The EDM World Building & Lore of S3NTIENCE

Most of us love music. Some of us love EDM, electronica, and all things related to it. But one of the few things that I like almost as much as producing electronic music is the world building and lore that can be associated with an electronic music project.

An electronic music project is a brand, just like any other company or business. Pay enough attention to DJs and producers, and you’ll notice that a lot of them have distinct, stylized fonts for their names, along with other cool branding elements: certain colors that appear repeatedly, specific aesthetic preferences when it comes to visual media, recognizable logos, recurring themes, and other creative choices that make the project identifiable before you even hear a note.

The S3NTIENCE project is no different.

Think about how cool some of the visuals are that are presented on the enormous panel displays toward the back of the stage at electronic music festivals. Melodic techno artists like KREAM, Artbat, and Anyma incorporate stunning visuals into their performances in addition to the sound, lighting, and pyrotechnics. At that point, the music is no longer the only thing creating the atmosphere. Everything works together to construct an environment around it.

When I first started producing music as S3NTIENCE, I instantly had some of these visual concepts in mind. Although colors, aesthetics, settings, and designs can vary significantly from release to release, there is still a sense of continuity when it comes to S3NTIENCE visuals because so many of them incorporate elements of science fiction, fantasy, and mythology.

In the short time that the S3NTIENCE project has been live, I’ve greatly enjoyed coming up with cool images and videos to accompany my music. Sometimes it’s something as simple as a poster designed to help spread awareness about a new song. Other times, it’s an eight-second Spotify Canvas that essentially acts as a tiny looping music video whenever someone streams the track on Spotify.

My background as an aspiring science fiction author probably has a lot to do with how much I enjoy this side of the project. I get a kick out of trying to visually portray the thoughts and feelings that my music evokes in me. Sometimes a song immediately puts a specific place, character, color palette, or scene into my head. Being able to take that feeling and turn it into something that someone else can actually see adds another dimension to the creative process.

In S3NTIENCE world building and lore, you’ll see cyberpunk imagery, android robots, neon cities, near-future civilians, knights and guardians from a long time ago, soldiers, angels, demons, and deities. Depending on the vibe and direction of a song, any one—or a combination—of these types of characters and settings can help portray a track’s energy and paint a picture that accompanies the music.

Not every song needs the same visual universe. A euphoric drum and bass song might call for something vibrant, energetic, and futuristic. A darker electronic track might feel more appropriate surrounded by dystopian architecture, shadowy figures, or something supernatural. Another song may feel ancient or mythological instead.

That flexibility is part of the fun.

After all, human beings have several senses, and appealing to the eyes as well as the ears adds that much more thought and feeling to the art. The song still has to stand on its own, of course, but when the imagery complements what the music is already communicating, the two can strengthen one another.

For keen and discerning eyes, you may even notice some characters showing up in S3NTIENCE lore more than once.

I personally really enjoy this aspect of creating art to accompany my electronic dance music because it helps make the whole thing feel like an alternate universe that’s actually lived in. When certain locations, types of people, or individual characters show up numerous times, they begin to feel less like isolated promotional images and more like pieces of a larger place that exists somewhere beyond the individual release.

One of my favorite pieces of art created to promote a track from Blind Dates With Deities, called Embracing Purgatory, shows a scene outside of a music venue. A few people are simply enjoying a night out and striking up a conversation with an android robot bouncer while neon signage fills their surroundings.

Nothing particularly apocalyptic or universe-altering is happening in the scene. That’s part of why I like it.

It’s just a small glimpse into everyday life somewhere slightly different from our own—a place where humans casually interacting with an android outside of a nightclub might be completely ordinary. Those smaller scenes can sometimes do just as much world building as the enormous battles, futuristic skylines, angels, demons, or mythological figures.

And since you probably wouldn’t want to promote music using verbiage alone, if you have to make some type of visual component anyway, you might as well make the best out of the situation. Instead of treating artwork simply as something required to fill a social media post or accompany a release announcement, why not incorporate thought-provoking visuals that help tell a story?

In the months to come, as more fresh S3NTIENCE music is released, more thought-provoking imagery will be added to the collection.

My next two tracks, for example, illustrate how different those visual directions can be.

I’m 3levated has a very uplifting, gaming-inspired aesthetic that veers toward anime and fits the energy of the song. Fighting a Feeling, on the other hand, takes a much more introspective approach: a sprawling dystopian cyberpunk city sits in the background while the shadowy figure of a man stands alone in the foreground with his thoughts.

Two completely different moods. Two different visual identities. But both still feel at home inside the broader S3NTIENCE universe.

Of course, as soon as time and energy permit, I look forward to ratcheting up the design and complexity of all the visuals associated with the project. That could mean even more illustrative artwork and videos for social media, or thoughtfully produced lyric videos for YouTube containing multiple scenes and visual ideas, as opposed to relying exclusively on music-synced visualizers.

There’s a nearly unlimited amount of room to expand this side of the project.

But either way, this is one aspect of electronic music promotion that doesn’t really feel like an obligation to me, because I genuinely enjoy it—along with most things involving art. Producing the music may be at the center of S3NTIENCE, but building the visual universe around it gives me another creative outlet and another way to communicate what each track feels like.

And at the end of the day, that’s what S3NTIENCE music is all about: thoughts, feelings, and electronic dance music that does more than just fill a room with sound.

So keep your ears and your eyes peeled for more neat content pertaining to S3NTIENCE coming your way soon.

In the meantime, feel free to check out the S3NTIENCE TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube to see some of the visuals that are already part of the S3NTIENCE universe. And to hear the actual music that inspires this imagery, you can visit S3NTIENCE on Spotify or any other major music streaming service to hear the tunes.

It’s a universe that will be expanding significantly—and rather quickly—very soon.