Dark ambient, minimal, subtle beats and noise elements, spoken word, guest guitar by Katakamuii on track 3.

A few details about each track:

Track 1: One night, as I was sitting in my room experiencing nerve pain in my mouth from constant grinding of my teeth at night, I started waxing philosophical on body/pain, life/death, suffering/impermanence, attachment and etc. (For the record, I was neither drunk nor drinking alcohol - at present, I have not had a drop of it in around two days, and when I do indulge I have "a beer" or "a glass of wine," not multiple XXs. I plan to further cut down to a minimum on my alcoholic intake, as I truly believe the stuff is poison.)

As anyone who watches or reads the news knows, Israel/Palestine (Gaza) are now less than a week into a bloody, violent, vengeful (on both sides) war that is as pointless and horrifying as the seemingly endless Ukraine war that continues to be fueled by the support of the U.S./NATO, with Taiwan/China tensions looming large in the background, especially here in the "South Pacific" area of Asia, and so now seemed a pretty apt time to consider the future of humanity, not just the f****** pain in my mouth. Oh, did I mention the "expiry date" on our planet, the likely coming food shortages, the fact that this war will further hike oil prices, leading to a worsening of the global recession, and other such happy topics?

Well... Getting back to where I was originally going with this.

I used various clips of these "musings," which I filmed via my iPhone (there is an accompanying video I edited, which has a very detached and surreal feel to it, as does, I think, this soundtrack), and added electronic atmospherics to them, effectorizing and, at times, looping the spoken word bits, then further adding in some beats and etc., and so, hence, the current version...

Track 2. The backing for this was recorded at a China "National Day" parade in Yokohama (Tokyo), Japan. Combining both the visuals (in the video version) with, again, some electronic atmospherics, subdued beats, a piano improvisation I had done for another piece, here sans the vocals (which I had recorded separately), I created this dreamy soundscape with a distinctly "Oriental" (this word is not used anymore, but seems appropriate -- alt. "East Asian") flavor.

Track 3. A "Palimpsest" combining an improvisatory collaboration with guitarist Katakamuii and the unreleased (except via "Triad," exclusively on this page) "Phantom Currents."

Also in this series:

1. Solitude
2. Faded Out of Sight