Reviews for AIM - The Lonely Hermit

[Everratic]

This is difficult to listen to by itself, but it's quite cinematic and resembles the art appropriately. The selection and usage of instruments, combined with the ambiance, work together to effectively portray a vivid, yet ambiguous story. This is the first time I've heard eating sounds in a cinematic track, and it sounds pretty cool!

I really like that you didn't take inspiration from the art at face value. For example, in the art, the sky is mostly clear and bright, yet in your track, the weather changes, which is indicated by the harsh winds and rain ambiance. Additionally, the character in the art is outside, yet your track contains eating sounds, which makes me think that the character either walked to the houses in the distance, or he's standing in front of a house or building, which would explain the shadow and the stone path.

The ending is nice and conclusive; there's no uncertainty there.

EctiBot responds:

So glad you noticed the details in this :D. Tried to make this kind of a dynamic continuation of the art.
I'll leave it up to the imagination whether the man is walking to the building in the distance or to the house behind him( I also imagined there had to be a building behind him :D). I can at least say that he is down by the water at some point and the character does walk into a house.

In the top left of the picture there are some dark-looking clouds. As these clouds get pushed over the mountain, it would begin to rain.

Glad you liked my wonderful lip smacks XD.
Thanks for the review :)!

[Phonometrologist]

It really gets interesting at 20 seconds in when you use those strings as a pedal point while the harp has that motif. Good "setting the stage" kind of piece with a nice sense of intrigue. It's a bit more ambient in the cinematic way as well. Sometimes a bit too sparse at moments for my liking, but the overall theme is enjoyable.

EctiBot responds:

Thanks! Glad you liked it :

[ADR3-N]

I actually think I prefer this to your usual vein of work. It shows a sensitivity and freedom of expression rarely seen. ASMR elements make for an unusual exploration of sound, which I feel very much represents a story. I will say that the eating bit absolutely annoyed the SHIT out of me as a misophone who normally listens to music at obscenely loud volumes in order to ignore eating noises -- eating noises which were currently going on around me. Subtracting half a star as I was supremely disturbed by that part. Very good piece, though. Thoroughly enjoyed.

EctiBot responds:

Dunno if I'll be able to make something like this again, but I certainly hope so :D.
Glad you liked it :D

[ChronoNomad]

My absolute favorite thing about this track is how it tells a story, not with words or letters on a page, but with music.

Your overall composition is strong, and goes hand in hand with the more ambient part of the story, and I think my main complaint is that those ambient sound effects, while being a key part of the storytelling, they end up taking too much aural real estate, at times drowning out the subtler musical themes found herein. Long story short, sometimes I feel as though the sound effects are too loud within the overall mix. When the music becomes softer, I would have liked the ambient sections to follow suit and be a bit softer within the mix, as well.

As others have mentioned already, those intro strings just don't really do your composition justice, and some of the other instruments lack that same credibility. But hey, I also understand that we can't all produce music with top-shelf, high-quality instrument bundles, so that's not honestly much of a factor in my case.

The general feel of your track is one of a hard and lonely life, and the conclusion is of course one of finite existence, mortality. The heart beating harder and faster towards its sudden silence exudes a sobering image of finality. On the other hand, the sound of the heart violently bursting actually feels less poignant, due to its less symbolic nature.

After that, the track ends rather abruptly, which does make sense as it pertains to the Lonely Hermit's solitary life. That said, it would have been a perfect opportunity for a brief requiem of sorts, made even more solemn by the complete lack of ambient sound. While life is indeed fertile ground for music, so too is death.

8.4 out of 10

[TaintedLogic]

The string sample at the beginning sounds pretty fake with the uniform vibrato and timbre. I like the mood of the piece - it’s very atmospheric and somber, with a rich texture. The piece is pretty slow to develop, although I thoroughly enjoyed the melody at 1:15. The instruments blend well, but overall I’m not sure I like the samples you used, especially the ones that tried to mimic orchestral instruments. I like the breakdown at 2:26, but I think the balance is a little off there. I would’ve liked to hear the moving notes in the foreground more, and the sloshing water effects kept in the background. The wind sample at 3:06 also struck me as a bit cheesy. The pacing of this piece started slow, but got even slower towards the middle...I think the ambient minimalism dragged on for a bit too long. The last part of the piece seemed pretty militaristic and brassy. There isn’t a tone of coherence in the piece overall. The dramatic ending was amusing, though. I’ve been pretty tough on you in this review, but I commend you for taking some compositional risks with this piece. With a little polishing (notably, switching out some of the samples and cleaning up the mixing in the middle section) this could be a great track. I very much hope that I’ll hear more from you, but as for now the sound design and lack of coherence did detract from my enjoyment of the piece, and my score reflects that. Keep at it, man!

7.5/10