Peradam concludes the "Perfect Vision" trilogy of collaborative albums between musical psychogeographers
Soundwalk Collective and
Patti Smith. All are sonic inquiries into the exploratory travels of three French writers and contain field recordings from the places these writers sojourned. The first two,
Peyote Dance and
Mummer Love, were issued in 2019. The former was inspired by poet, dramatist, and actor
Antonin Artaud's travels to Sierra Tarahumara, Mexico, where he observed and partook of the indigenous people's spiritual rituals. The latter took poet
Arthur Rimbaud's sojourn in Harar, Ethiopia as its muse. In each case, the
Soundwalk Collective's
Stephan Crasneanscki and
Simone Merli traveled to these locales and recorded the world around them. They brought their field-recorded, studio-manipulated sounds to
Smith, who added intuitive readings of their works, imparting the illuminating experiences reflected in their texts, all inside a native universe of sound.
Peradam draws on the writings of literary and psychic traveler
Rene Daumal, in particular his unfinished and influential novel Mount Analogue.
Daumal traveled to India in a search of the "peradam," his conception of a rare, crystalline stone that harbors profound truths, and is only visible to true spiritual seekers. The novel's text in both French (delivered by
Charlotte Gainsbourg) and English translations, is utilized here.
Soundwalk Collective traced
Daumal's steps through his travels to the Nanda Devi in the Himalayas, Rishikesh, Varanasi, and the secluded Kingdom of Lo (Upper Mustang) to channel his metaphysical quest.