Parimal Satyal

Salut. I'm Parimal, a designer, writer and occasional musician living in Berlin.

I'm interested in communication, languages, cross-cultural exchange, aviation, computer history, information systems and the European Union.

Neustadt.fr is my personal website, a tribute to the creative web of the 90s.

Currently

I work as a UX/UI Designer at OpenProject, a secure, open-source project management software that respects your data and your privacy.

Snow Circuit is my ambient sci-fi synth project set in a post-human future. I was previously a student pilot and host of the Ground Effect aviation podcast.

Writing

This is a selection of essays I've written over the years:

• In Praise of Dive Watches, an eloge to the humble dive watch and why the timing bezel makes them a particularly useful everyday tool even now, in 2024
• Rediscovering the Small Web, about how, despite the dominance of the commercial web, a fun, creative and informative small web designed by regular people still exists and is worth exploring, 2020. This essay was featured on the front page of Hacker News and has been cited elsewhere. It seems to also have played a role in the development of Kagi's small web lens.
• Against an Increasingly User-Hostile Web, about how not to replace an open web that connects and empowers with one that restricts and commoditises people, 2017. This essay was on the front page of Hacker News twice, in 2017 and in 2020, quoted in a Swedish book by privacy experts (page 174), recommended reading in a Berkeley course and cited elsewhere.
• A Beginner's Guide to Crafting a Blog with Metalsmith, a hands-on tutorial on creating a blog using a node.js-based static site generator, 2016
• Teaching Myself German, a guide to self-learning Deutsch, 2016
• 32c3 - Chaos Communication Congress, highlights from the 32nd edition of the biggest community-run hacker meet-up, 2016
• Physics in Metal, a scientific lyrical analysis of metal songs that deal with concepts in theoretical physics and cosmology, 2015
• Island (At Long Last), a poem about murderous sea-dwelling nymphs, 2015
• China: One Nation, How Many Languages?, an academic paper about the development of the Chinese language, also somehow one of the primary sources for the Wikipedia article on the Beijing dialect, 2010

Talks

The plural in the title is admittedly a bit of an exaggeration; I've so far spoken at one conference of which there is a recording:

• Paris Web 2020: Against an Increasingly User-Hostile Web (video), based on my essay of the same name. Paris Web is an annual conference around all things web, including accessibility and privacy.

Snow Circuit

Broody, melancholic and occasionally upbeat, my ambient synthwave project Snow Circuit ventures into both the vast sci-fi terrains of a post-human world and the deepest corners of consciousness.

• Overmorrow (single, 2023)

  A mix of synthwave and French synth-pop, "Overmorrow" is dark, mellow and upbeat all in one track. Will you step into the the darkness that haunts you? Maybe not today, perhaps not tomorrow, but surely overmorrow, you will confront what awaits you in the shadows.

  Listen on Bandcamp, Soundcloud, Spotify or download MP3.

• Sentient (single, 2022)

  Abandoned machines stutter back to life in a cold, desolate world seemingly devoid of civilisation. As they come to terms with their newfound sentience, they contemplate their origin and consider delving into the past for answers.

  Listen on Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music or download MP3.

• Thought Machine (EP, 2021)

  An ambient synth-based EP that explores the cold, desolate remnants of a world once inhabited by humans, and the machines that now hold the only records of their existence.

  Listen on Bandcamp (including liner notes for each track), Spotify, Apple Music or download MP3.

Other music

I mostly listen to progressive metal, powermetal and old school heavy metal, but also enjoy synthwave and pop music.

Some of my musical experiments:

• L'appel du vide, an attempt at creating a soundtrack for a horror film, inspired by what Italian metal band Goblin did for Susperia, 2023
• Terminate, a cover of the legendary Terminator 2 movie soundtrack created entirely on a PO-133 Pocket Operator, 2022
• Déconfinement, retro synth track based on an old composition, 2020
• Einstein-Rosen Bridge, instrumental electro-metal, 2016
• To Hell with Heaven, instrumental old-school metal, 2015
• Navigate the Seas of the Sun, Bruce Dickinson cover, 2015
• The Machine Stops, based on the short story by E. M. Forster, 2012
• Il était une fois, inspired by Yann Tiersen, 2012
• Vita, morte, miracoli, meant to be a morning wake-up alarm, 2012
• In My Life, Beatles cover with my brother Parag on the guitar, 2012
• Return of the Ghost, with two guitar- and one keyboard solos, 2012
• Dreams to Illusions, once described as "power game music", 2008
• Threads of Time, dark introspective rock, 2007
• Age of Mist, mid-tempo instrumental about not knowing, accepting, 2007
• Fallen, 4-chord song about valiant (but incompetent) warriors, 2007

Retro Stuff

I grew up with the internet of the 90s and early 2000s. It was chaotic, irregular, flashy, gaudy, peppered with animated GIFs, but most websites were made by people like you and me who wanted to share their interests and hobbies.

Luckily, I'm not the only one nostalgic about the Geocities era. There's a lot of us! Click the icon below to enter my Retro Collection page full of links to websites, tools, Winamp skins and other cool stuff from the past.

Guestbook

Don't be a stranger. If you have a comment, suggestion or simply want to say hello, you can sign my guestbook. Or read what others have written.

Contact

You can also get in touch with me via email (felix@neustadt.fr), Twitter or Mastodon. Yep, "Parimal" and "Félix" are both me; you can pick the name you like more. Postcards are appreciated if you know my address.

—

• This website is under construction. Last updated: 23 August 2024 from Copenhagen Airport.
• All original text and music on this website are free and in the public domain under the CC0 1.0 Universal license. Download, copy and remix any way you like.
• Made in Paris/Berlin. All pages hand-coded, like in the old days. Valid HTML and CSS.
• Hosted on Neocities. View website source code on GitHub. RSS feed available.
• Best viewed in any browser, including Netscape Navigator, Firefox and lynx.
• Part of the Hotline Webring. You can go to Previous or to Next.
• The main font is Barlow by Jeremy Tribby.