Ylem Media Presents: Ionian Blue

Ionian Blue is a fully immersive audio story, and we highly suggest the use of headphones while listening.

Yeah. Are you? Uh How long was I asleep? A few hours. I brought you some soup, but it's gone cold. I can heat it up if you want. No, no. I don't want you to leave. Okay. Sure. I'll stay. Hey, you shouldn't move too much. You need to rest.

I don't need to rest I need to play. But I may not be Remember this one? Of course I do. You would play it for me and say just because a song is in a minor key. There is beauty in the bittersweet One cannot experience longing without hope. And that hope is what makes longing. Unbearable. I wrote this for you before I worked up the courage to say anything. Before I learnt you liked eggs for breakfast. first, but only scrambled and never too running.

Back when I convinced myself that I was showing up at that cafe every day. Because I liked the coffee. Coffee was good. But it was not the reason I kept coming back. Most days I could barely Mm coincidentally. Those were the days you were there to serve it to me. How very long ago that was. Those were the days I was merely staining paper with ink. calling myself a composer. Th but it was you who taught me how to write. I didn't do all that much. Yes. Yes, you did.

I was dreaming before I woke up. I know. Could see your eyes moving. Was it a nice dream? It was. You were there. Oh. Ah, well then uh it must have been a nice dream. We were back in Corfu. That house we rented. The one with the goats that would just wander in whenever they felt like it. The very one in my dream. We're having dinner on the patio. The sun was setting, and the I glowed like Mm-hmm. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.

Apart from your eyes, of course, as blue as the Ionian Sea. You sweet talker. What was the name of this one? It's so familiar but uh I I don't quite remember it. It's cold, sweet, not clear. I wrote most of it when you were asleep. Tangled up in the sheets of Later I'd play it for you when you when you were sick. This song is written in the Lydian script. Do you know why? Lydian. is alive. I like her. Is the feeling of vibrating with life itself?

Of soaring aloft in the cosmos of Falling in love.

I haven't finished telling you about my dream. As I recall, we were at dinner with a tangerine sky overhead. Persimmon. Yes, of course. We were Suddenly we were in a boat. Eh do you remember that one we rented from that old man? I do. There was a tiny lake in it, but we thought it was nothing and kept rowing. Till we realized we're sitting about three inches of water I was so nervous. You were afraid of that water. I was afraid of that much water.

or more to the point what lay below that much water. the unknown. I thought it was going to be a good one. What a shame to die in a place that beautiful. You saw how scared I was, and What was it you said? In for a pound. And you jumped overboard. You grabbed the pry and told me you'd pull me to the shore if you had to. And they said shival. It took a while, but I finally convinced you to get back in. Uh you did, yeah.

But as I was trying to help you get back in. I accidentally pulled you in the water with me. Oh, accidentally is it? I wanted you to feel the freedom. Of the sea. Floating. of music rising. Possibly blue sky. That was the freest I've ever felt. You forgot about the darkness below. For a moment. For a moment. And we finally decided to get back into the boat. I didn't realize it would be Uh that uh tricky. We were laughing so much that it took us what?

20 minutes to actually get back in. And when we finally got back to shore, we were so exhausted we collapsed on the sand and fell asleep in each other's arms. I wanted to bottle that moment and keep it forever. Forever is as dark as the bottom of the sea, and as fleeting as a dying dissonant chord.

In my dream. You took sand from that beach and made me an hourglass. An R glass. You and I Back in that boat. of the sea. Everything was quiet and still. You were pouring the sand into the hourglass, humming. Then you noticed I was there with you. And you looked up at me. You grinned with that impish smile of yours, the one you'd always make Just before I'd kiss you? Just before you'd kiss me. You sealed the hourglass and placed it in my hand, then turned it over.

the sand began to fall, and you said That's how long you have left. I don't think I want to hear about this dream anymore. I'll heat your sip. No. Stay. I want you to hear the end. I don't want to hear the end. As the grains of sand began to drop, the boat began to sink. Dorian. But we weren't scared. We were smiling. As the boat sank, You held my hand And slowly reverently. Up by the sea. Embraced us. Like an old friend. We floated. In darkness.

I'm coming to the end. I know it you know it. The doctors say I don't care what the doctors say. I'm done fighting. I'm so tired. So Very tired. I'm ready. Are you sure? Yes. How do you know? Because you're here the one I lost so long ago. I was there at the hospital. But your family, they They wouldn't let me in. I wouldn't Let me say goodbye. And now finally after so many years I get to look into the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen. One last time. Here I am. Yeah, you are.

I'm ready to lie next to you again. Then it's time.

It's time. I wrote it. You died. I am as a song in minor I can carry of love lost. I'm the bitter sweet man. The song I've never played it. Never heard it. On the loneliest nights. Me like The memory of your I would only ever play it. For you. For the first Time. Keep playing. The sun. Upsetting. burge strewn across the night sky. Grain of sand. I am borne away. By a gentle, insistent touch. leading me into darkness. But I'm not afraid. I know you're there. Waiting for me.

You hear the waves, my love. A symphony.