Ambient poetry and album art created in collaboration with Google Gemini.

Originally inspired from the following quote by James Smithson: "The particle and the planet are subject to the same laws, and what is learned of one will be known of the other."

A quote I happened to notice as part of a wall inscription outside the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington DC, USA, it gave me pause for reflection. Not at first mind you because it's part of a larger quote from that wall inscription, and I have better things to do than stare at walls all day 🤭

Nothing too mind-boggling about that quote either, not by modern standards. But there's a key distinction to be made here as James Smithson isn't exactly modern. To the best of my knowledge, he wrote this circa 1808, and was at the time defending the value of microscopic chemical analysis and mineralogy. He believed in the universality of physical laws - a precursor to the modern understanding that the chemistry of a small mineral sample on Earth follows the same rules as the chemistry of distant stars.

A man ahead of his time in my opinion, James Smithson ranks up there on my list of role models. It seemed only fitting that I should dedicate an experimental track to him.