My lungs taste the air of Time

‘In Frank Herbert’s 1965 science-fiction masterpiece Dune the underhand political manoeuvrings of an old enemy forces the Duke Leto Atreides to uproot his family from their lush home-world of Caladan and take up administration of the desert wasteland planet Arrakis. In his first days on Arrakis the Duke laments the loss of his beloved Caladan and in a quiet moment of self-pity and longing he recalls two lines from a poem:

 

‘My Lungs taste the air of Time

Blown past falling sands…’

 

This scene greatly influenced the soundworld of the piece- the dry, dusty, arid landscape surrounding a moment of almost lyrical longing, which is quickly rejected as the oppressive heat of Arrakis asserts a languid tension.’ - S.C