Arthur Flenyo

Found out about probably one of the most innovative (Not AI-based) & experimental DAW developing right now. It's called Blockhead and it's available on Linux!

Here's a video about this DAW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBYaIFliwr0 -

Patreon of the developer: https://www.patreon.com/colugomusic

#experimentalmusic #electronicMusic #linuxaudio #linux #DAW

Why Free/Libre software is philosophically different approach for creating music?

"The industry has shifted to digital. This is where that illusion Stallman often spoke of really comes into play: you think you are the one giving instructions to your computer, but in reality, a corporation is the one issuing the commands, and the program will heed your instructions only to the extent the corporation permits. In the context of music, this means that corporations produce music, and you can express your individuality only as much as those corporations allow. You can’t extend the functionality of most modern DAWs however you please. Music creation has largely turned into the passive consumption of plugins; just as the listener is forced to "consume" music, the musician is forced to buy & consume plugins. Different plugins come into vogue at different times, influencing the sound of music and dictating what is trendy to experiment with."

Wrote some small article here:
https://flenyo.com/libremusic/

#FreeSoftware #ExperimentalMusic #GNU #RichardStallman #RMS #FSF #FreeSoftwareMovement #Copyleft #GPL #SoftwareFreedom #OpenSource #FOSS #FLOSS #LinuxAudio #ElectronicMusic

I realized that for the last 6 years majority of my interaction with music has been killed by video essays, critique from YouTube, also million of advises from short videos. I think it's okay to watch tutorials on some things sometimes, but then your recommendation feed turns into "HOW TO MAKE VIRAL MELODIES", "5 SOUND DESIGN TRICKS THAT WOULD MAKE YOUR MUSIC BETTER", and artistic advices on what aesthetic is trending. I've never cared too much about making "viral melodies" or using tools in right way, I just liked messing around, doing what I like doing, making that kind of melodies/sounds that would consist some feeling to me, remind me of something broader than music, but I really don't need watching these videos.

Imagine confessing in love to someone important to you, with whom you have developed deep personal relationships. You don't want to see thousands of people doing the same so that you could do it the right way, you don't need any advises, because it's your own intimate feeling. And you know this person better than 1000 of psychologists that reducing this person to some abtract model, when they are giving these advises. And even if it all goes wrong, I don't need these techniques, tips&trips and stuff like that, because that would want me to treat person as an object for my manipulations. So, fuck all that "music making" content side of internet. Making music is intimacy, my personal world&self exploration, one of the ways to be connected to / be part of human culture

Is this okay if I enjoy making music, but I hate listening to what I've made?

Idk, it just sounds too amateurisj, despite the fact that I'm making it for 8 years almost. And it's not "cutting the edge". And it kind of uses that style of electronic music that was around 30 years ago. That said, if I’d sent my music back to the ’90s, it would still have sucked just as much. I don’t know, I don’t really want to be popular, go viral, or make money. But I want my music to leave a lasting impression when you listen to it, I want it to… make an impact on the listener… And at the same time, I don’t want it to be a copy of someone else’s style.

Just like how many old albums made an impression on me the first time I heard them, albums that are both something new and yet somehow blend with reality, leaving images in your mind in forms that didn't exist before these albums were released. I want to be able to express myself objectively through my music. For example, I want my album to be more than just a collection of tracks, I want it to be a memorable micro-adventure. Going to work, for instance, isn’t an adventure, because you’re so used to that route that you don’t even notice it. So, my music is too dull, too minimalistic, too childisр, it’s not capable of evoking anything like that right now. It can't contain my impressions. I’d be ashamed to send it even to a third-rate label. The structure of some of the tracks is literally brainrot: they last about a minute and a half, and I just couldn't get past that. Other than that, I don't have a style that's truly my own, and it's completely anti-unique.

I’ve tried so hard and I just can’t seem to pull it off. And I still have no idea how I could do it. No one will tell me, because this is something I have to figure out on my own. But maybe part of the problem is that I don’t need to come up with a concept in my head beforehand, I just need to try to figure it out through practice.

And that’s when I realized that I’m actually a lazy person when it comes to experimenting. I make a lot of music (about 2 hours a year, which is normal for the working class). But I often follow the same standard formula. I write a melody, tweak Serum, then add reverb, some basic drums, and that’s the whole demo. And I didn't surprise myself. But I’ll very rarely cut out microsounds from a 30-minute nature recording, run them through a granular synthesizer, or dig into some obscure, complex software... Because I feel like that would make me sound like someone else, even though in reality I should make a habit of copying other people’s techniques to broaden my scope for experimentation... This spring, I was finally able to learn how to mix properly, so now it should sound a little more professional, which is good. And instead of just sticking to my plan of making two hours of music, I need to do something different every time, something I haven’t done before... But honestly, there are so many directions I could go in that I literally don’t know what to choose, or how to get my music out of the rut I’m stuck in.

Also, when I try to push myself beyond my limits, for some reason I start relying on other people’s opinions, and I find it hard to trust my own feelings, which makes everything even harder. How can I push myself to do better when I don't even like what I'm doing? So, I lose touch with my intuition. And it all makes me doing the same shit from year to year. But I'm already 22, and music hasn't changed much since I was 17... That's cringe

#creativeprocess #artblock #experimentalmusic #electronicMusic #artist #advice

I dreamed of Richard Stallman today. Stallman came to my old school and began a lecture that started with the question "Could God create a stone that He could not lift?" But for some reason, in my dream, Stallman attributed this question to Kant. Classmates tried to give him the answers, but he promised to give them bad grades because “they aren’t autistic enough and try to find the answer too quickly so they don’t have to think for themselves.” And then it started to rain, and I took some bus into the woods. Anyways, dreams like that :D

When you're blaming the billioners, or particular persons like Elon Musk, you are distracting people from the struggle against the bourgeoisie. Because it’s not just specific persons, or the billionaires who are bad, nor the owners of tech corporations, but the entire class as a whole, class of people who live off the labour of others. These particular persons you’re angry with simply reflect this more clearly than anyone else. There is no point in appealing to morality to them, because the system itself, context in which we all exist, is fertile ground for such morality they have. The system and its values are not on your side.

And if Hitler had never been born, someone else would have taken his place, because it’s not about specific individuals. So, you, side by side with others, must fight not against individual figures, but against the system as a whole. It needs to be changed.

#marxism #capitalism #revolution

It's 6 years old, but here's a good article on modern "digital vs analog" situation in music
https://cherryaudio.com/news/why-modern-digital-synthesis-is-more-analog-than-analog-by-mark-barton

I had a dream in which an old man was complaining to me about his life, saying it was over, and he asked me to press a button that would kill him. And I pressed it. His wife didn’t pay any attention to it, and she didn’t care, nor did his children or his grandson. But I found myself thinking that he had a family, a home, children and grandchildren, and everything was fine, and perhaps he could have carried on living that life with dignity, but I deprived him of that opportunity by doing what he himself had asked. And no one blamed me for it at all; on the contrary, nobody cared in the slightest, and no one looked at me as an enemy, his family even gave me food, but that was precisely why I felt ashamed while I was sleeping

"all my 2025 demos + cool turkish trip footage", uploaded it on youtube.

Just in case, I was in huge creative block before, and in order to get out of it, I decided to make 1-2 demos per day, no matter how terrible they are. Often I deliberately wanted to make something weird. And the vids themselves were recorded a year ago in Sirince and Ephesus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2IlNApPK3I

#fedimusic #MastoArt #Artist #mastomusic #electronicMusic #demo

@limneticvillains@mastodon.online hey man! Since I'm from Russia, I won't be able to buy it anyway. +I don't feel like it's right time to make music for me. But I'd recommend you to contact somehow this guy:
https://youtu.be/LYTUd1vfJ5U?is=cSHfaAugozCzKrES
Send him free version, and that might be good little advertisment. Maybe try to find another channels.

Yeah, just some stupid advices. But congrats with finishing and selling your product! That's a big work that a lot of musicians often forget about, but that's something I really admire.

I'm so tired

My brain is so used to being depressed when something good is happening, at least for a bit, I'm quickly getting run out of dopamine and I just feel nothing, don't know what to do, and feel just as dumb as someone kicked me with a hammer

@limneticvillains@mastodon.online I agree. And it might sound harsh, but in an industry where one in three is a drug addict and one in ten is a pedophile, I rarely get particularly excited about the people themselves or their personalities; even if we know nothing about them, it’s usually just the music for me :/

Anyway, I’ve got an opinion about "artist vs. his art", so ig that's a nice opportunity to tell about it here? Imagine a small, democratic town where public meetings are held every day to discuss local issues. And imagine that, for one of these issues, for example, a global catastrophe, some maniac and murderer who’s been released from prison, he proposes a genius, workable solution. Should we reject the solution just because it was proposed by a bad person? I don’t think so, of course, if there’s no hidden agenda in it that benefits the maniac. It’s the same with music. If it’s good and doesn’t reflect that bad side of a bad person (even despite if this man is terrible and there's no good sides), then what the difference does it make for music? For example, Wagner was an anti-semite, and his music was later used in fascist crematorias; I’m against that, but there’s nothing wrong with his music or operas themselves. Wagner was also an anti-capitalist and took part in the 1848 revolution; it is unlikely that he would have supported fascism; true, he didn't like Jews just for their nationality and stereotypes. But his music expresses the most profoundly human emotions, and some passages can even move you to tears if you really delve into them, it doesn't express hate towards nation. This was written by a depraved man, but I wouldn’t judge music by the depravity of the person in this case. I separate this aspect of Wagner from his music in this case, and it makes sense for me. At the same time, other depraved people write some shitty rap about how they’d fuck whores and make a money, and that sort of shit could certainly be judged by the depravity of the person. For example, Kanye West’s desire to shock has led him to shock the public by claiming he loves Hitler, so it makes sense to criticise his provocative works(but I wouldn’t do that with his early albums, btw, but I'd definitely do this with Yeezus). I’m not comparing rap to classical music, classical music can be awful too compared to rap, I just used it as an example. I'd just recommend toask the question what's the music you're listening to is about. And it has no connection to this artist in your post, I know nothing about him, but just used it as an opportunity to share this opinion.

@limneticvillains@mastodon.online mhm, and it almost always has some corporate designs like it was AI-generated, it's always centralized and they never have any interesting ideas or something that would distinguish them from popular platforms except that they pretend to be for indieee guuyyys