In the 1960s, CIA interrogation specialist Cleve Backster connected his polygraph equipment to a rhododendron plant in his office and measured their reactions to his own thoughts and feelings and the plants and other animals around them. His findings challenged western science's assumptions about the sentience of plants. Building on the work of Jagadish Chandra Bose, George Washington Carver and others he developed his theory of Primary Perception: plants are living sentient beings that sense and react to the actions, thoughts and intentions of other living things around them.

Johann Sebastian discovered Backster’s work through the book, "The Secret Life of Plants" and through the accompanying documentary, "Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants" which was scored by Stevie Wonder. It changed his relationship with and thinking about plants, no longer viewing them as passive things slowly stretching towards the sun just to seed and perish. Plants are all around us, even in an urban setting. They watch over us as we sleep, brush against their leaves and pass them by. They've nourished us since our beginning and carry the memories of our land and people.

The 2020 COVID-19 quarantine changed Johann’s thumb a few shades greener with his houseplants and patio garden. During difficult days at home the ritual of plant care ground him. This shift coincided with some changes in my music from sample based hip-hop to techno and experimental synth music. He started experimenting on semi-modular synthesizers and made music inspired by plants, sometimes even connecting his plants to the synths. Primary Perception is from that early set of synth jams on a Moog Mother-32 and Weskstatt-01. It's about that connection we share with plants, how they feel us and we can feel them, and the peace you can feel when you acknowledge and live in awareness of their presence; the primary perception that connects us.