Luminous Stones - Aesthetic Perseverance of Mistakes
- Steam Pink Collection
- Apr 28
- 4 min read
Title and Cover
Coming up with titles to the music I make is normally the first step in the whole process. I feel like when I give it a name, I am also giving it a presence and a personality. It becomes alive, it is an entity before it even starts to take shape. And with that, it brings a weird sense of responsibility, a feeling I should take care of it. Almost as if it is then alive, and I need to fulfill its existence, nourish it, and bring it to maturity and to become the best it can be.
The name itself came from a concept and a theory more than anything else. That took place at the same time I was writing my PhD dissertation, and the concept came from the study into art and craft, the origin of making, and the tribulations of the creative process, which were at the top of my theoretical discussions back then. Art is not perfect, and the final stage of a painting or a piece of music is just the state where we stop working on them, after an unnumbered points of trials, of errors, and only through sheer will and perseverance art becomes alive.
The cover art shows that in a way. I wanted to show a breaking point I guess, a state of force pushing in and out, of tension and struggle, and at the same time, a sort of serenity, a peacefulness of the things we cannot control. Everything breaks eventually, and the beauty of it all is to be part of the perseverance to keep oneself alive.
The tracks
Just like the title, the track names normally comes first, before even the feeling or the main idea of the song. In my head, they each tell a story, and directly or indirectly, they are connected to one another. Not in a lore or story plot, like a thematic album. But their underlying concept is entangled.
Each track is a part of a main idea in a way. They each tell their own tale, but are stories within an anthology, separated, but if you look deep, they share familiar themes, familiar ties, of blood and sound.
I have composed and published at that point a few metal albums. For that kind of music, the system of naming is mostly the same, they are not necessarily a sequence of chapters, but are integral to the whole of the album. The difference is the weight and seriousness of their nomenclature.
In metal, at least for me, one carries a heavier cargo, a tougher knowledge, and that transits to the theme and aesthetic of the whole concept. For Luminous Stones however, I wanted to go as far as possible from the darker veil of my metal music making, and try to reach a more calm, relaxed, chill state.
I wanted to create this sense of relaxation, that when you are listening to this music, you are taken to a place of serenity. Still, a lot of thought is put into it, but towards a brighter and lghter main idea.
1 - Paraphernalia
Paraphernalia is the collection of things, of stuff one gather that is not catalogued, not marked, not noted down. Is normally piled up on a corner, and consists of unusable gadgets, old, rusty gear, things that once had a purpose and now are in a state of desrepair. However, the pile is still there, still looming, and still growing.
That sense of helplesness of a pile of stuff can provide for some, can be a safe haven for others. It can bring a feeling of calm, of control, even in chaos, and of positioning. Position within the world, within a conscience, and within our own mind. We all have a pile of paraphernalia that follow us, the cargo and the baggage we carry everywhere we go. We just need to know how to maintain it under control.
2 - Clay
Clay is such an interesting material. It is maleable and flexible, but under ardent heat it becomes hard and stiff. It can create the most intricate sculptures and art pieces, but is also messy and you find pieces of that dirt under your nails for weeks.
We are like clay at times. Open to be mutable, but hardheaded when the times are tough and the heat is too hot.
3 - Unprecedented
I was thinking about novelty and the human search for anything that is new. The unprecedented is the ultimate human quest, to find what has never been, not yet at least. For something to be truly unprecedented, it cannot be alive or organic. Organisms grow, evolve, change and mutate, but they are all part of a system, a process, of singular steps. One thing builds from another, this new thing is just a different shade of the old, and all is derived of what came before.
To be unprecedented is to forget ones past.
4 - Perseverance
The theme of the whole album I guess. The perseverance, the constant trial and error, and the defiance of failure. Rather than victory, the true opposite of failing is to persevere. There is not winning, there is no losing, there is giving up and letting things go. To persevere is to simply and clearly not to fail, not to let oneself fall, and to stand up again.
Winning is a moment, an event, but to persevere is to constant battle against failing.
Listen to Aesthetic Perseverance of Mistakes on Bandcamp, and order the Deluxe edition on vinyl here.
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