Harmony Frontiers is an LGBTQ-owned Software Development company based in NYC's Staten Island borough. We're an organization enthusiastic about expressing identity through media, especially mental health and LGBTQ+ representation. Our initial foundations lie within the vocal synthesis community, where creativity, passion, and collaboration thrive. Our mission is to produce multilingual synthesized vocals in a variety of voice types and to use those characters to address stigmatized subject matters.
Since our own synthesized vocals are still in the development process, we’re offering vocal synth lessons to make learning about vocal synthesizers more accessible for English-speaking music producers and fans. As displayed in our Vocal Synthesis and How It Relates To Mental Health column, synthesized vocals are a wonderful means for exploring self-expression and connecting with other individuals who are doing the same. Once our own vocal synths are done with production, we expect to contribute further to this passionate community.
In the meantime, we’re developing promotional projects that feature our characters and focus on mental health themes and representation. At the moment, we have two undergoing development.
Our visual novel, State of Presence, explores the afterlife of Kacper Takarski, a Polish man who has no recollection of how he died. By communicating with both the dead and the living, Kacper must adjust to existence as a spirit, dig deeper into the events of his past, and form bonds with the people around him. Each character holds their own history, and Kacper’s Post-traumatic Stress Disorder makes facing his own a challenge. However, he doesn’t have to endure it alone; by connecting with others, players can establish the support he needs to make it through.
Our webcomic, Ambivalence, is a little more down-to-earth. It tells the stories of four university students, Valentin and Nikolay Sokolov, Taras Chaykovsky, and Yaroslava Kozlova. As a romance, it focuses on the dynamic between Valentin and Taras as they meet and begin to learn more about one another. Ambivalence dives into their everyday lives, as well as the lives of those close to them. Throughout the story, we explore how actions can impact others - whether we realize it or not.
Representation in media is important. Creative media gives us the opportunity to see ourselves in what we consume, to learn more about the people around us, and to express ourselves based on our own unique experiences. Our column, How Sociology Supports Diversity in Creative Media, delves further into the subject.
Harmony Frontiers aims to do the same. Our characters are a medium of expression that can be used to start conversations, to bring vocals to the unheard. Like all virtual idols, they exist to become a representation of you and your ideas. Together, let’s break through the stigma and create the change we want to see.