The folk band Ben&Ben’s latest project offers an intentional idea for a New Year’s resolution: to be more “present with love.” It’s the central theme of their recently launched ebook, “The Traveller Across Dimensions” (TTAD), which serves as a reading companion to their album of the same title—and as a showcase of the band’s talent to reinvent their art and explore new ways of storytelling.
TTAD tells the story of the ethereal Liwanag, a Traveller journeying through three Dimensions—Light, Energy, and Feel—representing stages of growth from innocence through struggle to maturity. Her ultimate goal is to make it to the Duyan Dimension, where all Travellers achieve perpetual inner peace. Along the way, she writes 12 songs while grappling with one fundamental question: “How must we live?”
The ebook was launched last November in an immersive storytelling event at Robinsons Galleria, where the band provided live scoring to a reading and performance of an excerpt, led by storytelling artist Lesley Lina. The event also featured a talkback session with percussionist Andrew de Pano and vocalist Paolo Benjamin Guico, as well as psychologist Erika de Pano, who drew an audience of fans, educators, and school counselors in a discussion of what it means to be present with love.
Erika, speaking as both psychologist and Andrew’s partner, said presence requires deep knowing. She spoke of how Andrew sat her down during one exhausting week and told her that his love language includes acts of service—that he wants to be seen through small gestures, not grand gifts.
“It’s so important in relationships to be seen,” Erika said. “Sometimes it’s not the big things but the small things that we do for the people we love every day.”
Paolo talked about giving up the need to feel superior in relationships. “Instead of being right all the time, let’s see each other’s point across and work things out,” he said. “The value of listening to each other and making each other feel understood—that’s what being present with love is about.”
Andrew shared how he found his own practice of being present through birdwatching, which requires what he calls “hyper-alertness.”
“You see a bunch of trees, you want to find the bird—what do you look for? You don’t look for a bird,” he explained. “You have to keep your eyes and your vision open to everything around you and look for the smallest movements. To look for something, you have to look for nothing. You have to notice everything.”
Andrew also spoke about confronting difficult emotions, particularly fear: “When you examine the very core of your fear, you find that you are very much capable of caring. Fear comes from a very deep sense of caring.”
Given Ben&Ben’s advocacy for mental health, the conversation turned to self-care. Erika described it in terms of capacity: “We are all limited basins of love. If we do not take the time to also take care of ourselves, we will turn to resentment because we’ll be running out.”
Andrew used the metaphor of charging a phone. “Sometimes we feel like we’re resting, but we’re actually running down,” he said. “That’s because you’re not charging yourself. Sometimes we forget to charge. We think that not doing anything is equivalent to charging, but it’s not.”
What real charging requires, he added, is active engagement with things that bring joy and energy—spending time with friends, creating music, being alone to reflect, or, in his case, watching birds move through trees.
Paolo spoke about knowing his bandwidth and delegating tasks when necessary, finding restoration through solitude, music, social connection, or family.
Andrew addressed the harder side of the ebook’s theme: “Sometimes love can look like having to do the difficult things, making the difficult decisions and doing the things that are uncomfortable. But if you are coming from a place of love and the people in your life know that you are coming from a place of love, it makes things clear.”
TTAD’s story reflects this complexity. Liwanag’s journey through Light, Energy, and Feel involves struggle as much as growth, documenting experiences through 12 songs that correspond to the TTAD album.
The album was named Album of the Year at the 2025 Awit Awards, with “Triumph” earning Best Performance by a Group Artist recognition.
The TTAD project expands beyond the album and ebook to include a collection of plushies representing the story’s characters—Liwanag, Mahiwaga, Puhon, and Dilim.
Through the ebook, plushies, and immersive experience, Ben&Ben has created what it describes as a companion for the journey—meeting listeners where they are as they navigate their own dimensions of light, energy, and feeling.
The Traveller Across Dimensions ebook companion and Traveller Plush Series are available now. For more information on the TTAD story, visit thetravelleracrossdimensions.com/story.
