Music Spotlight - Snowdrop Festival
Today's spotlight is on something that inspires me not only for all the talented, creative artistry involved, but also for the way it practices such joyful and meaningful community-building.
The Snowdrop Festival by Infloresce Records, a label for "gentle music that goes hard", is an online showcase to celebrate the work of musicians within the digital fusion and related music spaces. The festival has so far happened annually since 2022, taking place on the Infloresce Records Twitch channel with a multi-hour livestream to share and premiere tracks which were made that year and composed (primarily but not exclusively) by digifu artists. All of the previous shows have also been archived on the Infloresce Records YouTube channel here: Snowdrop Festival 2022, Snowdrop Festival 2023, Snowdrop Festival 2024.
I think describing the festival as a livestreamed playlist, while technically true, does not even come close to accurately conveying what the experience actually is. It is a full production, and in fact it is perhaps better thought of somewhat more like a live production of dance or theatre in the sense that there is a strong holistic vision to bring performances, narrative, and emotion together through cohesive art direction and curation. In the case of Snowdrop Festival, the entire festival is arranged into several themed chapters, with pieces carefully curated into these groups according to what I (as a non-musician/composer) can only describe as their shared energy, feeling, sounds, or even intentions. I'm sure the actual curators possibly have their own criteria for this that could include more technical shared musical elements like particular sound textures, tempo, and such. But as a listener, the songs and the acts they appear in have always all felt so fitting to me! Another crucial thing to mention is that each chapter also comes with its own set of custom visuals, with beautiful illustrations and animation, to accompany the music.
The names and settings of these chapters are very evocative, with titles like "Cotton Candy Kingdom", "Prismatic Colors (Canvas Caverns)", or (in the case of last year's planetarium-themed festival) the imagined forest planet of "Nispiro-10". Like, when I listen to a track in the Cotton Candy Kingdom chapter, that's EXACTLY where the song sounds like it belongs. I often look forward to the final chapter of the festival, which has done a great job of sharing music that evokes the same heartfelt energy as when you've finally arrived at the end credits of a game or film you really loved.
As mentioned before, each of these chapters also features amazing visuals consisting of an original, gorgeously illustrated background, often with additional lightly animated elements, that depicts the theme delightfully. And that's not all — pending on the festival theme, there have also been visuals interspersed throughout, like video game-style overworld maps that trace the listener's continuous journey between the different themed "locations" AKA different sets of songs, as a fun way to transition between the chapters and through the overall show. The effort that goes into this broader process of developing and producing these themed elements of the festival really elevates the experience to above and beyond whatever you might otherwise expect.
There is one part of last year's Snowdrop Festival in particular that I really love and will highlight here, BUT only read on if you don't mind POTENTIAL SPOILERS! This is for a part of the experience that I perceived as meant to be a delightful reveal, and I definitely appreciated the surprise element of it — so if you mind that sort of thing, then feel free to skip right on to the next/last paragraph! Again, SPOILERS for the rest of this paragraph if you want to avoid them! Okay, without further ado.... I have to mention the incredible "Moon: Osea" interlude in Snowdrop Festival 2024, which premiered the incredible track "in yafa, the sunbirds sing of hope." by aivi & matar. A collaboration between aivi, the founder/label runner of Infloresce Records and instrumental part of organizing Snowdrop Festival, and matar, a British-Palestinian musician (and also photographer and doctor, according to their bio?! Talk about talented!), the song is just... so beautiful. It exudes joy and hope as a strength, might be the best way that I can put it. When this track played during the livestreamed festival on Twitch, the chat spammed "FREE PALESTINE" the entire time and it was so beautiful and amazing. Moments like that show how that is the kind of care and community behind this festival.
Strung together with absolutely loving detail, the Snowdrop Festival is a sweeping and truly epic journey of emotion, art, and storytelling felt through music. It couldn't be more apparent how much thought, care, and creativity goes into putting together each one — and how the entire effort is one big love letter created and shared between a community of peers that clearly love to uplift each other. For the musicians who make digital fusion and similar or overlapping types of music (including but not limited to things like chiptune, jazz, PC/computer/video game-based music, classical, and other electronic music), the space carved out to affirm and celebrate their shared love for the genre is special, particularly when its definition might be, at times, harder to define and find community around. The founder and label runner of Infloresce Records, Aivi Tran of the band aivi & surasshu, especially deserves many flowers for the care they have put into crafting and supporting such a wonderful community, both through the label and Snowdrop Festival as an event. And it goes without saying that flowers should be given to the entire team of people that put it all together, as well! When it rolls around in the winter, Snowdrop Festival is a highlight of the season.