# Release

TESSELATE was written by Tei Shi & BAYNK for the album A STUDY IN MOVEMENT, which was release on July 3, 2020. I found this interesting as I, myself, am doing a case study on this song and this song was a part of a study in movement. An interesting coincidence.

# Discovery

I was listening to my Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify and came across this song. I immediately fell in love with it and started playing it on repeat.

When I looked into it a little bit, I realized I had previously been enamored with another BAYNK (opens new window) song: Water.

I had found that song on the start of my psychadelic journey and I really felt it (in addition to Hallucinogenics - Valis Alps Remix (opens new window)) defined my hallucinogenic experiences quite accurately.

# Lyrics (opens new window)

The song begins in the aftermath of some destruction. Sounds begin to fade in, growing, as if gathering or recollecting some thought.


Heavy hit, pavement

Heavy hit. It's ambiguous (opens new window). Obviously, with the following pavement, it means a physical hit, where we're now on the ground. But I feel it could also mean a heavy hit of some kind of drug, be it real or metaphorical.

Spilled milk, broken glass

Don't cry over spilt milk (opens new window).

The classic image of an innocent childhood mistake is contrasted by the reality of the danger of broken glass in the mix.

At this point, I'm vibing pretty hard. The song seems to permeate the air around me perfectly as I play it over spearkers; a perfectly repeating pattern.

I look at my TV screen to see the name of the song:


A simple state machine diagram.
A tesselation.

Tessellate the ceiling

Like you don't have everything at your feet

Some kind of... resentment. Jealousy?

A genius (opens new window) interpretation:

Her lover isn’t literally tessellating the ceiling but he is too caught up in his mind, perhaps in shock after the violence that happened in the previous verse to snap out of it and look around and notice that he still has her.


How could you forget about me?

Oh. How could you forget about her? She must not have been important enough to slip through his mind like that.


Every syllable you ever said

I did remember he whispers softly, even before her verse in the chorus. Which came first (opens new window)? Who's words weighs more?

Say it like you mean it till you take it back

Sometimes words cut more sharply than glass (opens new window). As someone who chooses their words very carefully, I find that I, too, am prone to reading too much into something someone might say in haste, which usually never ends well.

Fixate, slowly

Fillin' all the spaces in between

As someone methodical, he fills in the spaces between, unable to leave a gap. Indeed, in a perfect tesselation, there is no gaps between patterns.

How could you forget about me?

Despite this, she somehow managed slip through the cracks; the space between the pattern.

Counted every minute right before you left

Maybe the relationship wasn't so perfect. Maybe he really couldn't wait until she left.

Or perhaps, as methodical as we was, he counted the seconds, like you might count each grain of sand as it slips through an hourglass; fixated on it for how precious it is.

Every syllable you ever said

As long as his mind is not perfectly transparent, she may never know whether his actions were done in resentment or not. Sometimes, you just need some space and time to appreciate things better.

Tags: Case Study Music
Last Updated: 6/1/2021, 8:55:34 PM