PREMIERE | St. Kio, "Infinity Mirror"
Night visions, vehicles of perceptions, styles and the conscious streams of St. Kio; press photo courtesy of @dentellelamour.
Reflective gazes bring us back from the proverbial brink time and time again. The moments of pause taken to recalibrate and re-center are perpetual processes to tune our own unique individual compasses to the directions and routes we wish to take. Meditations realign us in places both mentally and spiritually toward brighter and more fulfilling paths that offer breakthroughs from the echo chambers of our own resounding doom loops of anxieties, fears, anguish. Reflections take us to the temples from within, the secret and sacred gardens of our souls where we are the primary caretakers. From here we find our own sources of solace, precise points to elevate ourselves from the lower fallows of sadness, grief, weeping, and gnashing of teeth.
Introducing St. Kio, the creative handle of LA polymath Nicole Bandoquillo who offers the uplifting and ethereal entrances of enlightenment with the debut of “Infinity Mirror”. The artist presents an eternal hymn of empowerment that cuts through the negativity of mindless chatter and manic scrolling with a joyful noise that cuts through the veil of night & day cycles with an aural rush of limitless purpose and inner peace. “Infinity Mirror” conjures up visions of elapsed photography that show the expanses of time through a sped up lens that crashes on through to the mythic other sides of our own respective worlds as we have come to understand them. The almost endless spirals we experience on account of our own programming are interrupted with the senses, sounds and sentiments of new frontiers and new realizations. A track to lift us up to where we belong and want to be that is on the other side of all the thoughts and traumas that bring us down. In Nicole’s own words:
“I wrote this song during a period of heartbreak, loneliness, and isolation. It inspired me to shift from self-pity to self-reflection, focusing on how I could improve and move forward.”
“Infinity Mirror” spins like a bedazzled neon carousel top at the core of the mind’s eye. The chords collect like waves bringing the sentiments and sediments of the seas ashore in a rush of sensory and emotions that occur too quick to be counted or singled out individually by name. St. Kio leads the audience to these privy places like a lonesome walk to the beach after hours where the ebb and flow of the turbulent tides lap at your feet, intonations from the ocean that gesture with their might to sweep you into the expanses of a seemingly infinite aquatic empire. Bandoquillo summons the feelings that overwhelm and engulf our spirits and selves, translating the inner unrest into gigantic tidal tier splashes of magnificent roaring guitars that consume the senses in ways where mere words scatter like the urchins responding to the lunar shifts in the tide pools.
Nicole, aka St. Kio, shared some privy meditations on “Infinity Mirror” and more:
I wrote “Infinity Mirror” during a period when I was deeply struggling with my mental health, and feeling stuck and unable to heal from past traumas. I was constantly sulking; sleeping more so days would go by faster. While these challenges persist today, I wrote this song as a reminder that healing, coping, and reflecting on yourself is infinite and it has to be if you want to be the best version of yourself for others and for yourself. Part of that process is the anger and sadness with yourself and especially at those who inflicted harm, trusting people who didn’t deserve your time or respect, and spiraling into an existential crisis about the past, present, and future.
Unlimited reflections by Nicole Bandoquillo, aka St. Kio; press photo courtesy of @dentellelamour.
I wrote this song in hopes that it brings you comfort when you feel these things, when you’re anxious, depressed, and/or hopeless. I hope it inspires you to focus on your own healing and to be kinder and patient with yourself.
“Infinity Mirror” from St. Kio arrives everywhere May 29 with an EP slated for the end of June.