Tranquility serves as a relaxation point after the energetic tracks earlier on the album. I made this track almost entirely out of pitched, stretched, warped and generally heavily processed samples from “Long Road, Brittle Light”. I wrote the orchestral arrangement alone exclusively for this track, incorporating glitches of vocal textures and orchestral elements. I also included the most soothing sound I know, the purr and deep growl of my sleeping old cat in the background, which should also add to the perceived relaxation. The only rhythmic elements were derived from my heartbeat, which I recorded and processed so that I could use it as a “kick” and as “hats”, my resting pulse of about 60 BPM was perfectly suited for playing the song at 60 BPM, giving the heartbeat hats a speed and sound similar to that of a ticking clock. My heartbeat as a ticking clock. I probably can’t symbolize my own transience musically in a simpler and more precise way.

Anyway, the track should give you the feeling that you also know from some psychedelics like LSD or MDMA and to some extent also from Salvia or DMT. Also in death it should come to that, that huge amounts of neurotransmitters are released at the same time and so a dying body experiences a last, ultimate high. You can also interpret the track as a “liberation” from physical existence, especially since at the end my heartbeat gets quieter and finally stops. “Tranquility”, in any case, should first calm, then stir, overwhelm and finally liberate, sounding novel and unusual all the while. The track proceeds in five sections, another deliberate decision meant to contribute to the overall disconcerting impression, as most tracks are structured in multiples of four. Up to the fourth section, stretched sound textures and orchestral elements keep building up, then in the fifth section extremely strange to disturbing seeming warped vocal textures and glitched orchestral sounds are added, which one can hardly grasp or classify acoustically, until the track dissolves in a maelstrom of angelic textures.

I really wanted to have an artful music video for “Tranquility” in which I allow the same room for interpretation as in the track itself, feel free to check it out. It also flows smoothly into the video for “Long Road, Brittle Light.”