Holy Wisdom | Dark Psychedelic Orchestral Prog Rock | Still Life with Typhoon | Mazandarani

A dark, orchestral rock exploration through a historical look at the Byzantine Empire, considering human pride and the "frailty of our finite dreams." “Still Life with Typhoon” is dark and often disillusioned meditation on the futility of human ambition in the tempest of our frailty, imperfection, pride, ignorance, and impotence. It comprises a collection of verse from the poet's past, re-written from his current artistic and personal perspectives, with an eye to becoming song. Several common themes connect the pieces, born from the battering tempests of life, undergirded by a flickering but persistent flame of hope and love. Connected to the "Daughter of Time" science fiction trilogy by Erec Stebbins through the figure of Mazandarani. ──────────────────── Lyrics Strained silent shadows stutter as they stride Ghost-dim through lost, mist-distanced centuries: A spectral congregation swelled with pride Long locked in irons forged of memories. The monk's bright eyes peer through the flaming fumes To pierce the bloody veil of Mehmed's rape. Poor prayer and penance cannot hope exhume How bloated kingdoms drown God's humble grace. One thousand golden years — jabbed opium. Fierce fists barbarians flung demon-state Unhallowed falls of proud Byzantium, Her sprawl face-down and naked, hewn in hate. Traditions stagger, fossils in split stones - Her tarnished dome, deep-etched in white-washed gleam, Where wand'ring whispers wrap and wreck our bones To frame the frailty of our finite dreams. To frame the frailty of our finite dreams To frame the frailty of our finite dreams. Our dreams Our dreams wand'ring whispers wrap To frame the frailty wand'ring whispers wand'ring whispers Where wand'ring whispers wrap around our ears To frame the frailty of our finite dreams. Our dreams Our dreams our finite dreams ──────────────────── BACKGROUND Mazandarani is the name of a minor but tragic figure in the "Daughter of Time" trilogy by Erec Stebbins. He was deeply but unrequitedly in love with, and utterly devoted to, the Daughter of Time. And he served her well. His poems decorate the opening of each of the seven parts of the third book, “Maker”. The conceit in these new musical projects, mirroring that of the trilogy itself, is that powerful forces from the future who can shape space, time, and consciousness, have reached back in time to communicate with the author's mind. This is in order to pass on messages in the “now” that will affect course of the future. As the first novel, “Reader”, notes in its first chapter: “On the cover of this book, you’re reading an author’s name. He believes this story is full of his ideas, born from his own mind. It’s not. I am writing it through him. In his delusion, it’s all part of a clever plot he’s stitched together, down to this very sentence saying he isn’t writing it. Instead, it is the effort of my mind reaching out, back through what you call time. I inspire him, shape his thoughts, convince him of this reality.” In this musical project, the Daughter of Time chooses to speak through the poetry of Mazandarani, not only in the static verse on the pages of the novel she inspired Erec Stebbins to write, but also through music that she has led him to produce. It is another attempt through various media to shape the consciousness of the past toward building a better future. SYNTHETIC MUSIC Because of the controversy and abuse of the technology, I'll be completely transparent and say the music is AI generated (as are the graphics for the albums). Given the authors current means, time, and talents, he could never have composed or commissioned multiple albums with songs in completely different genres that are made to his own tastes and hopes for his poetry. With AI (and thousands of generations and many iterative edits of music and prompts), he could at least afford to produce this music and shape it toward something that is moving and meaningful to him. If you hate AI, perhaps, in the midst of how the greedy billionaires and power-drunk rulers of our world are abusing a new technology, you might consider these creations as a positive example of what this tech could be for us. Imagine the better future if our tech were used exclusively for beauty and good. The choices are always in front of us. Finally, because in this age it is important for transparency, I'll note that no AI was used for the writings (the books or the lyrics). I don't believe it is inherently "wrong" to use AI in writing to realize a vision (it is a tool, one that I believe can augment creativity when used intelligently), but because many consider any use of it at all as "fake", I felt I had to address this issue. ──────────────────── The “Daughter of Time” trilogy rewrite (including poems) and associated synthetic music are placed into the public domain (CC0) by the author and producer, Erec Stebbins, with no restrictions on use. There is no monetization.