Known as JackOfTraDeZ or FractAlkemist and probably a few others, Lloyd Garrick, a name he rarely goes by, has made a sizable collection of fractal videos using Fractint and some very interesting musical soundtracks.  In fact, the music almost adds an extra dimension to the fractal visuals and the combination of the two transforms them in the same way adding a third dimension makes everything come alive in 3D imagery.

As is so often the case with me these days, my discovery began with a humble link from a thread about something unrelated at Fractalforums.com:

Famous videos?  I didn’t know there was such a thing in Fractaland.  After clicking on the famous videos link and visting the Ultimate Fractal Video Project site where his many videos are available for download, I went to his YouTube channel.  And all this before I’d even finished my morning coffee.

The title image for the BuddaBrot video caught my interest right away…

I generally “listen” to videos with the sound turned off.  That’s because the musical accompaniment usually doesn’t accompany the video.  So I “listened” to this one muted as well.  It wasn’t until I’d viewed a few more that I began to wonder what sort of soundtrack, if any, there was.

Like I said, the music combines with the imagery to take the video to a whole new level of creativity and alive-ness.  In BuddaBrot the gritty golden noise actually seems to be moving with the beat of the music.  It’s like it’s dancing.

Lloyd says this about Mission to Mars on the video’s YouTube page:

Use your imagination! You’re a rich space tourist on a mission to Mars. You approach the red planet from deep space, descend into orbit, then make planetfall into one of the large canyons known to exist there. You rocket above and over the surface looking for a smooth place to land among the sand dunes and mountains. … And you wish you had hired a better pilot …

Lloyd’s got a sense of humor!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen comedy in a fractal video before.  Also; did you notice that the video is nothing more than a “deep-deep” zoom?  Lloyd’s got a way a making everything new.

Note how the acceleration of the car’s engine is matched by the changing imagery in the video.  This is really a very well planned bit of animation.

Fractint stuff looks pretty retro doesn’t it?  And the soundtrack is –what? It sounds more like a machine than a piece of music.  But together, they create something I find very impressive.  This is the secret of art: it’s not what you use, it’s how you use it.

Ultrafractal makes some very smooth and advanced fractal imagery, but it’s no different than Fractint when it comes to making art.

Lloyd goes even further and makes this comment on Cathedral of Chaos (not included here): “Tweaked Mandelbrot LAKE animation. You can do things with FRACTINT like no other freakin program out there!”

I chose Dancing Dragon not because it’s one of Lloyd’s best videos but because it’s probably the best example of his skill in combining fractals with sound.  The fractal imagery alone is really nothing too exciting.  As cool as this julia of the mandelbrot set might have looked the very first time we discovered it, it’s a pretty cliche theme in any fractal art venue now.

And yet!  And yet, the soundtrack floods that old worn-out image with a golden grandeur and makes us feel we’re watching the awakening of  some great golden dragon.  We can all learn a thing or two from Lloyd here.  Or should I say, Master Lloyd?

StarGate uses a soundtrack from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick’s famous, and very freaky, science fiction movie.  Kubrick really raised the bar for science fiction movies, maybe even a bit too high since no one’s been able to even touch it since then.

Lloyd is right when he says, “Too bad fractal animation wasn’t available when 2001 Space Odyssey was made in 1968 but it’s available now so how come noone’s using it?”  Lloyd’s simple fractal imagery fits in quite well with what I think Kubrick was trying to do in the Star Gate scene from his movie (which is something everyone is still trying to figure out).  But I don’t have to tell you; the power of YouTube allows me to “quote” from 2001: A Space Odyssey. You don’t have to watch the whole 10 minutes; some people find Stanley Kubrick boring.

Back to Lloyd, the Stanley Kubrick of fractal art.

Profoundly minimalistic; that’s what makes this one so good.  The silvery, bubbly fractal image is quite elegant and has strong design characteristics.  The music is really nothing more than a background “theme” (musical texture?) with a single shimmery chord.  The fractal drifts in and then out in a single, simple crescendo.

Well, I could go on but all I think I’d end up doing is embedding everything Lloyd has ever done into this blog post.  Check out the rest if you like what you’ve seen so far.  Holding on to your hat is not the same as holding on to your mind.