Atum (song)

"Atum" is an instrumental song and debut track off of The Smashing Pumpkins' twelfth studio album, ATUM. As the opening theme to a three act musical opera, "Atum" is intended to set the mood and setting of the story that the rest of album will convey.

It's both ominous and hopeful. It's churlish and it's got a bit of a wink to it, but that's The Smashing Pumpkins. It is believed by some to feature piano from Mike Garson, however the official personnel credits released in the liner notes do not mention any contributions from Garson.

Background
With the "Mellon Collie" theme, Billy Corgan tried to set a sentimental mood on the listener, and listening years later can bring you back into that same mood. For Machina/The Machines of God, Corgan felt the need for a more pronounced theme. That was "Le Deux Machina", which was used as a transition between the initial electric songs and an acoustic set during the U.S. leg of The Sacred and Profane tour, and frequently interpolated by Mike Garson during "Glass and the Ghost Children" on the later European leg. The song ultimately appeared on Machina II, though not as the intended intro song.

"Atum" is the opening track of the first act of the opera. As Corgan explained, it sets the scene for the whole 'movie': "It's both ominous and hopeful. It's churlish and it's got a bit of a wink to it, but that's The Smashing Pumpkins."

Synopsis
As this song has no lyrics, it merely sets the mood for the ATUM story. As Corgan describes it, the image is that we (the listener/viewer) see a small, yet beautifully designed spaceship floating in space above Earth. At this point you don't know what it is. The scene then cuts back down to Earth, where we discover it is full of mayhem, mass riots, "descent and unhappiness, and a lot of strife." Next we float back to space, zooming past the spacecraft we saw earlier and on to the "dark side of the moon" (an intentional Pink Floyd reference), where we see pyramids and crystal towers. At this point we are riddled with the sense that the world and everything we know about it isn't as real as we have been led to believe. We then float past Mars and we see the face on Mars as well as more pyramids. Finally, we float toward the Sun and realize it's not the sun we thought it was. This lays the ground for the rest of the story that is to follow.