CAP Selects S1: listen to our student singles of the week

CAP Selects: Singles is a new weekly series dedicated to showcasing the outstanding work of our Creative Audio Production & Sound Engineering students.

The original singles were created from scratch by students from both our one-year Certificate and three-year Bachelor courses. Listen to and read about our season-one selections below.

Follow Livant on SoundCloud.

“After a long period of discovering music from the past, specifically from the ‘60s to ‘70s era, I found myself truly inspired by the way these pop songwriters composed, arranged, produced, and mixed songs. Living in the postmodern era, I’ve come to terms with the fact that there is a certain standard of how people listen to music. We have been sort of spoiled in the sense that our ears are used to HI FI sounds, with no room for error. And as amazing as a digital compressor sounds, or how “banging” the drums sound, I found myself running into circles and not really getting any inspiration at all. Listening to music from the past was truly refreshing. The music production in the ‘60s and ‘70s was a bit more art/avant garde oriented and that definitely grabbed my attention immediately. Not only because of the amazing production techniques, such as the wall of sound, but I was more bewildered by the composing and arranging elements. To me the core of the song is the songwriting, then we sort of adapt to the era we live in, and our own personal tastes. But it’s just a custom, what’s truly interesting and timeless is the actual song.“

Listen to the full album here.

“‘Beauté’ is the closing track of my album, and the last step of the voyage. After realising that being happy is actually possible, the boy delivers an ode to everyone struggling with their inner selves; those who have smiles deep in the back of their looks, that desperately want to come out, like a scream that’s never heard. A crowd slowly emerges from the hopeful sound of acceptance, cheering to a recital of Charles Baudelaire’s Hymn to Beauty. Gradually delaying, the poem is spread through the air just like a positive message, that everyone should benefit from.”

“The concept of the album as a whole is representing various habitats, living or stationary, through journeys or my own interpretation of these environments. Some directly represent a place or my imagination of that place, while some are only a feeling I have had while experiencing something personally.“

Listen to the full album here. Follow Dillon Sutherland on SoundCloud.

“‘Monkey Cage’ was at first an homage to going out and meeting other people – or in this case fellow chimps. Usually when going out at night, there is always this hint of light-hearted foolishness and brainlessness in the air. Therefore the lyrics, “I got to feed the monkeys,” and “I’m even ‘feasting’ on them” are meant to be understood in a symbolic way. As the nights progress, people tend to deteriorate at a quick pace, indulging in binge drinking and drug abuse, so much that they’re even feasting on themselves. The monkeys are let loose!”

Listen to the full album here. Follow Rick&Rough on SoundCloud, Instagram and Facebook.

“It is about working through an existential crisis, prompted by severe health issues, and all the incredible emotions that can come out of such profound, constant battle from within. While I am new to cinematic music, it is through this medium that I believed such a crisis could be best expressed.”

Follow Ponder Mars on SoundCloud and Instagram.

Keen to listen to even more outstanding music by our Creative Audio Production & Sound Engineering students? Check out our featured albums of the week here.