This is the thematic and narrative flow of the album, by track.
The album describes one iteration in the (continual, perpetual) series of cycles of appearance of the character Monsieur Ordinaire: arrival and awakening through departure. This cycle (which we assume to be connected to a twelve year cycle, in some way, though it’s not clearly defined how beyond perhaps references to historical events that occur at 12-year intervals) has been repeating for centuries (at least). Each appearance is like waking from a dream: there are only vague memories of previous cycles, a dim idea of continuity …
In this (and every) cycle there is an arc from darkness (upward) to light and back (downward) to darkness (and the end of the cycle …which leads to the next) …
The Jovian archetype (Jupiter character) is the major influence in the first half (the rising); the Saturnian figure the major influence in the second (the inevitable nightfall) … though it is always Saturn who opens the doors …
See also Archetypes | Tracks | Concept
1 — Intro / Overture
Arrival (but not yet awakening).
… perhaps a hint of Jovian influence here, prompting a rebirth, beginning of the cycle, upwards, to life … perhaps a hint of where its going (how the cycle ends) …
This ia a place where both Jupiter and Saturn agree! Let’s get this show started! (tho they might have different ideas about where it ends) …
Welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen, Mesdames et Messieurs, Damen und Herren … roll up for the mystery tour, and so on …
… and the curtain rises …
Alchemical Stage/
Calcinatio – purification; the beginning of the process …
2 — Oblivion
This is the beginning of the cycle. M. Ordinaire has just reappeared in a new place and time, not sure where (or who) he is …
After arrival, the awakening. Coming around. Confusion, questions: “who am I?” “Where am I?”
“Is this another life? I can’t remember my name. I don’t know who I am”
This track has to do with the idea of memory and return (reincarnation) …
“If this is all we are, how do I remember that I’ve been here before … ?”
Alchemical Stage
Solutio — to be in an altered state of consciousness (like drunkenness)
3 — L’Histoire du Bal Aristocratique (The Continual Return) — Instrumental
Here memories of previous cycles begin to return – a clearer idea of his own identity is coming around …
In a series of flashback memories, M. Ordinaire is bouncing between different times (historical periods) and places … a 16th-century Europe scene, some kind of cabaret or New Orleans-vibe barroom vibe, a reference to Civil War Gatling guns (which are related to early 20th-century film projectors), then something 20th/21st century (or beyond) and industrial …
(Imagine a baroque ballroom scene that repeats over and over, then begins to break up into a non-linear narrative, scenes of alternate realities in other disconnected times and places … then coming back to the “present” …)
- c. 1780 – (historically the end of the harpsichord era, when the pianoforte began to gain dominance)
- c. 1850 – Industrial revolution, esp. the (steam-driven) railroad
- c. 1870 – the US Civil War era, and the emergence of the Gatling Gun
- c. 1909 – something Edwardian era … ? Also dada, etc. a few years later
- c. 1933 – something Weimar era (cabaret) … ?
- c. 1967 – Psychedelic era … ?
- c. 1980 – Cold War … ?
- c. 2020 – the present iteration …
- … a future iteration … ?
As the memories replay, a sense of identity is coming together (we know who we are based the sum of our memories) …
(c.f., emerging from a psychedelic trip with a new sense of identity or new understanding of being, reality)
Alchemical Stage
Coagulatio – things combining, taking form , solidifying … crystallization …
4 — A Victorian Passage
Imagine M. Ordinaire, awake and coherent now, dressed in a new suit, tie and hat as his ship (a steamship?) docks. Arrival in a new world, meeting new people … with new experiences ahead (with the idea of leaving the past behind, and perhaps with a new and enigmatic guide?) … but there is still the question, “what is reality?” …
“Leave your things behind,” she said. “You won’t need them anymore.” As we disembark upon the shore …
Alchemical Stage
Sublimatio (beginning) – Introspection. imagination
5 — (Interlude)
Circumstances are encouraging: there is life to live, experiences to have … yet there is a hesitation (perhaps from vague memories of past cycles) … a hint of madness, foreshadowing of the inevitable end of the cycle (apocalypse) … but then after a brief (Victorian style) “episode” (“oh I seem to have fainted for a moment … ?”) a return to the positive and hopeful …
The Jupiter archetype influence approacing its apex …
The Promethean/Luciferian awareness about to rise …
(Saturn might have something to say about this …)
6 — Light Lift
Life, hope … perhaps even the possibility of companionship in this world …
” … lift me up from this darkness, lift up from this night. Set me free from the madness, set me free from the strife …”
This is where the Promethean / Luciferan archetype blossoms …
Alchemical Stage
Sublimatio (peak)
7 — (“The Turning Point”)
The turning point … the narrative trajectory leading upward is about to turn downward (or at least be pushed that way) … this scene begins hopeful, enthusiastic … a party! (Jupiter influence, and now maybe Bacchus too) … too much light, getting too “high” (c.f. Icarus) … which leads to (hungover) apathy, cynicism, (predictions of) ruin and madness … “perhaps it is foolish, after all, to try to make this last …”
Here is the (formal) introduction of the Saturn character, who heralds the coming end of the cycle …
A question, here: do we return to the beginning (1), or proceed (13) … ? The latter seems unwise, maybe impossible (and Saturn, of course, does not recommend it) …
The apex of the cycle is related to the end (and beginning) … “from the top you can see the bottom” …
Alchemical Stage
Sublimatio (end)
8 — Purgatory
In the middle of the cycle, it is no longer exciting and new to be in this world … it now begins to feel like a prison (a situation that has repeated itself many times, in faded memories) … the party is fading; feeling alone … thoughts now turn to getting out …
Silently we’re moving through the night. Faded memories, unfinished lives. Here in Purgatory souls abide. Soon we’ll be together. Very soon we’ll rise …
… this is about finding oneself in a dark, lifeless, nowhere place — and getting out of it (through force of will) …
… but getting through it, living through it can lead to madness that must be overcome …
Is this not madness? What we’ve become?
There is a desire to get out, to resist…
You will not take me down … won’t take me back …
… but it is somewhat ambiguous whether the state of Purgatory is the result of the perpetual continuation of the karmic cycle, or if it comes from being stuck in one iteration, without moving on? So there’s a question, here: who is really the positive force, the Jupiter archetype or the Saturn archetype?
Alchemical Stage
Mortificatio – Melancholy
9 — Thursday’s End
The inevitable collapse … with a crash and bang! … (or perhaps not a bang but a whimper) … giving up … and accepting the end of the cycle (the Apocalypse) … (but still with an intent to “struggle on” somehow) …
Perhaps there is also a sense of camaraderie with another (in the continual cycle) here … ?
“And so another cycle ends … and yet we struggle on my friend. The carousel goes round and round. Around we ride, and it’s getting us nowhere …”
When the end (death) approaches, the urge to continue (live) becomes greater … as we descend (inevitably) there is still a resistance …
(“Thursday’s End” has been the working title, because this track was sketched out and initially recorded very late on a Thursday. But it’s worth noting that Thursday refers to Jupiter …)
Alchemical Stage
Mortificatio — to Separatio
10 — Deus Ex Silentium
The (acceptance of) Death, the inevitable end of the cycle … (back to) purification through fire … descending … here the Saturn influence reigns: the End. To Stillness. Silence.
“The silence fills my mind, darkness surrounds my eyes …”
Saturn’s influence in full force here …
Alchemical Stage
Separatio
11 — (Coda – Segue)
The End (of the cycle) … from the collapse to silence and stillness …
13 — (Epilogue)
Alchemical Stage
Conjunctio …
… to Circulatio …
… the story is not over, yet …
12 — Reality Drive
With the departure … there is the hope, the possibility (the inevitability) of return and rebirth … even as he leaves, the cycle calls him back …
“No, don’t go away. Don’t go, my friend. Don’t fade away again”
(Bonus Track?) — Innocence redux
This track is not necessarily part of the current “cycle” — but it’s from the same larger story, and provides some additional information about M. Ordinaire and the concept of the continual return …
… here’s your reward / for what you brought into this world …
M. Ordinaire’s “crime” (per Saturn at least — indeed this entire song may be a voice from Saturn’s perspective) is merely indecision: being unable (or refusing) to choose (or accept) perpetuating the cycle, giving in to the temptation of remaining in one iteration … but there’s a suggestion that is guilty of something (at one time, maybe many cycles ago) that has caused some sort of harm (or not done something that would have averted misfortune) …
… in plain sight you are concealed / still one day all will be revealed …
There’s an idea that (as he becomes increasingly aware of circumstances) M. Ordinaire feels a need to keep a low profile, to hide — perhaps from the manifestation(s) of the Saturn figure … (and/or maybe just a need to hide his true nature from the general public) …
You left behind a world of pain / But still you live your life in chains
Maybe there was a deal made with Saturn (as the Devil?) … ? One that didn’t quite go as planned?
… to be continued … ?
… this is, of course, just one of many cycles …
… and speaking of cycles:
December 21, 2020
Why is this date important?
The great conjunction of 2020 will be the closest since 1623. A great conjunction is a conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn. Great conjunctions occur regularly (every 19.6 years, on average) due to the combined effect of Jupiter’s approximately 11.86-year orbital period and Saturn’s 29.5-year orbital period.
The next great conjunction will occur on 21 December 2020.
This conjunction is notable because it marks the start of a new roughly 200-year cycle during which Jupiter and Saturn will form conjunctions in the same element: air.
In 2020, December 21 is also the date of the Winter Solstice.