Dark Ambient and H.P. Lovecraft were made for each other. Some of these tracks are directly inspired by his uniquely bleak and discomforting fictions, others more tangentially connected perhaps, via mood or sound or mental image only.  But it is an absolute truth that none of this selection of some of my published work would be here at all but for the dark and thrilling vistas of the imagination his stories opened for me so many years ago…

Going Underground - Lovecraftian Dark Ambient by Cthonicist

“Old! Old! Old!” he would moan over and over again, “great God, they are older than the earth, and came here from somewhere else.” - H.P. Lovecraft, The Mound.

Created live on Moog Sound Studio 3 (Mother 32, DFAM, Subharmonicon), recorded and edited in Wavebox on IPad

Dolmen

“Deep in my dream the great bird whispered queerly
Of the black cone amid the polar waste…” 
H.P. Lovecraft, The Fungi from Yuggoth

Created using multiple instances of Fluss, the new granular audio mangler app from Hainbach and Bram Bos for the ipad

On Arcturus I Listened To The Ice Sing

“Spirits of Destruction, Speed of Grief, I command you: come out of her now!” - extract from an exorcism. In Greek mythology, the Erinyes, aka The Furies, were female chthonic deities of vengeance, born of the union of Night and the Earth, dedicated to the destruction of any who broke a sacred oath. People called them The Kindly Ones, in hope of avoiding their attentions.
Created from an original sample, processed in Tomofon.

The Kindly Ones

“The object was some fifty feet in length, of roughly cylindrical shape, and about ten feet in diameter. It was unmistakably a gilled fish in its major affiliations; but with certain curious modifications…” - Lovecraft & Greene, ‘The Horror At Martin’s Beach.’

Created with apps in AUM on IPad

The Thing We Found

“Ganzfeld: imposing a uniform space over the entire visual field. By altering your sense of sight you deprive your brain of sensory input. It begins to improvise. This may produce disturbing hallucinations. Some researchers also believe it also enables extra sensory perception.”

Made in AUM on IPad. No keyboards harmed in the making of this piece.

Ganzfeld Effect

“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 “ghost rocket" seen crashing July 19, 1946, in Lake Kölmjärv, Sweden.

Ghost Rockets

"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 & mixed live in AUM on IPad, using Hilda, Sopranotron, Speldosa, et al. Sequencing by midiDreams. No keyboards harmed during making of the piece.

Four Flies On Grey Velvet

According to mythbusting site Snopes, the ‘Crying Baby' Serial Killer Victim Lure is an urban myth, circulating since January 2003, purportedly relating to a serial killer operating in the Baton Rouge area of Louisiana, USA. It suggested the killer would leave a doll rigged with a tape recording of a crying baby on the doorsteps of lone women, to lure them out.  Coincidentally two later-convicted serial killers *were* independently operating there at this time, though neither used the ruse.

A little experiment using ‘emotional’ text to speech AI, https://typecast.ai/, keywords ‘whisper’ & ‘sad’. Recorded on iPad in AUM

Hush

A piece built using samples of ancient Northern European instruments : the Celtic Carnyx war horn, the skin drum of the Sami tribes of Scandinavia, and the Norse Tagelharpa three string bowed lyre, augmented with a totally ahistorical gong (a Far Eastern instrument, it didn’t reach Europe until the 1600s) and vocals somewhat reminiscent of the ancient  Kulning style of Scandinavian cattle-calling.  All samples arranged  in Koala and recorded live into AUM on iPad.

Gold Is Little Confort For The Kinsmen Dead

Gold Is Little Comfort For The Kinsmen Dead

“We are all roamers of vast spaces and travellers in many ages.” -  H.P. Lovecraft, Beyond the Wall of Sleep

Made in AUM, on iPad. No keyboards were harmed during the making of this piece.

Beyond The Wall Of Sleep

I do not advise you visit Hekate Station.

Korg Volca Modular recorded into AUM on IPad.

Hekate Station

“So: You have chosen the Lament Configuration.” - The Priest

My (belated) entry for this year’s drone day: https://droneday.org/

Created entirely in apps on iPad.

Drone Day 2024: The Lament Configuration

“In ancient times it was believed that the delineation between worlds was more permeable in certain anomalous areas in a landscape; these areas were known as ‘thin places’, and were sometimes signified by burial mounds or standing stones.” - Ciara Healy, University of the West of England.

The Thin Place

Chris Marker’s 1962 La Jetée, inspiration for Terry Gilliam’s later 12 Monkeys, is an astonishing tour de force, a sci fi time travel movie told entirely in still images. Except, that is, for one quietly startling moment when the unnamed protagonists’ present day girlfriend opens her eyes, in live action. Never has such a small motion felt so… momentous.

Mixed and recorded live into AUM on iPad.

The Moment She Blinked

The Moment That She Blinked

Follow Opequon Creek to the village of Middleway, West Virginia, at the foot of the brooding Appalachians, and you will encounter The Wizard Clip - the legend of a Protestant man who in 1794 denied a sick Catholic stranger the services of a priest for his last rites. After the stranger died, it is said that candles would not stay lit in the room his corpse was, sounds of horses galloping and crockery breaking were heard, and burning embers jumped from the fireplace hearth. Sounds of heavy shears making clipping noises were heard and  fabric, sheets, and boots were clipped with half-moon shapes and other figures. These phenomena are said to persist to this day.

The Wizard Clip

In the Ancient Egyptian Enigmatic Book of the Netherworld the symbol of the serpent swallowing its tail represented the beginning and end of time, and the formless disorder which surrounds the orderly world. In Norse culture it was Jörmungandr, the world-serpent. In the 15th century alchemical text the  Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra, it represents balance of opposites. For Jung, the embrace of the shadow self. And what does it represent for you?

Ouroboros

“They used to call us witches, because we knew shit. We still do.” - Carole Cadwalladr

A track made on iPad in AUM using only multiple iterations of the excellent Luapsel ambient guitar sample app: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/luapsel/id6569224196

They Used To Call Us Witches

With thanks to Duncan Bell, who permitted me to mangle a little of his masterwork:

https://soundcloud.com/user-154254/the-coronation?si=010e482dc50e47ad88fed9068f1ed7ad&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

No Gods, No Masters

“Since we are all going to die, it’s obvious that when and how don’t matter.” -Albert Camus, killed in a car crash, aged 46.

Twenty Ways They Died

If attempting Real Sleep, looking at the Moon in Local 58 is a very bad idea. The Kleitman Map will not help you.

Essential safety tips: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgHTax5GWgz0PBBig8y0tU4vBqhqBjCge&si=7Fj2xrnVY32356DK

The Kleitman Map

“Now it is raining, but we don't know what will happen in the next moment. By the time we go out it may be a beautiful day, or a stormy day. Since we don't know, let's appreciate the sound of the rain now.”
― Shunryu Suzuki

Live improvisation using Cigar box guitar, electric bass, mountain dulcimer, Roland S1 synth, Cloudbusting  electronics, looped in AUM by someone who can’t play any of these instruments.

Show Me Heavy

“The hungry ghosts, along with animals and hell beings, occupy one of the three realms of existence no one desires. In these realms it is extremely difficult to be reborn in a better realm (i.e. the realm of humans, asura or deva) because it is nearly impossible to perform deeds that cultivate good karma.”

Mr. Tancredi

Mr Tancredi

“A secret facility used by a country's military as a prison and interrogation centre, whose existence is denied by the government.”

Created entirely with apps on IPad.

Black Site

All sounds: Roland Aira System 1 synth recorded live into AUM on iPad.

We Followed Old Paths

It will surprise no-one who knows me that I, too, was born on a Wednesday.

Korg Volca Modular, multitracked in AUM on IPad. No other instruments used.

Wednesday’s Child

In theoretical physics, quantum nonlocality refers to the phenomenon by which the measurement statistics of a multipartite quantum system do not allow an interpretation with local realism. Obviously.

A.k.a: “You’re not from around here, are you son?”

Non-Local

“All kinds. Some good. Some bad. And some… well, that’d be telling.”
- The Old Woman.

There Is Magic In The World

“When you see beauty in desolation it changes something inside you. Desolation tries to colonise you.” - Jeff Vandermeer

Played live on Thereminator 2 https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/thereminator-2/id6736556748 using Loopy Pro in AUM on iPad, no other instruments used.

Desolation

“Evil wings in ether beating; Vultures at the spirit eating; Things unseen forever fleeting Black against the leering sky.” - H.P. Lovecraft, ‘Despair’.

In time for the best season of the year, my musical setting of one of HPL’s poems, pitch shifted from The Talemaster, a.k.a. G.M. Danielson’s wonderful original reading: https://youtu.be/A7PucGRd96U?si=oM51C88Q--4kNocr. 
Read the poem here: https://allpoetry.com/poem/8556785-Despair-by-Howard-Phillips-Lovecraft

H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘Despair’

H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘Despair’

“They say it has a horse's head, long legs with hooves, two short front legs, and a bat's wings. No one knows how tall it is. Some people think it's six feet tall, others think it's only three or four feet tall. The Devil has glowing red eyes and makes loud screeching sounds.” - description of the Jersey Devil from the State of New Jersey’s official website.

A Million Lonely Acres

“These violent delights have violent ends. And in their triumph die like fire and powder, which as they kiss consume.” - The Friar.

These Violent Delights

A ‘Kill Chain’ describes the process by which an individual marked for death is identified, their location established,  their movements monitored, an appropriate weapon selected, the victim engaged, and the aftermath reviewed in preparation for the next victim. The idea originated in the military, but it is adaptable to… other contexts.

Kill Chain

“In the beginning was Scream / Who begat Blood…
…Who begat God
Who begat Nothing
Who begat Never
Never Never Never

Who begat Crow.”

Crow

The Experiments: Dark Ambient. Hauntology. A Craft of Love.  

NEW ALBUM: ‘Norsecraftian’, links below. All tracks available free of charge for use in your own artistic works: videos, games, movies, theatre etc, in return for a namecheck. Request in the comments & I’ll be in touch.

All tracks composed on an IPad or modular,  arranged on iPad or Ableton.

Cthonicist

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