This album is somehow the result of my ruminating on a few words found in Nietzsche's Gay Science, in particular §124 and §283. The music is in no way a transcription of words or ideas but rather a resonance, a trail left behind by their moving through me.

The melody's first four notes of the last track is what my mother used to hum whenever she felt like humming. It is no known tune, just what she always came up with; as far as I remember only the four notes were a prerequisite, the rest was, well, made up as she went along – which I did here as well. The track is dedicated to her, whatever that means.

124. In the horizon of the infinite. - We have forsaken the land and gone to sea! We have destroyed the bridge behind us - more so, we have demolished the land behind us! Now, little ship, look out! Beside you is the ocean; it is true, it does not always roar, and at times it lies there like silk and gold and dreams of goodness. But there will be hours when you realize that it is infinite and that there is nothing more awesome than infinity. Oh, the poor bird that has felt free and now strikes against the walls of this cage! Woe, when homesickness for the land overcomes you, as if there had been more freedom there - and there is no more "land"!

283. Pioneers. - (...) We now need human beings who know how to be silent, solitary and resolute, who know how to be content and persistent in invisible activity: human beings who with innate disposition seek in all things that which is to be overcome in them: human beings to whom cheerfulness, patience, simplicity, and contempt of the great vanities belong just as much as do magnanimity in victory and indulgence to the trivial vanities of all the vanquished: human beings with an acute and independent judgment regarding all victors, and concerning the part which chance has played in the winning of victory and fame: human beings with their own festivals, their own work days, and their own periods of mourning; accustomed to command with perfect assurance, and equally ready, if need be, to obey, proud in the one case as in the other, equally serving their own interests: more imperilled, more fruitful, happier human beings! For believe me, the secret for harvesting from existence the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment is to live dangerously! Build your cities on the slope of Vesuvius! Send your ships into unexplored seas!