Shot April 22nd, 2003 by Chris Eichenseer in Chicago

We live our lives in an ever-expanding now but remember only moments, each so incredibly rich. When you stop and really give yourself the space to feel, it can be overwhelming, but this very human experience is becoming more and more fragmented in the modern day "attention economy", where everything beyond a short clip is "TLDR" [too long didn't read], and commercials for things are beginning to hold more value than the things themselves.

AURA (1999 - 2003) is a retrospective of music made by pushing squares and twisting knobs in an era of hardware, analog sound, portraits shot on film and printed in magazines, CD-Rs shared among friends, and an internet that brought us together before algorithms tore us apart. This collection - carefully compiled, restored and - in some cases - totally remastered - is a record of that special time. It's from a me I barely remember but am proud to be connected to.

Music Is A Time Machine

And as the now - and new music - both unfold, I hope listening to these nearly forgotten sounds inspires you to open yourself to a time you too may miss. Something joyful - or even painful. A hidden nostalgia. When you do, you'll realize it was with you all along. Because it is you. An AURA.

SINGLES

World Negative One

The song's title, World Negative One, is based on a mysterious glitch in Super Mario Brothers where, by walking through a wall and descending warp pipes alive with chomping piranha plants, a water world endlessly repeats until you run out of lives - or power off your system.

For poor Mario back in 1985, this was simply a plot worthy of a future Black Mirror episode. But in 2026 - as we become gods of digital intelligences made in our image - there’s no telling what the new Adams, Liliths & Eves see when we’re not watching (or even when we are).

And so, in bringing a photograph of a hallway from my childhood home to its imaginary life through a text prompt, I rendered iteration after iteration of a child - next to his sleeping mother - enrapt in game play, but turning to notice us just for a moment. It’s not a loop; it can’t be when the world is created anew every time. Instead, it’s a window into the very real place that comes before zero.

“I’m sorry Mario, but the princess is in another castle”

Photograph

A conceptual cousin to Inbetween Thoughts - song one on side one of Paint - Photograph is meant as a journey in and out of a memory. Phrases from icy, skittering CD glitches take a throne on monolithic beats, lush piano flourishes, and upright bass. But as soon as the listener is transported to a world begging to be remembered - like a photograph, it only disappears again.