Album: Foresight & Retrospect Directory Suffix: oceanfables Artists: - Wights End Date: September 1, 2024 URLs: - https://nightslights.bandcamp.com/album/foresight-retrospect - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2XcAmgH3Ko - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEzR0QEEfd-jjW2LzDezZN8NVw-YDAh9D Cover Artists: - Wights End Color: '#629ac8' Groups: - Oceanfalls - Beyond Art Tags: - Nino (Oceanfalls) Additional Files: - Title: Commentary booklet Description: >- Composer commentary booklet, exported from the Google Doc linked by the Bandcamp about blurb. Files: - Track Commentary.pdf Commentary: |- nights: ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://nightslights.bandcamp.com/album/foresight-retrospect) / [YouTube description](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2XcAmgH3Ko), excerpt) Oceanfables: Foresight & Retrospect is a solo album by [[artist:wights-end|Wights End]], featuring 11 original tracks based on the characters and story of the webcomic Oceanfalls. The gorgeous cover illustration is also made by Wights End. Get the musician's (Wights End) commentary on the production of this album & its tracks [here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pIlcokNr0F-ZWVdv10_WhO9fTwsFjjvcAi8D02H-1NU/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.8q7z3s3k6yud). nights: ([Bandcamp credits blurb](https://nightslights.bandcamp.com/album/foresight-retrospect)) Album, music and artwork by [[artist:wights-end]] --- Track: Foresight Suffix Directory: true Duration: 1:03 URLs: - https://nightslights.bandcamp.com/track/foresight - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx3f2TPap3w Commentary: |- Wights End: (booklet commentary) When I came up with the idea for the album title (Foresight representing Kotori and Retrospect representing Nino) I figured that doing bookend tracks could be fun, especially as different explorations on the same motif, so I tried to make the song writing reflect that same sort of duality. When writing this track I really wanted to make it ambiguous as to whether the song is in major or minor. --- Track: L00M1NG Additional Names: - Looming (normalized) Duration: 4:44 URLs: - https://nightslights.bandcamp.com/track/l00m1ng - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqylWvdzkC0 Commentary: |- Wights End: (booklet commentary) This track is a dark synth remix of Metal and Meat off of Oceanfalls Volume Five. Since the original song was very light on actual melodic content, it gave me a lot of flexibility in how I built out the rest of the song; so much so that the similarities could easily be overlooked. Stylistically, I was really inspired by Carpenter Brut, and the retro, cyberpunk aesthetic that goes hand in hand with that sort of music style prompted me to reflect that in the album art as well. --- Track: An Unforetold Return Duration: 2:56 URLs: - https://nightslights.bandcamp.com/track/an-unforetold-return - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KRKAsr_Hhg Commentary: |- Wights End: (booklet commentary) This track I wrote way back in 2019 and never got around to publishing. The song is pretty shamelessly inspired by some of Joren "Tensei" De Bruin's work (but with the twist of being synth centric) which is why I've been so hesitant to release it, but at the end of the day, it wasn't doing any good burning a hole in my harddrive. I now associate this song with the Unforeseen, but coincidentally the title kind of reflects the track itself in a way. --- Track: Fealty Suffix Directory: true Duration: 2:44 URLs: - https://nightslights.bandcamp.com/track/fealty - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwdG4aILgxA Commentary: |- Wights End: (booklet commentary) This song was born from me smashing the motifs from Right Hand and Rainfalls together like barbie dolls and saying “now kiss.” Much to my surprise it worked way better than I expected, so I expanded it into a whole song. --- Track: Black Cat Duration: 2:40 URLs: - https://nightslights.bandcamp.com/track/black-cat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaYX3qQ_0js Commentary: |- Wights End: (booklet commentary) Selene already has a bunch of music, so I was thinking of ways to put a unique spin on the idea. The answer was jazz. The answer is ALWAYS jazz. Anyway, everything in the song was built off of the main bass riff that manages to hit every single note on its way down. Trying to build chords around that was a challenge, and melodies around those chords even more so. I eventually landed on something I liked, but it took a lot of trial and error. --- Track: Pushing Papers Duration: 2:11 URLs: - https://nightslights.bandcamp.com/track/pushing-papers - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ymRoRcT4DY Commentary: |- Wights End: (booklet commentary) Inspired by the mental image of Solis doing his taxes, I really wanted to capture the droll vibe of his former position as a paralegal as well as the less exciting moments of his current vocation. This was one of the easiest times I’ve had writing a song in an odd time signature with the track being in 7/4 (which conveniently lent itself to the inclusion of a topical reference to Money by Pink Floyd.) --- Track: Intermission Directory: intermission-foresight-and-retrospect Duration: 0:46 URLs: - https://nightslights.bandcamp.com/track/intermission - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOuYXALlv7c Referenced Tracks: - Aeris Manus Commentary: |- Wights End: (booklet commentary) Written after [[track:aeris-manus|the following track]] on the album, I thought it would be fun to adapt a part of it into a somber, solo piano piece. --- Track: Aeris Manus Duration: 3:22 URLs: - https://nightslights.bandcamp.com/track/aeris-manus - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQVHEOyiA-s Commentary: |- Wights End: (booklet commentary) I wrote the main bass riff of this song to play on my actual bass guitar with the intention of playing all the parts of the song on real instruments. After fighting with it for a bit, I opted to swap all the instruments to Megaman X samples which gave me a lot more flexibility with the writing process and also it felt thematically relevant for a Reed track. --- Track: Face the Fictitious Duration: 4:10 URLs: - https://nightslights.bandcamp.com/track/face-the-fictitious - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ekzQpdpxH4 Commentary: |- Wights End: (booklet commentary) I love my slow–buildup song intros, but I figured it's good to change things up once in a while so I opted to start off this track as punchy as I could manage. The synth solo in the back half was heavily inspired by the solos in songs like Tornado of Souls, Cowboys From Hell and Aqualung as they all have great dynamic shifts. In terms of subject matter, this piece was designed to score a fight against spirits. --- Track: Rondo of the Crimson Prince Duration: 7:06 URLs: - https://nightslights.bandcamp.com/track/rondo-of-the-crimson-prince - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iTJI_AAMzA Commentary: |- Wights End: (booklet commentary) Why does most symphonic metal sound so happy? I want my orchestra to sound evil! This track was originally titled “In the Court of the Crimson Prince” as a reference to King Crimson, but after building the song around a rondo structure, I felt like missing out on such a Castlevania-esque name would be a missed opportunity. I didn’t mean for the song to get so long, It just sort of happened. --- Track: Retrospect Suffix Directory: true Duration: 1:36 URLs: - https://nightslights.bandcamp.com/track/retrospect - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzQg-snV-Ms Commentary: |- Wights End: (booklet commentary) The bookend was originally meant to be an expansion on the original piano piece with a bunch of additional acoustic instruments, but due to the major/minor ambiguity I was going for, I found it really difficult to effectively build on the track. Instead I opted for a simpler approach that reflects the visual presentation of the album and brings us back to where we started.