Chestnuts
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This song has a chill and somewhat melancholic mood, but it's also hopeful and romantic. I wrote it in the fall of 2022, when I was facing some personal challenges, but also developing a more optimistic perspective, which is reflected in the arrangement.
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 Cover art |  Distant shades |  Morning frost |
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 Desaturated |  Trees catching shape |  Dust to gold |
 Color and ice |  Forest lights |
Liner Notes to Chestnuts
Autumn leaves
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I found this tree by chance while flying my drone in a forest close to where I live. Once I saw the red tones in the leaves, I knew I had to capture the scene. It later served as the teaser for the track.
Late summer
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While staying with my wife in Harz National Park in late summer, I experimented with camera settings in the field. These shots were later very inspiring while working on the track and fit the autumn vibes well.
Desaturated
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In both my music and photography, experimentation is super helpful to arrive at new ideas. In music, those can be trying new instruments, samples and sound sources. In photos such as this one, it can mean to desaturate most of the tones and only leave some of them in the final image.
Discovering haiku
Sun sets in the air
A forest slowly fading
New trees catching shape
While working on the track, I came across haiku poetry and was immediately inspired to try it myself. What I like most about writing them is that, like my music and photography, they are traditionally inspired by nature and also follow a quite specific structure that serves as a helpful guide.
Animated cover art
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I was very excited once I saw the cover art for the track created by my wife as I think it fit its vision perfectly. We then had the idea that it would be interesting to try and animate the leaf itself, so I went ahead and created this short scene for release.
Contrast in winter
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As a source of contrast to the autumn inspired visuals, I decided to also include some winter shots as well. I had captured these already about a year ago at the time, and thought it would be a good opportunity to share them alongside the track.
Light as canvas
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For this scene, I got up early to capture the sunrise over the forest. I exposed my camera directly for the sun to capture the light against the silhouettes of the leaves. I used it later as the background canvas for the track on Spotify.
Many thanks
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I am super happy and thankful that my track was shared on some amazing blogs and playlists after release. As an indie artist, support like this really is appreciated a lot. While I always aim to align music and visuals for a new release in advance, you never know exactly whether it will work out in the end or not. So thanks so much to everyone who supports my project along the way by listening, watching or just staying around in general!
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Credits for Chestnuts:
Released February 3, 2023
Tale Town Records
Credits for the cover art go to my lovely wife
Composition, Production and Mixing by No Time for Tapes
Mastering by Shawn Hatfield @AudibleOddities