Complicated Nonsense - a concept that incorporates technology and games, as well as creativity and experimentation in a broader sense, and specifically in a musical sense. That's a preamble to get into what I've been up to in 2024, rather than what I was maybe supposed to do (make games and run a freelancing business).
I've been making music in 2024. I had many concerts and launched an album, made my first money (very little tho) with music, and tried to learn how to do it professionally.
I tried to define my artistic practice and invented something I call "improvised storytelling" which is a kind of spoken word poetry performance, solo or with a band, and just like one can improvise music with instruments, I do it with words, crafting weird stories and trying to take the audience on a compelling and immersive journey, made on the spot just for them.
This video is a performance of Midnight Cocktail Bar with the band from the album launch concert on 13 dec 2024. The studio version of it can be found on my album "2". It's a good illustration of the improvised storytelling concept because you can see how we make up the story and the sounds based on the loose composition, and it's a pretty immersive and fun result.
I did some more performances like it. One of them is Music for pushing back the hard times, a solo piano performance, followed by a few more solo shows which I only recorded with audio and I haven't put up anywhere yet, as of writing.
I don't have anything very smart to say about improvised storytelling at the moment. I've been told my stuff is fairly unique, but I know at least a few others doing similar stuff, like Irreversible Entanglements etc. which I def recommend.
The performance above is a groovy one, but I also did quite a few avantgarde improvised concerts, where I delve into less rhythmical and more atonal abstract music.
This one is a solo set, and in that evening we also did a trio performance with Bøtøx and Lorenzo.
I will say that improvised storytelling is a great exercise in creativity because it uses your entire energy and skillset to try and create good music in the moment. The audience pressures but also inspires, and feeds the story, creating an unforgettable experience for those who are there, all the more impressive the more improvised and unplanned it is. The immediate audience response, and the sheer craziness of creating something instantly on stage, is what made me want to pursue this for a while, more than working on VR and games sitting at the computer all day, though I'll get back to it on and off since I also like doing that kind of work.
I've also been writing many songs and performing shows with them. Some are on youtube, like this piano show I did in 1 dec 2024, but some are not yet released.
This was a good night for me because I was featured on the CPH Listening Room stage, after having played songs on the open mic for a few weeks until I gathered enough material and courage to be the feature act.
Most of my music work is living on horatiuromantic.com so I encourage you to check it out!
I'm planning to do shows, write and record more songs, and push this music journey to wherever I can push it. It's a lot of fun and the musicians in Copenhagen are amazing, so there is plenty to learn and grow from. The only drawback is that I am not making good income, so that speaks a bit to my idealism and maybe lack of adult responsibility... but then again, I do what I want with my own money so this is what I want to do for now, I'll do it and see what happens.
I do intend to get back to making games and tech stuff eventually, if the right idea or collaboration comes along. Feel free to reach out if you have any ideas! Until then, hope to catch you at one of my shows!
Please do check out my concert calendar. I embedded it below but the main version lives at horatiuromantic.com/calendar. You can use it to find my shows more easily!
Thanks for reading!
Cheers!