The Eternal Clockwork of Sound and Memory
Time is something we all live by, but never truly understand. It’s relentless yet intangible, a force that moves forward even as we look back. It’s both an oppressor and a gift—the reason we grow, change, and lose things we thought we’d always have.
For Crystal Youth, time is more than a theme—it’s the thread that runs through everything we create. It’s in the longing of Endless Horizon, the melancholy of Starlit Reflections, the cosmic grandeur of The Journey of Time. It shapes our lyrics, our soundscapes, even the way we structure our albums.
But why? Why does time appear in so many of our songs? And why does it resonate so deeply with us—and, we hope, with you?
Time as a Force of Change
Time is the great separator. It divides the past from the present, the present from the future. It takes people from us, but it also gives us the chance to become something new.
Michael: “I think the reason time appears in so many of our songs is because we’re always aware of how much of it has already passed—and how little we might have left.”
Take The Dreamer—the opening track of Horizons. It’s a song about longing for something beyond the present, stepping into the unknown, chasing a future that might not even exist.
Then take The Voyager (Endless Horizon Reprise)—the final song of the album. It’s about looking back on everything you’ve discovered and realising that the journey never truly ends.
These two songs frame Horizons as a journey through time itself—from wide-eyed ambition to the quiet realisation that there will always be another horizon, another path forward.
Memory: The Past That Still Exists
If time is always moving forward, why do we spend so much of our lives looking back?
Memory is one of the strangest aspects of time. It allows us to relive moments, but never fully reclaim them. We can remember how something felt, but we can never feel it in the same way again.
Ayesha: “There’s a reason Starlit Reflections is one of the most emotional songs we’ve ever written. It’s about standing in the present but still living in the past. It’s about a love that never really leaves you, even when it’s gone.”
Songs like Shahar-er Alo (City Lights) and Starlit Reflections live in that space between memory and reality—where the past is more vivid than the present, where you can still hear voices, see faces, feel moments that are long gone.
In a way, that’s what music is. A song freezes time. It captures an emotion, a story, a place, and preserves it forever. Even when the people who wrote it are gone, the song remains.
That’s why we care so much about time in our music—because music is the only way we know how to fight against time’s relentless march.
The Future: Time’s Great Unknown
Where memory is time we hold onto, the future is the time we can never predict. It’s full of possibility, but also fear.
Michael: “One of the reasons we love science fiction so much is because it lets us imagine time on a scale bigger than ourselves. It makes you think beyond your own life—about what comes next, about what we’ll leave behind.”
That’s why so much of Horizons is set against a cosmic backdrop. Songs like Eternal Horizons and The Journey of Time aren’t just about personal moments—they’re about time on a grand scale, the way it moves through the universe, shaping everything from stars to human lives.
In a way, Horizons itself is a time capsule—an album full of songs about looking forward, but also about wondering how much of ourselves we leave behind.
Why Time Resonates in Music
Music is one of the only things that can make time feel different.
A song can make a moment feel infinite. A certain melody can take you back to a specific memory, so vividly that it’s like you’re there again. A lyric can capture a feeling you didn’t even realise you had until you heard it sung aloud.
Ayesha: “The best songs feel like they exist outside of time. You can listen to something recorded 50 years ago and feel like it was written for you. And you can write something today that someone might listen to long after you’re gone.”
That’s what we aim for with our music. Songs that aren’t just about a single moment, but about the way time moves through all of us.
Songs that remind us that time may be unstoppable, but music is timeless.
Let us know how time has shaped your connection to music. And, as always—keep dreaming.
Michael & Ayesha
Crystal Youth 🚀⏳