In between recording takes for yet another critically acclaimed Aloha album (Some Echoes), Cale Parks began work on the solo material that soon found its way onto Illuminated Manuscript. Parks split time between several cities as he wrote and recorded all of the songs on the album. The result is an intimate but intricate bedroom ambient electronic sound where keyboards and mallet instruments mix with sparse vocals and a television or the occasional cat meowing in the background.

Best known as the classically trained drummer and percussionist for Aloha, Parks has also recorded with Joan of Arc, White Williams and Passion Pit.