Project Update: REFRACTIONS - Released to Backers + Backer-Exclusive Content
Refractions is here!
[Edit: you can check out a few samples here: https://play.reelcrafter.com/northernsky/totbp-refractions]
Have you ever felt lost, broken, or rejected? Our latest album reaches back into the past to find old, forgotten, and "broken" songs to polish them up and make them "beautiful". The work spans over a decade of effort.
After more than a year of polishing and updating, this "small" project has grown into something massive, with efforts from more than 80 people (it may be closer to 100) world-wide, and it includes the incomparable talents of such performers as:
Judy Kang (resident cellist for Celine Dion)
Stroma FilmWorks (New Zealand orchestra comprised of performers from prestigious groups such as the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra)
Olivia Foa'i (singer on Disney's Moana)
... and many others
Backer-Exclusive Content
For those who haven't pledged for a copy of Refractions, but would like to, we've re-opened the "pre-order" store. Simply head to the campaign page (https://talesoftheblackpiper.com), click "Pre-Order Now!", find Refractions in the list, add to cart, and place your order.
Refractions Wider Release
We also don't yet have any details on which, if any, platforms we will release it on. We will have it available for sale (at a higher price) on our website - at which point the "pre-order store" will be closed again. but beyond that stay tuned for updates.
Digital Downloads (important info for backers!)
Refractions has been broken up into several zip files. If you have ordered Refractions, you should get an email that directs you how to access your content and how to open the multipart zip files provided. (There are 5 zip files for the Refractions WAV format and 3 zip files for Refractions Origins.)
If you cannot find the instructions or have any trouble with the downloads - let us know!
As always, let us know if you have any comments or questions or just want to share some love!
All the best,
Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper
Project Update: REFRACTIONS: Tomorrow!
Exciting news regarding ....
Refractions Mastering is complete, and we are putting some finishing touches on a (digital) companion booklet we'll be sending out to Refractions backers along with the music.
I know that this "little" project has taken more than a year to complete, but I didn't realize just how big it was until I saw the credits sheet. I mean, by big-budget Hollywood standards, it's not quite blockbuster size, but it's still pretty big! We've counted over 80 people who've been involved!
Also, take a look at all these featured performers 😍!
Some great folks on there! Like:
- Judy Kang (who has served as Celine Dion's resident cellist)
- Sandy Cameron (who has done some great work for Danny Elfman)
- the Stroma FilmWorks orchestra in New Zealand (which is made up of people from the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra - which recorded music for such films as Lord of the Rings), and many others!
We are waiting on a few assets to come in to plug them into the companion booklet before finalizing it, so it may end up being Wednesday before we send things out, but if everything comes in today as promised and we can get everything proofed, you should have it tomorrow, Tuesday, 26 March!
Yay!
As always, let us know if you have any comments or questions.
All the best,
Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper
Project Update: REFRACTIONS: Off to Mastering
REFRACTIONS NEWS
The attentive reader will notice that there are some blank checkmarks above. That's because the mastering engineer will also be mixing those tracks.
You'll also notice that there are 25 total tracks. Yeah, we kind of snuck a few in there we didn't originally plan on. Sorry about that....
Timeline
The mastering engineer will be looking things over today and giving me an estimate on timeline, but it really isn't that much farther to go!! I might guess 2 weeks, but he does work fast. We'll let you know, though.
Notes
Whew - I just have to say - this album has taken so much more effort than we thought it would. A lot of sleep sacrificed, but, you know, I think it's so worth it in the end for the art. (We hope you'll agree once we get this thing into your hands!)
Now, just have to settle on a cover...
Streaming
One note about streaming: once the music and cover are done, we'll send the tracks out to all those who paid for Refractions (which you'll recall was an add-on to the campaign.) We are looking to put the album up on streaming platforms and put it up for sale, but that might not happen for a few months. So, those who helped fund this album will get to enjoy it for a few months before the public release.
We hope you'll all be ready to help us hype it when it drops!!
Ramping Up On the Next Thing
With all of that completed, we can now focus our attentions on our next project, Tales of The Black Piper, while we await the mastering engineer. Tales, for those who haven't been following that news, is essentially complete, with regards to the stories. We'll be heading into writing music for it full-steam!
Well, that's it for now. We'll keep you updated with more soon!
All the best,
Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper
Project Update: REFRACTIONS - Progress/Timeline Update
Just dropping in to let you know that we've posted a new update, re: Refractions here. I realized that the last update only allowed comments from backers of the Tales project, so I've rectified that in this update, in case you are interested in commenting.
In short, we had some slowdowns due to sicknesses in December, but we've made significant progress and are nearing the end!
Thank you all for your patience as we wrap up what we feel is a meaningful project.
All the best,
Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper
Project Update: REFRACTIONS - Progress/Timeline
I just realized that we've updated the Tales of the Black Piper campaign with news regarding the Refractions album, but we haven't posted anything to this campaign. I sincerely apologize! Let me rectify that.
Rather than reiterating everything here, since I know there are folks who are subscribed to both campaigns, I'll just post a link for everyone else or who may not have seen it yet:
https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/the-black-piper/tales-of-the-black-piper/updates/2746
Let us know if you have any comments or questions!
All the best,
Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper
Project Update: THE BLACK PRISM - CDs are in!
I hope all is well!
Great news! CDs are in!
We're preparing the packages (signing CDs, etc) as we speak. These will all be going out in the next couple of days.
Due to a massive spike in costs, the liner notes on the physical albums is very simple. So, we'll be sending out (through BackerKit) a digital liner notes. Keep an eye out for both the CD and the PDF.
Tales of The Black Piper CAMPAIGN
In one of our recent updates, we put out a call for authors, and we've been getting a good response! The campaign launches in just over a week, and we're currently at 64% funded. So, be excited!
We'll be sending out a few messages this week preparing you for what's to come - highlighting rewards and other good things. So, keep an eye out for that.
And if you're an author and would like a link to the page early to get familiarized and get your pledge in, let me know!
All the best,
Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper.
Project Update: BLACK PRISM: CDs & TALES OF THE BLACK PIPER: Early Access
I hope you're all well! I have a few bits of exciting news for you!
The Black Prism - Digital Release
The Black Prism - CDs
So, keep an eye on your mailbox!
Tales of The Black Piper - Early Access for Writers
For those who are interested and/or planning to join as a writer - please send me a message, either via email or social media (Facebook messenger via The Black Piper, Discord DM, etc.), and I'll get you access!
Happy Lightbringer Day to you all!
Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper
Project Update: BLACK PRISM - Physical CD, Refractions Updates
I hope all is well with you. We have a few updates for you.
Refractions
20 tracks!
A few people marked 18 and a few marked 16. Then again, a few other people elected to use the freeform response to let us know that 40 was an acceptable number.
So, with 86.84% of you interested in 20+ tracks, it looks like that's what we're doing! (Well, the 20 part. Not sure on the "+", yet.) This means we're likely looking at delivery sometime around June.
Physical Black Prism CDs
Estimated Arrival Date: Feb 10 - 20 (in our warehouse)
We'll keep you updated both of any changes and of when the albums arrive.
Status of All the Things (in one spot)
The Black Prism digital copy: ✓ delivered
The Black Prism physical copy: arriving in the warehouse Feb 10 - Feb 20, 2023
The Black Prism wider release: see below
Reflections digital copy: ✓ delivered, mostly*
Refractions digital copy: estimated June 2023
The Black Prism artwork: estimated end of February 2023 (though we may send this out in two parts, with part 1 sooner)
Tales of The Black Piper: campaign prep is in full swing. More info soon!
* Refractions: we do have a bonus track we'll be sending out in the next little bit. One additional backer/patron granted us permission to include it, so keep an eye out for that.
The Black Prism wider release: We just signed a distribution deal with Symphonic as our distributor, which is something that we're excited about for a few reasons:
- The first is that they actively promote their catalogues. This is something we haven't done a whole lot of - leaving this mostly up to word of mouth. (We've focused most of our resources on the work, and haven't been able to promote as much as we'd love to.) This is why it's incredible that we currently have 24k+ monthly listeners on Spotify! Still, what would things look like if we had active promotion? Definitely a question we want to get answered.
- Second, and much more importantly (though you may or may not find it interesting), Symphonic has a revenue sharing model that will allow us to easily "split share" with our composers and other parties. This will make the capturing of funds, royalty distribution, and reporting 100% automatic for our collaborators. With all that we have to tackle, both on this and upcoming projects, the more automation we can take advantage of, the better! And also, if things with Symphonic work well on this release, we'll likely be looking to move our other releases over, so we can take advantage of what they have to offer.
We're also debating a wider Reflections/Refractions release, though we haven't had much feedback on Reflections yet, so we're still noodling on whether to roll out as well.
Well, I wanted to keep that brief, but... that's all for now.
As always, thank you for everything, and let us know of any thoughts or questions or comments you might have!
All the best,
Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper
Project Update: BLACK PRISM Updates & REFRACTIONS Progress (Need your feedback)
I hope you are all doing well and that you had great holidays!
I wanted to send you a quick update, now that we're back in the swing of things over here.
The Black Prism - Physical CDs
Once we get their approval on that, we'll send all the materials to the manufacturer, and from there it should be just a couple of weeks before we are sending them out to you.
Refractions
This album is coming along, and we're really excited about where it's headed. There will be some energetic, fun, moving, and a few epic tracks on this album. Given the nature of the project, it's going to be a rather eclectic collection, with things like heist music, electronic, gypsy, and quirky piano jazz just to name a few.
It's a bit more intensive to prepare than Reflections was, as Reflections had a lot of the legwork already done. As we're digging into the material, we're finding that so many of the Refractions tracks need some serious updating/overhaul.
Here's our current state:
Finalized Tracks: 4 (with 1 more in the final stages)
Tracks to Arrange: 2, possibly 3 (or more, see below)
Tracks to Mix: this depends (see below)
Refractions - Timing
So, the question about total tracks and how many we have left to arrange/mix is an interesting one.
When we put together our potential track list for this, we had a lot of songs. Some of that was easy to whittle down - some songs are tied up in rights, some were songs whose original files we don't have access to anymore, and some songs would only be redeemable with a lot of rework (far more than the songs that made the list.)
But even after that, we still have enough tracks to put together 2 or 3 volumes of 12 to 20 tracks each. The trick here is that so many of the tracks need so much love. So, the question about total tracks comes down to: would you rather wait longer and receive more tracks, or get a nice 12-track album sooner (possibly as soon as the end of the month)?
If I were to estimate, this is what I think the delivery timing would look like, given where we are and what we are looking at:
8-track album: next week
12-track album: January/February 2023
16-track album: March 2023
18-track album: April/May 2023 (these two additional tracks will take a little bit, as they are full-blown rework/arrangements.)
20-track album: June 2023 (same story for these two, with one of them needing some extra recording.)
Here's where you come in. We could make a decision. (Well, it's tough, because I love a lot of these tracks, and if it were up to me, I'd be happy to spend the rest of the year polishing and getting you a 40-track album....) But your opinion is important to us. Would you rather get fewer tracks sooner, more tracks later, or some kind of in-between?
Please take a moment to let us know through this one-question survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HMPQJ7S -- Thank you!
Reflections
Were you all able to receive your copy of Reflections (those who ordered it)? If not, let us know! Also, we'd love to hear what you think of the album and the stories that went with each song.
Tales of The Black Piper
We have a few active queries out to some potential veteran authors with a few promising options we are really hoping work out. (I'm itching to tell you all about it!) Waiting for final answer (and contracts) will potentially place the campaign in March, but it will be worth it if we can secure their participation. In the meantime, we are making good progress on the preparation, and we are extremely excited to get started!
Well, I think that's everything! Looking forward to any thoughts, questions, and feedback you all have about all the above, and I hope you have a lovely week!
All the best,
Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper
Project Update: Black Prism Updates & Tales of The Black Piper Campaign
I hope you are all well, and Happy Holidays for those who are celebrating this week.
I thought it was time for a few updates / status check-in on The Black Prism, Reflections, Refractions, and Tales of The Black Piper.
The Black Prism
As most of you are aware, we sent out the digital album earlier this month. It was a pretty fast turnaround, but our team sure put their hearts into making it happen - and we truly hope that you're happy with the final product.
If you haven't received your copy, please let me know ASAP, and we'll get things taken care of.
If you have, we'd love to hear what you think of the music on this one! Each project is unique, and while the feedback we've received so far has been positive, we'd love to hear where we landed, what you loved, and where there is room for improvement.
Physical CDs
We've wrapped up the design for the booklets on these, and are putting together PDFs to send to Brent's team for review. Once we get the thumbs up from them, we'll send the designs, together with the album, to the manufacturer for CD duplication. If all goes well here, we will be on track to send out the physical CDs in January!
Artwork
The artwork for the wallpapers is nearly prepped. We'll send this out to you soon. We have some artwork for the bookmarks, and are working with our illustrator on the remaining pieces. We don't have a solid ETA on this one yet, but we'll make sure to keep you apprised.
Reflections / Refractions
Tales of The Black Piper Anthology
After discussion among the team, and considering the holiday season and schedules, we are looking at a possible January campaign - so make sure you have it marked on your calendars, and keep an eye out for the pre-sign-up!
We are looking forward to some great things in the coming months.
Happy Holidays, again, and as always, thank you for everything! Let us know in the comments if you have any questions or to share your excitement.
All the best,
Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper
Project Update: THE BLACK PRISM - Music Coming Your Way!
We've gotten the approvals, and the files are prepped! Those who ordered digital music will have their music shortly - we're just putting together the final package to deliver to BackerKit. It should be out tonight!
For the physicals, those will be ordered soon - we're wrapping up the booklets, which will also need approval, and then we'll place the order for those.
Most of you have completed your surveys - thank you! Anyone who needs to add or change their physical address for CD delivery, you probably saw the email go out that we'll be locking that soon. Once that's locked, we'll also be charging cards.
After that... we'll be turning our focus to preparing Reflections and Refractions. For both of those, we will strive to provide you with tracks of beauty and excitement, energy and heart. We're also going to try to load as many tracks onto each as humanly possible, though no guarantees until we sit down with it and determine what is going to work.
As you receive your rewards, we'd love to hear what you think! Feel free to drop us a chat on social media, in Discord (<- !), in email, or even here, and let us know what tracks move you, what you think could be improved, and what you'd love to see us tackle next.
Thank you, our Thousand Stars, for Bringing us Light!
A hearty Blackguard (and/or Bridge Four) salute,
Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper
Project Update: BLACK PRISM Mixes Are Done, Awaiting Approval! + Bonus
Great news!
We have finished The Black Prism compositions and mixes. They have been delivered to the Weeks team, and we are awaiting approval. And I just have to say that the writing and mixes on these things (from a totally, purely, objective and not-at-biased perspective) are just FIRE. Charles-Henri Avelange is phenomenal, both at writing and at mixing! (He's even up for a Grammy for an album he wrote and mixed in 5.1 honoring one of his ancestors who was a painter.) And Nikhil Koparkar's Lightbringer theme is just incredible, and we totally used his theme all over the place.
Also, I need to fess up and let you know that, um, well, we're including an additional song on the album. I know, I know... we said 5 tracks, but... you know... we accidentally wrote a 6th. So, yeah, sorry about that.
With all 6 tracks, it brings the album runtime to just around 20 mins.
Right, I'm off to bed - it's been quite a month getting this all prepared. (I'm sure the rest of the team - especially Charles-Henri - is ready for a week's worth of vacation!)
We'll keep you updated on the progress of the approval process.
All the best,
Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper
P.s. If you want to get a peak at the mixed songs (not yet mastered), head on over to our Discord channel: https://discord.gg/7VZUwmTqjv - where we've posted some behind-the-scenes mixes in our Announcements and (non-spoiler) production channels.
Cheers!
Project Update: BackerKit Surveys Sent + Virtual Choir DEADLINE
As many of you have already seen and have begun submitting: BackerKit surveys have been sent out! If you haven't seen yours yet, please check your various mail folders, and if you haven't received your survey let us know as soon as possible. Especially if you are a part of the...
VIRTUAL CHOIR
Virtual choir folks should get their surveys completed ASAP, because there is information in there regarding submissions, which will need to be completed and returned by next Wed, Oct 26. (I wish we had longer, but due to running a second campaign, we are much closer to the release deadline.)
So, if you're a member of the Virtual choir and have any trouble either with the survey or accessing or submitting materials, please let us know right away!
If you have any other questions, send us a message! And thank you to all those who have filled out their surveys with encouraging words! You all mean so much to us and really fuel what we are doing!
All the best,
Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper
Project Update: BackerKit Surveys Are Coming!
Project Update: Post-Campaign Celebration
We - you - did it! We've finished the Black Prism Album campaign and have even funded soloists. We are extremely excited about collaborating with Hollywood's finest on this album. Thank you for helping us reach that goal!
And we are seriously so thrilled to be producing brand new music to share with you! In fact, I just sent the first draft of The Freeing to our (new) Creative Director, Ian Riley, for notes. I have been looking forward to this track for so long and can't wait for you to hear it!
Speaking of Ian, I want to share a few words from him, before I get down to the business payments, delivery, surveys, and the anthology/updates below.
To our Thousand Stars,
We’re so thrilled that you’ve decided to join us as we embark on this exciting new adventure to bring the Seven Satrapies to life through music in our upcoming album, The Black Prism.
Many of you know Michael from Kaladin, but I wanted to take an opportunity to introduce myself and share with you some of the things that are most exciting to me about the creative direction of The Black Prism.
First off, hi - my name’s Ian! I’ve been lucky enough to work with Michael on this project since the very beginning, first coming onboard as additional administrative support, until ultimately accepting his offer to support the team behind The Black Prism in the capacity of creative director.
The Black Prism is an album unlike anything The Black Piper has done before. Not only do we have an opportunity to work with a series that checks all of the ‘epic fantasy’ boxes that we so loved about The Way of Kings, The Black Prism gives us the opportunity to explore a huge variety of new and interesting sounds, styles, genres, and techniques, both compositionally and sonically, by blending our composers’ experience as Hollywood professionals with my experience leading teams both creative and technical across a variety of industries, training as a classical musician and career as a sound designer for film and video games. We are deeply inspired by the rich tapestry that Brent has woven throughout the Seven Satrapies, and are excited to explore cultural, social, political, and magical ‘spectrums’ through this album.
One thing that is really important to me is that we demonstrate respect and responsibility as we represent both the lore of Brent’s Seven Satrapies and also the cultures and peoples that created the various styles, instrumentations, and sonic expressions that we are drawing inspiration from. In addition to wonderful music, you’ll have the opportunity to read about the instrumentation and influences that we’ve woven into each track once the album is released.
Another element that I’m really excited about is how we are marrying music and sound design to create a unique experience for our listeners when it comes to developing the sound of ‘magic’ in The Black Prism. We’re drawing inspiration from musical spectralism alongside the fundamental harmonic series to develop sonic ‘flavors’ that will be subtly identifiable whenever a particular color of luxin is being drafted throughout the album. Our plan is to support this with sound design inspired by digital and analog synthesizers to give a uniquely ‘otherworldly’ twist to your experience of ‘hearing light.’
Over the next several weeks, I’m very much looking forward to working with the team on this project, and can’t wait to share the final product with you! I’m humbled by the opportunity to bring the world of The Black Prism to life, and so deeply appreciate your generous support in allowing us to do what we do.
In light,
Ian
OK, as promised:
Down to Business
* When Will My Card Be Charged?
Your payment method will be charged today (Monday, October 3). You should receive an email confirmation once your pledge has been successfully processed. If there are any issues, please let BackerKit (or us) know, and we'll help work it out.
* When Will We Get Our Surveys?
These will go out in the next couple of weeks, so please keep an eye on your inbox!
* When Will the Rewards Go Out?
We are targeting November 1st for the digital release of The Black Prism, and the end of this year (December 20th) for the remaining music. And we're hoping to fit in the release of the digital artwork in between.
* I'm Still Excited About The Anthology; What Can I Look Forward To There?
First of all: the anthology is absolutely happening. We are in the process of making that into its own campaign, and we're hoping to run that campaign either late this month or early next month.
Second, we're excited to announce here (and we'll do it more formally through our social media a bit later), but Kristen Britain, bestselling author of the Green Rider series, has signed on to write a story for the anthology!! Woooohoooo! And we are approaching more veteran authors as we speak. We want to provide as much value for both writers and readers alike with this new venture.
So, suffice it to say: we are extremely excited about all that we have in store here!
* OK, That's Amazing, But Will the Production of the Anthology Affect the Production of The Black Prism?
Not at all! Production for the two projects will not overlap, and we are targeting next year for the release of the anthology, as the authors will need time to write their stories!
And that's all for now! We're off to make some new music! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.
Thank you for helping to make this little dream of ours a reality.
All the best,
Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper