Symphony of Noise

Once learning that there is a viable way to produce vocals using AI, it was off to the races. Literally decades of work on two separate projects, "The River of Piss" and "God is Void", both conceptually birthed back in the 90s, have been fleshed out, written, rewritten, audio produced and discarded, over and over in failing waves. "The Death of it All" was the core scraps of demos that were evolving into "The River of Piss."

Concepts for both albums ended up complimenting each other. TROP is an inward looking painful ride from my years of partying with underlying depression, expanding into uncontrolled depression, and the end being suicide. Though clearly that end was avoided in real life, I explored it in writing a lot. GIV is outward facing, looking at troubles with the concept of "God" and observing the chaos Law Enforcement and government brings, along with war and other aspects of life.

My problem when I got those built up and solidified was I had no path to get from the end of the world back to the beginning of TROP. I've been reading a lot of books surrounding the afterlife, DMT/Ayahuasca, near death experiences, astral projection, remote viewing, on and on. This lead me to the concept of another instrumental album. The idea is presented in the names, things that cannot be expressed in words.

The bonus was an accident - the end of GIV happens to be an instrumental that I didn't intend to exist. Came about fucking around with what I was using for transition audio. Naming it as such, it can be interpreted in multiple ways to make GIV wrap as an album, wrap around back to the beginning of TROP to make those two one solid, or continue on to the self titled non-local themed record. TROP, also, with the opening and closing tracks named as they are, can arguably loop as a single album as well. Thus the 3 being released separately, and as a whole.

My proudest point on all of it comes in TROP. I've always thought how great it would be for a concept album to have sound layers begin at pivotal points of the album and continue through to the conclusion towards the end. I thought it really would be the pinnacle of concept albums. I've tried over the decades to figure out a way to sonically make that a reality without being too intrusive, and still sounding interesting. I finally figured out a way to do it and executed it on TROP. So there will be 2 versions of the album. Normal release, and one tagged (quiet). A nod to what NIN has done, but also unique as honestly some of the quiet versions NIN has put out I can't honestly tell too dramatically of a difference. <3 NIN but honestly, I'm a bit retarded.

That being said, there will also be instrumental versions of both TROP and GIV. Also it seems obvious that I will need to have 2 versions of the instrumental as well for the threading. This results in all the versions listed in the discography.

Originally I wanted the full COLLECTION version to be released on Halloween. Things haven't run smoothly and at this point I am not sure that's going to happen. I paid for it to, but you know. Problems with DITTO MUSIC per usual. At worst, a few versions of the full stand-alone albums will come out on 11-NOV-2026. COLLECTION might as well, but I'm holding hope that it gets published on or before Halloween.

There are a handfull of you who I know have stuck around over the long silence, and I hope this makes up for it. And regarding the AI vocals - You can go fuck yourself if you have complaints. I've auditioned literally hundreds of vocalists, I've had conversation with probably over a thousand, and nothing has panned out that wouldn't require me to come up with many thousands of dollars, probably the price of a house, to pay for all the time from people who charge to get this done the way I would want it to get done. Now that I can do it with programming AI instead of programming the battery of other software I use anyway, I'm fucking doing that.

I've been getting shit talked to me from the beginning. Real musicians don't use drum machines. Real musicians don't create things with a sequencer. Real musicians don't use samples to begin with. Real musicians don't use MIDI or keyboards. I'm probably forgetting a dozen other things I've heard. Real musicians don't use image to audio generators to make strange noise for layers in music. There's a huge list. And fuck you again. Fuck you. I use the tools I can find.

Oh. It has been 10 years or so since I redid this website. I should probably do that. That's not why I'm here today, though. Like a previous post said, shit is waking back up. Two projects I've been working on off and on over the years (literally decades) ... The River of Piss and God is Void... They're finally coming to life.

A previous attempt at The River of Piss ended in a hard drive death, losing months of work save for a demo export I was listening to and filling up papers with what I wanted to add substract and change. That turned into The Death of it All. Now I'm to the point with the current attempt that if I died right now, the demo version I'm sitting on would be a proud piece of work to put out there. But I still plan to spend the next 3 weeks working on more mastering, adding and subtracting layers, editing, cutting and trimming stuff, more mastering, adding and removing more layers, but the overall track list I believe is exactly where it will be in the end. Save for the polish and polish, with the polish. And some polish.

There's a chance Fleet of Pigs will be replaced with a modern version of Fighting The Current. Maybe. That song was never finished and jesus christ I want to get it there. I've redone it a few times since then, but never released it because it wasn't there yet.

Vocals on this are AI. I was super stressed about the idea but a close friend pointed out, the vast majority of everything I've done, overall, has been punched into sequencers and programmed. Even with some layers recorded live, most of it is just programmed. Even if I used my own samples a lot, after that most of it is still samples from packs, edited, distorted, redone, etc. But it's not like I've ever been skilled enough like DubFX to just throw shit into a looper live and make amazing shit on the fly. And I've spent literally hundreds of hours working with people and doing auditions in 3 different states, trying to find a vocalist who wants to work with me and this content. Never happened. So here we are. I'm not sorry. The lyrics are what I've written and rewritten and though about and rewritten and rewritten over the literal decades. It came real, real easy. Like your mom. And often.

That being said, the whole process the last couple years has been profound. So much over the last 30 years or so finally coming together.

I hope it doesn't disappoint.

Also speaking of AI, the hate for it does deeply entertains me. Go fuck yourselves. It's a tool, like anything else. Grow the fuck up.

take care.

When I edited it and republished it, I added a verbal description of why it was censored to the beginning. I also renamed the release and made this the cover. I am not sorry. Don't fucking censor people. It's marked explicit anyway. That's more than enough.

This shit pisses me off.

Shit is awake.

see hate all website. starting to visit the streaming platforms already.

Shit is waking back up. HATE ALL. Symphony of Noise. FAPC. Empty Hope. Textual Reverence. It's all waking back up.

But for now....

HATE ALL.

HATE ALL LISTENERS: visit here for alternate audio project by Erik Smith (creator of Symphony of Noise)

Pre-Purchase Discontinued
Those of you who pre-purchased will still receive the emails every bit as often as you've been receiving them. New SoN/HAL content will keep flowing.

I would rather people support me through bandcamp subscriptions. This will accomplish the same thing as a preorder does for Infinite Machine - but not only that, it will give old content and bandcamp exclusives, as well as all future albums as the subscription continues. There is so much completed in folders (as email recipients know) that at least one album will be done this year, regardless of what it turns out to be. Next year I'm sure two to four will get done. There's so much stuff, as more and more gets cut to other projects, others just get left behind. As those build up they'll make up new ZERO releases.

Progress is being made on Infinite Machine. It still may be several months, maybe even years, before it is completed. There is so much sitting around in folders, though, I have made it available for pre-purchase.

I will be sending goodies periodically to those who have pre-purchased it.

Note: for all who wanted decals who have yet to order them - there are plenty left.

My original model for distributing Symphony of Noise was to give it away for free - accept donations - and sell merch (as well as physical copies.) I figured, it would give people a chance to hear it one way or another. Also, if people fell in love with it, they could show support by buying the music digitally or physically.

Since then, I have been through various periods of serious financial hardships. I'm not doing great right now, but am more comfortable than I was several years ago. At that time, I took the free music down and put various methods of listening out there (which make me money.) One of which is my favorite, Spotify. They are all still available there.

Watching what Run The Jewels has done, it makes me happy. They do what I wanted to do. Though, both guys had a following before they started this and have done amazingly well - they have the same idea. And that is the correct idea, I believe.

So, today I posted all my original work again for free. Also, a link exists if people want to go throw money at me through Bandcamp.

Currently no demand exists for physical copies, and little demand exists through bandcamp. But either way, I think it's the right thing to do.

With Love,
Erik Smith

Where did the pretty go?
There is no more pretty. Only music. Only the cover art. Only the distortions that appear and disappear. Only the words, and the writings, and the scratches on the door.

What are you talking about?
What is anyone talking about? What are you talking about? Enjoy what is, while it is, before it is no more. That's all there is to say.

Where can I get music, now?
Hop on over to Bandcamp. That will be where all digital goods are sold from now on.