What a time to be alive! Archival footage of the early 1980s arcade game era. Time traveling back to the days of Pac Man & Defender. Approximately 1981-1983.

Featured music: "At The Ice Arcade Cold Phasin' 'Em" from Spark In The Dark

"Other Shores, Other Worlds" is a new song, but the familiar feeling it evokes is drawing from a forever cycling vibration the cosmos are sending out even right now, at this very moment.

Composed on a long lost to time, recently resurrected Synergy I synthesizer. In its heyday, this unique instrument was used extensively by music icon Wendy Carlos, whose credits include film scoring for Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" and "A Clockwork Orange," as well as "TRON." The Synergy was a contemporary of the Nintendo Entertainment System, and sure enough, sounds are loaded onto the synthesizer via old school video-game style cartridges. 

This is "Dr. Andonut's Lab" from the Super Nintendo game Earthbound (MOTHER 2) soundtrack, only it's entirely played on acoustic guitar.

Extended to 30 minutes in length for studying, meditation, and / or zone out purposes.

At the beginning, you hear me pluck the opening chord. An acoustic guitar can't sustain infinitely, so I ran the plucked chord through a compressor with a long release and rode the gain dial, then I duplicated the resulting processed chord, continuously adding fades to make the chord sustain throughout. I was surprised how much the resulting sound resembled an organ drone. If you listen closely, you can hear an audio book on the immune system playing in the other room that accidentally was picked up on the microphone used to record the guitar.

These days, the Synergy is a super rare synthesizer to come across in the wild. Originally produced in 1982, it is estimated that less than 100 are still in operation across the globe. Interestingly, it ran off cartridges, something it had in common with the Super Nintendo!

Recently, I had the opportunity to recreate some of my favorite music from EarthBound on a Synergy. This video demonstrates some of the sound textures the synthesizer is capable of, while showcasing a beloved soundtrack through a unique lens.

More information on the Synergy:

https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/digital-keyboards-synergy/
https://www.vintagesynth.com/misc/synergy.php
https://www.synthmuseum.com/synergy/synergy01.html

If you know this song, I salute you! This energetic polyphony stuck with me since I rented "Rocky Rodent" from Stop 'N' Go video back in 1993.

The jump from the Nintendo Entertainment System to Super Nintendo was powerful in that era. I remember there weren't more than 6 or 7 titles to rent at the store, because SNES was in it's infancy.

I used a Synergy I synthesizer for this recreation, and I included it on my "16 Bit Ones" project.

Photo taken at Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, New Mexico
music composed by Rikei Hirashima
this version performed by Will C.