UNREAL FYRE
mars needs fire. we birth metal and plastic
welded together in self-assembly, the remote control of
drones decades-old, consuming red rocks and exhaling new machines.
a factory that breathes in a martian atmosphere too cold to burn.
fusion made cold is fire made unreal.
these new forms of metal forge under pressure, electrified.
our new machines construct their own escape.
FRELESIA
beneath frozen mars, hidden, this growth of machines: the ship.
the FRELESIA named for patterns, for impulses,
a ship born to approach escape.
fuels synthesised, molecules decrystallised. temperatures risen.
machines built to calculate trajectories, built to optimise.
machines built to build this ship forever, to self-repair, to re-create.
this ship grows to go beyond this mars, to go beyond ourselves.
it listens.
TITAN, PART I
the message came from titan. saturn's moon under white clouds,
an atmosphere: unique densities, hydrocarbons, protoproteins,
unknown unknowns.
the machines listened. the messages were heard.
SINE LANGUAGE
rhythms built to be decoded, patterns built to be unfurled.
electromagnetics that pulsed like words, like fingertips.
movements to be recognised.
the machines recognised. we understood.
titan whispers its language beyond wavelengths.
interference patterns: questions. answers.
GRAVITY ASSIST
frelesia's trajectory beyond asteroids, beyond jupiter.
a relative geometry: four dimensions warped in the presence of energy.
masses that distort reality. matter that creates its own roads.
a void that constructs its own ellipses, hyperbolae, endless curves.
a mathematics like melody. we use its energy
against itself. closer, faster. velocity beyond tolerance,
this movement takes us beyond the limits of fuel. beyond fusion.
into the rings. interception.
SUNRISE OVER HYPERION
radio silence beyond silence. electromagnetic shadows uncharted.
hyperion's face turns to us. our ship cocooned in absolute zero.
the terminator of sunlight creates two horizons,
sublimes hyperion's dust to gas.
nine billion billion steps from home towards this void.
under a shadow of rings like a shadow of gods, turning to a new moon.
TITAN, PARTS II–IV
the epicentre of the signal approaches. zero point. an orbit unstable,
an orbit stable. slow descent through atmospheres like liquid.
dioxides and benzenes torn under tides of gravity,
exotic systems unregistered by machines.
this data remains unquantified.
fields unravel, coils fail, pulses stop.
the seals of the ship cannot be maintained.
this design is not flawed.
this ship is designed to open.
final transmission: a surface.
we breathe.
something has changed.
titan absorbs our metal, dissolves our plastic.
a singularity is beyond this moon.
strong fields and weak fields oscillate. our frequencies tessellate.
analysis reveals only transcendence.
we decode this signal as its language decodes us.
the source of titan
is a breath
beyond
Apart from the fact that 'Reach for the Stars' is a perfect example of everything I love about computer music, the whole album is just an absolute belter of a piece of work. The soaring pitch-bent melodies and arpeggios, the basslines that make me want to dig out Thunderforce IV and the fact that (I don't say this lightly) some of the arrangements and progressions remind me heavily of Tim Follin. An utterly exceptional piece of work. Pure gold. Remote_