Only Slightly Embarrassing

Compilations of early music

There is something mesmerizing in being able to go back in time through music. And while for me this has nostalgic value, perhaps for you it might be fun to check out what I was up to when I was just starting out, trying to find my path as an artist. And of course, just like in all such compilations, there are probably one or two gems in there.

Additionally, a lot of these were exposed to 2-3 people tops. My first "album" was burned onto a single CD, and the only person who gave it a spin was my friend in school. Things I was later releasing online received more exposure but most of this happened in dying tracking communities in the early 2000s. I was one of the Top 5 artists on Trax In Space, which sounds great until you learn that getting 50 plays was pretty much the best you could do at the time. So somehow I want to give these old tunes a second chance. Perhaps, one of these is waiting to be discovered by you!

These two compilations encompass my work between 2002 and around 2007. Volume 1 focuses on melody-driven pieces, volume 2 offers a selection of something with a more prominent beat and electronic sound.

I've only included tunes which seem palatable and/or curious to me in 2019. Most of them feature your standard amateur production quality, with very little EQ, lots of low frequencies, poor mixing decisions and much more. Compositionally a lot of it is quite unremarkable, and you can see me re-using same approaches from track to track. But hey! That's the price of time travel! So, grab your favorite beverage, sit back and prepare to be blown away by Louigi Verona of the 2000s!

Fun facts and guidance

If you don't know where to start or would like to only listen to a small selection of tunes, here are some fun facts highlighting specific ones.

My biggest tune at the time was The Breeze Dance. It got an insane amount of plays at CTG Music (probably 30 or something), reached number 1 on the charts of that site and was even mentioned by some YouTuber in their "best tunes of the month"! My 15 microseconds of fame.

A number of tunes where initially meant to be part of their own album with the Breeze Dance, and featured a slightly more epic and non-electronic presenting sound: The Land of My Dreams, Different People and Son of Spring.

Sunset Memories was my first serious ambient tune. It was also supposed to be part of a larger album and you can hear the ending beginning to move into a new composition. This, however, ended up being the only finished tune.

Life as Usual and War and Peace were yet another potential album, using a sample pack of Japanese voice samples I found online and breakbeats. The breakbeats I sequenced on my own, without using samples. But not because I was against using samples but because I had no idea that most electronic music producers had, in fact, been using samples! The melodic part of these tunes is also not uninteresting.

Pinball Machine was supposed to be a title theme I was asked to write for a game but ultimately the game never emerged.

Several tunes were written for my friends as their birthday presents:

• Airforce, Around the World, Sisters Grow Up (for my sister)
• Triumph of Celebration (for Elena MacLad)
• Happy Like a Monkey Proud Like a Giraffe (for Nina)