OCR04770 - *YES* Signalis "{This Title Intentionally Left Blank}"

[Liontamer]

Track title: {This Title Intentionally Left Blank}
Source game: Signalis
Source tracks: Train Ride, Die Toteninsel (Emptiness), The Promise, Cigarette Wife
Primary artist: Zach Chapman (arrangement, mix, bass)

Contributing artists: TheManPF (guitar, VST string arrangements), Andromeda (vocals), Nicole Chang (harp)

Comments:

This track was structured to be split into four sections – each one revolving around one of each of the four endings of Signalis. Each one covers a different song from the OST that thematically fits each ending, and the lyrics all reflect the endings in questions (from the POV of the protagonist). The first three endings are the main endings, all achieved in a similar way and all pretty easily understood. There also are no happy endings in this game, so I tried to write them all pretty slow and melancholic as well.

The fourth and final section is for the secret ending of the game, which is incredibly convoluted and hidden, and equally weird and hard to understand. I wanted to reflect this with the music as well – the first three sections are all similar in instrumentation and feel, while the fourth is completely different. It’s all synths and electronic instruments, the mood shifts, and the vocals are in German, as a lot of text in Signalis is in other languages (mainly German, Korean, and Japanese).

To further fit this into the ending theme, I added sound fx as if the song is being played on a cassette tape and a long break between the third and fourth sections, reminiscent of a secret track the end of an album, which obviously felt appropriate for the secret ending. The cassette also fits Signalis as well, as it has the same sort of “70s/80s sci-fi” aesthetic as media like the original Alien.

References:

The title itself is a reference to a thing in Signalis that happens often – sometimes during important scenes, the screen will flash to a blank screen with text on it saying different things. “Compartmentalizing Trauma” is one that flashes during a particularly brutal scene, and “Violent Scene Missing” replaces a scene of your character killing a boss. The most common, however, is “This Space Intentionally Left Blank”, which I believe is a visual representation of the characters trying to repress or deny something difficult. I often struggle with naming songs, so I thought it would be a fun reference to use that as the title.

At 1:46, the lyrics “I’ve given my blood, and kept my faith through this hell strong” are a reference to a similar line in the song The Patient by my favorite band Tool – “But I’m still right here, giving blood, keeping faith”.

At 2:17, the harp plays a rendition of the melody of Swan Lake, a famous ballet referenced in the lyrics at the time. I also made sure that there was a bit of dissonance when it did as well so it would feel just a little off-putting and “wrong”, to reflect some context from the song in the game.

The lines in the fourth section of the song are also a poem called Cassilda’s Song. This poem is from The King in Yellow, a famous book featured in Signalis. I made some minor changes to the poem to fit the world of Signalis better, and translated it into German.

Throughout the song are a lot of references to Signalis itself, but this list would get too long if I included all of them. Those are the more significant references.

Lyrics: 

Section 1: Leave Ending/Train Ride

One single step away, but it’s
But it’s too much
One single step more than I can take

Nothing remains but
Rot, blood, and empty promises
To her

One single breath more to take
But my corpse has none left
Let these cursed memories find their peace
Once I have mine
As I (Please let me) leave and rest

Section 2: Memory Ending/Die Toteninsel (Emptiness)

I was drifting through (in) your dream
Drifting out of your memory
I’ve given my blood and 
Kept my faith through this hell strong
Yet here my hell was waiting with you
With no promise to keep

Would you know my name if I told you
Could we dance again
If I played our song for you

My love
My stranger

To be with you must be enough
So please just let me stay with you
Just a little while longer

Section 3: Promise Ending/The Promise

Just give me one moment my darling
I know what you’d have me do
Just take my hands in yours dear
To hide their bloodstains

Let me touch you 
With love one last time
Before with death

Don’t fret now love, I am here now
No more suffering soon
No more waiting for your peace
You’ve strong enough
You’ve been patience enough

Let me take it all away

Darling tell me just one more (last) time
Before I let you rest (go)

Close your eyes
Rest your head
And I’ll keep my promise

Section 4: Artifact Ending/Cigarette Wife

Entlang der Küste brechen die Wolkenwellen,
Die rote Sonne versinkt hinter dem See,
Die Schatten werden länger
In Penrose.

[Along the shore the cloud waves break,
The red sun sinks behind the lake,
The shadows lengthen
In Penrose.]

Seltsam ist die Nacht, in der schwarze Sterne aufgehen,
Und seltsame Monde kreisen durch den Himmel
Aber seltsamer ist es immer noch
Verlorene Penrose.

[Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies
But stranger still is
Lost Penrose.]

Lieder, die die Hyades singen werden,
Wo flattern die Fetzen der Königin,
Muss ungehört sterben
Schwach Penrose

[Songs that the Hyades shall sing,
Where flap the tatters of the Queen,
Must die unheard in
Dim Penrose.]

Lied meiner Seele, meine Stimme ist tot;
Stirb du, unbesungen, wie unvergossene Tränen
Soll trocknen und einsterben
Verlorene Penrose.

[Song of my soul, my voice is dead;
Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed
Shall dry and die in
Lost Penrose.]

 

 

[prophetik music]

train ride right off the bat. bass is surprisingly loud next to everything else. andromeda's voice is beautiful throughout this, although the lyrics really don't fit the melodic shape at all, and some of her appogiatura on faster note patterns make it hard to hear what the intended note was. the realization of this track is pretty close to the original, so the arrangement is more in the adaptation of instrumentation and the vocal arrangement.

the melodic material for the second section is really well-adapted, compared to the first version. there's far less true melody in die toteninsel, and crafting something from that is really neat. the swan lake concept is interesting but in execution it just sounds atonal. the bass is even louder than before around 2:30, and the intentional dissonance do not sound good at all. andromeda's voice at the end of this is just stellar, really striking.

the promise's creepier textures come across well in this third vignette. it's much more noodly but that's because of the original - i think the harmony especially is great throughout. the bass continues to be a lot louder than everything through here and the active playing is kind of taking the focus away from the really great vocal elements, so again confusing.

there's a lot of sound design before the musical elements come in for the fourth one, and obviously this original track is way different than the other three. the vocal effecting is really interesting here. my sung german is not good but the pronunciations sound pretty solid. this, like the first vignette, doesn't have much extra arrangement outside the adaptation to the palette of instruments and the text.

i never played signalis, so i'll assume these lyrics are striking and memorable references to important elements of the game. that said, lyrics are hard, and for a third of the piece the text doesn't fit the melodic line at all. that's not entirely the fault of the lyricist due to how spacey some of these melodic lines are, but it does mean that it's a jumble sometimes to hear what it's saying. separately, i mentioned several times how loud the bass is (and out of character, it's weird to hear it merrily chugging along below some parts when everything else is draped in black) - i'd say that's my biggest complaint about the track, and i'd love to hear it fixed before it goes out.

all that said, the vocal performance is thoroughly excellent outside some detail work in the first vignette. the harp performance throughout is superb, just absolutely elevating in every sense. the arrangement and concept is really interesting as well, and for the most part the adaptation to the instruments and style works really well. i think this is definitely above our bar.

 

 

YES

[MindWanderer]

What a strange soundtrack, and an even stranger remix. It's full of jarring dissonance, not just in a few places, but given the material, I'm inferring that's intentional.

The transitions are a little awkward. Parts 1-2 are okay, 2-3 is a bit abrupt, and then 3-4... that's a really long gap, about 10 seconds of near-total silence. Long enough that it 100% sounds like the song is over, and I get that that's intentional, but it's so long that a listener with this on their playlist is likely to think there's a technical problem why the next song isn't playing, especially if they're listening in an environment with some ambient noise, like a car. Some MP3 programs and players might also have a problem with it: I've seen an issue before where there's a silent or near-silent gap on a track, and the player gets confused and just ends or skips to the next track.

Otherwise, the sound quality is excellent for what it is, the singing is great (though the German doesn't sound sung by a native speaker). Definitely not pleasant fare, but again, intentional.

So for purely technical reasons, I need to ask that the gap between parts 3 and 4 be tweaked. It doesn't have to be quite as long (I think the impact would still be felt if it were 5-7 second shorter), and making the tape hiss sound louder will help both humans and software be less confused.

CONDITIONAL

Edited December 21, 2023 by MindWanderer

[Liontamer]

"Train Ride" - :00-1:16
"Die Toteninsel (Emptiness)" - 1:16-3:13
"The Promise" - 3:13-5:13
"Cigarette Wife" - 5:52-7:30

"The Promise" was the hardest theme for me to grok, at least until I looped it tons of times. The other 3 sources were easier to wrap my head around, but everything's arranged in a pretty straightforward way, so there's nothing cerebral or difficult to recognize in that respect, which I'm thankful for with a longer piece like this. (Obviously, the tone and tenor of this as a piece of music IS cerebral.) Once I listened to each source then its corresponding section, I ticked the source usage box and relistened to see how it felt as a unified idea.

Nice quick stereo bouncing around the soundfield of Andromeda's vocals from :57-:59. From 2:16-2:27, the vocals felt out of place or in a different key than the music; maybe it's just me, but it felt odd. I thought the vocals were well performed and layered overall though, along with Nicole's harp, and the other instrumentation by PF.

I don't mind the gap between parts 3 and 4. I've played enough scary games to have heard sound design like this, so I'm flexible enough to say let it ride. The vocal processing for section 4 didn't click for me, the singing was flat and was getting in the way of the music; clearly it's a feature, not a bug, and tied to the strangeness of the secret ending, it just didn't work for me personally.

Interesting piece of business that won't be everyone's cup of tea, but can be appreciated for what it is. Weird shit? Count me in!

YES

[Hemophiliac]

To me, this feels like modern lieder (art song).  I may not like this specifically, but I can certainly appreciate the artistry and craft behind it.

Andromeda's vocal performance is stellar, and the vocal harmony is lovely.  Your round low alto range is superb. One of the German words really stood out to me because it was pronounced incorrectly but it's a minor note because the rest of it was fine.

You give us some word painting in the second section by quoting Tchaikovsky's Black Swan ballet immediately after the lyric "Could we dance again".  I can appreciate the quote's usage as it was brief.  However, the mixture was a little unusual for a moment with a strong dissonance. That said it is an intentional decision and goes away quickly.

The direct modulation to section 3 at 3:13 caught me off-guard. Again, intentional decision to change keys in that way to create unease.

The fourth and final section is a huge departure from the rest of the piece.  This really feels like a completely different song to me, it makes sense to have so much space proceeding it otherwise the contrast would be too great.

All of the above didn't do anything against standards, but this might be a challenging listen for some people.  It is art and not everyone will grok it.

YES

[prophetik music]

given the vote count, i'll pass this to TheManPF to see if we can get something to fulfill the C.

[Chimpazilla]

Interesting and mostly cohesive combination of these themes.  Thank you Larry for doing the source-use work on this. 

I like the concept, and the vocal is gorgeous.  The soundscape is often sparse and simple, beautiful and delicate.  The mixing is lacking something, for me.  The vocal sounds too up-front and is very dry, giving it a pasted-on-top uncomfortable "you're too close to me, please step back a bit" feel.  The backing strings are very quiet by comparison to the vocal, amplifying this "too-close" feeling.  A reduction in vocal volume by just a couple of db, together with a touch of reverb (with long pre-delay) to nestle the vocal better into the soundscape would be ideal.

The song tends to drag for me due to the instruments and vocal not changing throughout most of the piece, but there is enough variation that it doesn't feel repetitive.  What's going on with the last section with the lengthy crackly lead-in?  It sounds like the render accidentally caught the beginning of the next track, it is that different from what came before.  Hhhmm.

Interesting track.  As others have said, it isn't everyone's cup of tea.  It's weird.  Still, it works and is unique and cool in a lot of ways.

YES