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Salt Bloom

an audiodrama by Justin Hellstrom

“There is no life in the water. There is no life inside the clouds. There is no life inside of me—and it’s a nice day to splash about in the shallows.” So begins Salt Bloom, a captain’s log in two parts. From celebrated audiodrama producer and author Justin Hellstrom, best known for his series The Great Chameleon War and co-creating The Goblet Wire, Salt Bloom imagines the surreal sounds of an alien world for the second Local Files Club release.

Salt Bloom follows a Soln SARC-17 exobiology survey robot exploring the endless, globe-spanning ocean of Salsuné 11b. Day by day, this SARC-17 unit navigates the waters while seeding myths, searching for salt-ridden omens, and stealing data from its overseer in orbit. “I am in a constant state of failure,” the SARC-17 admits, but its will extends far beyond circuits and programming. It will never stop searching. Searching for life. Searching for miracles. Searching for a hand to hold in an ocean where there are none.

Salt Bloom is presented in two parts and comes paired with the original soundtrack and a twelve-page, fully-illustrated guidebook to the SARC-17’s psyche.

Above Hellstrom’s desk looms “a corkboard filled with oceanic illustrations and cutouts of robots, rovers, and submersibles,” he writes about Salt Bloom’s origins. “Salt Bloom started life as a few lines scribbled on a doodle. These few lines came out of those images, one in particular by Cosimo Galluzzi of a robotic probe in a shallow sea.” The image of a wide-open expanse and a lone robot facing down an empty world stuck with Hellstrom. “I suppose it feels a lot like the process of making art itself, when no one but you is searching for what you are soon to make.”

When he started fleshing out the world of Salsuné 11b, Hellstrom didn’t know where this SARC-17 probe would end up in the great pantheon of science fiction robots, but it “ended up plugged in directly to my heart, hoping beyond seafoam to hold on to beautiful things when all purpose seems lost. Part of me is now stained a shade of blue that can never be seen—it can only be heard.”

PRAISE FOR SALT BLOOM

“Immersive, captivating, and breathtakingly beautiful, Salt Bloom submerges you in a psychedelic sea of cosmic dreams that you won’t want to wake up from.” - Amy Lukavics (author, Daughters Unto Devils, The Ravenous)

PRESS FOR THE GREAT CHAMELEON WAR

“It is creatively ambitious, unwilling to sacrifice its undulating, organic sensibility for a more typical sci-fi aesthetic. This is a podcast for people who prefer Annihilation to Gravity, Sunshine to The Martian. If your taste in sci-fi skews more interpretive and impressionistic than hard science, The Great Chameleon War is a journey you’re sure to enjoy.” - Wil Williams, Polygon

“This audio drama is absolute madness – and I am all aboard with it.” - Escape Velocity Collection

PRESS FOR THE GOBLET WIRE

“The Goblet Wire delivers dread and wonder in concentrated doses, like suddenly injecting a dose of adrenaline or falling onto the grass to stare dizzily at the stars.” - Elena Fernández Collins, Simplecast

“I love how the language of The Goblet Wire flows, the vivid visuals it builds in my brain, and the alluring sound design that lends a layer of texture on top.” - Tal Minear

TRACKLIST

Disc 1 - Salt Bloom

  1. Side A (no life)
  2. Side B (The Spire)
  3. Bonus: Lost Log - Salsuné 11b Grand Prix

Disc 2 - Original Soundtrack

  1. Prelude - Salsuné 11b
  2. No Life
  3. Architecture of Myself
  4. No Covens
  5. Knight Sent to Slay the Werewolf
  6. Hadalpelagic Zone
  7. Entry Capsule Birthday
  8. Bite the Throat of an Owl
  9. Wish Across the Waves
  10. The Spire
  11. Waiting for Rain
  12. Beneath Lightyears of Sea
  13. No Passengers
  14. Bathing Atop the Empire
  15. L’appel du Vide
  16. Mother Salt
  17. I Have Made a Mistake
  18. Wring Off
  19. Witch Fused to a Tower

Bonus Material:

  1. Soln SARC-17 Psych Guidebook

CREDITS

Starring Justin Hellstrom as Soln SARC-17
All writing, music, sound design, and art by Justin Hellstrom

Special thanks:
Adam Cecil for LFC inspiration
Jordon Long for animating doodles
Clifton McCallum for a musical sounding board
Romita Verma for believing in strange and wonderful oceans

ABOUT JUSTIN HELLSTROM

Justin Hellstrom is a writer, sound wizard, and all-around art robot clinging to life at the edge of the void. You can find his soul splintered into novels, audiodramas, and video games (The Tide Will Erase All, The Great Chameleon War, The Goblet Wire). Follow him on Bluesky or Instagram, or find his work at DeadPondSwan.com.