This album was an attempt to make a more authentic ambient album than my previous efforts. The first two tracks are basically using Frippertronic-style looping techniques to create happy accidents. I made it when my wife and I were living in small neighborhood in Yokohama, Japan, just 2km from the ocean. The album cover is a picture of the jellyfish that would swim up the river near our house by the thousands every year.

This short EP was recorded during a time when I was neither happy nor sad. During the year and a half I lived in Japan, I felt incredibly alienated. I was preoccupied with the concept of context and the idea of floating on a current. This depersonalization, in the context of Japan's distinct character and unreal nature, challenged how I felt about the idea of the individual. When you feel like the last person on earth, you can't look at a mountain and feel important. There are beaches nestled by rock faces filled with thousands of exposed fossils, and no one is there to look at them. In the forests, there are statues that have been reclaimed by nature. Japan's nature is like a gong that wakes you from your stupor and reminds you that you will also be consumed and forgotten. Yet, you also understand that you are it and it is you, and who can fear becoming part of themselves again? Exploring the untouchable mystery and majesty of existence is nothing more than an exploration of the self.

1. "Crickets in a forest a night" was inspired by the tranquility of Japan's mountains. This was inspired by Jim Wilson's "God's Chorus of Crickets." It might be a hoax, but I enjoy it anyway.

2. "Watching constellations from a boat" is my attempt to mimic the rhythms created by the ocean. While waves past the breakers have their own rhythm, they're also creating invisible polyrhythms rhythms when they collide. The constellations come in around 4:45. This is a meditation on the interplay between fluidity/movement and unyielding forces.

3. "Listening to the ocean through a conch shell" was inspired mainly by Danna & Clement's "To the Land beneath the Waves," which is a much greater song. I once went to the bottom of the ocean. At the bottom, I saw a golden well in the earth. It was protected by creatures I didn't want to disturb. When I flew out of that seemingly endless corridor of black space, I saw an infinity of coral. It asked me to stay there, and I think I could have.