I wanted to share a little insight into the Themes that I’ll be exploring throughout Atlas: Year Two. To get straight to it, here are the official song titles and sequence (broken off into their theme categories) of the upcoming songs…
LIFE
1. Overture II
2. Life
3. Son
4. Daughter
SENSES
5. Touch
6. Taste
7. Smell
8. Hearing
9. Sight
EMOTIONS
10. Joy
11. Sorrow
12. Anger
13. Fear
INTELLIGENCE
14. Body
15. Heart
16. Mind
ENNEAGRAM
17. One
18. Two
19. Three
20. Four
21. Five
22. Six
23. Seven
24. Eight
25. Nine
(Note: Each of these songs will be released as Singles. As a Atlas Subscriber, you will receive each song individually, periodically over the course of Year Two.)
Here’s a bit of information as to why I chose those particular themes and how they relate to the previous, Atlas: Year One, and the future Atlas years.
Atlas: Year One was about the beginnings of the Universe. “Darkness” and “Light” represented the unfathomable power that breathed life into the Universe and everything inside of it. “Space I" and "Space II" represented our observable Universe (and more particularly, our tiny Solar System.) “Land” and “Oceans” zoomed the camera in even closer to our own planet, Earth.
Atlas: Year Two is all about Human Life. More particularly, it’s about involuntary human development – the basic foundation that the Human experience is built upon. The vital ingredients that we were born with.
Atlas: Year Three will be about voluntary human development – the things we choose to do with with all of Year Two’s ingredients! (i.e.: Love, Dream, Create, Explore, etc.)
… but I’m getting ahead of myself! Year Three is still a ways into the future, so let’s focus back in on the current year, Atlas: Year Two. Let me tell you a bit more about the Year Two song titles and themes written out above:
LIFE probably doesn’t need a lot of explanation, but that little cluster of songs will be about the energy that runs through us, that animates us.
SENSES will be a collection of songs, one for each of our five basic senses, in the order in which they develop in the womb (Touch, Taste, Smell, Hearing and then Sight)
EMOTIONS represents the core and most basic of emotions. For a long time it was believed that there were six basic emotions in the human experience, but recent studies have found that there are actually only four basic emotions: Joy, Sorrow, Anger and Fear. I find it very interesting that there is only one positive and three negatives. That sounds grim, but I actually think it makes “Joy” so much more precious and beautiful, doesn’t it? (On a side note: I was very pleased that the song “Fear” will fittingly be the 13th song in the series.)
INTELLIGENCE Body, Heart and Mind. These songs represent the coming together of the physical, emotional and intellectual parts of us - the origin and formation of human intelligence. They are the three Enneagram "Intelligence Centers.” Some Enneagram theories state that in early years of life, we experience “childhood wounds” which shape us and effect how we perceive the world around us – important to note that these wounds don’t neccessarily refer to physical experiences, or even actual events that occur, but they are experiences felt or perceived by each of us. Childhood wounds are either to the Body (experienced intuitively, instinctually), Heart (experienced through feelings), or Mind (experienced in the intellect). If you’re unfamiliar with Enneagram, all of this probably sounds very strange... which brings me to the final theme of Atlas: Year Two…
ENNEAGRAM is (in the words of wikipedia) “a model of human personality which is principally understood and taught as a typology of nine interconnected personality types.” If you’re unfamiliar with what this is, read up on it. I have found it to be an extremely beautiful and helpful understanding of the complex personalities of people. Not only in understanding others, but in understanding myself in much greater depth. In this collection of songs I will write a song for or from the perspective of each of the 9 distinct personality types. Side note: I’m a 9, “The Peacemaker.” (In other words, “The Runner-away-er of Conflict…)
All that to say, I couldn’t be more excited to explore all of these themes through music and words and examine the most vital and basic elements of Life! I hope you will enjoy the results. Thank you for reading.
Much Love,
Ryan – Sleeping at Last
