Synapses is 2021's second installment of the trilogy embarked with Δs=dQREV/T, in February 2020. It consists of 8 tracks and has a length of 28' minutes. Similarly enough to its predecessor, Synapses is an amalgam of guitars, electric bass, keys, electronic beats and sounds - but instead of cosmic nihilism, touches on the artificiality of consciousness and free will. Thus, it is named after the process of thinking, both in biological and machine entities. Etymologically, this term also means ''junction'', which is equally relevant to the combination of digital/analogue aesthetics, crafted especially for this album and its recurrent references to duality.
A R T W O R K
At the album cover's center stands prominent a head-like figure, which is composed by a humanoid face on one side and the album's name on the other - both stylized as circuit connectors. The CPU at the forehead, contains the ''H'' waveform logo, hinting the strain of Synapses, as it lies at the exact epicenter of two worlds.
Fading semi-transparently (to mirror their ghostly nature) over the edges of the VR motherboard which is used as background, there are two cryptic messages, written in binary language. The one on the left translates as: ''CONSCIOUSNESS = MISSTEP OF EVOLUTION'', as the one on the right, respectively, as: ''FREE WILL = INDIVIDUALISTIC ILLUSION''.
The entirety of the cover is filled with display raster scans and digital glitches, as a metaphor for the distorted human psyche.
C O N C E P T
Just like Δs=dQREV/T uses an outer-space flavoring as a stepping stone to deal with another theme, Synapses uses A.I. transcendence the same way to explore some everlasting conundrums for humanity: What is consciousness? Is it real, or just an evolutionary trick of our bodies giving us a virtual sense of continuity? If so, which ones of all the choices we make every second are actually ours, if any? And then, is there any difference from the machinery we ourselves create, after all?
The idea of humanity being, essentially, biological robots, is not new. Determinism was thought of by pre-Socratic philosophers during the 7th and 6th centuries BC, while it was developed further by others like René Descartes and Baruch Spinoza in the 1600s. But it has gained a lot more interest over the last decades, as the general public's understanding of technology multiplies by each generation and recognizes more familiar traits to it, beyond the ones copied from nature's designs.
Those very familiar traits, are the same ones our technological progress tries to overcome: ''How will it think and act for itself?''. But it won't, technically. It will just simply be hardwired for a task, even if that task is to be as alive as we are. And as much as biological entities genuinely hate the idea, it is at least to a degree, the same occasion for them.
Everything on us could be hardwired and we just wouldn't know any difference; Our behavior is based on involuntarily chemical reactions. We are imitative organisms, driven by what our surrounding counterparts think. We spend a whole life, trying to make it acceptable. After a while, norms become indistinguishable from laws. Attitude, taste, habits, milestones. Can you deny your own programming?
Here is where Synapses connects with Δs=dQREV/T, as a second iteration of existential nihilism. Just like the later pays homage to the physical disintegration of space and matter, Synapses odes how exaggerated is the nature we give to our incorporeal selves. Plus, how that makes us nothing more than an evolutionary paradox, as our crude dysfunctionality never ceases to prove.
A R R A N G E M E N T
Synapses begins with electronic instruments and beats, gradually passing the torch to guitars and acoustic drums. At the 5th track, ''Where Uncanny Valley Ends'', the balance starts to shift to the later group, along with the ''Right Hemisphere'' side of the playlist.
Guitar themes are often mirrored simultaneously by electronic instruments, to resemble technological singularity. Bittersweet melodies are used as an expression vessel for both usefulness and dependence.
P L A Y L I S T
The playlist is divided to ''Left'' and ''Right'' hemispheres, in order to reflect the logical and the creative side of a brain, as well as to highlight the stylistic/thematic distinction. Intro and Outro tracks are in the middle, but interconnect with all the others.
The track names reveal a story line themselves:
01 - In ''Here Comes The Boltzmann Brain'', self-awareness manifests from nothingness, only to return there after its vain existence.
02 - ''Cognitive Dissonance'' signifies our conflicting nature and imperfection of the mind.
03 - ''Just Epiphenomenal'', is the acceptance of our faulty nature and its affecting aspects.
04 - In ''PsychAlgorithm'', we're embedding an altered version of our idiosyncrasy into the machine.
05 - ''Where Uncanny Valley Ends'', is the point we become one with our creation.
06 - ''Rhizomatic'', the process of collectively learning again from scratch.
07 - ''Hominem Ex Machina'', when our creation eventually creates our better self.
08 - ''Basilisk Afterthoughts'', a paradoxical conclusion about our inconsequence role, inside a perpetual circle.
More on each individual track, will be discussed on separate upcoming articles.
B E Y O N D
The followup release to Synapses, will be the final chapter of the same story and is scheduled for 2022. The trilogy will then be complete and published as a full-length album, a year later. Until then, stay tuned to all platforms for updates!
