Wow, this track has sure been through a lot. Back in spring/summer of 2024, I was experimenting with melodic house/deep trance tracks (I've always been a fan of that style, so thought it would work with my ambient and nature-esque production). Worked on a few tracks, submtited them to labels, then got rejected. I wasn't really dejected about this, but I put those tracks on the back burner (thinking I wasn't ready production-wise to work in those sub-genres) to focus on my own thing. Fast forward a year, and I listen to one of them on a whim, called 'Mercy.' Now, this was long before I worked on another track which then released as 'Mercy,' (another reason I was apprehensive about releasing this track in particular). I thought it had a lot of potential to be released, and it sounded mostly complete; it wasn't a case like Aurora where it was done but external reasons led it to being unreleased, there were some flaws I needed to iron out, but the foundation was strong. Looking at the finished article, I'm proud for it to be out there. It's probably my most electronic release (something I want to continue pushing along with my other more ethereal works). There are still flaws that I can recognise, mixing and over-ambition not-withstanding, but no track will ever be perfect, and I'm realizing now that I can't just keep tracks in a mostly finished state and never release them (thinking they're not good enough, when they are and can be). My focus currently is looking back at WIPs over the past couple of years and pushing them over the finished line (as well as working on an entirely new track or two). Hopefully, y'all enjoy this track and whatever else is in store over the rest of 2025!