R3ALMS - Recursion

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  R3ALMS album cover

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Inspiration

R3ALMS was born from recurring themes that surfaced in my writing without effort or intention: reincarnation, parallel experiences, the afterlife, and the idea that we live multiple lives within a single lifetime. One small acoustic sketch called Realms captured that feeling so clearly that it became the seed for everything that followed. At the core of the name and the project is a simple belief: there is no death. We move to the next realm.

What it does

R3ALMS takes those themes and turns them into a cinematic, immersive instrumental experience. The music moves between acoustic roots and electronic evolution, creating a sense of crossing thresholds and entering new versions of yourself. Each track acts like a portal, shifting mood, texture, and emotional weight, inviting the listener to experience the feeling of moving from one realm to the next.

How I built it

R3ALMS began with rough acoustic sketches recorded on my iPhone, including the original track Realms, which became the foundation of the project. I went on to develop the album using a mix of Suno and resurrected electronic ideas I first wrote in 1998 on a Korg M1. Suno allowed me to transform my own recordings at the speed of thought, keeping the emotional core intact while expanding the sonic world. I used Midjourney to design the visual tone, Sousaku to animate still frames, and Adobe Premiere to edit and sync everything into the final video. The result is a fully mixed-media project that blends old ideas, new tools, and decades of creative history.

Challenges I ran into

The biggest challenge was momentum. For years, the project lived as scattered acoustic sketches because carving out dedicated studio time kept slipping further down the calendar. When I shifted into electronic production, there was also a steep learning curve in rebuilding old ideas from 1998 and merging them with new tools like Suno and AI-driven visuals. Each piece required dozens or even hundreds of iterations to get the emotional tone right without losing the original soul of the music. Balancing the technical demands with the creative vision was a constant push and pull, but every obstacle ended up sharpening the final result.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I’m proud that R3ALMS finally came to life after years of sitting unfinished. Bringing together ideas from decades apart — from 1998 electronic sketches to recent acoustic recordings — and shaping them into a cohesive 11-song album felt like a major creative breakthrough. I’m proud of how I learned new tools, rebuilt my workflow, and used AI without losing the heart of the music. And after more than twenty years away from video work, creating a fully realized visual world and finishing a complete music video feels like a milestone that marks the start of a new creative era for me.

What I learned

I learned that the idea at the center of a project is more important than the format I imagined for it. Letting go of the old acoustic plan and embracing new tools brought the project back to life. I learned that AI can accelerate creativity when it’s used intentionally, not as a shortcut but as a way to remove friction and reconnect with the core emotion of the work. I also learned that my older ideas still had value, even sketches from 1998 found their place once I gave them room to evolve. Most of all, I learned that finishing something meaningful often requires trusting my instincts, adapting my process, and following the path that has the most energy.

What's next for R3ALMS - Recursion

The Recursion video is just the beginning. Next, I want to expand the R3ALMS world into a broader visual and musical series, blending AI, real footage, photography, and hand-drawn elements into a more layered mixed-media style. I plan to explore new realms, new characters, and new conceptual threads that tie back to the core idea of transformation. I’ll also be taking what I learned from Recursion into future videos, pushing the animation, pacing, and emotional tone even further. The long-term plan is to continue releasing music regularly, deepen the visual language of the project, and eventually build a connected set of short films that bring the entire R3ALMS universe to life.

Built With

• guitar
• midjourney
• premiere
• sousaku
• suno
• synth
• voice