more about thurible

the album art is the minilab keyboard with a photo of leaves on top, which i took at an ikea. i rushed the album art a little, so i hope it does justice to this album which is otherwise not about keyboards or leaves.

this album was something about death. my friend and co-worker emily had just passed, a few days shy of turning 30. with the global COVID-19 pandemic only beginning, death was on my mind. not just emily, but my friends reny and soorya who passed away in college, and my grandparents not too long ago as well.

soorya gave a speech at my university graduation. “it’s not goodbye. it never is. the world is far too small a place for it to ever truly be goodbye”. these were the last words i’d heard him say, along with many of my classmates. i think of what lies beyond. i don’t know what is there but i know he is correct; it never is truly goodbye.

the tracks are about death. “thurible” is the name for the incense spreader they used at my grandmother’s funeral. “for lost souls” is the cusp of both realms. “lasting impressions” is what they’ve left behind. most of the track names are self-explanatory, with “eventuality” being both death and what lies beyond time itself.

i remade “indefinite infinity”. i loved that track from my first album. it was the concept that when drifting out in space, endlessly, the middle is also the end. the beginning is past. the present is also the future. it is both infinite and indefinite. this may be my most favorite track i’ve ever made.

for the instruments themselves, i’d just gotten an arturia mini mk2 keyboard with arturia analog lab. i wanted to push what i could do with these new toys, so all the instruments are only minilab ones besides the drums and bass. the album art is the keyboard in question, and i took a photo of ikea fake plants and put it on top.