Born in 1978 and raised in the sketchy Ashburn district of South Chicago, Benn Jordan began playing jazz-influenced guitar before reaching the age of attending school. Without any proper musical training, his awkward style of inverted guitar playing and composition knew few restrictions and eventually panned out into full blown albums recorded on tape machines in his bedroom in the mid 1990’s. Being a one man band, Jordan grew quite fond of electronic instruments, which for a period of a few years dominated his compositions as he gained worldwide notoriety as an avant-garde electronic musician using the name “The Flashbulb”.
In more recent years (and 30-something album releases later), Jordan has focused his efforts on writing more cinematic pieces and using an instrumental style closer to his roots. On the other side of releasing music and touring, Jordan has become a sought after film and television composer, most notably writing for Dove’s viral “Evolution” campaign, and branding trademark melodies for companies such as General Mills and Toyota. These two worlds have merged in his hugely successful album “Soundtrack To A Vacant Life”, which is one of the first albums in the genre of cinematic music to receive mainstream attention without being attached to a feature film.
Kirlian Voyager
The Flashbulb Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The opening lines of The Flashbulb's "Kirlian Voyager" introduce us to the age-old concept that life itself is a dream. Throughout history, philosophers and poets have meditated on this idea - that the world we interpret as real is actually a kind of illusion created by our minds. However, the song takes us one step further, suggesting that even death is wrapped in a dream. The notion that after we die, our conscious life will continue on in a dream body is an intriguing prospect. The song suggests that this dream body will be similar to the one we experience during our waking lives, but we will never wake up from it, never be able to return to our physical bodies.
What is most striking about this song is the way it blurs the boundary between life and death. By equating death with an eternal dream, it makes the idea of mortality less frightening. Instead of a finality, we get a sense of continuity, that the dream world of the dead is simply an extension of our dream-like existence on Earth.
Overall, "Kirlian Voyager" is a deeply contemplative and philosophical song. It shows how music, like poetry, can explore the most profound questions of human existence and provide a powerful emotional experience for listeners.
Line by Line Meaning
Down through the centuries the notion that life is wrapped in a dream has been a pervasive theme of philosophers and poets.
Throughout history, the idea that life is like a dream has been frequently discussed and written about by both philosophers and poets.
So doesn't it make sense that death too would be wrapped in dream?
If life is like a dream, then it could be logical that death would also be similar to a dream.
And that after death, your conscious life would continue in what might be called a dream body?
The idea that after dying, your consciousness could potentially exist in a dream-like form of a body.
It would be the same dream body you experience in your everyday dream-life,
The dream body you may see in your daily dreams could be the same as the one you experience after death.
except that, in your post-mortal state, you could never again wake up;
However, unlike your regular dreams, once you enter your after-death state, you may never come back to waking life.
never again return to your physical body.
Your physical body may no longer be able to be returned to once you have entered the after-death state.
Contributed by James M. Suggest a correction in the comments below.