Into the Afterlife: We Are Stardust by LukHash

Almost everyone ponders what happens after we die. The topic has occupied the minds of the earliest thinkers just as it has your mind at one time or another, and it motivated the story behind and songwriting on LukHash’s April 2021 release, We Are Stardust.

The Story

We Are Stardust has the familiar LukHash sound, to be sure, but when you scratch beneath the surface, something else rises up. It’s infused with raw emotion. I’m struck by an overwhelming sense of angst and unwavering undertone of dark shades of colors that once shined bright.

I connected with LukHash to learn more about the concept stringing the songs on the album together. He told me he has spent much time as of late thinking about what happens after we die. He created a story guided by the idea that we are all born from stardust. 

The plot thickens, though. After we die, we are reborn into another dimension, a parallel universe so to speak, where we reunite with those we lost and love to relive our experiences or create new ones together again. In LukHash‘s words, songs orbit around themes of “loss here” and “reunion elsewhere.”

While the undercurrent of We Are Stardust has a dark hue, there are noticeable moments of joy, hope, and grace that captures those relived experiences with the ones we love in the afterlife. Maybe, just maybe, we are reliving those moments right now.

The Album

We Are Stardust opens with “Cyberiad Theory.” At the onset, there’s a sense of coming to life. The song showcases movement along multiple dimensions, over different time scales, none too fast, and none too slow. The lead synth and guitar melodies are soft and gentle, yet there’s a dark, eerie undertone. Occasionally, the music glitches, creating a disruption in time, a feeling of traversing empty spaces to another plane, another life.

Movement and layering over multiple time scales surface throughout the album, such as “Impact Event.” A heavy intensity rears its head often, too, such as on the full-bodied closer, “Final Boss.” LukHash’s use of futuristic sounds to create a sense of being in two points in time simultaneously shine on “Abort the Mission”, creating a strong sensation of being together yet apart.

LukHash uses video game sounds in unconventional ways. On the title track, these sounds tease, intrigue, invigorate, move, and elegantly carry you. On “Turbo Challenge,” LukHash exquisitely uses these sounds to create melodies that are remarkably fluid. Here, the artist layers melodies that sometimes intertwine and sometimes float, one over the other, wanting to reunite but unable to do so. On “Coin Op Hero,” LukHash magically transforms video game sounds into a fine wine. 

We Are Stardust draws scenes upon the big screen in the mind. On “Our Last Summer,” the lead melodies reverberate across your consciousness, offering you a dreamy space to close your eyes and rest your head for a moment. Every note is in its right place. When the guitar solo enters, it creates a thick smoke before clearing the air.

LukHash brings to life stories in the songs on We Are Stardust. On “Code Veronica,” the entry is gentle yet, like a tale being told, soon the gentle beginnings have become quite intense. The emotional tension runs high on “Dying Breath,” the lone vocal offering on We Are Stardust, featuring Meredith Bull. The opening synth melody is tantalizing, creating great force, only to be toppled by vocals that rise from the dark hues of the undercurrent of We Are Stardust to momentarily bask in the sunlight.

The Bottom Line

We Are Stardust is a special album. All the small details used to construct the album create a surreal soundscape. Never overdone. Never underdone. The songwriting, the story, the emotion all project from this masterful offering. Get to know it.