New album from Shoegaze/Doom Metal Project Yume Nikki. Artist's statement:

"This is a cycle of songs heavily inspired by two literary trilogies - The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer and the Remembrance of Earth’s Past series by Cixin Liu - as well as the fact that I had so much more to say to you. This is what I wrote the day that I found out you were gone:

“We met in the 7th grade when we were asked to introduce ourselves to the class. I said “I like Punk Rock” and I heard a kid yell “YEAH” from across the room. After that, we were pretty inseparable for a few years. We spent a lot of time just goofing around, playing video games and listening to music. He is the person who showed me the band Pixies, which changed my life and directly led me to where I am now. As we got older, we grew apart - as you do - but we’d still meet up every few years to catch up over too many drinks. I am deeply saddened that he won’t make our next appointment.”

I didn’t write these songs about you or your passing but, jesus christ, I may as well have. Maybe I felt something like this coming or maybe I write this kind of stuff out of reflex. “Black Moon” was written about Eric and a little bit about Ben, “Desiccated Earth” was largely about falling out with Tariq, “His Body Danced” was based on songs written following Sandy’s death and sort of reconfigured to be about the whole human race dying out. What’s another dead relation? What’s another song written in mourning?

“We May Not Make it Through This” could’ve been about you or me or you and me. I don’t know. I guess I imagined a blind sage wandering off to a place where no one could follow him; some imagined paradise that held no joy or relief but had to be sought out regardless. Is that what you did? Is that what oblivion feels like?

It’s hard to see much through the veil of sadness but when I do it’s anger. I’m mad at you for what you did. I’m mad at you for never picking up your phone. I’m mad at myself for not breaking through that wall; for not being a better friend. We were both lost - but I live on to continue wandering and try again. You don’t.

Maybe this record feels like it was made for you because it contains no hope or light. This wasn’t by design - and I certainly don’t want anyone to do what you did - but the fact remains that I can’t really muster up any hope for the future of Earth or humanity. I really feel like we lost. We ruined Earth and now we’re just running out the clock on the human race. A hopeless science fiction, that sounds like the sort of thing you would’ve really liked (like NGE, Vonnegut, Sturgeon, etc.).

But what do I know? We hadn’t spoken in a couple years. I can’t say how you had changed or who you were when it happened. I can only look at myself as a mirror of the things I've seen and reflect something back at anyone who chooses to look into it. I can be your mirror, I guess. What else could I be? I wish you were here to tell me. I wish they all were here.

'We may have fantasized about being the last, but we're still out here scraping tar and mud from our boots as we carry on over the razed and rotten fields. So it goes.'"