Hypnomancer

cinematic songwriter

As a wordsmith, my curiosity and passion for blending diverse musical genres provides an ideal way to explore songwriting as a vehicle for cinematic storytelling. I approach each song as its own world, uniquely set in time, locale, and emotional tone. These vivid narratives include a wide range of characters and accounts from the wired anxiety of an unfolding political intrigue to the fumbled lines of a chance romantic tryst, a moment of prayer, a rant, or an alien encounter on a back country road.  The creative scope of these sonic dramas has been greatly expanded by the advent of generative AI, which enables my poetic stories to quite literally drive musical expression. Generative AI sound-making tools allow for quicker production timelines, lower recording costs, and a greater choice of musical setting. More importantly, this emergent technology liberates the songwriter to imagine far beyond the confines of a singular iconic voice to become the multitude we are!

Find many more songs here, from blistering rock to adventurous forays across foreign lands and desolate sci-fi soundscapes. soundcloud.com/iotronik

  • Hypnomancer (aka David Stout) is a musical shape shifter exploring the world of hybrid sound cultures blending a wide array of genres from folk, rock, country, jazz, and global fusion to widely divergent electronic styles, abstract soundscapes, minimalism, and contemporary classical music. His compositions, songs, and scores are produced with a variety of instrumental approaches including modular synthesizers, custom soft synths, field recordings, folk instruments, generative AI, and session instrumentalists. David received his MFA in Film-Video & Music from the California Institute of the Arts followed by an active professional career as a professor and celebrated performance director leading diverse interdisciplinary production teams and teaching effective skills for collaboration across the arts. He is among a growing number of multi-disciplinary artists exploring the power and potential of new and emerging media.

    Learn more at davidstout.net


Wild Skies

It all begins with an idea.

Wild Skies

A gothic country ballad with a hint of techno recounts the inability to save someone who cannot see their own plight or admit surrender to the well-meaning care from others.

Ballad, Poetic, Cinematic, Soundtrack, Songwriter, Country, Gothic-Country, Country-Rock, Electronic, Ambient, Shoegaze

  • There was that awkward pause in her parting phrase,
    going down this road before the world was paved.
    That silent ah--awards an early grave,
    is our bridge too far for those we want to, save

    When all the time was just another shifting load,
    on the shoulders of three brothers down the road.
    All hesitating and unevenness displayed,
    on the bridge too far for those we want to, save away

    Ohh, the wild skies are not safe shelter in the storm
    But their beauty is a fury we all know
    Down from heaven, into heaven we all go,
    from these fields of dust and clay where we were grown.

    When your sister, or some mother sits alone
    In a cell made out of cardboard for a home
    In a nest of all the troubles she can claim
    the bridge too far for those who won’t be saved

    Ohh, the wild skies are not safe shelter in the storm
    But their beauty is a fury we all know
    Down from heaven, into heaven we all go,
    from these fields of dust and clay where we were grown.

    Ohh, the wild skies are not safe shelter in the storm
    But their beauty is a fury we all know
    Down from heaven, into heaven we all go,
    from these fields of dust and clay where we were grown


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Beyond the Size of Me

It all begins with an idea.

Beyond the Size of Me

Set within a fusion of contemporary electronic styles, a nomadic cyborg woman searches through her synthetic memories to discover herself as an indigenous girl looking toward a resplendent future. A time where her ancestor’s world will be gloriously revived to thrive again.

Trip-Hop, IDM, Ambient, Singer-Songwriter, Avantgarde, Experimental, Glitch-Hop, Future Bass, Folktronica, Cloud-Trap, Pop

  • all the seasons lost
    deer people calling all
    toward the shining peak
    we see, we see, I see
    beyond the size of me
    our destiny – unsealed

    light was stolen

    Sweet smoke leans in
    Leans in to our eyes
    Sweet tears
    Are the tears of our fathers
    All those fathers
    Who climbed this way,
    Way, way back
    climbed this way before us

    way, way, way back
    before the sun
    that bore us, before the moon
    illumined
    she wept
    into this song

    their sweet smoke sways and circles
    my ember heart.
    Our trilling tears are iridescent
    When remembered
    Lives recalled

    When remembered
    Lives recalled
    all the seasons lost
    toward the shining peak
    we see, we see, I see
    beyond the size of me
    our destiny – unsealed

    be yours, doesn’t fall

    we see, I see

    beyond
    beyond the size of me
    our destiny

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