Demoparty Update: Solskogen 2008Solskogen Releases (scene.org)
I went on a trip up to Norway to go to the Solskogen Demoparty, it was fantastic and I met many excellent people there. A special moment which I'd like to share with all the modbods is when I met up with an old internet scene friend for the first time in person - Xerxes
For those not in the know - Xerxes is a prominent figure in the Ambient music scene who has been around the tracking scene for many many years. It was quite a surprising moment when he found me at the party, it caused a little bit of a scene... haha
To quote a 3rd party's observation of the moment (
source)
A heartwarming moment of the party was when M0d, the admin of The Mod Archive found Xerxes - the two have been knowing each other for long years, but M0d never went to parties, and Xerxes has been out from the scene for a long time; the encounter was, as Quarryman and I concluded, "cute, in the positive sense of the word", and it really reassured me that the scene is a Good Thing - Gargaj.
Skrebbel, Xerxes and myself:
Midget (Runa) and myself
To top it all off, I witnessed the Danes dropping their pants. The Finnish getting famously drunk, and the Norwegians being very welcoming and friendly. I think I was the only British (expat) guy there
Alas I didn't compete in any of the competitions this time around.
Demoparty update: Sundown 2008Sundown Releases (scene.org)
A big thank you goes out to Deltafire (Chris), probably mostly known for porting Milkytracker to Linux, for picking me up at the airport and driving us down to the party in Devon, UK. The party itself was superb, there were people from Sweden, Hungary, Netherlands (me!), France and a few other places as well as the UK residents. The atmosphere was fantastic, with a real buzz of excitement.
I witnessed (and was part of) several moments of random collaboration and creativity which was awesome to put it mildly. I think this party really felt creative and welcoming for all that attended!
We had very pleasant gatherings on the beach in the evenings (think midnight plus), it was a good laugh especially when trying to get the fire on the beach going (ahem, yes it was me with the flame thrower). Meeting all of the people I've known only via IRC for the last few years in person has elevated my scene spirit considerably, and has really sealed the deal on attending future demo parties. A big thank you has to go out to rc55 for organizing the event.
I participated in two of the competitions, releasing my first piece of music (
Crisis after starting to learn
Renoise tracker, it was my 6th composition in Renoise) as well as a combined effort with music in a fast-demo, although I was disappointed in how it sounded on the PA system (apparently the PA was preset for the chip compo arrrgh!), I was pleased with the
results outcome
A nice surprise was to meet Alister Brimble, a very prominent video game music composer who is still doing his stuff on the DS
I remember his stuff from classic games like Superfrog and Alien Breed.
Alister and myself.:
Party Hall:
Getting smoked out on the beach:
So if you haven't yet been to a demo party, consider doing so. If a nearly 30 year old like me can, you certainly can too
Next parties on my to-attend radar: Breakpoint 2009, Assembly 2009. Possibly a few smaller ones in between but it really is a bit expensive flying about everywhere
