Milieu - Stellar Debris (2021)

STELLAR DEBRIS began life as a dim awareness in my mind, a handful of unfinished pieces that were gathering digital dust in the stasis of an old hard drive, that I assumed might amount to an EP of material I could excavate for the occasion of H IS FOR HOLOGRAM celebrating its tenth anniversary on this planet. Well, clearly my memory is made of the rotting swiss cheese that it feels like between my ears, because not only was the entirety of STELLAR DEBRIS waiting for me to materialize it, but two additional EPs as well (which will be released in August and September, respectively).

Initially, I approached the material somewhat cautiously - finishing music that I started so long ago comes with its own sets of rules and requirements, in order to not lose the focus of what the original idea may have been - but after spending some time with these compositions, the feel-good endorphins came flooding in to the studio, in big technicolor waves of synaesthesia, and it was decided that any such rules surrounding outtakes from a decade ago ought to be thrown aside in favor of simply having fun with it, so STELLAR DEBRIS is very much a first in the large and long-running Milieu catalog for this reason. It exists with spacesuit boots in both worlds, in both times, a bridging of the past and the future of that past, a musical handshake between two time-travelers moving in different directions, meeting up for a quick coffee between systems.

So, the question for the listener to answer becomes the following: When you press play, are you listening to Milieu in 2010-2011? Or are you listening to Milieu in 2021? Is there really a difference, that my ego would prefer to believe is present? I guess if there's no difference at all, that means only two things are possible: 1) I have the subconscious ability to revisit my past lives, slipping into roles that I have long thought were done and over with, or 2) I haven't changed or grown nearly as much as I would like to think I have, and that this exercise is all just one big cosmic feedback loop, coming full circle in the most elaborate and melodically accessible ouroboros ever.

Or is it a third answer, an even more all-encompassing possibility? Are all the things I've worked on, and "made" by the terms and definitions of the role I've played as a man inside a room with synthesizers, inevitable? Are these pieces truly the stellar debris that I have named them? Floating in the ether, possible pasts and possible present, all at once, peripherally existing like Michaelangelo's statue, waiting to be exhumed from the slab of stone. I'll tell you, for my part in all of this, it's hard to feel like I'm not breaking my swiss-cheese brain just trying to grasp it all.

So, let's all just sit down and tell ourselves that it's just a show, that we should really just relax while Milieu arranges and catalogues Stellar Debris. Get yourself comfortable, that play button won't push itself. See you on the other side!