Influences

Ilya Kabakov

This installation work inspired my original title “To Mars, From My Apartment”. Although I changed my mind on the escapism sentiment, the work was still influential in developing the first half of the tracklist. This work also largely inspires the prelude text-based game – pre:Black Life, Red Planet.

Intercosmos (Soviet Space Program)

I flipped this logo in service of a fictional Panafrican-Martian music and culture program. (I’m not one of those guys that’s obsessed with Soviet stuff, despite these two references lmfao). I don’t know if people are speculating about my political leanings but I hope it’s clear that I’m a black liberationist, simply.

*Intercosmos* was a program by the former Soviet Union which permitted allied nations to participate in Soviet space missions.

A Guy Called Gerald - Black Secret Technology

Do I even need to say anything?

The Mundane Afrofuturist Manifesto, Martine Syms

This is the work that pushed me away from the “escapism” theme, and complicated my ideas on black futurism in the contemporary moment.

***Ilya Kabakov, The Man Who Flew Into Space from His Apartment (1985).***

Pan-African Social Ecology, Modibo Kadalie

The cited page range inspired the idea of the MCIA, and the book itself has greatly progressed my personal philosophy.

Kadalie, M. M., & Zonneveld, A. (2019). In *Pan-African Social Ecology: Speeches, conversations, and essays* (pp. 27–31). essay, On Our Own Authority! Publishing.

Hermeticism

Just watch the video essay man idk. This is what got me thinking of how to change my relationship to the celestial bodies without getting into astrology or astrophysics (despite Hermes’ work being directly related to both). “What does Mars mean to me,” I wondered. The album, in a way, attempts to answer.