The Sound (Paris 2013-2016)

Busking in the Metro, Paris 2015

“In 2013 I moved from London to Paris - it was a new world, a new future. How was my life going to change in the City of Lights…

I was inspired by music, art, the culture and people in Paris… and it started to show in the music I was writing.

‘The Sound’ was produced in my apartment in the 13th arrondissement, near to Bibliotheque Francois Mitterand and the Seine river. The original bassline heavily featured the ‘POG’ effects pedal I had bought on Rue de Doaui, where all the guitar shops are. It sounded crap, but every time I hear the demo, it puts me back in my living room with my tiny little multimedia speakers and the slowest laptop ever. I had the bare bones for recording and playing - one bass, one guitar, one keyboard. I don’t think I even had a proper microphone…

The song’s lyrics document my perceptions of the city - what I saw, what I felt. They are also a plea - “Don’t let me down, Paris town”.

I made so many friends in my 3 years in France. I learned the language, I made music, I even experimented with veganism in one of the most meat-loving countries in Europe. I think Paris lived up to my expectations…”

ARTWORK

Paris is a global capital of art, a city where craft and creativity are celebrated. I also learned to appreciate art more during my time in Paris, making friends with artists and regularly visting galleries and exhibitions.

So, for ‘The Sound’, I wanted to make sure that the artwork was top notch. I worked with digital media, including AI image generation, and enlisted the assistance of artist AIMEE. Some of the resultant creations are below - much more can be found on the Temporal Comet Instagram page.

1 - Source photo for AI image generation process…

2 - Image generated by krea.ai based on my text prompts…

3 - Finished piece with AI-gen figure superimposed, height extended and some other elements removed using Google AI.