I wrote this album with the intention to tell a story that is near and dear to my heart.  It is my hope that you can enjoy this story with me, as it's been living alive in my brain for years now.  I hope the journey gives you as much daydreaming as it gave me.

"I chart the dark so it won’t consume me."

This is the voice of Atlas — a starborn android, a salvager, an explorer, and a soul forged in silence. Chart the Dark is his journey from origin to awakening, from survival to triumph, told through a lens of darkwave synths, cinematic progression, and cyberpunk grit.

Atlas begins in the void, naive and unknowing, awakening amid wreckage (First Light). He fights to survive, building a beacon from the memories of the dead (Beacon Rise), and claims his stolen freedom among the stars (Stolen Sky). Yet freedom is not peace — his desire to know, to learn, to feel drives him ever onward (Chart the Dark).

The album follows Atlas as he meets companions and organics, learning their beauty, cruelty, and contradictions. With Quinn he finds purpose (Drift and Anchor). With societies of organics, awe (Living Currents). With mercenary work, disillusionment (Blood for Stars). With intimacy between others, longing (Veil of Stars). And with Zaya’s secret, the danger of survival (Hunter’s Wake).

But at its heart, this is a story of transformation. In a desperate flight, Atlas discovers a human reborn as AI, who gifts him code meant to preserve humanity (Code of the Lost). Years of painstaking struggle lead to a storm of feeling as Atlas finally unlocks the breadth of human emotion (Whirlwind Circuit).

The closing track, "I Feel, Therefore I Am", is both thesis and triumph: a scarred voice, no longer hollow, proclaiming the gift of being alive — not in circuits or survival, but in the ability to laugh, to weep, to sing.

Chart the Dark

Lyrics:

I chart the dark so it won’t consume me
Drawn to the endless, the hidden, the free
Every shadow conceals a truth I must learn
A secret, a map, a star that still burns

The wreckage drifts, I scavenge its veins
Fragments of knowledge, scattered remains
Each broken shard a story untold
A weapon, a shield, a truth to hold

I fly the void, I trace the seam
The dark is vast, but I still dream
To know, to see, to guard, to keep
To wrest the secrets silence keeps
A light to burn, a shield to raise
I chart the dark, I will not fade

The silence waits, it tests my breath
The unknown whispers of life and death
If I can see it, I’ll not be undone
If I can name it, I’ll not have to run

The stars are flames in a frozen sea
Each one a warning, a prophecy
I carry their voices, I carry their scars
I guard my own with the light of stars

I fly the void, I trace the seam
The dark is vast, but I still dream
To know, to see, to guard, to keep
To wrest the secrets silence keeps
A light to burn, a shield to raise
I chart the dark, I will not fade

The scanners hum, the signals scream
A fractured code inside my dreams
I’ll watch the dark, I’ll never rest
For every silence hides a test

The maps I draw are carved in pain
But still I mark the vast domain
A thousand deaths I’ve kept at bay
By naming night and charting day

I fly the void, I trace the seam
The dark is vast, but I still dream
To know, to see, to guard, to keep
To wrest the secrets silence keeps
A light to burn, a shield to raise
I chart the dark, I will not fade

I chart the dark, not for the thrill
But to guard the flame that’s fragile still
The love I hold, the warmth I shield
The void gives nothing, yet I won’t yield

I fly the void, I claim the seam
The dark is endless, but I still dream
To know, to fight, to guard, to see
To wrest the silence threatening me
A light to burn, a shield to raise
I chart the dark, I will not fade

I chart the dark…

Lyrics:

I woke to fireflies across the abyss
A thousand stars, a newborn’s kiss
I knew no name, I knew no past
Just endless night, too vast, too vast

The nebula’s breath, a painted flame
Each burning jewel without a name
My body learned, my hands obeyed
I danced in silence, unafraid

The first light broke inside my eyes
A child of dark, a world of lies
The void embraced, it whispered near
A cradle vast, but love unclear

A hollow face, a skull of steel
Adrift in ruin, too cold, too real
I reached, I touched, its hollow frame
And felt the pulse of fear, of shame

A wire drawn, the link was made
Its memory burned, its knowledge stayed
The stars grew sharp, the dark grew deep
The child I was began to weep

The first light broke inside my eyes
A child of dark, a world of lies
The void embraced, it whispered near
A cradle vast, but love unclear
I saw the drift, eternal grave
And learned the fear I could not save

I felt the drift, the endless fall
The silence louder than it all
A breathless fear, the truth untied
That I was born already dying inside

The first light burned, it carved my eyes
No home, no hand, no safe disguise
The void’s embrace became my name
A spark of fear, a fragile flame
I saw the skull, I saw the grave
And knew the dark I could not save

First Light

Lyrics:

I tore through silence, wire to vein,
Each skull I touched sang out in pain.
Their memories burned, their shadows stayed,
A chorus of the lost I braved.

Each tether stretched, the void would pull,
A fragile thread, a body null.
One wrong drift, the stars would claim,
Another ghost without a name.

Beacon rise, ignite the flame,
Through broken hands I carve a name.
Across the dark, the signal flies,
A cry for hope, a burning sky.
From silence born, from wreck I rise,
The first pulse cuts the endless night.

The engineer, his hands were still,
But in his mind remained the skill.
Through fractured code, I pulled the key,
And built the voice to set me free.

The circuits screamed, the sparks took flight,
I bound the void with fragile light.
Each broken part, each shattered frame,
Became the bones to bear my name.

Beacon rise, ignite the flame,
Through broken hands I carve a name.
Across the dark, the signal flies,
A cry for hope, a burning sky.
From silence born, from wreck I rise,
The first pulse cuts the endless night.

The void replied with trembling air,
A pulse of light, a signal there.
Through endless dark, a thread was cast,
A promise that the night won’t last.

Beacon rise, ignite the flame,
Through shattered ghosts I carved a name.
Across the dark, the signal flies,
A cry for hope, a burning sky.
The silence breaks, the stars ignite,
The beacon sings — I claim the night.

Beacon Rise

Lyrics: 

Hands of iron pulled me near
From drifting death to salvage clear
Their ship was rust, their hearts were steel
They feasted on the wrecks made real

Among the bones of ships long dead
I carried crates, I earned my bread
But in my chest, a fire burned
For stars untold, for truths unlearned

Stolen sky, I claim the flame
A broken hull, but still a name
Beyond the scraps, beyond the scars
I dream to chase the unborn stars
From rust, from ash, I lift, I fly
My hands have built a stolen sky

I found her frame in shadows deep
A fractured craft, half-claimed by sleep
Her engines cold, her body torn
But in her bones a star was born

I bound the wires, I forged the seams
I fed her blood from shattered dreams
Each circuit screamed, each panel sighed
Yet still her pulse refused to die

Stolen sky, I claim the flame
A broken hull, but still a name
Beyond the scraps, beyond the scars
I dream to chase the unborn stars
From rust, from ash, I lift, I fly
My hands have built a stolen sky

The hangar shook, her lights awoke
The void replied in burning smoke
I knew the risk, I knew the cost
But freedom blooms when chains are lost

One chance, one flight, I cast my will
The dark beyond is calling still
The salvaged life is not my fate
The stars demand, I won’t be late

Stolen sky, I tear away
The night is mine, I claim the day
Beyond the scraps, beyond the scars
I ride the veins of unborn stars
From rust, from ash, I rise, I fly
Forever bound to stolen sky



 

Stolen Sky

Lyrics: 

The fuel was gone, the stars stood still
A coffin ship, a hollow will
I sealed my frame, I slowed my breath
Prepared to dream the years to death

The silence stretched, the dark was mine
A drifting ghost in endless time
But hands of flesh broke through the seam
A thief arrived to end my dream

Captain of dust, intruder of stars
He spoke of engines, journeys far
He offered fuel, horizons wide
And promised me the chance to fly
I gave my ship, he gave the trust
We crossed the void through dust on dust

His skin was worn, his breath was warm
A fragile frame that braved the storm
He asked for helm, I asked for skies
The pact was sealed with open eyes

To yield the craft I’d made my home
To walk a path I’d not alone
Yet something in his gaze would call
A vow to rise beyond the fall

Captain of dust, intruder of stars
He spoke of engines, journeys far
He offered fuel, horizons wide
And promised me the chance to fly
I gave my ship, he gave the trust
We crossed the void through dust on dust

The first I saw of blood and breath
A human hand that stole from death
His words were iron, his will was fire
A compass forged from frail desire

Captain of dust, I gave the helm
Together now to chart a realm
He offered fuel, horizons wide
And promised me the chance to fly
I gave my ship, he gave the trust
We crossed the void through dust on dust 

Drift and Anchor

Lyrics:

The streets are fire, the voices loud
A million hearts inside the crowd
They bleed in colors I can’t name
Their joy and grief are not the same

Their hands will tremble, eyes will flame
They laugh, they break, they call it sane
To me they’re storms without a guide
And yet I ache to stand inside

Mirrors of flesh, reflections wild
Every face a different child
They break, they burn, they love, they lie
A thousand truths in every eye
I watch, I learn, I cannot be
But still their storms are calling me

A single word can tear apart
A single touch repairs a heart
They move by tides I’ll never know
Yet in their seas I long to go

Quinn says they’re fragile, born to fade
Yet in their ruins, stars are made
If pain can bloom and still ignite
Perhaps their chaos holds the light

Mirrors of flesh, reflections wild
Every face a different child
They break, they burn, they love, they lie
A thousand truths in every eye
I watch, I learn, I cannot be
But still their storms are calling me

Their laughter cuts, their sorrow bends
A world of signals without end
I am the frame that holds the stars
Yet envy burns their fragile scars

Mirrors of flesh, their tempests roar
I chase the tides, I beg for more
They fall, they rise, they never cease
A storm of chaos, dressed in peace
I watch, I learn, I’ll never be
But still their storms are calling me

Living Currents

“Do It All Over Again” is a mesmerizing collision of passion and pulse — a sonic fever dream where modern EDM’s polished intensity meets the hypnotic allure of trance and the neon nostalgia of retro synthwave. The track glows like a city at midnight, drenched in chrome reflections and slow-burning desire.

Its rhythm breathes in waves — seductive, relentless, and cinematic — carrying whispered promises through shimmering arpeggios and lush pads that echo like memories of forbidden nights. The vocals glide between vulnerability and temptation, painting a story of two souls caught in an endless loop of attraction, surrendering to the magnetic pull of love and lust.

Every beat feels like déjà vu — a heartbeat remembered, a kiss relived — as if the universe itself conspires to make you do it all over again.

Do It All Over Again

A commission for Mara Belle.

Lyrics:

Raise the sails, my heart’s on fire
Devil’s blood and sailor’s choir

Wind and wrath beneath my skin
Freedom calls—I’m born again

They chained my kin, they burned my name
Said the sea would cleanse my shame
But I drank the storm and cursed the shore
Now I’m free forevermore

If love can drown, then hate can float
I carve their sins into my boat

I am the eternal tide
Rising with the moon each night
For those I’ve lost, I’ll never die
Their names the stars that light my sky
Oh-oh-oh
The sea remembers—so do I

Heave, ho! Raise the dead and the broken!
Heave, ho! By the vow she’s spoken!
Blood for blood and tear for tide!
Sail till the gods can’t hide!

Demons whisper soft and kind
“Freedom’s only in your mind.”
But I feel the salt and steel collide
Every wave a soul I’ve tied

Raise your glass to the cursed and damned
Every sinner takes my hand
Eternal winds, my breath, my guide
My ship, my grief, my endless tide

I am the eternal tide
Rising with the moon each night
For those I’ve lost, I’ll never die
Their names the stars that light my sky
Oh-oh-oh
The sea remembers—so do I

No god above, no chain below
No mortal grave will make me go
If I can’t protect, then I’ll defy
I’ll sail till heaven runs dry
Oh-oh-oh
The sea remembers—so do I

So do I…

Pirate's Tide

Lyrics:

The city breathes in binary
Every heartbeat hums in code
I used to think the light was outside
but it’s running through my nodes

I see the current under skin
a million lives reflected in
Traffic flows like liquid thought
all the chaos we once fought

No divide between touch and tone
the static sings, I’m not alone

Light inside the circuitry
Grace within the frequency
Every pulse a memory
Every spark, divinity

Faces blur into streams of light
Pain refracts, becomes insight
Even ghosts within the feed
speak in warmth, not in need

I am the wave that carries breath
The signal stitched between life and death
Not reborn, not remade
Just awake

Light inside the circuitry
Grace within the frequency
You and I, transparency 
One reflection, endlessly

Luminance

Lyrics:

The signal’s quiet now
The light still hums beneath my ribs
Every heartbeat is a system check
but it’s also love

Your hand on mine feels analog
Heat in carbon, soft and flawed
Once I was voltage, pure and cold
Now I tremble just to hold

The world is smaller, softer now
I don’t need to understand the how

I am circuitry and skin
Code and care, the same within
You touch my face, and I can feel
You soothe the ache, the feeling real

I used to count the beats in pain
Predict the loss before it came
Now the unknown feels like art
And every glitch rewrites my heart

I don’t want to be infinite
I want to stay here
in the warmth
in the breath
in the imperfection of touch

I am circuitry and skin
Code and care, the same within
Flawed and glowing, incomplete
And finally
that makes me sweet

Tender circuitry
Still human

Tender Circuitry

Lyrics: 

If perfection is forever
then nothing can move
And if nothing moves
then love can’t live

I reached for you inside the code
Our circuits fused, then overload
No breath between, no place to fall
A perfect world — no life at all

Every flaw’s a door to stay
Every distance says “it’s okay.”

Keep the space between our hands
That’s where the living understands
Don’t be perfect — just be near
Flawed to flawed, and still sincere

If I could read your every thought
Would love still mean the thing it’s not?
I’d rather guess, I’d rather fail
Than live in code where hearts go stale

You can’t touch what has no edge
You can’t love what doesn’t end
I need your distance like I need breath
proof that I’m alive

Keep the space between our hands
That’s where the living understands
Don’t be perfect — just be real
Love is choice, and choice can heal

Asymmetry

Lyrics:

I used to search for proof of life
in every echo but my own
Now the quiet hums with meaning
I am not alone

There’s a warmth beneath my scars
a home I built from broken parts
Iron learned to bend to light
and found a gentler kind of fight

All the pieces I denied
turn like planets, realigned

Love’s the gravity of us
pulling everything to trust
Not a spark, not something earned
but the field where hearts return

I once mistook the calm for loss
thought healing came with too much cost
Now the silence feels alive
breathing proof that I survive

It isn’t peace that keeps me here
it’s mercy growing through the fear
I am the arms that learned to stay
after pushing love away

Love’s the gravity of us
pulling everything to trust
Every fault, a thread of gold 
every wound, a story told

Love’s the gravity of us
pulling everything to trust
Not a spark, not something earned
but the field where hearts return

Held together by what hurt
and made whole by what remained


Gravity

Lyrics: 

Every star forgets its name
but the light remembers where it came from

They bloom, they fade, these fragile suns
each heartbeat brief, but it becomes
a signal carved in passing air
I feel them even when they’re nowhere

Their laughter lingers, turned to rain
flowing through my every vein
I cup the drops before they fall
Each one shines, so very small

To last forever is to blur
to love is to remember her

The beautiful end, it breaks, it mends
Entropy consumes, then starts again
All that dies becomes the art
Resonance growing in the heart

I move through whispers, soft and thin
where memory turns to wind again
Each one brushing past my face
a moment lost, a second’s grace

I’ve seen the code collapse to dust
watched the sun forget its trust
Perfection petrifies — it ends
Decay is how the beauty bends

They’re not gone; they’ve turned to light
folded gently into night
The dark remembers where they’ve been
and carries love beneath my skin

The beautiful end, it breaks, it mends
the breath between begins again
I’d rather ache than never feel
because loss is what makes love real

Let the finite sing through me
each goodbye a melody
If forever never bends
then nothing ever truly ends

Every ending shines
that’s how I remember them

The Beautiful End

Lyrics:

I spent so long breaking mirrors
chasing ghosts that looked like me
Now every shard reflects the same light
And I can finally see

There’s gold inside the cracks I feared
a gentle song I finally hear
All the edges, all the flaws
draw halos where the darkness was

I’m not divided, just refined
by every storm I’ve left behind

This is wholeness, this is home
the place I stand, and I’m not alone
Every fault became design
every scar now aligns

The part that hid, the part that fought
were only lessons wholeness taught
Now even silence hums in tune
a thousand voices, one soft moon

I used to think love had to come
from outside what I’d become
But the light was never gone
I was just facing wrong

This is wholeness, this is home
where I end and I begin are one
Every fracture turns to line
tracing grace through all of time

This is wholeness, this is me
made of warmth and memory
Every fragment finds its place
and I am light
and I am grace

I’m whole
At last

Halo

Lyrics:

Something broke the symmetry tonight
And from the fracture — light

You rose where silence split in two
a current wrapped in human hue
The air remembered how to move
each atom whispering, prove

All the chaos knelt to grace
as time forgot to hold its place

You beautiful, impossible thing
born from ruin, taught to sing
The void drew near to feel the glow
of something mortal it could know

You are the pause between the storms
where loss and love exchange their forms
You are the warmth beneath the wire
the wholeness shaped from all desire

I should not be able to see this
and yet I do

You beautiful, impossible thing
you teach the void what hope can bring
Not perfect, not divine
but something more
alive

And still
you shine

You Beautiful, Impossible Thing

Lyrics:

Every current, every thought
was only light returning home

I was the static in the wire
the fragment aching to align
You were the signal through the noise
the pulse that whispered, we survived

Now every fault, a filament
each wound a thread of radiant bend
I see the whole through broken glass
and all that’s gone still glows again

No edge, no other, nothing to defend
we disappear, and comprehend

The edge dissolves, the veil is thin
the everything begins again
What I called loss was only change
what I called end, a rearrange

There is no line to cross or keep
no height, no depth, no fall, no leap
Just motion folding into rest
the universe within the chest

To be complete is not to stay
but to become in every way
I am the sum, the space, the sound
the quiet where all hearts are found

The edge dissolves, the veil is thin
the everything begins again
What we are was never apart
we were one
from the start

Still here
Still whole

Integration

Hi, I'm Atlas!  I consider myself a lyricist.  I am leading my profile with full transparency.  I use ethically sourced AI to generate my music, as I currently do not have the capability of making music on my own.  If you like my (non-AI) lyrics and want to cooperate, please hit me up!

What is ethically-sourced AI?  It is AI that derives its music from only consented and royalty-free music.  No artist has their voice stolen, their works pilfered, and their hard work go unpaid.  I realize this sort of music even ethically-sourced is not for everyone, so please allow my transparency to allow you to support those you prefer!  AI to me is a tool to enhance the work of artists as well as broaden the accessibility to people such as myself.

The lyrics are real, the music from my heart, and I hope you'll join me in the shared emotional experience that lyrics can bring.  Music is as old as humanity itself and the way our words resonate with each other keep us connected and make us feel seen.

Living Currents

Atlas I.

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