I came to face and accept myself a little more than before, one could say that 2021 brought me a kind of peace of mind to a certain extent.

2021 also brought me the opportunity to change my job, after 9 years in my previous job. It was time for me to face new challenges, new difficulties, new opportunities. A new way to challenge myself, once again. Come out of my comfort zone. Break the routine. See if the fighter in me still has enough guts to go back to battle and reach higher, as I did so many times before in my 30 years career.

And, I know a lot of people who did the same, showing resilience in the face of adversity, despite the difficulty of the situation. It is never too late to take a leap of faith and make a change... the first step is the hardest, the rest flows naturally due to the adrenaline rush it procures.

My experimental electronic music tracks debut

All of the above said, (and to go back to the main subject of this blog: Visual and audio creativity), the thing I am the most grateful for is that 2021 brought me the opportunity to be even more creative, than I was already before, by expressing myself through experimental electronic music.

You see, since a very young age, I have always been very creative, mainly through drawings and writings about medieval times, knights and creatures (huge fan of Dungeons & Dragons and the world of Tolkien), dinosaurs (I wanted to be a paleontologist when I was young), barbarians, superheroes, sci-fi, and fantasy, and anything else going through my mind back then. Writing my own stories and adventures and creating drawings to illustrate my words. A lot of them, anytime, anywhere, even at school, to constantly escape from reality, escape from myself and others, escape from how I saw myself and how I thought others saw me, escape to live in my own world.

Drawings, writings, photographs, illustrations, collages, and other artsy ways to express my feelings and emotions have always been part of me for as long as I can remember. I even wrote several books, some were even quite promising (in my opinion and the opinion of a few other people), yet, I never published them, unfortunately. Most notably a story in 3 parts, a trilogy I wrote between the age of 18 and 20 years old, based on personal and romanticized events, that I would have loved to see on the book store's shelves and displays. Maybe one day...

My other passion is music. I loooove music! All genres! All styles! It does not matter, as long as it sounds good to my ears, whether it is (in no special order) Classic, Jazz, Blues, Soul, Groove, Rock, Hard Rock, Metal, Grunge, Country, R&B, Folk, New Wave, Pop, Hip-Hop, Breakdance, Rap, Dance, EDM, House, Deep House, Melodic House, Progressive, Ambient, Anthemic, Festival, Rave, Clubs, Chillout, Techno, Trance, Reggae, Funk, Indi, World, Dub, Ska, D&B, Soundtrack, easy-listening, etc... I love them all.

I could not live without music in my daily life. It is like a drug. All the time at home, that's a given. But more especially, discreetly resonating in my earpiece at work, as the office and my surrounding co-workers are as silent as a grave. And frankly, I could not cope working in this kind of environment without having a minimum of musical background (in my head). One earpiece does wonder and it allows me to still be able to listen and respond if talked to.

Since I was young, I have always wanted to learn how to play an instrument. Unfortunately, my parents did not have the money to pay for some courses. And, even if I grew up with instruments around, a piano where my father was living and a guitar belonging to my step-father, I was never really allowed to touch them, much less play with them.

So, probably to compensate, I spent a good part of my teenage years in clubs and discotheques, and, eventually, even did some occasional DJ sessions (when I was in my late teens and early 20s). Back then, in the mid to late 80s, and early to mid-90s, I was listening to a lot of Rock, Pop Rock, New Wave, and Reggae, but, my vibes, especially when going to clubs and discotheques, was Dance Music, a lot of Techno, but more particularly House Music (Acid, Progressive, Chicago, Gospel, Deep, Balearic, Ambient, etc...). I loooooooove House Music.

Names like Marshall Jefferson 1986 classic house song "MOVE YOUR BODY [The House Music Anthem]", or, in 1989, Lil Louis ‎and its timeless iconic song "French Kiss (Original 12" Mix)", or again, in 1992, Felix with its "Don't you want me", and again, this other 1992 club anthem, Nightcrawlers - Push The Feeling On, or, again, one of the bands that had the most impact in my life and their most famous song (which had probably the biggest impact on my generation), Faithless with "Insomnia" back in 1995; and so many more House, Dance and Electro classics.

Then life went by, working in the F&B and retail industry for the past 30 years, meaning most weekends (especially Fridays and Saturdays, and even most Sundays), time flies, rarely took any days off, needless to say, "vacations", then I got married, then I got kids, blablabla.... and consequently, I never really took the time to learn and even less the time to play. I bought a guitar though, just in case, yet still don't really know how to play it properly.

However, during summer 2020, I was initiated to electronic music by a person who became an inspiration, a light in the darkness in my lack of musicness, a mentor and a friend, someone who showed me how to "let go", be myself and always pursue my thoughts and dreams. Thank you again, a thousand times, if you read this post. Hope our paths will meet again.

So, a few months later, I bought myself an iPad and a keyboard, and, as I'm not a musician, started fooling around with recorded sounds, loops, and a few notes from the keyboard. After a few weeks and many late nights of failed attempts, I began to get my way around the music software and the keyboard and started recording a few experimental electronic music tracks, which ended up lasting many minutes (I do not know how to do short and sweet, as you can already tell by the length of this post😁).

I call that "Experimental Electronic Music" as it is not a song, nor a musical track necessarily following a melody. As I'm not a musician and never learned to be one, I do all my compositions by ear, arranging the recorded and pre-recorded sounds with loops and keyboard notes and effects to create tracks that reflect the emotions and feelings I had on the moment. Thus, I feel more like a sound arranger or composer. It suits me better.

After many more failed attempts, a good dose of frustration, a dash of patience, and a lot of advice from my mentor, I have created my first 3 experimental electronic music tracks in November and December 2020.

At first, for me only. Then I decided to send them to my family and friends to get their feedback. Not only did I start to create my own music tracks, but I also created my own track covers with my own pictures (and, I admit, 2-3 royalty-free photos that I edited to create the track covers) and my own videos too.

For a creative mind like mine, these are very exciting projects, as they are like 2 to 3-in-1 projects: music track + track cover + video (when I have time and the inspiration). And I never get tired of it, because, sometimes the cover comes first and sometimes the track comes first, they usually both inspire each other.

Yet, that said, as I like taking photos and editing them to create visuals (collages, montages, memes, edited or specific photography, track covers, etc...), it is usually the track cover that inspires the song. Or sometimes it is a photo, a drawing, an illustration, a collage, or a montage I did for my blogs or social media pages, that inspire the track.

For example, the banner of this blog, the swimming whales flying above the clouds (Ethereal Worlds), might inspire one of my next tracks. The image is quite soothing, soft, and gentle, and calls for a quiet and spacey track. It triggers my inspiration.

In short and to conclude this very lengthy post, I fell in love with creating these tracks, their covers, and eventually their videos (when possible). And consequently, atop of the first 3 in 2020, I have created 18 more tracks in 2021 (1 every 3 weeks roughly).

In February 2020, with about 7 tracks already created, and as I wanted to share them and make them accessible to my family and friends, I first created a YouTube Channel under Domelgabor (here), where I also posted other videos than those made for the tracks. But, YouTube is quite annoying as you know, as you cannot just listen, you have to watch as if your phone, iPad, or tablet switch off, then the video switch off too.

Thus, as I wanted to listen to them on the go, I put them on my Soundcloud page (here), and continued to put them here ever since. Then, as I wanted to make them even more accessible to everyone everywhere (as everyone has his or her favorite music platforms they listen to), I decided to go with a distributor.

DistroKid happened to be one of the easiest and cheapest ways for me to have them distribute my tracks on most major platforms, without the hassle to have to do it myself. And the rest is history. You can now find my tracks on most major music platforms in the world.

And, I'm very proud and happy about it. Yet, and don't get me wrong, but I'm perfectly aware that, in the end, it does not really matter as I'm not an artist, nor a musician, (nor do I have the talent and self-discipline of one), and, as they are millions of people like me creating their own little songs and tracks, and posting them of these same platforms, I know that I will never become famous or even make money out of it, and I don't do it for those reasons, this is just a hobby, that's it.

As for all the other visuals and audio stuff I did and posted on social media and on my blogs, over the last 13 years, even if only 1 person in the whole world likes one of my tracks (or one of my visuals for that matter), I will still be very happy about it, as I do them for my own pleasure first. As stated above, I create visuals and audio/music tracks to constantly escape from reality, escape from myself and others, escape from how I see myself and how I think others see me, escape to live in my own world. We all live in our own little world to a certain extent.

Here is a list of all my music tracks, (with the YouTube Links, from the latest one to the first at the bottom) available on most music platforms (so far), yet, I will write a separate post for each of them later on, to explain the background of each track. They are distributed by Distokid under the Record Label #2792306 Records DK

TIME - by ©Domelgabor 2022 MOOD - by ©Domelgabor 2021 Champagne - by ©Domelgabor 2021 DISSOLVED - by ©Domelgabor 2021 URBAN NOÏZEEZ (Stay Away) - by ©Domelgabor 2021 PULSAR (Short Pulse Emissions Edit) (Domelgabor Reworked) - by ©Domelgabor 2021 PULSAR (Electromagnetic Radiation Beams) - by ©Domelgabor 2021 SOLARIS (Solis Flare) - by ©Domelgabor 2021 ENDLESS (Infinite Light) - by ©Domelgabor 2021 FLOW (Music is a Flow inspired by Emotions) [Part 1 and 2] - by ©Domelgabor 2021 INAMORATA (Even if only for a moment...) - by ©Domelgabor 2021 BOBCAT THE PERCUSSIONIST (Funky Vibes Mix) - by ©Domelgabor 2021 DOMED 10 first tracks Album - by ©Domelgabor 2021 IN MOTION (Butterfly on Water Mix) - by ©Domelgabor 2021 Mr SNAZZY CAR (Road by the Beach mix) - by ©Domelgabor 2021 SINE QUA NON (Ethereal clouds)- by ©Domelgabor 2020 SNOW FLAKES (Tongue Out Mix)- by ©Domelgabor 2021 Méli-Mélo (The Funky Bass Jumble Mix) - by ©Domelgabor 2021 CYRIOUS GIULIETTA (Behind the Wheel Acceleration Mix) - by ©Domelgabor 2021 Ticking Clockwork (Time Constraint Mix)- by ©Domelgabor 2021 OCEAN SWELL (Soothing Waves Smoother Mix) - by ©Domelgabor 2021 NANCYRIL (Paradasiacal Island escape Mix) - by ©Domelgabor 2021 DROP (Dripping Water from a Clogged Pipe Mix) - by ©Domelgabor 2020

You also retrieve all these tracks on Spotify at DOMELGABOR on Spotify

As for the pictures above: The first one is a collage of the track covers I've created for my last 9 tracks, with my own pictures, collages, and drawings. And the second picture is also a collage of the covers for the other 9 tracks I've created.

Looking at these, I'm thinking that some parts of 2021 were not so bad after all, as making music also helped me to cope with the pandemic situations, and the physical and psychological ups and downs it has caused throughout the year. I'm very proud of these covers and music tracks I created during this year 2021. And "Time" my last track created earlier this month is a very promising start to a new year which hopefully should be filled with more visual and musical creativity and creations.

Thank you for reading this very long post, much appreciated. All my following posts will be much shorter and more straight to the point. I promise you.

Meanwhile, God bless you all, take good care of yourself, and stay safe.

Dom

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