This was done for ThaSauce's PRC, in what sadly happens to be the latest compo. You can check the site for more cool stuff here:
https://compo.thasauce.net/rounds/view/PRC472
This is the "Abyss of Thor" from Tales of Phantasia. An original arrangement in a somewhat industrial metal style, just me and my synths/samples (no real instruments played, no collabs). That tune plays in what can be considered as the stereotypical ancient civilization with super advanced technology. A longer title I had in mind was "Echoes of Ancient Civilizations, Hopes of Future Societies". I even had some ideas to add news-style speeches using some of the in-game lines when you watch the screen but discarded that in favor of a fully instrumental version and a simpler title.
That source kept me thinking of how online community efforts that eventually stops could be perceived in a distant future, and how important, or at least interesting all what we leave behind can feel like for other people after years or decades. In a certain way culture and knowledge works like that: even if it gets buried it's likely to be eventually discovered and enjoyed. This is the final PRC and I assume all mp3s will be kept in the site. But even if the site and everything inside got drown in the depths of the net, that's a lot of stuff that is likely to be discovered by other people in the future. Music enthusiasts who would keep copies and share elsewhere and other enthusiasts who would discover that and, who knows, maybe be surprised by so much of cool stuff that was done in the past. After all, this is somewhat happening already with other communities of the past like VGMix, some removed OCR tracks, maybe OLremix and lots of artists and the mp3s they had in their old personal sites.
Nothing is likely to be totally lost forever, and even if this is the end for PRC, we all music enthusiasts will have lots of stuff to enjoy forever. Stuff that, very much like other forms of culture and even knowledge, is likely to be passed and shared and enjoyed throughout generations all around time. Isn't that wonderful?
That ancient but super advanced civilization that was once crashed by a comet and drown in the sea was there waiting for our "heroes" to be discovered and their technology used as a hope to travel in time. Who knows, maybe some people in a very distant future will discover all what we had been doing during all this time and be shocked at it. Maybe the mainstream music of the moment will be generally so bad... that thing you are listening here will sound like a masterpiece for them, and the whole site will work as inspiration for a generation of wannabe musicians. Wouldn't that be cool?
Sometimes I think of my music in a slightly similar but a lot less narcissistic way: nowadays my stats (listens, downloads, followers, etc) is a foolish joke. Criticism is often negative and it seems like people generally don't understand my ideas and I just didn't get to find my place or my audience anywhere yet. But maybe in a future some of that stuff will be discovered by some random person of the net in some random corners at the deepest depths of this cyber-world and then getting the proper attention and love? Whether this happens or not, if just one single person enjoys my stuff, even if that's not happening today but 20 years later, I then may feel like it was worth all the time and effort spent. Heck, even if only crickets listen, the simple fact of being able to convert ideas from brain to DAW is already such a fantastic feeling! Let's keep creating stuff unto the ages of ages!
