In celebration of the first anniversary of the release of The Traveller Across Dimensions (TTAD) concept album, the country’s biggest folk-pop band Ben&Ben is taking it to the next level by releasing various album tie-in materials and merchandise to bring the album to life.
(LEFT) Paolo Benjamin with the characters of the TTAD lore in plushie form; (RIGHT) Miguel Benjamin reading the free-to-download TTAD e-book
The 2025 Awit Awards Album of the Year honoree was released on November 29, 2024, and went on to produce a number of hits such as “Autumn,” “Could Be Something,” and “Triumph,” which received the Best Performance by a Group Artist nod from the same awards program.
They mounted the first TTAD concert on December 14, 2024, playing to a sold-out crowd at the SM Mall of Asia Arena. The show was packaged as an animation-concert hybrid that combined live music and animation to tell the story of Liwanag, the album’s titular character. Since then, the band has brought the show to various parts of the country, including Cebu City, Bacolod City, Baguio City, Davao City, and Cagayan de Oro City, with the last stop for the year happening in Iloilo City on December 7.
To reach an even wider audience, the band last month released an e-book companion to the TTAD album, which fleshes out Liwanag’s story in greater detail. Liwanag belongs to a race of inter-dimensional beings called Travellers, whose goal is to reach a place called the Duyan Dimension—a place where all Travellers are said to achieve perpetual inner peace.
In her journey, she goes through three Dimensions: Light, depicting innocence; Energy, depicting struggle; and Feel, depicting maturity. She writes 12 songs along the way, which relate her experiences in each of the Dimensions. In every step that she takes, she tries to answer a fundamental question: “How must we live?” After many adventures and both good and bad experiences, she eventually reaches the Duyan Dimension, her ultimate goal.
Liwanag’s songs—the 12 songs in the TTAD album—reflect the various experiences of the band members over the past several years and showcase their growth as people, as songwriters, and as musicians.
While the songs themselves reflect the whole TTAD narrative, the companion e-book gives the story more flesh.
To make the TTAD universe even more tangible, the band has also launched the Traveller Plush Series, featuring four characters from the TTAD lore: Liwanag, Mahiwaga, Puhon, and Dilim. These are advocacy-driven collectibles inspired by the TTAD story’s message of being “present with love.”
“In the story of The Traveller Across Dimensions, to be ‘present with love’ is what is generally known as mindfulness, or being aware of our thoughts and emotions, and responding to the present moment with love and kindness. As you listen to the songs in the album and read the e-book to get a more detailed story about the Traveller, you will be taken on a journey through the three dimensions to discover what it means to be present with love,” Ben&Ben said.
Join us in our journey into the TTAD universe. Let us never forget to always be “present with love.”
To read the TTAD story, go to thetravelleracrossdimensions.com/story
