C.H.M. 'Assorted Songs (1998-2001)' | 2001 [Archive]
0The following series of 17 pieces showcases the development of my sibling C.H.M. as a self-taught composer and pianist from 1998-2001. The main medium was a (software based) MIDI controller for Windows 98, a small Casio keyboard, and over 100 pieces were ultimately created. Please keep in mind that he was primarily a guitarist and a piano player, some of these songs were meant to be accompanied by live electric guitar and/or performed on our family player piano.
Building on popular industrial rock and video game soundtrack (Sega Genesis, early 90’s PC games) inspired work and (later on) an equal amount of love for Classical Music and bands like Morbid Angel he'd reach the peak of his interest in heavy music by the year 2000. Once I’d introduced him to Emperor (circa 1998) and his interest in marches developed his work would steadily shift to a more serious, dirge tonality which we find on the 7+ minute closing piece. Having grown up with the artist I know that the Fatal Fury 2 OST, Mozart, Nine Inch Nails + Quake, and the interludes from albums like ‘Covenant’ and ‘Domination’ were germinal to some of these songs but you may also hear a hint of Secret of Mana and other early 90's video game influence alongside inspiration from basic classical music waltzes and improvised solos for piano.
This is the last extant copy of this CD-R gifted in five total copies in December of 2001. Since my sister’s passing in early 2025 revealed the final copy amongst her CD collection I’ve decided to upload this online to “preserve” it since I do not know how long this final physical copy will last. While there is some extensive documentation of this material in the artist's archives I do not believe he saved much of the hundred or so songs as this was a post-High school pursuit he’d set aside once he’d attended trade school and then college. If there are more pieces and larger archives to pull from I’ll attempt to preserve them in a similar way.
Song titles are indicated in Roman numerals indicating the order in which they were created.
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