/////////////////////////////////////////////// SWORCERY A/V JAM

Top painting by Qiqo aka @supertamago at Capy, middle painting by Slyve aka @c_sylvain at Capy, bottom painting by Tyler Landry.

Hello to the lovely ladies & gentlemen of the Teletex Bulletin,

As you might've heard, this thing called a 'sworcery A/V jam' happened. It ended last weekend on Sunday, May 13th 2012. It was seriously amazing!

: : the a/v jam backstory

Since Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP launched in spring of 2011 we've seen a few paintings & sketches 'in the key of sworcery' pop up on the internet, some of them from our pals, some from kids or families, some from skilled creatives who found themselves inspired by the project. These creations got us all super psyched, but we were always too busy to do anything about them other than just reflect back positive vibes to the creators.

Thankfully, once 'the new edition for electric computers' was released for PC on April 16, we found ourselves with just enough time to create an official exhibition space online, and so a few weeks ago, the sworcery tumblr was born.

We figured we might as well dream up an event to get people interested in the exhibition and encourage folks to create & submit, and so the sworcery a/v jam was born. We announced the event and started posting S&S paintings by Capy's artists to stoke the creative fires, and on the first day of the jam, Jim Guthrie offered up sounds & stems while Superbrothers made some official art assets available to be used as reference..

: : maybe a time of miracles

Even before the official start date of the jam we found ourselves with an embarassment of riches, with Marius Masalar aka @mathazzar's epic re-arrangement of Jim Guthrie's sworcery songs blowing us all away. Seriously, grab your headphones & listen to Maybe a Time of Miracles. Another stand-out song was Tettix aka @tettix's outstanding synthpop song Don't Go (The Maelstrom). Here are some of the spot-on lyrics:

you don't look well / I'm worried about your health / don't kill yourself trying to get home / there's always some fella to find The Megatome / don't go

stay with me by the fire / no-one has to know / all this geometry is taking its toll / don't kill yourself trying to get home / there's always some some other fool to find The Megatome / oh please don't go

This clip Sworcery for a Monome takes a little while to make any sense but it's absolutely worth a look too, particularly where the on-the-fly remixing happens half-way through. It's pure sworcery!

If you only have a few minutes to take a look/listen at the a/v jam exhibition then you may wish to search by #love to see a smattering of stunning submissions. If you have some time you might want to look through the whole thing, or try searching by specific hashtags (eg: #music #video #rockstar). If you particularly enjoy a painting or a song or a video, please do get in touch with the artist(s) and give them a high five on Twitter or whatever, it'll put a smile on their faces.

The vast majority of the artwork, videos & music on the sworcery a/v jam was created in the last ten days or so, since the jam was announced. The quantity & quality of the submissions has been genuinely staggering... it's uhh... we really don't even know what to say...

: : end times

After three solid, tumultuous, transformative years, our time together with Sword & Sworcery is almost over. We are only six weeks or so until the summer solstice, and boy oh boy oh boy we have some super exciting surprises in store in the next little while... but then, soon afterwards, it will be time for Superbrothers to move on from Sword & Sworcery.

With all of that in mind, to see what has happened with the sworcery a/v jam, we find ourselves pretty profoundly moved... thank you all for submitting, creating, supporting & enjoying our videogame haiku about life, love & death.

...................................................................................................................................................................

/////////////////////////////////////////////// SUPERBROTHERS + JIM GUTHRIE X SOUND SHAPES

A message from a representative at Superbrothers, written in the midst of a spring thunderstorm in the hill country at the Quebec/Vermont border.

It is with immense pleasure that we are announcing our involvement with a videogame project known as Sound Shapes. We are extra excited to be contributing alongside sworcery maestro Jim Guthrie. This represents the latest in a series of Superbrothers X Jim Guthrie a/v collaborations dating back to 2005's musical film Children of the Clone and 2008's Dot Matrix Revolution, but this will be our first a/v collaboration since 2011's cult classic videogame Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP.

Much like Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, Sound Shapes is a made-in-Toronto DIY videogame, it's unusually collaborative and it has a heavy emphasis on synesthetic audiovisual style. What's more, the people making Sound Shapes are all basically our very best pals - they're the folks with whom we play board games, drink the beers, go skating & play hockey. On every level it's an honor & a thrill to be involved.

This Superbrothers + Jim Guthrie collaboration will take the form of a Sound Shapes 'album' - a series of thematically connected & musically-linked levels known as CORPOREAL.

Sound Shapes has been announced for Playstation Vita, it'll be available before too long but there's still a little bit of time to get psyched!

: : the collaborative process

After some initial discussion with Queasy we chose to explore some of the concepts seen in prior Superbrothers films including Children of the Clone & Dot Matrix Revolution, so our levels are populated by computers, mainframes, office workers & water coolers. My mom was one of the first female computer programmers in Canada and my father worked as a mainframe computer salesman for decades, so it was nice to set aside the skeletons & space babies of sworcey and get to work on 20th century visual concepts. Meanwhile, the videogame design takes the friendly platforming mechanics of Sound Shapes and stretches them in the direction of something like Impossible Mission for C-64 & Spectrum.

The last time Superbrothers & Jim Guthrie collaborated on a videogame with S:S&S EP, the staff at Superbrothers was responsible for much of the core concepts, sound design concepts, game design, as well as all of the art, animation & writing. Superbrothers brought Jim Guthrie into the project, figuring out the musical tone of the project and building on a years-long creative relationship. The videogame wizards at Capy enabled & co-created the project every step of the way, problem-solving & adding to the design to get it to the finish line in style.

With this new collaboration the configuration is quite different. The game design, level design and sound integration are being handled by the Sound Shapes experts at Queasy. The order of operations was a little different this time around too. On S:S&S EP, many of the songs predated the project and I was able to create the world & concepts by listening to specific songs, many of them pre-existing compositions from Jim. In this case, the art assets were created without a specific soundtrack, and then it was up to Jim to craft his sounds to fit the look and concept.

Of course, the real work took place at Queasy & Capy, where a wide-ranging assortment of designers & creators - the Sound Shapes experts - put all the pieces together. Thanks so much for all your hard work folks, it has been a pleasure contributing to your efforts!

If you’re going to be at E3, feel free to stop by the Sony booth for some hands-on time. For the rest of us let's all just sit tight and wait it out, ok?

...................................................................................................................................................................

/////////////////////////////////////////////// MOON ECLIPSES SUN

A solar eclipse will occur on May 20th 2012, starting in the far east.

I wonder what will happen? hmmmm

...................................................................................................................................................................

/////////////////////////////////////////////// ODDS & BODKINS FOR SPRING 2012

A/V JAM EXHIBITION - LOOK & LISTEN?

• put some time aside to enjoy this remarkable exhibition
• create & submit artwork in the key of sworcery if you like

Illustration by Kimika aka @pintendo64.

NEW SONGS FROM JIM GUTHRIE - GET THE RECORD?

• a theatrical score from the sworcery maestro
• vinyl jacket design by super pal Cory Schmitz

Design by Cory Schmitz aka @coryschmitz.

THE 1 CONSOLE - FOLLOW?

• instantaneous micro-bulletins from Superbrothers HQ
• almost done talking about Sword & Sworcery, but not quite