$100.00
**A.L.M.**
## **"Audio Musica Lingual"**
### **7" Acetate + 7" Picture/Flexi Collage + 5 Picture 7"s + 2 Inserts + Mix CD**
### *The Impossible Archive of Every Story That Happened Today, Yesterday, Backward, Underwater, Inside a Zoo, and Somewhere Between a Factory and a Frozen Planet*
---
## SIDE A — THE RECORD THAT REMEMBERED EVERYTHING
The first mistake was believing the record was a record.
It was not.
It was a container.
A tiny black circle of sound carrying too many worlds.
The label said:
**A.L.M.**
**Audio Musica Lingual**
**7" ACETATE**
**LIMITED TO ALL COPIES THAT HAVE EVER EXISTED**
Nobody knew how many copies that meant.
The pressing plant asked.
The record replied:
> "Ask the future."
The future answered:
> "Already asked."
---
Inside the package was a ridiculous collection:
* One 7" acetate with invisible songs.
* One picture/flexi collage that changed depending on who held it.
* Five picture 7"s showing impossible locations.
* Two inserts written in languages that moved backward.
* One mix CD containing every sound made by every story today.
The package weighed three ounces.
It contained approximately nine centuries.
---
## THE FIRST LISTENER
The first person to play the record was not a person.
It was **THE LET ME** from the impossible zoo.
THE LET ME placed the needle down.
The record whispered.
The zoo became a factory.
The factory became a lake.
The lake became Pluto.
Pluto became a movie theater.
The movie theater became a review.
The review became a poem.
The poem became a bug.
The bug became a question.
The question became the listener.
---
A voice emerged.
It belonged to nobody and everybody.
It introduced itself:
> "I am the sound between languages."
Then:
> "I am the music made when a sentence forgets where it started."
Then:
> "I am hungry."
---
## TRACK LISTING (UNRELIABLE)
### Track 1:
**RED ALL — The Shortest Light Year That Refused To Become Small**
A love song from Pluto.
A couple walks across frozen ground trying to shorten a light year.
They pull.
They measure.
They argue with a ruler.
The ruler becomes offended.
The light year laughs.
The song ends with:
> "Distance is just a road that has not learned friendship yet."
---
### Track 2:
**NIE SAND — Backwards Forest Broadcast**
Recorded from a forest where every sentence walks backward.
Forward:
> "The tree remembers the seed."
Backward:
> "dees eht sre bmemer eert ehT"
Forest dialect:
> **"Varru ken tal osh mee."**
Translation:
> "Roots are conversations with tomorrow."
---
### Track 3:
**OAK OWNS — Salt Lake Poetry Emergency**
Recovered from the bottom of a lake.
The paper was wet.
The ink was wet.
The poet was somehow wetter.
OAK OWNS writes:
"I am drowning in salt but my notebook remains dramatic."
The lake replies:
"Good."
---
### Track 4:
**HAMMER — Pumps and a Bump C20**
A Shakespeare-like disaster performed by anvils.
The instruments:
* one broken hammer,
* three confused bells,
* a trumpet that only plays memories.
The chorus:
> "Strike not the stone because it breaks,
> strike because it remembers being whole."
---
### Track 5:
**ERRY CANT — Cut You In**
A romance recorded through a wall that did not exist.
The lovers speak.
The wall listens.
The wall falls in love.
Nobody knows who is actually having the conversation.
---
## INSERT ONE:
# THE BUG MANUAL THAT FELL INTO THE SONG
Inside the first insert was a serious page hidden among the nonsense.
It read:
> Acid stomach usually refers to acid reflux or indigestion, which happens when stomach acid moves up into the food pipe or causes a burning feeling. Common signs include a burning chest pain called heartburn, a sour taste in your mouth, and feeling sick or bloated.
The musicians stopped.
The insects stopped.
Even the backwards languages stopped.
For a moment, the whole archive became quiet.
Then the second half appeared.
> Common Causes and Triggers
> Food choices: Eating spicy, fatty, or acidic foods like tomatoes, chocolate, coffee, and alcohol.
> Eating habits: Eating very large meals or lying down right after eating.
> Lifestyle: Being overweight, smoking, or wearing tight clothes around your waist.
THE LET ME placed the insert beside the zoo aquarium.
The fish nodded.
They understood discomfort.
---
## THE PICTURE FLEXI COLLAGE
The picture/flexi record contained five images.
Except each image changed.
### Picture One:
A zoo.
Then:
A factory.
Then:
A kitchen.
Then:
A mouth speaking a language nobody invented.
---
### Picture Two:
A lake.
At the bottom:
A notebook.
Inside the notebook:
A lake.
Inside that lake:
Another notebook.
---
### Picture Three:
A microscope.
The microscope was looking at itself.
The caption:
"WHO IS IDENTIFYING WHO?"
---
### Picture Four:
The insect tongue factory.
Millions of tiny tongues being printed.
Every tongue had a different language.
---
### Picture Five:
The final doorway.
It said:
WELCOME
Then:
BACKWARD WELCOME
Then:
PLEASE BRING YOUR FUTURE RECEIPT
---
## INSERT TWO:
# THE LANGUAGE GUIDE
The second insert contained the lost languages.
---
## VORRUK-TAI
Forward:
> "Luma tek varrin osh."
Backward:
> "hso nirrav ket amuL."
Meaning:
> "The water remembers."
---
## MURRAK-8
Forward:
> "Ska vell nurru."
Backward:
> "Urrun lle vaks."
Meaning:
> "The machine is sleeping."
---
## ZOO LANGUAGE
Forward:
> "The visitor enters."
Backward:
> "sretne rotisiv eht."
Meaning:
> "The visitor was already inside."
---
## THE MIX CD
The final item was the strangest.
A normal-looking CD.
Label:
**A.L.M. MIX CD**
Duration:
UNKNOWN.
Tracks:
1. Zoo entrance noise
2. Pluto wind
3. Factory machinery
4. Lake bubbles
5. Backward conversation
6. Beetle paperwork
7. Movie theater applause
8. Empty hallway
9. Someone saying "wait"
10. The sound of the story continuing
---
## THE FINAL GRAPH
The archive included one final chart.
Nobody remembers drawing it.
```text
A.L.M. COLLAGE
Stories
###########################
Languages
##############################
Confusion
########################################
Music
####################################
Reality
#
```
---
## THE LAST PLAY
When the record finished, the needle did not lift.
The record simply played itself again.
The second time was different.
The third time was different.
The fourth time contained a message:
> "Every story today was only one story wearing different clothes."
The zoo became the lake.
The lake became the factory.
The factory became the record.
The record became the listener.
The listener became the archive.
---
And somewhere, hidden between the grooves of the acetate, beneath the picture flexi collage, behind the two inserts, inside the mix CD, there was one final track.
No title.
No number.
No language.
A beginning pretending to be an ending.
**A.L.M.**
**Audio Musica Lingual**
Numbered edition of 1.