-How was your project title ‘The Panharmonion Chronicles’ born?

The title of my graphic novel and music video is made of three parts. The first one is “The Panharmonion”. I’ve imagined that this could be a harmonic frequency that contains the fundamental “code” of our reality. This frequency could be accessible by some humans, under rare circumstances and expressed through a musical score, which then could be shared with everyone on the planet.

“Chronicles” is from the Greek word “Khronika”. It usually refers to the record of past events, real or imagined. As stories are usually produced by “cause” and “effect” I’m wondering whether there could be circumstances where causality could be reversed. It’s a complicated mental exercise but fascinating on a creative and philosophical level.

“Times of London” is a play on words. This refers directly both to my fiction story and to official history. When we talk about London, we usually assume that it is the city, capital of England. But there is another “London” located in Ontario, Canada. It is also a city with a river called Thames, located between Detroit and Toronto. The city and the river were named in 18th century by British general John Graves Simcoe, as a statement to claim Canada as a colony. In my novel, I postulate an alternative history where events are changed in the 19th century and therefore in the 21st century, with surprising results. Because history in my story is changed by the actions of the protagonist, we follow an audio-visual narrative that blends technology, fiction, and reality into an aesthetic style that I call “Electro-Steampunk”.

-What goal do you dream of achieving?

The Panharmonion Chronicles is a long-term project. I started writing the story five years ago and more than 2000 pages later, I’m still writing. There is a main story arc covering 160 years with many branches into the past and the future. Each branch can be developed with specific characters, locations, and events. The first story “Times of London” is now out as a 200 page graphic novel. The second one, “Ghosts of Sound”, is being illustrated now and will be published early 2025.

In the meantime, I’m polishing a script for a pilot and an outline for an eight-part TV show, for which I’ve started creating a library of visual assets for props and set design. I’ve also written a few songs and electronic music tracks to create a particular soundscape for the story. In future, through my production studio Supanova Media, I want to collaborate with other international professionals to develop the multiple strands of this fictional world in as many media as possible, including games, animation, feature films and live performances.

Ultimately, I want “The Panharmonion Chronicles” to fund a charitable platform to sponsor literacy and education in art and science, across the world, especially for disadvantaged demographics.

-)What inspired you to create your project?

It’s an idea that had been evolving over 10 years. It first started to form after I visited Toronto and Montreal several times. The two cities are relatively close geographically but are culturally two worlds apart. I was intrigued enough to start researching the history of Eastern Canada and what I found was a complex web of colonial conflicts over centuries juxtaposing the actions of Britain, France and the USA which were conflated with immigrants from all over the world and with a large diversity of First Nations indigenous people. So, I started writing a novel based on that, when separately, as an interior designer, I was also working on the development of several Victorian houses in the borough of Camden, London. The idea was to create a boutique hotel based on an alternative history of Scotland. As we were digging the basement I found a strange artefact and could not find any explanation or references for it in the British Library. So, I decided to create my own origin story and connected the object to a new plot in my existing novel, which became a time-travel mystery thriller.

Then, because the main protagonist of my novel is a music composer, I thought it would be interesting to write songs and produce music related to The Panharmonion Chronicles and start filming music videos. The first video is a synthesis of many arts coming together, what in German is called “Gesamtkuntswerk”. I’m the writer, director, producer, editor, actor, set designer, sound, special effects and props designer. You could say it’s the ultimate indie microfilm, but also it’s much more than a music video: it’s a teaser and “proof of concept” to give a flavour of what a future film or TV show might look like.

-Which awards have your project won?

The music video is still going around the festivals, having been selected by many. So far, it has won “Best Music Video” from “8 & HalFilm Award”, “International Gold Awards”, “London Movie Awards”, “Milan Gold Awards”, “4 Theatre Selection” and “Cine Paris Film Festival”. It also won “Best Sci-Fi short” at the “Florence Film Awards” and “Best Production” at the “Europe Music Video Awards”, “4 Theatre Selection”, and “Cine Paris Film Festival”.