Track By Tracks: Cthulhu Dreamt - Liminality (2022)

Cthulhu Dreamt:

Created as a means to write about and deal with loss, depression, and anger, using Cthulhu and the story associated with the project as an analogy for how I (Reed) felt losing my daughter after birth.

Liminality:

As an album, this takes place in the universe during a 5-year stasis in which the island of R’Lyeh rises from the depths of the ocean, but Cthulhu still slumbers.

1. Tempest:

The sounds of creatures still trapped in their prisons; The earth trembling as they move. The intro sets the stage for things being ‘off’ and the pressure building.

2. The Deep, Distressed:

As Cthulhu remains in slumber, his influence can still be felt in the world: weather patterns become more volatile, strange phenomena appear in the aftermath, and people’s attitudes move from positive to negative.

3. Fifty Six & 2:

A song about the struggle with depression, the analogy being the siren’s call always pulling us back to the darkness.

4. Change of Scenery:

When you’re constantly struggling to just be, you eventually get tired of feeling like you’re alone. And when you’re alone, it feels as if the world crumbles around you.

5. Throsk:

Not everything needs to be dire. Like in real life, you can take a moment to switch things up. Sometimes it’s difficult to keep the bad vibes away for more than a minute or two though.

6. A Broken Heart Feeds Two:

When you’ve lost someone, you dream about them. About them being back and things being ‘normal’, and how much you just want that to be real. As time moves on, a lot of memories are lost, and even though it hurts, we want to hold on to those memories.

7. Obelus:

The division between gods and humans is obvious when you imagine that they’re called ‘old ones’ for a reason, and easily consider humans as nothing more than an inconvenience.

8. Desafiar:

Translated from Portuguese, desafiar means ‘defy’. Whether that’s convention or the things we struggle against daily, this is the interlude to score that.

9. Peering In:

The creatures that come into the world prior to Cthulhu’s arrival are not to be trifled with. In the early days, we won’t even know they’re present (much like depression).

10. Déplacer:

Translated to ‘traveling’ this is the instrumental track that scores the journey we constantly make and how no matter where we go, there we are.

11. Dying Light:

Towards the end, the darkness will always be present, whether that’s the end of the universe, or our minds as our eyes close and the light disappears. How we get to that point is the journey and what may or may not create meaning. In the story, the darkness accompanies the Cthulhian creatures.

12. Rain Without Clouds:

The feeling of sunshine and rain falling can be a good feeling. You might see a rainbow, and the experience might be spiritual. And it might be the calm before the storm.

13. First Warning:

A story based track about a reporter in the field experiencing one of the cosmic storms bringing entirely from another world.

14. Arrival:

Finally, Cthulhu awakens, and humanity will be forever changed.