The Hollowlung Review: Luminyr
An overcast pall hangs brightly over the woven streets of a slate-and-shiplap coastal town. Gulls soar overhead and congregate on the infrequent spaces of cobbled ground where the townsfolk are not milling to and fro, and the boats of the harbour clang clarion chimes as they sweep to shore. There is no mystery to this town, everything comes in predictable seasons. Very few things are new besides the gossip fabricated to induce interest among the bored ladies and gents looking for a bit of contained excitement. No unshakable unknowns haunt the minds of the coastal city…
…that is except for one: the tinker that just moved into the old guardhouse tower.
The Luminyr playlist is special. It's a soundtrack which tells the story of the creation of the Luminyr: automata which skitter through the town at night seeking spare lightbulbs for their horde. They look like insects- grounded like ants and flashy like fireflies- and they're adorable. Back in my senior year of college I published a children's book about them, but the book didn't explain much about the little creatures themselves. If you’d like to see a bit more about them, check out this page to see some more of them! Immediately following the publication of that children’s book, I started drafting the first version of my own "soundtrack playlist.”
The soundtrack begins softly, describing the Tinker as they work with songs like "Storybook," "Biking is Better, and, unironically, "the Tinker." The Tinker's attributes are followed directly by "Cambridge, 1963", which describes the "eureka!" moment as the Tinker incepts the idea for the Luminyr. My idea for the Luminyrs is that they're really just a rare barnacle that the Tinker found in a dark coastal grotto. They can manipulate copper wire like muscle, and seeing their incredible ability to interact with cupric objects prompted the Tinker to craft an exoskeleton of brass and glass which gives them autonomy otherwise impossible by their ordinary means.
"Music Box" describes the moment the Tinker seals the hatch on the first Luminyr's shell, and for the next several songs the listener is left to imagine the interactions between the Tinker and their creation. The Luminyrs are a curious bunch (imagine the playful curiosity of a stoat and the clunky comedy of a kid wearing their dad's shoes), and I illustrate their first moments with plucky songs like "Sun" and "Taste". Suddenly able to explore the world, the Luminyr races around and wonders at the new existence they have come into.
At some point, ("City Square") the Luminyr's curiosity gets the better of them, and they find theirselves at the top of the basement steps. The Tinker shepherds the Luminyr away at first, but the little creature's curiosity is insatiable (Cue "Stationarey Cycle"). One day the Luminyr is alone for just long enough to tumble down the steps and down into the wet, hard basement. "Lightbulbs" plays as the Luminyr's fall is broken by the critter's thorax bulb- their paradoxical source of energy- and they are left to shuffle around in the dank doldrums of the sodden basement, alone and lightless.
…but not so alone after all: something has been waiting for a new prey.
I came up with another genus of artificial creatures named "Cyanoids" as a foil to the Luminyr. Those barnacles I mentioned earlier are sensitive to sunlight, which is why the Tinker found them in that dark grotto. Through extensive experimentation with what was at hand, the Tinker discovered that the barnacles subsist and thrive with a combination of artificial light and the fluid used in making Cyanotypes: an early form of photography. Cyanotype fluid is UV sensitive, and so exposing it to sunlight renders it opaque, creating a paradox: light and cyanotypic fluid is good, but the cyanotype fluid blocks light to the barnacle when exposed. The Tinker's solution was to create the environment suit used by the Luminyr, one which used the electrolytic reaction of copper and cyanotype fluid to generate electricity and- with the right bulb- artificial light! However, to understand the needs of the Luminyr the Tinker had to try to experiment and fail iteratively. Thus came the Cyanoids. These ambulatory squid-like creatures, contained in bottles of cyanotype fluid with copper wire tentacles writhing out of their rubber stoppers, escaped and returned to the dark basement below the Tinker's workshop. They actively attack and censor anything that exudes light, seeing it as hostile. This is what the Luminyr runs into below the basement stair.
The exact nature of the conflict between the Luminyr and the Cyanoids isn't discussed or illustrated with the soundtrack, but the theme is anxiety, as described by the Punch Brother's deft rendering of "Kid A." I like to imagine the Luminyr is running, exhausted from lack of light and frantic with fear until it finds a small nook to hide in somewhere in the basement landscape. Even as the Cyanoids search for The Luminyr to the tune of "Adelaide's Trap", the little Lum lies on the grimey basement stone and shuts down, waiting for the horrible moment that the Cyanoids lash its limbs to draw its brass carapiece apart.
It's in that dark place after "Adelaide's Trap" ends that another Luminyr slides down the bannister and pings off of the basement's brick wall! It zooms through the basement detritus, skittering across the floor until it finds the poor broken Lum. "Greenpath" plays as the brave new Luminyr and its bedraggled companion shuffle through the old boxes and dusty furniture, now illuminated by the warm glow of an incandescent bulb. They bravely pass below the lurking Cyanoids that have perched above on boxes and bins, and making it to the stair they ascend with indominable determination (as described by the chunky plucking melody of "Scarcely Cricket.").
The Luminyrs crest the basement steps and scoot over to a little elevator installed by the Tinker that leads up from the kitchen to the tower workshop. With the tap of a button the platform ascends, bringing the precious creatures to the Tinker's table. "All the Optimism of Early January" voices the Tinker's surprise and swift hands as they fix up the damaged Luminyr. After a quick checkup the Tinker slots a fresh bulb into the thorax of the Lum and gently props it back up, and things return to normal as the final strains of "Penelope's Theme" fade to silence.
The track "Theme of the Ghiblies" by Japanese composer Manto Watanobe serves as credits.
This is one of my few instrumental playlists, and certainly the only complete orchestral list. I completed it just recently with the addition of "Music Box," but it has been mostly cemented for a year or so. Everything came to me organically, even the story! When I started I had no idea what I wanted to establish with the music, I just knew that I wanted to make a soundtrack for the Luminyr. I started playing around with bits and bobs from other soundtracks, testing their sounds and ideas and trawling for interesting tracks. That’s how these playlists usually come about: I trawl the soundtracks and albums of different genres and try to rake in a set of tracks which hold some sort of significance or meaning. Usually I spend time doing that until I have something of a rough draft. The draft doesn’t have to go anywhere, and often it’s just the combination of a handful of songs that make some sort of point when put in conjunction. I build a story in blocks using this method: harvesting interesting music and testing it, then rearranging it and running it back, and I continue rotating songs in and out again until finally the playlist has some sort of central bead running through it: a story. That’s when the first draft is done and I can prune the story to be compact and final.
Among all of the playlists I have compiled, this one has the most cohesive story: even without my elaboration, there is clearly an introduction, establishing shot, conflict, and resolution. Luminyr also one of my more descriptive playlists: when I listen I can hear the racking and pinging of the tinker’s workshop, see the bright shine of the first Luminyr’s light, and smell the basement musk. Admittedly, it’s a collage of other people’s genius, but I’m proud of this playlist, and I hope it’s something you can enjoy as well!
Some day I hope to illustrate the story, but for now I proudly present the playlist "Luminyr"! Give it a listen, and let me know what you think down below!
Pax,
