New music from They Became What They Beheld: Radio Free Albemuth

On February 20, 1974, while recovering from the effects of sodium pentothal administered for the extraction of an impacted wisdom tooth, [Philip K.] Dick received a home delivery of Darvon from a young woman. When he opened the door, he was struck by the dark-haired girl’s beauty, and was especially drawn to her golden necklace. He asked her about its curious fish-shaped design. As she was leaving, she replied: “This is a sign used by the early Christians.” Dick called the symbol the “vesicle pisces”. This name seems to have been based on his conflation of two related symbols, the Christian ichthys symbol (two intersecting arcs delineating a fish in profile), which the woman was wearing, and the vesica piscis.

Dick recounted that as the sun glinted off the gold pendant, the reflection caused the generation of a “pink beam” of light that mesmerized him. He came to believe the beam imparted wisdom and clairvoyance, and also believed it to be intelligent. On one occasion, he was startled by a separate recurrence of the pink beam, which imparted the information that his infant son was ill. The Dicks rushed the child to the hospital, where the illness was confirmed by professional diagnosis.

— Wikipedia, 2024

The seven movements of this symphonic suite need to be heard in their entirety; it is a mistake to isolate movements from the whole, for the work owes much to the strongly contrasted moods suggested by the character of each planet.

— The Decca Record Company, Ltd., 1962