I recently updated my Signalis playlist's name to "Gestaltzerfall". It was originally titled "Eternity," but as I've put together the songs this past year, it's taken on a personal theme. Quite a few songs included are by Japanese, Chinese, or Korean artists. The Asian-Western third culture subtext of Signalis is one of the reasons the game sticks with me so vividly. To me, part of the horror and despair of Signalis comes from Elster and Ariane's loneliness-- it feels a lot like my own racial melancholia, longing for a homeland that I have no true ties to. Gestaltzerfall is one of the chapters of Signalis. It describes when an image separates into distinct parts when someone looks at it for a long time. Elster / Lilith and Ariane / Alina are made of distinct parts: their birth planets, their past lives and histories, their German first names and Asian last names, their love. When does it all fall apart, or blend into an unrecognizable memory?

artist names are included in fan work captions.