“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time… like tears in rain… Time to die.” Batty in Blade Runner.

As I get older, I can’t help but weigh in thoughts of mortality and of existentialism as a whole, with each passing day (and we get closer to the release of Blade Runner 2049) world events seem to forebode the end of days. Natural calamities at such frequency and scale and human violence and divide only aggravating, it’s being reflected in the arts as well. The forthcoming films,  Darren Aronofsky’s mother! and Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 (like its predecessor) both appear to discuss the theme of man’s fallible ways that lead to our collective ruin.   Man’s darkness that is central to these films appears to spill over to music (Depeche Mode’s new single) and TV (The Handmaid’s Tale) as well.

Amidst depictions of such dystopia, on a bright note, hallelujah to the resurgence of the synthesizer.