this EP summarizes Miyamoto Musashi's classic Book of 5-Rings with his final letter Dokkōdō since they were both given to his student for publishing days before his death (i.e. 6-rings).  the original lyrics were written by a human, but i then put them back through AI to blend them with the ideas of Akira Kurosawa's view of Samurai life.  The effect I was going for was deleting myself to leave behind my influence which is similar (I suspect) to how so many Japanese martial arts schools take Musashi as a spiritual ancestor.  His teaching can be seen in others, but it is filtered through generations of collective-consciousness.  It was an experiment, I like how it came out, but feel free to say anyone could have prompted the same ideas out of AI.  You could also probably beat Bruce Lee in a street fight.... in your mind's eye at least.   

Like the River Bends

Strike with the Flame

This was my attempt to turn one of my short stories into a musical experience. I didn't really know anything about commercial song structure when I made this.  Now I do, but wonder if my songs aren't losing something of their soul passing through the artifice of "acceptable structures".  Maybe a good story is hook enough? 

Cursed Kimono

This was the first album release that I began to experiment with expanding my understanding of my lyrics through the pov of other languages.  I'm actually able to read and speak Japanese.... slowly, but I did still leverage Google Translate. The English version of this album is called "Don't Call My Friend Artificial", but the title track on this one is "Machine Heart".

Strike with the Flame

smg108f

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