Devin Townsend has released ZTV Episode 1, the first in a three-part series leading up to his new Ziltoid the Omniscient album.

Townsend wanted to make another album for fans of his character Ziltoid the Omniscient while also experimenting with different media. He crowd funded to ensure that the project was everything it could be and even asked fans to contribute vocals for the Universal Choir. He is definitely taken advantage of using different media to “illustrate a concept,” as he wrote on the official Ziltoid website.

In August, Townsend revealed the titles of his upcoming dual album via Twitter. The Devin Townsend Project album will be called Sky Blue and the Ziltoid the Omniscient one will be titled Dark Matters. Due to the amount of time and money that has been put into this dual album, there is no doubt that it will be an interesting piece of art for longtime fans and newcomers alike.

In addition to the website and the album, he has decided to do a 3-part series featuring Ziltoid. Each part is a short film revealing pieces to the overall plot of the series about the alien having to assimilate with humans for the gain of his planet. The first video, which is seven minutes long, sets up the background of the story: Ziltoid is an individualistic, possibly selfish, alien who exists in a communal society. He must infiltrate the humans, supposedly for the good of the collective, but must hide his proclivity for gaining power to be a part of the mission. Townsend admitted on the Ziltoid website that the series becomes absurd and over-the-top by episode three, but for now you can watch the first part in sci-fi puppet series below.

In addition to working on this project, Townsend also has a band with Ché Aimee Dorval called Casualties of Cool. He had a pledge drive for this “passion project” before even revealing what exactly it would entail. The duo has since released two streaming tracks, “Forgive Me” and “Moon,” as well as two music videos for their songs “Mountaintop” and “Flight.” The Devin Townsend Project will also be touring this fall in the United States and Canada on the aptly titled Abstract Reality Tour.