Cthonicist

“When into the womb of time everything is again withdrawn chaos will be restored and chaos is the score upon which reality is written.” - Henry Miller, Tropic Of Cancer. Live improvisation using Soma Labs Rumble Of Ancient Times and Meng Qi’s Wingie II resonator. Recorded in AUM on iPad.

“Is all that we see or seem / But a dream within a dream?” - Edgar Allan Poe Created live with apps in AUM on iPad. No keyboards or DAWs were harmed during the making of this piece.

“Is this really all there is?” - Sir Gawain “What else ought there be?” - The Green Knight Completed in response to an AudioBus Forum challenge, in turn derived from Paul David’s YouTube guitar challenge. Created entirely with fx & IPad ‘tape manipulation’ techniques using Paul David’s original guitar backing track found here: https://youtu.be/8Bt3RYy6Y-Y as the sole source material. No instrument...

‘Preacher Man, he preach at midnight in the old ruined church, to a Congregation of cockroaches and coffin beetles. The book he reads from ain’t no bible…” Tin whistle, played live into AUM on IPad and manipulated with FX apps.

"Grief is an amputation, but hope is incurable haemophilia: you bleed and bleed and bleed." - David Mitchell, Slade House

‘I mean, it’s just a box, right? All that stuff about a curse, and a demon inside it and everything is just B.S. Right? Right?” Live modular jam: Lyra 8, FX Aid XL, Behringer TD3 MO AM

The Hemingford Herald of 24th April 1896 reports cowboy Joe Healy, driving cattle near Guide Rock, Nebraska, encountered a ghost, and emptied all six rounds from his pistol into it, with no effect. There have been many such sightings since. Not coincidentally, perhaps, is the fact that the rock is sacred to the Pawnee as Pa-hur or Pahur, one of five dwelling places of spirit animals with miraculou...

“‘I fancied that I discerned objects in the temple, objects both stationary and moving, and seemed to hear again the unreal chant…” H.P. Lovecraft, The Temple Live MIDI played from keyboard into Atom, driving multiple instances of Hilda synth inside AUM on iPad.

One who sees far, between the worlds of what has been, what is, and what will be. Final face of the Triple Goddess: Maiden, Mother… Crone. At Trendle Ring, a Bronze Age hill fort 4km West North West of the Somerset town of Williton, it is said that on misty days she can still be seen in this form, gathering sticks, or herding the local red deer. In other, more - difficult - encounters, she may ins...

Hiraeth- a homesickness for a place that never was. Pronounced he-reyeth, this Welsh word describes a type of homesickness, but for a home that you can't return to, or that never existed. A combination of longing, nostalgia and yearning. A feeling which doesn't always go away, even when you do return home. Created on iPad in AUM with Hilda, Model 15, and Steel Guitar Pro.

The cryosphere is frozen water in the form of snow, permanently frozen ground (permafrost), floating ice, and glaciers. If all this were to melt, sea levels would rise by 70 metres. Created solely with a vintage Hohner Soprano Melodica played live into AUM on iPad and processed with various FX. No other instruments used.

In thunder's embrace, Spider spins a delicate tracery. Raindrops kiss the strands. Made on iPad in AUM using aPolyvoks synth and Enso looper.

“I and my companions suffer from a disease of the heart, which can be cured only with gold.” - Hernan Cortes, destroyer of the Aztec civilisation. Harbinger of the modern age. Made on iPad in AUM using only apps. No real instruments were harmed during the making of this piece.

“Mind the Threefold Law you should, three times bad and three times good.” - The Witches Rede. The word "rede" derives from Middle English, meaning "advice" or "counsel". In the neopagan religion of Wicca a ‘rede’ is a key moral precept. In this case, that whatever be wrought, by magickal means or otherwise, it shall return thricefold upon the initiator. Wiccan karma… Recorded on iPad in AUM using...

In the Major Arcana of the Tarot deck, The High Priestess represents secrets, mystery, the future unrevealed. Reversed: Passion, conceit, superficial knowledge. Meng Qi Wingie Mk II resonator hardware, recorded live into AUM on iPad via Arc Evo 4 interface, extensively manipulated via FX apps.

‘We’ve found it, Carter! The gateway to another universe!” ‘Wait, you fool! That’s not a portal. It’s a mouth!” But Carter’s warning came too late. And now he was alone in the ancient ruined temple. Alone with that hideous, hungry thing… All apps. Live performance mix in AUM on iPad Pro, captured in Atom clips, using multiple Sunrizer instances, Hammerhead drums, Model 15 bass.

"I think someone is trying to drive you crazy before finally killing you." A tribute to an early work by the master of Giallo, Dario Argento. Long on style, short on logic, the movie is a twisted tale of murder. The original score by Morricone naturally sets a very high bar, and I am confident I might, with luck, one day manage to limbo under it. In the meantime: my own poor alternative take… Made...

“ Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn: "* *In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming - H.P. Lovecraft, The Call Of Cthulhu. Made in AUM on iPad, apps inc. Hilda, Broohahaizer, Models D & 15

Ars Goetia, compiled in the 17th Century from material centuries older, is one of five books of the Lemegeton, The Lesser Key Of Solomon, an occult text filled with hermetic secrets. Ostensibly, the book details the true names of 72 demons. ‘Goetia’ is Latin for witchcraft, or a charm: specifically, for the summoning of demons. Deliberate Mis-spellings ensure the text, if used, is very much at the...

An invocation to be uttered whilst walking anti clockwise around a church. Cthonicist assumes no responsibility for what might be conjured thereby. In the popular fairytale, one such inadvertent ‘walking widdershins’ leads to a kidnap by the King of Elfland, but as Browning in his famous poem hinted, worse things perhaps awaited Childe Roland when he to the Dark Tower came, in an attempt to sort o...

“Keep the Americans out!” - excerpt from the text of decrypted secret memo concerning the ‘ghost rocket’ phenomena of the late 1940s. Before there were flying saucers, ufos or unidentified aerial phenomena, there were ‘ghost rockets’, numbers of which entered Swedish airspace in the years following WWII. The photo shows Swedish Air Force scientific officer Karl-Gösta Bartoll searching for one such...

"It is really quite simple. We have been compiling a list which shall contain all the possible names of God" - Arthur C. Clarke Created entirely with apps in AUM on iPad. No keyboards were harmed in the making of this piece. Read the story here: https://urbigenous.net/library/nine_billion_names_of_god.html

“When the sun stops shining, the earth grows cold / And the stars fall from the sky / Our love will burn with passion still / Like the fire in your eye.” - ‘When Death Comes Like A Long Lost Friend’, Matthew Buchwald. Hold my hand. It’s getting dark. Created entirely in apps on iPad.

In 2015, astronaut Andreas Mogensen captured the first video of Pixies, Sprites, and Jets - strange, coloured electrical discharges in the upper atmosphere. Believed linked to the electromagnetic Schumann Resonances at the Earth’s core, and, possibly, to earthquakes, what exactly they are and how they are formed currently is a mystery. Track created live on Behringer ARP 2600 and Lyra 8 hardware.

“The Universe is constantly speaking to us, and as soon as we learn to understand that language, life blossoms like the most exquisite flower.” ― Katherine Plant. Near Death Experiences (NDEs) are rare, but a recent textual analysis by Belgian researchers of descriptions given by survivors of such suggests that whilst a minority experienced darkness and fear, many found the experience calm, peacef...