Quantum Foam

Picnic At Acheron

The first song I wrote for the album. This is heavily inspired by lo-fi hip hop. After making that atonal, kind of creepy choir, I decided to name the song Picnic at Acheron, Acheron being the River of woe in the underworld in greek mythology. I also wanted to flex my piano playing a bit, so I wrote a small soloesque piano melody. Overall a very weird, but also mood setting song. I had just quit my job and started making music fulltime, maybe that has something to do with the sound of the song.

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Quantum Foam

This might be my favorite song on the album. Quantum Foam represents my spirituality, my connection to the universe. It is both overwhelmingly euphoric and devastating, leading me to a state of deep peace. Like a soft, warm hug. It’s quite the „progressive“ song actually, using the 5/4 time signature, the tubular bell lines shift over each other, and there is a hidden shaker playing a polyrhythm. This song helps me calm my mind sometimes.
just a side note on spirituality: I am not really spiritual, but the flow state is the flow state.

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Mourning Coffee

A Melancholic piece, I always envision myself sitting in the kitchen, drinking coffee in the morning, and being lost in thought when I listen to it. That’s why I named the song Mourning Coffee. I rarely have particularly happy thoughts, which the name reflects. This is the first song on the album that has a small focus on the string section.

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Mindfulness

This is an interesting and emotional song for me. The initial chords and melodies came from me improvising on guitar. I tend to use open notes a lot, which these chords rely on. The melody requires focus to play, so it feels kind of meditative. I felt that it was right to add my Fathers instrument, the brass globe to this song as the rhythm section. My Father passed away a number of years ago, and I inherited the brass globe. This is the first official song that I use it in. Maybe that’s the reason why the choir sounds fairly sad. My Father and I never really played any music together, I think I never felt like I was skilled enough to participate, but I also never asked. He was always encouraging me to make music, I assume he thought I was disinterested in collaborating. There was no real overlap in the music we made at the time.
The Song gains more melodies and complexity as it goes on, a string section and a piano melody joins. This represents a racing mind, having multiple thoughts at once, a form of small chaos. The rhythmic breathing then starts, reducing individual instruments over the course of the song, returning to the single guitar melody, ending on a happy note. This is inspired by the process of mindful meditation. I mixed and re-mixed this song at least four times, it never sounded quite right, but after giving it a week, I am quite happy with how it turned out.

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Lobus Insularis

This is the second song I wrote for the album. I wanted to make something that kind of reflects Picnic at Acheron, and has a lighthearted, jazzy vibe to it. I kind of struggled with the writing process, and have cut out at least two full sections, shortening and simplifying the song a lot. There are beach samples, waves and seagulls. Growing up in Lithuania, we spent our summers at the beach a lot, so I have a ton of fond memories, the sea feels like home. Also, I wanted to make a rhythmic wave-like sound happen throughout the song, which I achieved by dragging a plastic brush on a cardboard surface. I tend to play this song quite often on guitar, it is fun to play! I think it is a great and lighthearted way to end the album on, and should make the listener feel at ease after all those moody songs.