# Solstice Album Crowdfunding

For several years, people have been singing songs at [Solstice](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/CGkZEQdeBZZXbBT7o/on-rationalist-solstice-and-epistemic-caution), and some of those songs have been recorded, but always as a live performance which means the quality isn't as good and the musicians are recording-in-one-take-that-includes-all-mistakes.

So, I'm finally putting together a professional Solstice Album. I recorded an initial 12 songs for $8,000 (paying for musicians and studio time), recently recorded another few songs for $2,000. Ideally I'd like at least a bit more studio time to layer in some more vocal tracks so that 2/3 of the songs aren't just me singing.

The [IndieGogo campaign is here](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/secular-solstice-album/x/4446313#/). Since I've already spent a bunch of money, it's a flexible fund campaign (however much we raise, the album will still come out, and I'll get reimbursed or whatever people put it). But the more we raise the higher quality the songs will be end up being and the more likely I'll be to take on similar projects in the future.

If you choose the Early Access tier and I know who you are (in particular, I have your email), I'll send you a link to the google drive folder with the rough cuts as soon as I can, rather than waiting till after the IndieGogo wraps up.

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The Songs
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These are the songs that are already recorded and guaranteed to be in the album. Some of them have links to snippets so that you can hear what the instrumentation is like:

*   Bold Orion
*   Bring the Light
*   Gather Round
*   [Bitter Wind Lullaby](https://soundcloud.com/raymond-arnold/bitter-wind-snippet?in=raymond-arnold/sets/solstice-snippets)
*   Chasing Patterns
*   [Stardust](https://soundcloud.com/raymond-arnold/stardust-snippet)
*   Time Wrote the Rocks
*   Do You Realize
*   Hymn to the Breaking Strain
*   Bitter Wind March
*   [Brighter Than Today](https://soundcloud.com/raymond-arnold/brighter-than-today-snippet?in=raymond-arnold/sets/solstice-snippets)
*   [Endless Light](https://soundcloud.com/raymond-arnold/endless-lights-snippet)
*   [Here and Now](https://soundcloud.com/raymond-arnold/here-and-now-snippet)
*   Forever Young
*   [Uplift](https://soundcloud.com/raymond-arnold/uplift-snippet)
*   Five Thousand Years

There will be bonus tracks available at higher tiers that include rough recordings of some of the off-beat silly songs or songs that get suggested by people on the "suggest a song" tier.

The bonus tracks will also include **instrumental versions of most songs** so that people can sing along karaoke style, or use the backing-track for their own Solstice events if their community doesn't have musicians.

Suggest a Bonus Song
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Higher level tiers include "Suggest a Bonus Song" and "Costly Signal a Bonus Song". These do not guarantee a particular bonus song, because things are expensive and the world is complicated and the campaign might not even recover the money to pay the existing expenses.

However, if there is a lot of support for a particular song getting included I will do my best to at least get a rough recording of it done, and in general, I will prioritize the bonus songs that got Signaled Hardest.