Immersion (The Dam part 5)

[Christopher Stewart]

("Underwater World" by Felipe Skroski)

« The Dam » is a 22-minute long suite in 8 movements that uses the metaphor of water flowing from source to ocean to illustrate the process that we affectionately refer to as life.

As the title suggest, the focus is directed on one major obstacle/life-changing experience, symbolized by a dam on the river, which the protagonist/narrator has to conquer in order to reach their intended destination.

The storyline is inspired by my own life and struggle to reach the goal of earning a living through my artistic output, as opposed to working a day job to support myself and invest what’s left of my energies in artistic pursuits on a part-time basis, as I’ve done for the most part of the last twelve years or so.

In the storyline of the suite, once the obstacle is recognized and the necessity of the conquest accepted, the protagonist must transform to become what they feel they must be.

The fifth movement portrays this transformation, and is entitled « Immersion. » The word is intended to refer to both the introspective facet and the manifestation of this shifting process, as it evokes the process of entering oneself for reflection, and the qualitative change wherein one fully becomes oneself.

The lyrics have received the « this-close-to-satisfactory » status :

Standing back it's all clear
Following the wrong stream
Everyday I'm dying
For fear of failing

Signs ignored and doors missed
The whole world misread
Always the same barrage
Self-inflicted damage

I must reconnect to
My source and my outlet
Carefully rebuilding
What has been lost drifting

Choosing a better boat
Today and hereafter
The ocean is calling
Myself I must enter

While googling to verify some English phrasing, I stumbled upon the following text, which expresses very well how I view my relationship with Poligraf and its music :

Wolfgang Welsch, "
Becoming oneself"