Bliss was my first digital release after Lift and Voyage, which were both born in the era of cassettes and CD. Bliss grew out of a single theme, a short poem written with my beautiful friend, poet, performer and songwriter, Joy Ramirez. Tragically we lost Joy to an accident in 2016, but she leaves behind a massive legacy of arts and inspiration; one of the most creatively brave people I’ve ever known. I’m honoured to have recorded this simple song with her back in 2001 as her brother and sister did everything they could at her through the studio window to distract her from singing.

Bliss was written every night in just over one month at one of those very low times when you just want to sell everything and give up. It was the antidote to writers block and depression at the time and features every instrument that was within my grasp; glockenspiel, flutes, djembe, guitars, duduk, voice, and a bunch of bass and layers and sound design in Absynth. Using more than the standard 4 envelope breakpoints in Absynth was a new challenge for me at the time and one which you can again hear in the triple-layered bass of “Human” with Anil Sebastian.

Human, amongst several other songs, “Human” was written in a day with Anil Sebastian (then finished 20 days later!). Anil turned up to my flat (an old factory loft in N.London) on a rainy day in October 2013 and by mid afternoon after tea and chats, the wooden floor was covered in A2 paper with surreal notes scrawled in sharpie. The lyrics might be simple, but they certainly have a strong backstory; in a nutshell, one technique for getting through depressive episodes is to just let it happen, be aware of it, and trust that you will work through it eventually. “I don’t mind these dark skies at all, my small boat in high seas has carried me…” is how we boiled that down to the dark start of this song. “Human” becomes one big crescendo into a bright, full, big and warm explosion of joy. It’s amazing to be aligned with such a creative spark as Anil - we both love creating musical-visual atmospheres that surround and tell the story while embodying something we feel passionate about.

Tom did an amazing job of creating an animation which beautifully broadens the themes of Human. Find more of Illa here… she’s one of my favourite people in the galaxy.