Chromesthesia: A Brief Tour

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Chromesthesia is a variant of synesthesia which is known as sound-to-color synesthesia that affects an individual's hearing, myself among them, giving sounds inherent color associations. A few songs in particular for me have always had very strong, resonating colors.

When I did art I had always found it particularly difficult to work with colors for the very reason that I could never match it up with what I envisioned, and I was very picky with my colors, and often filtered things to be black and white in the end.

The Empress by Nichrysalis

The First of all Pleasures by Nichrysalis

Quoth the Raven by Nichrysalis


I always felt I was 'searching' for another color because of this.

It's important to remember I don't see the following in my visual field, but perceive and associate it as if it were really there. Meaning, these are very strong and mixed sensory associations. The key thing about them though is that they are inherent associations developed without realizing it, without memorizing them, and they don't change.



Pink Floyd's 'Echoes'





Breaking it Down


'Echoes' by Pink Floyd has several sections to the entire song, and is overall a 23-24 minute piece. The intro is immediately pierced by streaked silver (what you may all recognize immediately as the distinguishing ping! sound) with light stripes of yellow, all very bright, while the chorus and verses are a deep green, like pine trees, the solo becomes lighter green, almost blue with yellow stripes again (this song in particular is punctuated with striped colors), but the climax of the song is beyond compare, and that is what is described in the poem I wrote on the subject, found below. The first time I heard this song, specifically the climaxing segment of the song, I was numb in awe from the intensity of it.






Aesop Rock's 'Cycles To Gehenna'





Breaking it Down


Cyan, this song is dominated by so much cyan, and I can never get enough of it. The color is solid, but the texture looks like a fluid, it has a pulse to it. There are occasional flareups of aquamarine, silver, bright green, yellow, and then there is the total shift in tone for the last minute of song when everything has lost touch and pulse and is pink and orange—but the cyan is gone, now dominated by the navy blue of Aesop's voice.



Neil Davidge's 'Arrival'





Breaking it Down


Through and through, I've always enjoyed this song for its spanish orange flavor and amarillo spices. The colors look soft and soothing like cotton or wool would, but the song beats on as a boat against a current ceaselessly, driving the orchestral arrangement for this wonderful score home. I first heard this while playing the actual game of Halo 4 itself in one of the most intense sessions of all the Halo games I've had the pleasure of playing. It was a beautiful experience.



Thanks for reading. :heart: I wrote this on a whim and if you enjoyed it please do let me know, perhaps I could even tell you what a favorite song of yours looks like? :)

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hopeburnsblue's avatar

Gaaah, I love this so much! I can't even begin to describe half of the colors in my head half of the time, but I feel privileged to see them at all. Love hearing your interpretations!