Dimitrio Lewis made a video titled "Waiting on you (to love me)". Upon watching it, something sounded very familiar — Dimi knows my own compositions better than I do, because I'd forgotten that the music he chose is "Piece of Piano". I looked it up in my archives; I performed and recorded it in August 2002, so it's been awhile. And so very nice to hear it again.

The video itself is what I'd describe as minimalist: a glowing, green Dimitrio sits with his legs apart, pondering in a verdant forest. It's nighttime (dark, so you may have to turn your brightness up) and I'm particularly keen on the smooth, slow panning across the scenes which Dimi's done. It reminds me of one of those nature documentaries where leaves are falling, and you see the camera swoop down in front of some flowers. Aside from particle effects, you won't really see foliage shed in SL.

Another tangential notion is: the way the default camera moves has such an important, but understated effect on your inworld experience. Especially because of how it impacts what you see. If we could swap out SL's cam with, say, There's or HiPiHi's, it'd also change how you feel the experience. One specific is how SL positions the cam noticeably higher above the avatar from behind. The usefulness of this quickly becomes apparent when flying. Again, I lament how FollowCam's gone underused — please make me aware of advances in this area.

Also on the environmental front, I wish we'll have clouds that look deeper instead of flat particles — made most evident when you tilt the camera — but the ending scene's clouds are like smoke billowing into the air peacefully, the cool air. Which makes me think of how magical the night feels when I'm outside in the forest @ 3 AM.

Overall, I hadn't previously envisioned "Piece of Piano" being set to visuals.

» Download "Piece of Piano" (MP3, 5.8 MB)

It's refreshing in a way too, it's given the track new life for me, as the composer, and I've also gained a new consciousness of setting sound to picture while I was making my Video Tutorials. All the music I've made available on Internet is, as far as I'm aware of, offered under a Creative Commons "Attribution-Share Alike 3.0" license…

so as Dimitrio's done — thanx Dimi! — feel free to use my music for your purposes. Give these puppies good homes.