SERIAL ADMIRER

TIMOTHY AND THE APOCALYPSE

Inspired by a mist-covered morning at Lake Ashi, Hakone, Japan.

Serial Admirer is a single by Australian electronic artist Timothy and the Apocalypse, inspired by a journey through Japan and the contrast between the energy of Tokyo and the stillness of Hakone.

A mist-covered morning at the torii gate on Lake Ashi beneath Mount Fuji became the visual and emotional starting point for the track, connecting Timothy Poulton's photography and music through atmosphere, repetition and memory.

A MOMENT IN JAPAN

Serial Admirer began with a feeling I carried home from Japan.

I had been moving between the intensity of Tokyo and the quieter landscapes surrounding Mount Fuji, absorbing the contrast between the two. Tokyo was movement, repetition, light and sound. Hakone was almost the opposite.

One misty morning at the torii gate on Lake Ashi, everything seemed to disappear into the atmosphere. The lake, the mountains and even the gate itself moved in and out of the mist. There was something hypnotic about it — familiar, but slightly unreal.

That contrast stayed with me when I returned to the studio.

Serial Admirer grew from those memories: the repetition and energy of Tokyo set against the stillness and mystery of that morning beneath Mount Fuji. Musically, I wanted the track to have the same sense of attraction and tension — something beautiful that keeps pulling you back towards it.

The artwork came from the same experience, using my photographs of the Hakone torii gate and transforming them into something more abstract, fragmented and dreamlike.

TOKYO / HAKONE

Tokyo and Hakone felt like two different worlds.

Tokyo was rhythm. Movement. Neon. Crowds. Trains. Repetition. A city seemingly in constant motion.

Hakone was space. Water. Mist. Silence.

Serial Admirer sits somewhere between those two experiences. The pulse and repetition of the track came from the energy of Tokyo, while its atmosphere came from the quieter landscapes around Mount Fuji.

I wasn't trying to make music that sounded Japanese. I wanted to capture how Japan felt to me.

WHERE PHOTOGRAPHY AND MUSIC MEET

Photography records what I saw. Music gives me another way to remember how it felt.

The artwork for Serial Admirer began with my photographs of the torii gate at Lake Ashi. I fragmented and layered the original image until it became less a photograph of a place and more a memory of one.

The photograph and the music eventually became two versions of the same experience.

Serial Admirer — Timothy and the Apocalypse
Released 18 September 2026.