ROMworks

RICHARD: All the pieces in this collection were written for a variety of projects, mostly CD-ROMs (remember them?), created by the late lamented M/B Interactive. M/BI was an innovative interactive ad agency in New York responsible for some landmark releases like the Cranberries' Doors and Windows "rainbow" disc and Deep Forest, the first all-Shockwave website. Most of the projects I worked on, however, were never released.

The first three Voodootown pieces started out as background navigation loops for a CD-ROM magazine, and eventually developed into full themes. Voodootown used a beautiful 3D environment as its interface; too bad it never launched.

ElectroBop 7x7 is a linear version of the ElectroBop 767 music mixer originally available on SS7x7.com. SS7x7 was a company that offered a variety of Shockwave-based automatic music machines that let you trigger and mix music loops to make your own compositions, and had one of the first online interactive music sites. They're gone now, too. This piece is one possible mix, to which I've added some improvised melody lines.

The Island pieces were written for a healthcare CD-ROM that didn't get released either. The Ledgerbook of Thomas Blue Eagle was published in Europe by Flammarion, where it actually won some awards, but, thanks to legal difficulties, was released only in a limited version in the States. I've included the closing chapter music here. The narration is by Nick Billy.

MUSIC:  Early Works │ Walking Slowly Backwards │ ROMworks │ Five Nocturnes │ WDFH August 25, 2005 │ KymaWorks │ BuchlaWorks