Excursions

From C418 Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Excursions

Excursions.jpg

Release date 2018-09-07
Genre Ambient, EDM (Electronic Dance Music), Electronica, House, Orchestral
Running time 1:41:41 (16-track digital edition)
1:19:10 (12-track edition)
44:04 (vinyl)
1:11:08 (CD)
Bandcamp $8 or more
Google Play Music $9.99

Excursions is the first major, full-length album since 2015's 148. It was also C418's first non-Minecraft album to receive significant press coverage across sites such as Billboard, Fact, and Variety.

Official descriptions

Excursions, before it was what it is now, was a 30 minute release that I created to, mostly make people know that I still exist. However, I didn’t stop creating until ultimately it became a release that is over 100 minutes in length.

I’ve created this release exclusively only with a 2014 MacBook Pro, which turned out to be a difficult process. Most of the songs use more than 50 individual channels. That’s part due to my creative workflow and part due to me working as fast and as messy as possible. Until recently MacBooks only came with 16 gigs of RAM, which is perfectly fine for most all people, except video editors and people like me. For example, the song Thunderbird, clocking in at 13 minutes, needs around 18 gigs of free RAM to open without a hitch. Shockingly, MacBooks can still open a song like that with 16, because of their weird compression technique. However… it’s also a lucky coin flip on whether the software crashes or not.

Technical problems aside, I’ve posed a few challenges to myself to make creating Excursions interesting.

1. I wanted to create the same piece over and over again in as many different places and mood sets as possible
2. I wanted to use recorded speakers as a means to record room acoustics as much as possible
3. Excursions is supposed to feel like a journey through the messiest parts of New York, yet still feel tranquil and relaxing

To achieve number 3, I’ve decided to bake in the sounds of nature with additional grimy spooky places. Surprisingly, it makes the whole record feel very calm even with the most intense songs.
—C418, C418.org
This new project, Excursions, has been a trip down my own memory lane before Minecraft, when I aspired to create music I could hear on a commute to dance to. I’ve tried a few weird tricks for the entire record. For one, I’ve recorded the entire finished product through speakers to give it a roomy feel. Or, the mindset I’ve tried to have making each song. I started with "Beton" as my first song, and then tried to recreate this very song over and over again, but in different locations and with wildly different mood sets. Angry, sad or happy. Turns out that creates completely different songs.
—C418, Billboard

Tracks

Excursions

Excursions
Length 5:47
Bandcamp $1 or more
“Excursions” was originally a track for a very early prototype of a game concept, but I felt that it deserves a better place than my dropbox. After a bit of polishing, I think it’s a very lovely way to be an intro into the album.
—C418, C418.org

Cold Summer

Cold Summer
AKA six
Length 8:10
Bandcamp $1 or more
“Cold Summer” is probably familiar to some of. you, as it was the first song I created and put out on Soundcloud with no real goal in mind. Only later I decided that there needed to be more.
—C418, C418.org

Trivia

TXL

TXL
AKA six, Txl
Length 2:18
Bandcamp $1 or more

Trivia

Tingle

Tingle
Length 6:40
Additional artist(s) Kuabee
Bandcamp $1 or more
“Tingle” was created in a weird spot in my life. I just got broken up from a 2 year relationship that I thought was the most important thing in my life, but it really really wasn’t. I spent the summer traveling to close friends. One of them was my good and composer Jukio Kallio, aka Kuabee. I think he dragged me out to his studio mostly to cheer me up. We ended creating this piece and I’ve polished it until I left the country. It did help.
—C418, C418.org

Trivia

  • C418 collaborated with the musician Jukio Kallio on this track.
  • The track is likely named after Jukio Kallio's dog, Tingle.

Beton

Beton
Release date 2018-07-19
Length 7:48
Bandcamp $1 or more
“Beton” was a piece created to distract myself from being sad, as it was the track I created the closest to my breakup. Making music, at least for me, is very much connected to emotions. If I feel awful, I have a very hard time even jotting down a single note. But somehow I managed to create this whole piece without stopping for a minute. This piece was also the creation of the idea of making this album with as many mood sets as I could muster.
—C418, C418.org
I started with "Beton" as my first song, and then tried to recreate this very song over and over again, but in different locations and with wildly different mood sets. Angry, sad or happy. Turns out that creates completely different songs.
—C418, Billboard

Trivia

  • The song was released as a single on 2018-07-19. This was the first single ever released by C418 to promote an album.
  • The track is named after Bar Beton, a café in the Netherlands.

AMS

AMS
AKA Ams
Length 2:38
Bandcamp $1 or more

Trivia

Thunderbird

Thunderbird
Release date 2018-08-20
Length 13:27
Bandcamp $1 or more
SoundCloud Listen for free
YouTube Listen for free
“Thunderbird” is the longest piece. Created in its namesake coffee shop in Austin, I got obsessed for a week or more just creating and creating and creating more until it stopped making sense. I was so obsessed with creating this song that I’m not actually sure what this monster is that I’ve created. I think it’s a bit of a case of staring at something too closely for too long.
—C418, C418.org
Whenever I obsess over a piece of music, I am out of commission for weeks until I decide that I am done. That doesn’t happen very often, but it did with "Thunderbird." I created it in a coffee shop in Austin, called, well, Thunderbird. They have fiber wire internet and that’s really useful if you compose 13 minute songs and have to wait and test listen for long stretches of times.

Trivia

Aviva

Aviva
Length 3:17
Bandcamp $1 or more
“Aviva” was originally a present for someone, but I didn’t want to hide it.
—C418, C418.org

Trivia

Figure 8

Figure 8
Length 8:57
Bandcamp $1 or more

Trivia

  • The title of this track may refer to Figure 8 Coffee Purveyors in Austin, fitting with how Beton and Thunderbird are also named after the cafés where they were made.

Fake Triplets

Fake Triplets
Length 8:02
Bandcamp $1 or more

Nest

Nest
Length 8:22
Bandcamp $1 or more
“Nest” is a celebration of tracker music. I got fascinated with trying to transfer the feeling and sound of it into modern software, which is why it essentially is two songs in one. Most tracker music uses 8 bit sample files to save space, which gives them all this low bitrate feeling. The hum of old files. It felt very appropriate for Excursions.
—C418, C418.org

Home

Home
Length 3:44
Bandcamp $1 or more

Trivia

  • Home was originally the ending of the album until the tracklist was expanded to sixteen on release day.

ATX

ATX
AKA Atx
Length 3:31
Bandcamp $1 or more
Starting with “ATX” until “Hope”, these tracks were kept hidden until the official release date on September 7th. The reason for such an unorthodox release window was a technical leak from the music publisher that I’ve used for this specific release. The unfortunate leak led me to create four more tracks, which ultimately made me feel way happier about this album.

Trivia

  • ATX is the code for Atbasar Airport, but it more likely refers to Austin, one of the cities where Excursions was made.
  • Along with Leak, The President is Dead, and Hope, this track was revealed on 2018-09-07, shortly before the album was released. These four tracks were not included in the accidental early release.

Leak

Leak
Length 7:50
Bandcamp $1 or more

Trivia

  • This track's title possibly refers to the version of the album that was accidentally released early. As Leak was not included in this version, it may be acknowledging that the extra four tracks are a bonus for those who waited for the official release.

The President is Dead

The President is Dead
AKA The President Is Dead
Length 7:48
Bandcamp $1 or more
SoundCloud Listen for free
"The President is dead” is a reference to an old movie soundtrack. Which one exactly I’ll let you figure out.

Trivia

  • C418 confirmed via Discord that the track name does not refer to any living or dead political leader.
  • C418 took inspiration to make "The President is Dead" from the OST "The President is Gone" found in the 1981 film "Escape From New York".

Hope

Hope
Length 3:22
Bandcamp $1 or more

Vinyl release

Side A tracks

  • Beton
  • Aviva
  • Figure 8
  • [Regennn]
    • Regennn is the only exclusive track appearing on vinyl, making it the 17th track on the album.

Side B tracks

Trivia

  • As the vinyl release was delayed, those who have pre-ordered the vinyl of Excursions, were entitled to an additional random vinyl.

CD release

Tracks

Trivia

  • Fake Triplets is excluded from the CD release.
  • The back of the CD release notes that Excursions was created in the following cities:
    • Berlin (Germany)
      • TXL was named after the Berlin Tegel Airport.
    • Chemnitz (Germany)
      • Daniel Rosenfeld was born in Chemnitz in 1989, when it was under the name Karl-Marx-Stadt.
    • Amsterdam (Netherlands)
      • Nest is possibly named after a bar in Amsterdam.
    • Utrecht (Netherlands)
      • Beton was named after Bar Beton at the station in Utrecht.
    • Schiphol (Netherlands)
      • AMS was named after the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.
    • Vinnytsia (Ukraine)
      • The release of Beton as a single was first announced on Instagram while Daniel was visiting Vinnytsia for his brother's wedding. One of the buildings in the album artwork has also been identified as being from the city.
    • Valetta (Malta)
    • Lisbon (Portugal)
    • Helsinki (Finland)
    • Oslo (Norway)
    • Reykjavik (Iceland)
    • Austin (USA)
      • Figure 8 was named after Figure 8 Coffee Purveyors in Austin.
      • ATX was named after the city itself, which is commonly shortened from Austin, Texas to ATX.
    • New York (USA)
    • Los Angeles (USA)
    • San Francisco (USA)
    • Seattle (USA)

Album trivia

  • The album artwork for Excursions features a similar pale yellow border to the Dief album cover, but the border is slightly thinner than Dief's, and is also a solid colour instead of having the noise the Dief cover does.


Prerelease

  • On 2018-07-12, an early version of the album was accidentally released to some platforms.
    • While C418 had previously teased Excursions on Twitter as an upcoming non-Minecraft album, the first knowledge of it was when it was accidentally made available for preorder on Google Play Music on 2018-06-04, with a scheduled release date of 2018-07-13. The preorder was not officially acknowledged, and was removed after a few days. On 2018-07-12 the album was released on the same platforms, as well as Spotify. Later that day, C418 came onto the C418 Discord server to confirm that the release was unintentional and that it would be removed shortly.
    • The album was officially announced on 2018-07-19 with the release of Beton, with Daniel confirming the album's title, cover art, and the original twelve-song tracklist. The final release date was revealed to be 2018-09-07.
  • On 2018-09-06, the day before Excursions released, C418 was interviewed on Bandcamp Daily for the first time.
  • On 2018-09-07, C418 revealed in a tweet that Excursions would be released with an additional four tracks, ATX, Leak, The President is Dead, and Hope. The Bandcamp listing was updated to sixteen tracks, and the album was released on most other platforms shortly afterwards. However, this release was listed separately to the original twelve-track version, which still displayed a release date of 2018-09-09.

Gallery