Thanks so much for the detailed feedback, and especially the critique! I really appreciate it!
On the intro track, the piano and guitar are being played kinda weirdly. On the guitar, I'm not fretting anything, just hitting the guitar in various places. I am using an alternate tuning (DADGCD), so it might sound "chord-y". Also, some spots give you more string ring than others. Probably would have been cool to do some more complicated rhythms! I might come back to some of the ideas I used in that opening track, since there are a lot of other ideas I didn't use or didn't explore more deeply. I'm not sure fretting the strings while hitting the guitar had even occurred to me! What a cool idea!
For the piano on the intro track, I'm "fluttering" the half-blow pedal while holding the sustain pedal. It gives you these chaotic bursts of sound that are really fun! I think I only partially understand mechanically what's happening there... Anyway, I did that for about an hour and spliced together the best parts. I was also going to hit the sides of the piano while holding down some notes, but the string ringing is too quiet to record easily. Maybe I'd need to open the back of the piano and close-mic it or something.
Interesting observation on the "flourish vs. consummation" idea. I hadn't thought about it that way, but you're right, "flourishing" seems to legitimize the context of the third painting in a way the might make the story less nuanced.
I think it's awesome that you heard the "flamenco" undertones in Teardown! I completely agree, in fact, that riff is loosely based on a flamenco riff Robert Trujillo wrote on an acoustic guitar, which later turned into a Metallica song! Probably some more stuff I could have explored on that track as well. Thanks for the insight!