Fractured Vision Media, LLC has now released the “Emergent Collective Two” community compilation CD as a free download along with PDF booklet, audio disc image, and high quality MP3 downloads.

If you visit the release website, you can listen to the album, download it, and view the booklet via Flash Player or HTML (if you do not have Flash Player installed). As before, the entire booklet was layed out in InDesign with help from Photoshop. Both PDF and SWF versions of the booklet were produced directly from InDesign – the images for the HTML version were converted via a decomplier tool from the produced SWF. The CD itself was authored with Audition and then WAV files produced with trusty old CDex. MP3 files are streamed via BandCamp and BIN/CUE CD-Audio images are available for direct download just as with EC1.

There are some differences in how EC2 was produced when compared with the first entry. With EC1, all of the tracks were tweaked a bit so that loudness levels and a sound “signature” was shared between them all. This was done in order to ensure that the tracks flowed well together and that there was a sort of “glue” that held the collection. For EC2 – most of the the tracks appear on the album exactly as they were when they left the artists hands. Why the change? Respect for the material – respect for the artists. It is better for me that the artist is happily represented as they are than somehow corrupted – even slightly – by any tweaks I might make in order provide some extra layer of cohesion. So, in EC2 – you may notice the tracks stand off by themselves a bit more than in the previous release. I think that is okay.

For EC1 – all of the booklet artwork was produced by myself. Generally consisting of extremely blurred photographs which were then cropped and placed into the booklet. Only the cover art was a product of the community. For EC2 – I opened it up wide. Anyone could contribute artwork to serve in the booklet and I received many, many submissions – so many that I did not use them all but anyone who did submit is represented in the final booklet. The cover art (and most of the booklet art) this time around is courtesy of Eric Fickes with additional contributions from Peter French, Chris Gannon, and Anna Thielke.

I didn’t have any volunteers for the intro track this time around so took care of that myself. Using a simple audio bed as a backdrop I placed representative samples from each contribution along a continuum. I think it makes a fine introduction to the album and there is also an accompanying exit track to provide a nice set of bookends to the collection.

As always – thank you to all contributing artists for making this release what it is.

Please do check out the collection… congratulate the contributing artists… many are probably open for interviews… spread the word and support your community.

The call for submissions for the Emergent Collective Two community compilation CD closed with 2012′s dying breath. For the curious, we now present a list of contributors and their submissions.

Credit : Eric Fickes

The aural submissions (in alphabetical order):

• ‘Anonymous’ : Introduction…
• Christer (McFunkypants) Kaitila : ProStyle
• coderjun : Truth
• Compilers : Giveth
• An Early Morning Letter, Displaced : Hope of Escape (no escape)
• oí cajeta : Hoy
• Partition 36 : The Mainframe
• Polyploid : Softly, softly
• Sea of Arrows : Chupacabra (Dancefloor Massacre 3)
• shivervein : ladyconch
• Spectre Marrow : These 40 Graves Were Left Unmarked
• Sunjammer : Yuggoth

And visual submissions (also alphabetical):

• Chris Gannon : (unnamed)
• Eric Fickes : (a TON of material!)
• Peter French : Cubed Space / Cubed Space 2
• Anna Thielke : Twelve Gauge Cynic

Thanks SO much to everyone who contributed! It will take a month or so to get everything together… so look for a release around February.

UPDATE 01/06/2013 : I had to give a few people some extra time to get around technical difficulties with their submissions. If you are interested in still submitting music or artwork (but haven’t yet done so) – please drop me a line through email or Twitter. There is room for one or two more tracks on the CD. This is a community effort and I do NOT want to exclude anyone who wants to be a part of it!

Based upon conversations and feedback I’ve received since the original announcement, I have been able to somewhat organize the project and come up with what I consider to be a reasonable submissions deadline. We also have two additional submission forms to make this process as pain-free as humanly possible; one for music and one strictly for artwork contributions.

The process will be fairly simple: 1) submit your files to FTP 2) Fill out the form so I know whose files I need to grab for the collection and what they are for, along with the collection of additional info for the booklet such as an artist bio.

Unlike EC1, I have a secondary call for contributors for artists to submit imagery for the booklet! One of these submissions will be chosen for the cover art and the rest will be worked into individual booklet pages. There is a simple form for that as well – and the FTP process is identical.

So… here is the info. Feel free to share across the community – it’s okay to let others know about this project as all are free to contribute. For planning purposes, if you haven’t already done so, please do let us know you are interested.

SUBMISSIONS DEADLINE:
12/31/2012 11:59PM MT (Midnight)!

SUBMITTING TRACKS:
Through the submission of the form linked below, you agree that you hold all rights to the bio, artwork, and music being submitted and give Fractured Vision Media, LLC the limited rights necessary to distribute this work under (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) as a part of the Emergent Collective Two project.

First, upload your assets via FTP:

Server:    ftp.fracturedvisionmedia.com
Username:  submission@fracturedvisionmedia.com
Password:  musicdev

Once your files have been uploaded, fill out this short form.

SUBMITTING ARTWORK:
Through the submission of the form linked below, you agree that you hold all rights to the bio, artwork, and music being submitted and give Fractured Vision Media, LLC the limited rights necessary to distribute this work under (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) as a part of the Emergent Collective Two project.

First, upload your artwork via FTP:

Server:    ftp.fracturedvisionmedia.com
Username:  submission@fracturedvisionmedia.com
Password:  musicdev

Once your files have been uploaded, fill out this short form.

In 2010, I introduced the idea for a “Community Compilation CD” with the following words:

One of the aspects I greatly admire about the communities I interface with (primarily Flash developers, but digital tech people of all stripes) is that there is such a diverse amount of talent, interest, and drive among these individuals. More than any other group of people I’ve come across, there seems to be an inordinate amount of developers who also spend their time doing some form of audio composition. What better way to highlight their efforts on both fronts than to put together a compilation album of their audio work along with related information and offer it to the community at large?

The 11 track compilation release of Emergent Collective One was the result!

Since that time… and even though some aspects of the community are sadly not as strong as they once were… I have been introduced to a number of other people whose work spills into these areas.

I have also been approached numerous times over these past two years by original contributors who had some really nice things to say about this project. Often they would inquire about a follow-up compilation. It was my original intention to get something together in 2011 – but other things kept getting in the way. Well, No more. It’s happening.

This is a follow-up announcement to the successful Emergent Collective One project of 2010. I have extended an invitation to all original contributors to offer a spot to them on this second compilation. I’ve also begun searching for new contributors to work with us and a few more invitations have been sent out as a result of this search.

Here are the current confirmed contributors!

The terms of EC2 will be the same as with EC1 – zero money will change hands and all contributors agree that their contribution can be distributed by Fractured Vision Media, LLC (FVM) as a part of this collection. The distribution will most likely fall under (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) as did EC1. This allows freedom of distribution, yet protects the original work. I will be having an open call for artwork once the timeline settles as well. I know a bunch of you people are doing some killer generative art with languages like Processing!

So this is the announcement. I hope to have an even greater amount of support from the community this time around. If you know of anyone who should be included in this effort – please do ping me :)  The timeline is not set in stone – but I do hope to have this all put together and out the door before Christmas.

Lastly… anyone know what the hell happened to Lee Fernandes?!?