Johnathan Dunn

“Descent” is a modern, dream-born katabasis, a brief journey toward death and back, experienced entirely within the unconscious. It was inspired by a dream I had, one that felt less like a dream and more like a glimpse into a place I wasn't supposed to see.
I was lying wounded on some unnamed battlefield, staring up into the sky. I knew I was dying. There was no dramatic struggle, no desperate attempt to hold on. Instead, I felt an almost unsettling sense of peace. I had done what I could. I had given everything I had to give. As I lay there, I remember looking toward the sky and thinking, "Just throw some dirt upon me". Then the world began to grow distant. As my awareness faded, I started hearing voices. They were familiar voices, the voices of people I loved. They seemed to be calling to me from somewhere beyond the darkness, welcoming me as though they had been waiting for me to arrive. I remember surrendering to it. I died. And then, somehow, I began to wake. The battlefield was gone. The voices were fading. Slowly, I became aware of my surroundings and realized I wasn't lying beneath an open sky at all. I was in my own bed. I hadn't died. I had been dreaming. But the experience left behind something that felt strangely real, the sensation of having crossed a boundary, if only for a moment, between being here and being somewhere else. That feeling became “Descent.”

There is both an original version and a special version with my friend "Drop" (Michael) on drums, which I tend to prefer.