Audio Files

Critical Reflection

In this portfolio, I will be referring to two of my developing tracks, Kitty Caps and Argyle, from my upcoming EP to demonstrate my process-driven approach to music production. Rather than presenting completed compositions, the portfolio curates initial sketches, reworked versions, and contrasting outcomes to examine how my creative identity is formed through my personal practice. The work expresses a developing understanding of my artistic concepts, technical progress, and overall identity as a producer within modern production contexts by emphasising stages of uncertainty, intervention, and decision-making.

My decision to focus on the creative process rather than on thoroughly mixed and polished tracks aligns with the work-in-progress nature of this assignment. Through documenting these moments of change and experimentation, the portfolio treats iteration not as a straight path towards completion, but as a reflective practice that clarifies aesthetic values and production instincts. This approach recognises that creative identity is not fixed, but gradually develops through context, materials, and engagement.

Across both of the tracks in my project, the portfolio captures how different production decisions, such as structural refinement, the introduction of rhythmic elements, or the expansion of the material into alternative genres and formats, have shaped the direction of each piece. By presenting these stages alongside one another throughout this portfolio, it allows for a critical evaluation while retaining artistic sense, while experimenting with different scales and goals. 

My interests as a producer lie with creating a sense of atmosphere and emotional and melodic ambiguity. Across the two main tracks in my EP project presented here, I consistently prioritised mood and textural development over established structure. For instance, in the earlier sketches for Kitty Caps and Argyle, both demonstrate an instinctive focus on space, harmonics, and subtle movement, suggesting that creating deep emotional spaces is what I find most fundamental to my artistic identity.

A recurring value in my practice is the careful avoidance of over-resolution. I prefer to keep the material flexible instead of pushing ideas towards clear, structural climactic moments or standard song forms too early. This approach shows my preference for ambiguity as a useful space in which meaning can be established through engagement with the work. This was made evident in my practice by my reluctance to add vocals to Kitty Caps too soon, since doing so ran the risk of limiting the song’s emotional sense before finalising the orchestral arrangements. Atmosphere and restraint shaped how I thought about density and production detail. In the portfolio, I often preferred to remove elements rather than add them, meaning that this helps me to realise that my identity as a producer is connected to deciding what to leave out, just as much as what to include. By reducing sonic information, I wanted to create room for subtlety and listener interpretation instead of guiding attention with bold gestures.

An additional aspect of my artistic vision is my interest in contextual flexibility and, again, overall scale. While Kitty Caps stayed relatively small in scope, Argyle grew into both a single-focused version and a larger cinematic arrangement. This change showed that my creative values can exist in different formats. It suggests that my identity is not limited by genre or function, but is shaped by fundamental production instincts like pacing, texture, and emotional continuity. 

These values place my practice within modern producer-led methods that see identity as built through process rather than set stylistic traits. By considering production as a place for authorship and reflection, this portfolio shows an early yet deliberate expression of the kind of producer I aim to become.

As mentioned previously, the earliest stages of both tracks show my first feelings as a producer. They also highlight the limits of those feelings when they go unchallenged. The early demos of both Kitty Caps and Argyle focused on the initial bass lines, atmosphere, harmony, and mood-driven development. They reflected my natural attraction to texture and this idea of emotional tone. These sketches acted as exploratory spaces for me rather than organised compositions. This approach allowed ideas to grow naturally without the pressure of finishing them in one sitting.

While this method built a solid aesthetic base, it also revealed some flaws in my early process. Without a clear structure, both tracks initially lacked momentum and overall progression. This was particularly evident in the first Argyle demo, where the absence of rhythmic elements resulted in a static form. Although it had emotional depth, I felt as though it did not keep the listener’s interest over time. At this point, my focus on atmosphere served as both a strength and a weakness, showing my tendency to shy away from decisions that might limit the material too soon. 

Similarly, the early demo of Kitty Caps revealed uncertainty about the narrative focus, especially regarding the role of vocals. The decision to delay vocal development was not just a technical issue; it was a conceptual one. Adding vocals could have tied the track’s emotional meaning too closely to the sound before its identity was fully formed. This uncertainty mirrored a larger trend in my work at this time, where I often valued openness and ambiguity over clarity.

Despite these limitations, the beginnings of both projects helped illustrate the primary issues behind my developing creative identity. The consistent focal point on space, mood, and restraint in both demos shows that these qualities are not just incidental but essential to my techniques. Realising this helped me see when my instincts supported my artistic vision and when they held me back. Because of that, I now see my early sketches not as unfinished work, but as diagnostic tools. They show me where I needed to try new things and improve, both technically and creatively.

In the intervention stage, I took a more active approach to exploring technical and creative options, rather than delaying decisions like before. This was a change from relying on intuition to testing ideas on purpose. For both Kitty Caps and Argyle, I looked for weaknesses in earlier demos and made targeted changes to see how they affected movement and emotional tone.

In Argyle, adding the rhythmic elements marked an important change. Earlier versions focused on atmosphere and flexible harmonies, but did not have much drive, which made it hard to move the track forward. Bringing in drums was an experiment to see if energy could work alongside the emotional uncertainty that first established the piece.

This tension eventually led to a split in formats in Argyle between the single and the cinematic versions; rather than seeing this as indecision, it became a successful outcome of trying new things, showing how the same musical resources could work in different settings. A big influence for this that I tended to come back to was film and game composer, Samual LaFlamme and his work on the game, Outlast, as his work has similar ideas, where his compositions often mix music, sound design, and film, letting the material change based on its context instead of sticking to one final version.

In Kitty Caps, changes were subtle and focused inward. In opposition to adding new structures, the development aimed for more clarity and refinement, while holding back the vocals. With that, it showed an understanding that the voice can mould the story and expression of a track quite abruptly or too early on in the development. This idea is similar to another crucial influence of mine, Björk, in which vocals add texture and concepts rather than serving as a narrative anchor. 

I previously stated that during the ongoing development of this project, it is sometimes better to remove elements than to add more. After several rounds of changes and adjustments, I noticed that too much detail was actually dampening the emotional impact, so I started focusing on taking things away as my main creative approach. One final musical influence that motivated my decisions here was sax and cello duet, KatzPascale. Their music is often long and drawn out; however, their work shows that small changes and minimal adjustments can keep emotional depth over time. By working this way, I found that experimentation became less about trying new techniques and more about mapping out my own set of values and letting my creative identity grow through thoughtful choices instead of just trial and error.

When Argyle split into a single version and a cinematic version, it encouraged a better understanding of my overall creative identity. I eventually stopped seeing this two-versioned track as a sign of not being able to make decisions and started seeing it as a chance to explore how my personal style works in different formats. This experience showed, and is still showing me that growth does not always mean narrowing down to just one result. Sometimes it means expanding into different directions.

That being said, the cinematic version of Argyle did move at a slower pace, had more spatial depth, and put more focus on atmosphere and narrative hints. In contrast, the single version is centred on traditional song structure, repetition, and being easy to access. Even with these differences, both versions shared key traits found throughout my portfolio, like limited harmonic changes, careful attention to texture, and a tendency to subside from a clear resolution. This is able to show that my creative identity comes from my production instincts and emotional goals, rather than any one format or function.

Working with a scale like this has deepened my interest in emotional pacing and, again, ambiguity. The single version of Argyle needed to be concise and clear, whereas the cinematic version is focused on immersion and letting things develop over time. This ongoing experience has made me realise that I actually prefer settings that let people interpret things for themselves, rather than giving everything a fixed meaning. By working on this project, it has also confirmed to myself that I tend to use ambiguity on purpose in my work and not just because something is incomplete.

This approach fits with modern producer-led methods that let material move easily between different contexts. For example, my inspiration for part of this project, Samual LeFlamme, often shapes his compositions based on how he sees the story or film that he is writing for, instead of sticking to set song forms. Placing my work in this context has shown me that taking different directions through experimentation can be valuable, not just a break from my original goals.

In the end, this part of my portfolio showed that letting my ideas branch out actually makes my identity as a producer stronger. By seeing how my aesthetic values hold up when I change the context or scale, I learned which parts of my practice stay the same. Acknowledging this has aided me in moving from just experimenting to understanding more clearly how my creative identity works in different production settings.

This portfolio follows current music production trends that see the producer as a creative author who is shaped by their workflow, experimentation, and choices instead of sticking to one genre. More producers now use hybrid formats that mix songs, sound design, and cinematic elements, so their work can fit different settings. My process-focused approach reflects this change, viewing each version and new direction as valid creative results, not just as steps toward one final product. My focus on process and restraint links my work to modern producer-led styles that value authenticity, ambiguity, and emotional pacing. This approach places my work-in-progress EP in the wider world of experimental and atmospheric music.

This portfolio has helped me see that my creative identity comes out best when I refine my work, show restraint, and stay open to uncertainty. Early on, I noticed that I sometimes hesitated or tried to do too much, but I learned a lot from those moments. As I move into Creative Music Production 2, I plan to focus on refining the pieces that stand out most to me and start on new and upcoming projects with collaborators. My goal from here, however, is to finish my work while keeping the atmospheric and process-driven qualities that are important to my music production practices.

Bibliography

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