Dull Fantastique is not merely a musical artist but a writer of mythology; and ‘Mindmap of a Madman’ is his 35-song epic.

Otherworldly and personal, spacious and expansive. This supersized album is two parts psychedelic alt-folk, one part ambient, and a dash of dynamic unpredictability. Listeners are in for a ride this time, and the mode of transport is (certainly) not a car.

Welcome to planet Raygonia.

This thematic collection of tracks has already been described as unforgettable. Inside the LP, one finds wonder and hope, and the call of the unknown. We face mortality head-on, hide from shadows in darkening halls, and even light the warm candles of nostalgia. The lead track of the mindmap is ‘Skeleton,’ where the concept of bones and our psyche are consolidated; we are one with our bones, and we take them everywhere.

From the delicate edges of Dull Fantastique’s European accent to his expansive ability to raise a world’s ecosystem from mere humus. It is as if the imagination of David Bowie has met the Coheed and Cambria of another parallel universe.

In another respect, it’s impossible to compare Dull Fantastique’s 35-track Odyssey to anything else.

Track 1, ‘You Will See In A Blink Of An Eye,’ has a soft synth start. It’s dissonant, with an electric and mysterious feel. This tumults into the darker-and-ethereal ‘with me,’ which invites us in for a drink, a toast. The poignant arpeggiations give way to the next track, a time-warping, phthalo-green hue of sound; a haunting record skip in life where every day has begun to feel the same.

Not even 3 tracks in, and we already get a new taste of genre. This cinematic tune ‘I’d Like to See You’ could easily score a noir remake of ‘Aladdin’, or even ‘Dark Crystal’.

‘Mindmap of a Madman’ treats listeners to exotic moments, grunge and atmosphere, echoing questions, in-your-ear intimacy, and betrayal, melancholy caused from the people who once held your hand.

One cosmic wave in the album that makes a massive riptide is ‘Let Me Explain’. Its lengthy prose and atmospheric, warping flute span lightyears, and help lead us into the bluesy piano-laden polyrhythm of ‘origin’. From there, we taste jazzy-clean guitar solos in ‘The Road’ and glimpse a psychedelic view.

We’ve been nearly everywhere as travelers on Raygonia, but this has all been leading up to one key place, and it’s already inside us: ‘Skeleton’.

A door opens, creaky. Then a vibing groove enters, featuring an old-school-style electric guitar riff. An epic pause takes place. Then the soundscape returns, but slower this time.

The lead single of ‘Mindmap of a Madman’ has the darkness of film noir, the placid nature of indie-folk, and nostalgic 80s Rhodes…a mosaic of sounds of feelings in a mere 30-second slice of space-time.

We hear an even tapping noise as the song sees itself out; we wonder: Is this a pair of feet walking away, or is that the sound of a metronome?

Despite taking place inside the realm of an expansive and outlandish planet, Raygonia, Dull Fantastique has captured life on Earth as well; from the mundane feeling of repeating the same day over again, to regret, being inconvenienced, or even becoming a little bit mad sometimes.

As we travel down this artist’s non-carbon-based path, we still ask ourselves how to let go, how we hold everything we leave unsaid inside when our very cells are fighting to say it all…and this is the beauty of the core. The biplanetary perspective which the artist has penned.

The galactic violet mists spread as the album comes to a close with the gentle Saturnalian nature of ‘each moment’ and the assured incantations in ‘it’s going to be fine’…we close with a fading, nebular tapestry of strings, and watch twin suns set.

Surréal et jamais vu.

“I see the six instrumental pieces as a glass of water between bites.”

Is there any significance between the songs with lowercase titles?

In a sense. They are the ones with lyrics.

What distinction should listeners make between them and the other songs, if any?

I see the six instrumental pieces as a glass of water between bites. To clear one’s thoughts. To suggest a direction. To snap out of it. It is a mindmap after all.

Tell us more about Raygonia; the atmosphere, its people, the sky. What’s it like?

Raygonia is huge and wonderful. If you can think of some wild natural phenomenon, it’s there. Like the Reverse Lakes or the Liquid Forests. According to the scientists, it used to be a rogue star – now it has cooled down, the crust has hardened and life has evolved. Every imaginable form of life. The planet is self-illuminated from its interior, but the sky is always dark, for there are neither a sun nor any stars visible, as it exists between galaxies.

The most common race on Raygonia is the Believeans. Charming and confident as they are, they will often lead Androids, Freewalkers and Mutants although many of the latter prefer the relative solitude of the suburban ruins, following no one. Androids are welcoming and optimistic and The Centers where they thrive best are pulsating with their conformist energy. They can be most uplifting. The Freewalkers, unbound by ambition or morals, are to be found everywhere, but happiest they live in the open forests.

The Queens and Kings of our cherished chronicles of old are always of the Selfborn race.

But Raygonia with its plethora of amazing wonders is shaded in an unbearable tragedy: The planet will collapse in on itself in just three generations. This knowledge all Raygonians live with, and even though none of us will live to experience it, it is becoming increasingly questionable to raise a family.

Who or what is standing in front of ‘the skeleton’?

No one. And nothing. And that’s the scary part. Anything that will perish at a word or that will shake hands with a ghost. Anything that can be a ‘who’ and a ‘what’. That which keeps coming back even though there is nothing left to return to. Anything you’d ask to stay, at their peril. I struggle to explain it further.

In track 3, what odd or unexpected sounds did you bake inside the track?

Odd? Are there any odd sounds? I like to build in many layers. Adding, tweaking, removing, re-adding. Building thin air out of nothing.

In the process I might come across a sound that is not working but will lead me in a new direction, narrowing it down. And when I get it, I think of it as the right sound. It’s guitars and synths most of the time. You may be able to pick out the Steampipe in track 3 if you can get past all the reverb and delay.

Also, who is You in ‘I’d Like to See You?

Any person must walk their own path. You cannot tell people what to believe. In trying you will only distract them, and if you succeed you might lead them astray completely. We all see things a little differently. What I see may not be what you see.

I am not trying to avoid answering. Generally I’m prone to please but disinclined to comply. Art in my view is not really about knowing but about experiencing. It may not make sense now, it may never, but perhaps one day you will combine this experience with some other experience and you will gain some new understanding of your path. Knowing is closure and no one goes through a closed door.

My experience as I wrote the lyrics is pretty insignificant against your experience as you heard it. Thus I am hesitant to tell you who you are. I know it not from where you stand. I hardly know who I am. Perhaps that is what I am trying to find out. You see? And now that I have told you what I experienced, you will have to promise me that you will ignore that when you listen to the song yourself.

There are so many spacious and emotive tracks to choose from; What made you ultimately choose ‘Skeleton’ as the lead single?

I didn’t even know that one would have to pick out a lead single before someone with experience told me a few weeks before I published the album. So the album flashed before my eyes and I spread the deck on the table and stared at the cards in bewilderment. I didn’t think I had added any excessive stuff in the corpus, and each track told its own specific part of the narrative, and none summed it up without leaving a dangerous bias. If you walk 35 kilometers through harsh terrain, which 1000 steps would be the ones to tell people about? In the end I thought Skeleton had a friendly vibe musically.

Where did you get inspiration for your artist’s name? Are you inspired by the French language, Berlioz’s Symphony Fantastique, or something else?

I love the French language. But I am much better at listening to it than I am understanding it. A name whether given to you by adults or conjured by you is a fiction. A fiction will tell a story, but it will inevitably be a different story for those who hear it and the one telling it. My name is tying together some aspects of my early artistic endeavours that have no real significance to anyone. It was just the words from earlier fictions that stuck. Incidentally it also sums up my view of an artist and their work. Artists are not very interesting in my opinion. I have great love for art in many forms and I have dug deep into the work of specific directors and singers, but I still know almost nothing about them. They do not interest me. Their work does. I am not very interesting. I hope my work is.

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