An Oh Hello's song! Let me take this opportunity and dump some tracks relevant to the Minohotel:
Their 'seasonal winds' album has the themes of cycles, similar to recursion in the story. A recurring motif is "the wheel". This song in particular calls out the ignorant and/or misguided folk that keep horrible cycles in perpetuity.
Over and over, again
We keep that old wheel turning
We spin it around!
The song is about human greed and materialism, with a hint of divine folly and our ultimate fates. This one reminded me of Clement in particular. The first part is about human toil and suffering (Clement's scarred mental condition), contrasting this with the higher powers-- the gods and divine fate. Its chorus makes a statement about men's susceptibility to greed, which reminds me of Clement's downfall.
You can't take any gold or rings further than the grave
Nothing we make can we bring, but
Still the bait hanging from the string is calling my name
And like the wind it slips again
Out of my fingers
The first parts of the song really fits the Asterion-Master dynamic in the earlier parts of Minohotel. The song is about an epiphany that was known to the singer(?), and his efforts in relaying this realization to his partner. It's about seeing things that were always there for the first time. He deliberately takes a slow, gentle approach in doing this. Pardon my excitement, but that's literally(figuratively) getting Asterion to redeem himself and realize his self-worth. The song diverges in the latter part though; the last stanzas are about the singer expressing regret that he hasn't realized this sooner and remarking on how much this has changed his view.
'Cause the more I recite it
The more you wanna fight it
The more my language is sounding fabricated
So I'll keep half of my words in my mouth
Let the syllables fall out
At a steady trickling
I'll be your roof caving in
The song is about incremental, but achievable change. This one parallels the master's belief and efforts in reforming Asterion to be the proud bull that he ought to be. The lyrics even reassure the companion and tells him to not be scared of it. This is definitely the Master's mentality in dealing with our beloved bull.
It took forever and a day for the canyons and coasts to erode away
By the weight of the ocean's cyclical motion they swayed
And though the eons may pass as slow as the sands of an hourglass
Every grain that we've counted
Claims that even the mountains can change
To top it all off with something happy, Zephyrus is here to show the end of that undeserved atonement. This time, I feel that the whole song fits the story's subplot. The companion appears to have been convinced by the earlier efforts, and finally accepts absolution. This is Asterion finally standing up beside the Master and overcoming the self-imposed shackles. Wholesome, I tell you!
What do you find within the lines of
Distant suns
And their systems
Where I come up empty?
Are we not threaded by the same weave
Of the wind
Terra firma
And unparted sea?
So let me melt down like mountain glaciers
Break the bonds
I've been holding onto
Let 'em soften me