So here comes my second (and sadly last :( ) submission for PRC! Since this totally free of choice I wasn't sure what to choose. VGM cover, non-VGM cover, maybe some original silly composition? Eventually I get with what I think was an ideal choice since there's some kind of shared context and story.
This is the "Abyss of Thor" from Tales of Phantasia. An original arrangement in a somewhat industrial metal style, just me and my synths/samples (no real instruments played, no collabs, etc). That tune plays in what can be considered as the stereotypical ancient civilization that happens to be technologically super advanced. A longer title I had in mind was "Echoes of Ancient Civilizations, Hopes of Future Societies". I even had some ideas to add news-style speeches using some of the in-game lines when you watch the screen but discarded that in favor of a fully instrumental version and a simpler and clearer title.
But that source kept me thinking of how online community efforts that eventually stops could be perceived in a distant future, and how important, or at least interesting all what we leave behind can feel like for other people after years or decades. In a certain way culture and knowledge works like that: even if it gets buried it's likely to be eventually discovered and enjoyed. This is the final PRC and I assume all mp3s and stuff will be kept in the site. But even if this site and everything inside got drown in the deepths of the net, that's a lot of stuff that is likely to be discovered by other people in the future. Music enthusiast who would keep copies and share elsewhere and other enthusiast who would discover that and, who knows, maybe be surprised by so much of cool stuff that was done in the past. After all, this is somewhat happening already with other communities of the past like VGMix, some removed OCR tracks, maybe OLremix and lots of artists and the mp3s they had in their old personal sites.
Nothing is likely to be totally lost forever, and even if this is the end for PRC, we all music enthusiast will have lots of stuff to enjoy forever. Stuff that, very much like other forms of culture and even knowledge, is likely to be passed and shared and enjoyed thoughout generations all around time. Isn't that wonderful?
That ancient but super advanced civilization that was once crashed by a comet and drown in the sea was there waiting for our "heroes" to be discovered and their technology used as a hope to travel in time. Who knows, maybe some people in a very distant future will discover all what we had been doing during all this time and be shocked at it. Maybe the mainstream music of the moment will be generally sooo bad... that one mp3 you are listening here will sound like a masterpiece for them, and this whole site will work as inspiration for a generation of wannabe musicians. Wouldn't that be cool?
Sometimes I think of a music in a slightly similar but a lot less narcisistic way: nowadays my stats (regarding listens, downloads, followers, etc) is a foolish joke. Criticism is often negative and it seems like people generally don't understand my ideas and I just didn't get to find my place or my audience anywhere yet. But maybe in a future some of that stuff will be discovered by some random person of the net in some random corners at the deepest dephts of this cyber-world and then getting the proper attention and love? Whether this happens or not, if just one single person enjoys my stuff, even if that's not happening today but 20 years later, I then may feel like it was worth all the time and effort spent. Heck, even if only crickets listen, the simple fact of being able to convert ideas from brain to DAW is already such a fantastic feeling! Let's keep creating stuff unto the ages of ages!
P.S.: I started this sometime early this month and what you hear was actually done in barely a couple of days. However, I kept it in my shelves just to later re-listen with fresher ears. While still not that happy with it and still thinking this and that could be done a lot better, I just decided to submit the way it is already. I hope somebody enjoys that :) (especially if you happen to have some good music taste and you like Tales of Phantasia as much as I do!)
And remember that as long as people will keep listening and checking stuff from the past, PRC is not dead! :)