“This is a product of a mind that no longer cares. You will either love this or hate it.” So says Richard Barton, the man behind [C][FC], of his creation “C-19.”
This is a multimedia project that “represents the inside of a mind trying to cope with the Coronavirus pandemic and its fallout.” So what’s to love? The execution of this idea is excellent. On the music side, this half hour track is propelled by an incessant, rapid, tapping beat. Mixed in are what are described as manipulated bass guitar tones, but you would be forgiven for not recognizing that as the source of the sounds. The “bass” noises are layered as the other through-line of this track, although the sounds vary quite a bit. If you have a sturdy constitution for longer form pieces with relatively minimal variety, you may find that you also “love this.”
But it’s not just the sound that impressed me; there’s also the vision. There are visuals to go along with the music which are also somewhat repetitive. The simplest description (although you can see it below) is that it features a large circle that had constantly changing hues. To me, this felt like it represented the days of our quarantine, sun-moon-sun-moon-ad infinitum, every day repeating and somewhat the same. Mixed into the video, at somewhat regular intervals, were very brief visions of light shining through a crack in the wall in the corner of a room. That might be our escape, our hope. Unfortunately, that fresh light disappeared before we could exit, leaving us stuck once again.
If this all sounds like “too soon” for you, you may fall squarely on team “hate it.” At the end of the day, the whole package will be something we can share with people in the future to let them feel what it was like living through the anxiety of the pandemic.
TRIGGER WARNING: This video features lots of quick flashing. If that kind of thing bothers you, I recommend you stick with just the audio track found at this link.