“Both of you live in darkness and in mystery:
Man, who has ever plumbed the far depths of your being?
O Sea, who knows your private hidden riches, seeing
How strange the secrets you preserve so jealously?”
– Charles Baudelaire (Man and the Sea)

Alex explains how this poem impacted him during the creation of “Between Illness and Migration” on page 86 of the book “A Story About Between Illness and Migration”. Here is an excerpt;

“ […] That simple and repeating sonic movement somehow reminded me of the Baudelaire poem “Man and the Sea”, with one of my favorite parts that says “Free man, you will always love the sea.” I have always been fascinated by the nature of the sea, the ocean, its redeeming grace and its implacable power, its freedom of movement. I almost drowned in a lake as a kid. Maybe that’s where the fascination goes back to. It’s paradoxical because I’m truly the product of a big city. I grew up in what looks like huge soulless apartment complexes, which for me reflected the same nature as the ocean somehow… Where can you drown yourself? Where can you find yourself suffocating? Where can you lose yourself choking? For me, there was a very intriguing parallel between the two elements. And Baudelaire’s ideas were a perfect catharsis to that initial spark for the song.”