All

Things

Must

End

This is where it all begins. The introduction. The thought of all that could have been. That title sets up everything that is to follow from here. All those possible outcomes...

All That Could Have Been is an homage to all those intros to albums I've written — something that I always thought I was rather good at.

For just a moment in the beginning of 2023, I felt so amazing. Floating above the clouds is an incredible feeling.

All those endorphines pushed me through the first months of the year. They would fade too quickly...

...and in the blink of an eye, I was back in the deep dark hole. All that came crashing down. It was never built to last. Time flew by and I found myself back in old habits.

Nur Für Einen Augenblick is older than these experiences though. It was originally written back in 2022, on a rare evening of inspiration and creativity. It had many different working titles throughout its design period: What's Next was one of them, and I think it already captures the spirit of the entire album in some sense.

It's an uplifting kind of track, in its core a Drum & Bass song that heavily leans into orchestral music (which is where most of the instruments usually belong). It's inspired by the works of artists like Keeno and Etherwood.

Ein Tag Im April, or a day in April spans a bridge between Nur Für Einen Augenblick and Angst vor der Zukunft. It's a wild ride, an experience, like a day in my life in that particular month.

Between ups and downs, between running 21 kilometers on a random saturday in pouring rain for the sheer reason of feeling the runner's high, feeling weightless, feeling so much, and crashing down completely while in Amsterdam at a conference.

It's also more than just a single day. A day became the representation of the entire mood I went through in April of 2023. It was a ride through some of the most euphoric and also crushing times.

The sonic atmosphere of this track is comprised of vast reverbs, familiar sounds from previous Zoomoid releases, heavily distorted and modulated to fade into Angst vor der Zukunft.

Angst vor der Zukunft is one of the protagonists of the album. Afraid of the future characterizes what I felt over the last year. Both in the short term and in the long term I'm not sure where things are going. Maybe that's not a bad thing. Maybe it is. I don't know.

Angst vor der Zukunft also digs into the grasp and understanding of time, albeit, entirely subjective. I feel like time is running out. Not for one particular thing. Just in general. Time is running out... “Wie kann man Zeit haben wenn sie eindeutig dich hat&rdquo.

Angst vor der Zukunft is referential to some other important Zoomoid releases. Its roots go back to tracks like Wild World, the softer side of Voyager, but most importantly Shades of Yellow. The motive of both tracks is the same, both circle around the central quote from Dark, but this time, it's me saying the words, as if this would give them more gravity. The break even uses the same instruments as the original, Shades of Yellow, even though slightly adapted to fit the rest of the track.

Angst vor der Zukunft bridges over into another reworked Zoomoid track, Outer Space. Outer Space was originally released on the Extended Edition ofEigenräume. It was a Techno track, but a melodic one, that would have also perfectly fitted onto Voyager. It was later remastered and made into a longer mix version on the 301 Permanently Moving EP.

In 2021 I released Sehnsucht, which was entirely acoustic, heavily relying on the softness of Felt Instrument's Lekko piano. Its sound has a level of intimacy that inspired me to remixing other Zoomoid tracks with those softer instruments into warm, ambient, and cozy versions. I've been sitting on this remix for a while now, the project file almost got lost between different devices and setups. Now it get's to see the world, as a reprise of all the great Zoomoid tracks that lay in the past.

Illusions is a track I wrote over the course of a weekend. I started out on a friday evening with an idea for something that got inspired by previous track such as the “Im Schatten der Nacht” EP, Voyager tracks and more. By sunday afternoon, I had a fully-arranged and mixed track.

When the drums fade away in the middle part of the track to reveal the gigantic space of synthesizers where, just for a moment, you can close your eyes, dream of a distant, empty, resonant space, you can maybe understand where the track gets its name from.

And when the drums come back they take you back to reality, back to the apex of the rollercoaster that is life, down into a valley of loudness and impressions and emotions.

Illusions would be perfectly fine on its own, but in the context of this album, it blooms, it provides a five-minute escape into the time and space of Im Schatten der Nacht.

Talking about reworking, remixing, remastering older Zoomoid releases,Delay from Public Transportation always seemed a bit short to me. Its length on the original EP is fine, all other tracks fit together, but there was more for Delay.

In the same way that Outer Space in this album's form existed way before the album, the Long Version of Delay existed in a prototype form for more than two years before I started working on this album. I considered releasing it as a single, but that never seemed right to do. And so, when time came to find tracks that captured my spirit, skill, and sound, the characteristics of Zoomoid, Delay filled that spot perfectly.

It's not just an longer version of the original though. I recorded some new elements, like a lot of guitars, for both lead elements, and ambience, and it gives the track a special atmosphere of almost being real instruments. Also, the drums got a complete make-over, which for a Drum & Bass track, is pretty much an entirely new track...

Delay is not the last reference to “Public Transportation” though, that spot is reserved for later...

How can I even describe Maybe Someday? Maybe you remember my attempt at writing a love song from the biography above — If you didn't read that, no worries! — well this is it. This is my final attempt at it, I guess. Is it though? I'm not sure. Could be. Could also not be. Who knows. While I try to figure that out, listen to it, maybe you can figure it out!

It is, in essence, again an attempt to figure out how my perception of time works, but also so much more. It's a declaration of surrender to time, where I'm not sure if I'll ever have the time and, more importantly, timing, to say all the things I want to say, do all the things I want to do. I know for a fact that I will not... but maybe someday, if everything has been figured out, the stars align, and I have the courage... then maybe someday...

And maybe it's also a song about grief. There's really alot I could interpret into the track, and I think, that's some of its beauty.

Of all of them, the track Maybe Someday is probably my favourite track. Possibly because it's the most real, makes me feel the most most vulnerable and was written last; it captures that emotion that arise when you finally finalise something, the kind of feeling of coming home.

We are now at a transition in the general feel of the album.Window of Opportunity picks up on those topics from the previous track, where I'm not sure if I'll ever be at the right spot at the right time and have the courage and strength to do the right things (what's right is clearly subjective to the situation). This idea of missing the window of opportunity has become a principle of my skewed life philosophy, that, no matter what, I will always miss it, that I'm doomed to...

I wanted to make a track about this for at least as long as Sehnsucht, and in a sense, I already did: Türen stems from a similar idea, that doors close before I have the opportunity to enter them. The idea comes from Kafka's Before the Law, albeit, much transferred, and the title's interpretation can be more optimistic, when considering that new doors also may open...

Window of Opportunity borrows its sound design fromSehnsucht, which is only reasonable, considering the similarities in motive. Towards its end, the sounds shift into a combination of a Mellotron and the pluck sound of Porter Robinson's “Sad Machine”, also picking up its melody on the last few notes. I still think that Worlds, which included “Sad Machine” is one of best album ever made, and having passed on the opportunity to see him perform it live is one of those Windows of Opportunity that I've missed in life.

With Lazarus starts the transition away from what Zoomoid was into what Zoomoid has become. The vibe shifts away from referencing and deriving music from existing work, into new, uncharted terrories.

Lazarus starts with tragic strings and, one last time, using that tune-in sample of the orchestra that already was in Shades of Yellow and Ein Tag im April. The almost wailing piano melody brings down the track into looming, scary space...

That accident in 2013 where I was in intensive care for two weeks is the immediate inspiration for this track (and also the next).

Rebirth is the logical consequence of Lazarus. For the longest time during the creation of the album, the tracks were just one, named Lazarus/Rebirth. They were only split up towards the end of mastering, to bring the number of tracks up to 15 (and also for me to write about each part individually here).

Rebirth is what's on the other side of that accident, that horrifying moment, that life-changing experience.

It resolves into a sonic space of synthesizers and arppegios that evolves into a crushing, distorted mood, where only a heartbeat is left.

That heartbeat continues into “Anywhere Else At Any Other Time”. This track had many names throughout its way to release. It was called Leaving, Departure, all things related to the central motive, a slow, but driving melody that envelopes the announcement sample from a train journey. This was the motive of Public Transportation and this track, Anywhere Else At Any Other Time, waves this EP goodbye at the train's platform.

I like to imagine that the train takes me somewhere far away, maybe to the sea, to the beach, to a place I can only imagine, not remember...

Echoes of You starts exactly there, in a cottage at the beach. The soundscape at the start sets up a journey into deep atmospheric sounds with lots of echo and reverb.

I wrote the song the week my grandfather died. He probably had the most artistical influence on my own work than anyone else combined. Due to his deteriorating hearing, he was unable to experience my music. It hurts knowing I never had the opportunity to show him.

I'd like to think that some day I can show it to him. Maybe someday.

As the song ends, a door opens, and the listener is greeted by sounds of waves and sea gulls. We are now approaching the final moments, the last chapter.

The Last Chapter is exactly that: the last chapter. The tragedy of all the previous tracks, all those memories, experiences, emotions, they culminate in a final, soft, gloomy track about what has been, what is, and what will be.

The song brings everything down, into just a few, slow moving chamber strings, the soft piano and then nothing.

Into that silence follows a monologue, my monologue, the last chapter of Zoomoid. It's an admission that all things must end, and that we have reached that point now, where I have to leave Zoomoid behind.

And with that, we rise one last time, for old time's sake, into All Things Must End, the album's title track and also the final Zoomoid track.

I was long unsure of where to place this track. I had it written before most of the other tracks on the album. And when all the puzzle pieces finally joined, it found its place right at the end.

One last time, gathering all the energy, for a final, euphoric, powerful stride towards what Zoomoid is and was and will be.

And with that triumphal outro, the dramatic violin vibrato and the swelling of the trombones, the album comes to an end. This is it. The final tone. As it resonates away and leaves you in silence, remember everything that was. Just for a brief moment... and try to imagine what could have been...