europeaftertherain

Listen on Last FM / SoundCloud

This is about a perfect landscape, where the horizon is only defined by the sky and the sea. Decades after the Rain, the world is nothing but an endless plane of tainted water. Sunken secrets, forgotten places and long dead beings are quietly resting in the fathomless depths.

Listen on Last FM / SoundCloud

And finally fell the mighty Rain, drowning all living things, melting mountains, and changing streams into oceans. Then, for millenia, the world stayed clean and pure, devoid of humanoid presence.

...and we're back to the original purpose. Right now, it seems like the musical aspect of the project will be on hold for a while.

We've tried many game engines, explored many game genres, started then gave up many prototypes. Right now, the goal is to write a crystal clear game concept before actually starting the production.

What will the game look like? What will it be about? For now, let's say it should be a kind of experimental CRPG, with a very minimal approach, both in terms of mechanics and aesthetics.

We're aiming at emotional depth. Games like Passage or The Majesty of Colors are good examples of what we'd like to reach. Simple, almost abstract pieces of software, yet powerful vehicles for thoughts, feelings and poetry.

Synthesizer, the guy behind Synthtopia, has been kind enough to feature From the Top of the Mountain to the Bottom of the Sea in a post gathering music made by SoundClouds users.

You can read the whole story and listen to nice tracks by various SoundClouders here.

Streams of Europe's new website is so new that it's not even actually finished. But waiting is sometimes just boring, so here it is: europeaftertherain.com.
It's almost fully functional. A few tweaks are still required, some community features should be added in the future, a few CSS glitches should be fixed...
 
People who've suscribed to the two older RSS feeds for songs and thoughts can now subscribe to a single feed. It gathers both: europeaftertherain.com/feed (the older feeds still work, you wouldn't be reading this otherwise).
There's also a page dedicated to the Last FM group Soundscapers, and even a podcast taken from the "soundscapers" tag. If you like Streams of Europe, there are good chances you'll like these tracks as well.
 
So... if you want to post comments and stuff and contribute to this not-even-finished-yet website (experimental is fun, isn't it?) you can register right now here.
Feedback is welcome, as usual.

SoundCloud kicks ass. Period.
 
Their sound distribution service is really simple, fast, reliable, and even pretty. It's expensive, but so much refreshing compared to the rest that you'll want to pay once you've tried it. Looks like Streams of Europe's upcoming tracks (and even older tracks) will use their widgets a lot.
 
Thanks to Alden, who embed a SoundCloud DropBox in his blog (and who was the first complete stranger to write something about Streams of Europe).

Updating two different microblogs was a pain. While the idea was nice, a CMS like Drupal is way more flexible. And the dirty hacks made to stick the two microblogs together were, uh, dirty. So here comes a new website.

Listen on Last FM / SoundCloud

This track was recorded live during the vernissage of Neorganics, on October 17th, 2008, at the Atelier Gustave. The performance was based upon Meanders’ fourth track, Setting Suns at the Subterranean Lake.

Listen on Last FM / SoundCloud

The Many Lives of a Clone's last track is based upon the five latest minutes of an unreleased studio version of Orgy at the Subterranean Lake. It's about the unescapable void into which conscience slowly fades into when the Hive takes control again. This kind of painless agony is the last mental state before Stasis.

Listen on Last FM / SoundCloud

Few are those who escape the life cycle of the clone. The luckiest ones lose their lives and their neurocores in places so inaccessible they cannot be brought to the Hive. Even fewer are those who discover the truth behind their artificial metempsychosis. Most of them wish they never did. This is what The Many Lives of a Clone's seventh track deals with.