A long time ago, when I first listened Ænima, i had thought that this piece was done in order to fill up the CD. But after listening to it with headphones, I realized that there were many sounds sticked together and you need to try quite hard to actually hear some of them. I think the purpose of this piece is to make people actually listen to the music -and their own surroundings-, not just leaving the player roll the tape or cd. The piece stimulates the listeners. There are countless number of sounds, everytime, everyday, that you should have been listening to, if you are living in the middle of the city. So you also need to listen to them, instead of just hearing them, and get some sort of joy or inspiration. I think the piece is intended that way, or at least I take it that way, but of course you never know.
I also think that this piece (for the reasons above) has some sort of connection with Third Eye, with the third eye opening.
Also these two share some sort of wind effect. (In Third Eye, there's a wind effect similar to the main one in (-) Ions, played in 0:32)
It is strange and I think it's something people do not do often. It sort of appreciating your surroundings and not taking your senses for granted.
In a drama class we all lay down on the floor in a room and say nothing, it's a big empty hall. We close our eyes and listen.
You eventually begin to hear things you may never have thought of hearing before, sounds that are simply 'accepted'.
The person on the other side of the room breathing through one nostril
The pigeons walking around on the roof.
A dog barking somewhere in the distance outside
The wind howling
Trees rustling
It is really enlightening and helps to appreciate your ears.
Ofcourse if you are deaf this is rather hard (not impossible)
I think that tool was on a hella lot of drugs at this point in their lives, and tracks like these could mean just about anything. I do think they help the CD's in the sense that they completely engage the listener in the music, mostly by causing the listener to wonder "what in the hell is going on". Im sure that they do have some sort of meaning to the band and to the music as whole, though.
