Description
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"Riverside Reflections" is a 3-theme dynamic voxel artwork that changes depending on the time of day. I collaborated with electronic music producer Aaron Duff on this artwork. Amazing Aaron made a full track for each theme.
For this artwork, Aaron has taken inspiration from video games such as Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Genshin Impact to combine traditional Chinese instrumentation with modern production techniques and sounds. The result is 3 distinct compositions that play depending on whether it is at daytime, sunset, or nighttime.
DAY (06:00 - 13:59)
The little robot is fishing while waiting for his friend. Running water flowing through the village evokes sunshine and a gentle breeze. As a wind instrument, the "dizi" or bamboo flute carries the lazy tune that floats through the air.
SUNSET (14:00 - 19:59)
As the moon begins to come around, villagers return home from work; children come out to play and kitchens get busy preparing for the night's festivities. Our little robot meets his friend by the bridge. The music in turn becomes livelier, with gentle percussion and a deep, drone bassline complementing those traditional sounds from earlier in the day.
NIGHT (20:00 - 05:59)
With the last of the sunlight gone, the soundtrack goes nearly all electronic with rich, retrowave sounds that wouldn't be out of place in an imagined future from 1980's Tokyo. Analogue synthesizers, airy reverb, and bubbling basslines that make it difficult to know whether you are in the moment or merely dreaming. In the echo of inspiring music, the little robot and his friend enjoy the night together.
About Aaron Duff & Chinese Electronic Music Project
There's a place in North Asia where the Manchu, Han, Korean, Japanese, and Mongolian cultures have intersected with each other over many centuries and created a rich, cultural legacy. Known to the west as Manchuria, this is also the adopted homeland of Aaron Duff, DJ, and producer of the Chinese Electronic Music Project who is always crossing over between the cultures, languages, and philosophies of the Manchurian peninsula and the Western world.
The same is true for Aaron's attitude to music. Having been signed to a number of well-known underground electronica and breakbeat labels, Aaron has more recently pioneered new music forms using classical, wooden instruments such as the erhu and guzheng, fusing together their incomparable sounds with the rainbow lights, beeps, and beats of synthesizers and drum machines to create future bass and beats with a traditional Asian flair.
