Cold City. Imaginary Soundtrack.
A Snow*Omen/Velvet Something Superdark collaboration.
https://soundcloud.com/snow_omen

Snow*Omen: Recordings of improvised live performances on the poem "Cold City" (Y.A. 2020) with electric guitars, object sounds and voice. Velvet Something Superdark: Processed electric guitar, field recordings, samples, noise. All sounds Snow*Omen and VSS. Mixing and production: VSS. Image: Möckernbrücke Subway Station, Berlin, at night (videostill: VSS).
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Cold City 

Cold city wires us up
to the crispy 
winter lanes
to the chimes and bells of rust

We are fragile

Are we still warm in her hands?
Are we the aftermath of her night?
Are we her crumbling body of bread?

Cold city swallows us up
every morning
she takes us down
with her first coffee cup

We are fragile

Are we her little wicked friends?
Are we her nausea at breakfast?
Are we her crumbling body of bread?

She dusts the crumbles
off her teeth 
her pointed teeth
puts on her million fancy gowns

We are fragile

Are we her foxy lady friends?
Are we her agents of the dawn?
Or just her crumbling body of bread?

Cold city is the ageless queen
snowless
and dark 
with icicles she writes upon our skin

That we are fragile
--------------------

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Cold City. Imaginary Soundtrack

Part 2 of the 3-pieces series "Birds": https://soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/sets/birds-1-3

Electric piano, effect pedals, unsynchronized loops, tube amps, field recording (lakeside birds in spring, outskirts of Berlin). All sounds, mixing and production: VSS. Image: VSS.

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Birds, Part 2

Dark ambient approach to Sylvia Plath's Poem "Sheep in Fog." Featuring an improvisation by SnowOmen: https://soundcloud.com/snow_omen/glasswork-nr-3. Music VSS (electric guitar, percussion, effect pedals, unsynchronized loops, voice, two tube amps) & SnowOmen (4 hands, 8 glasses, water, table). Mixing and production: VSS. Image: Miniature installation (photo: VSS). 

Sylvia Plath: Sheep in Fog (1962/63)

The hills step off into whiteness.
People or stars
Regard me sadly, I disappoint them.

The train leaves a line of breath.
O slow
Horse the cololur of rust,

Hooves, dolorous bells - 
All morning the 
Morning has been blackening,

A flower left out.
My bones hold a stillness, the far
Fields melt my heart.

They threaten
To let me through to a heaven
Starless and fatherless, a dark water.

Dark Water

https://soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/sets/passages
Number 5 of five pieces combining a solo-piano improvisation by VSS with a live-recording of Snow*Omen: https://soundcloud.com/snow_omen/improvisation-nr-4 (excerpts).
In this short final piece it's only VSS: e-piano, effect pedals, unynchronized loops, tube amps. Mixing and production: VSS. Image: VSS.

Passage Five

Piece for damaged music box and out of tune acoustic guitar with two strings missing. 

I hadn't really known the old lady. The bonfire-guitar hanging on her wall was dusty and in poor condition. A matchbox-sized music box huddled on a shelf amongst books and letters, trying to play “The Third Man” correctly with some of it’s tongues missing. I looked around. All these remnants of a life would soon disappear. I had not known her. Her name was Eve.
(In Memoriam E. Willig 1948-2024)

All sounds, mixing and production: VSS. 
Image: Music box clamped between the remaining strings of the guitar (thus some of the sounds where created), photo: VSS.

Something About Eve

And now for some delicious raw homemade monotony... Bon appétit

Violin-bow on electric guitar, electric piano, effect-pedals, voice, unsynchronized loops, two tube amps. All sounds, mixing and production: Velvet Something Superdark. Image: Tempelhofer Feld, Berlin (photo: VSS)

One To Eight

Snow*Omen/Velvet Something Superdark collaboration.
Music: Snow Omen https://soundcloud.com/snow_omen: Improvisation on a poem by Elizabeth Bishop (recording of a live performance, electric guitar: VSS, voice: Y.A.). Added sounds (musicbox, noise, percussion), mixing and production: VSS. Image: Winsor McCay, Little Nemo (detail, photo: VSS)

Lyrics: Elizabeth Bishop: Songs for a Colored Singer, Part III (1946)

Lullaby.
Adult and child
sink to their rest.
At sea the big ship sinks and dies,
lead in its breast.

Lullaby.
Let nations rage,
let nations fall.
The shadow of the crib makes an enormous cage
upon the wall.

Lullaby.
Sleep on and on,
war's over soon.
Drop the silly, harmless toy,
pick up the moon.

Lullaby.
If they should say
you have no sense,
don't you mind them; it won't make
much difference.

Lullaby.
Adult and child
sink to their rest.
At sea the big ship sinks and dies,
lead in its breast.

Lullaby

Violin-bow on electric guitar, analogue bass-synthesizer, effect pedals, unsynchronized  loops, two tube amps, field recording (Kottbusser Tor Subway Station, Berlin), voice. All sounds, mixing and production: VSS.  Image: VSS. Text: excerpt from Paul B. Preciado: An Apartment on Uranus (2019).

Part of the six-part series "Underground" 
soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/sets/underground
Auditory impressions from the Berlin Subway merge with harsh drones, glitchy beats, weird sounds and melancholic melodies to invite you on a psychedelic journey beneath the surface of the city.

Dreams

Wind chime, electric guitar, effect pedals, unsynchronized loops, two tube amps. All sounds, mixing and production: VSS. Image: miniature installation, photo (VSS). 
Listen to a  Remix of this Track: https://soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/deeper

Doomsday Clock

"Doomsday Clock"-Remix. Electric guitar, effect pedals, unsynchronized loops, two tube amps, wind chime, voice. All sounds, mixing and production: VSS. Original Track: https://soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/doomsday-clock. Image: Miniature installation, photo (VSS).

Deeper (Doomsday Clock Remix)

Snow*Omen/Velvet Something Superdark collaboration based on Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" (1972). Recording of partly improvised live performances (Y.A.: voice, fretless 4-string-cbg, e-bow, VSS: electric guitars, pedal noise, background voice). All sounds: @snow_omen. Mixing and production: VSS.

Perfect Day, Extended

Electric guitar, effect pedals, unsynchronized loops, two tube amps. All sounds, mixing and production: VSS. Image: Filmstill from "Blade Runner"(1982), altered detail.

Visitor

Snow*Omen/Velvet Something Superdark collaboration.
Music: Snow Omen @snow_omen: Instant composition on a poem by Elizabeth Bishop (recording of a live performance, voice: Y. A., electric guitar: VSS) and https://soundcloud.com/snow_omen/improvisation-nr-8 for voice and electric guitar (recording of a live performance, voice: Y.A., electric guitar: VSS), arrangement, mixing and production: VSS. All sounds Snow*Omen & Tuxedo Cat Fabian (at 5:34)


Lyrics: Elizabeth Bishop: Insomnia (1955)

The moon in the bureau mirror
looks out a million miles
(and perhaps with pride, at herself,
but she never, never smiles)
far and away beyond sleep, or
perhaps she's a daytime sleeper.

By the Universe deserted,
she'd tell it to go to hell,
and she'd find a body of water,
or a mirror, on which to dwell.
So wrap up care in a cobweb
and drop it down the well

into that world inverted
where left is always right,
where the shadows are really the body,
where we stay awake all night,
where the heavens are shallow as the sea
is now deep, and you love me.

Insomnia

https://soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/sets/cold-city-soundtrack
-----------------------
Snow*Omen/Velvet Something Superdark collaboration.
Music: Snow*Omen @snow_omen (recording of a partly improvised live performance. Voice: Y.A., electric guitar: VSS). Mixing and production: VSS. All sounds Snow*Omen and VSS. Image: Möckernbrücke Subway Station, Berlin, at night (videostill: VSS). 

Cold City (lyrics: Y.A.)
----------

Cold city wires us up
to the crispy 
winter lanes
to the chimes and bells of rust

We are fragile

Are we still warm in her hands?
Are we the aftermath of her night?
Are we her crumbling body of bread?

Cold city swallows us up
every morning
she takes us down
with her first coffee cup

We are fragile

Are we her little wicked friends?
Are we her nausea at breakfast?
Are we her crumbling body of bread?

She dusts the crumbles
off her teeth 
her pointed teeth
puts on her million fancy gowns

We are fragile

Are we her foxy lady friends?
Are we her agents of the dawn?
Or just her crumbling body of bread?

Cold city is the ageless queen
snowless
and dark 
with icicles she writes upon our skin 

That we are fragile

Cold City: Icicles

https://soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/sets/cold-city-soundtrack
-----------------------
Snow*Omen/Velvet Something Superdark collaboration.
Music: Snow*Omen @snow_omen (recordings of two improvised live performances. Electric guitars: VSS & Y.A., voices: Y.A.). Mixing and production: VSS. All sounds Snow*Omen and VSS. Image: Möckernbrücke Subway Station, Berlin, at night (videostill: VSS).

Cold City (lyrics: Y.A.)
----------

Cold city wires us up
to the crispy 
winter lanes
to the chimes and bells of rust

We are fragile

Are we still warm in her hands?
Are we the aftermath of her night?
Are we her crumbling body of bread?

Cold city swallows us up
every morning
she takes us down
with her first coffee cup

We are fragile

Are we her little wicked friends?
Are we her nausea at breakfast?
Are we her crumbling body of bread?

She dusts the crumbles
off her teeth 
her pointed teeth
puts on her million fancy gowns

We are fragile

Are we her foxy lady friends?
Are we her agents of the dawn?
Or just her crumbling body of bread?

Cold city is the ageless queen
snowless
and dark 
with icicles she writes upon our skin

That we are fragile

Cold City: Echoes

https://soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/sets/cold-city-soundtrack
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Snow*Omen/Velvet Something Superdark collaboration.
Music: Snow*Omen @snow_omen (Recording of an improvised live performance. Electric guitars: VSS & Y.A., voices & rustling paper: Y.A.). Field recording (seagulls), mixing and production: VSS. All sounds Snow*Omen and VSS. Image: Möckernbrücke Subway Station, Berlin, at night (videostill: VSS).

Cold city wires us up
to the crispy 
winter lanes
to the chimes and bells of rust
we are fragile...

Cold City: Riverside

https://soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/sets/cold-city-soundtrack
-----------------------
Snow*Omen/Velvet Something Superdark collaboration.
Music: Snow*Omen @snow_omen (Recording of an improvised live performance. Electric guitars: VSS & Y.A.) & Velvet Something Superdark (electric guitar). Field recording (subway trains passing through tunnel), mixing and production: VSS. All sounds Snow*Omen and VSS. Image: Möckernbrücke Subway Station, Berlin, at night (videostill: VSS).

Cold City: Vaults

https://soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/sets/cold-city-soundtrack
-----------------------
Snow*Omen/Velvet Something Superdark collaboration.
Music: Snow*Omen @snow_omen (Recording of an improvised live performance. Electric guitars: VSS & Y.A., voice: Y.A.) & Velvet Something Superdark (electric guitar). Field recordings (subway trains passing through tunnel, seagulls), added noise, mixing and production: VSS. All sounds Snow*Omen and VSS. Image: Möckernbrücke Subway Station, Berlin, at night (videostill: VSS).

Cold City: Specular

soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/sets/cold-city-soundtrack
-----------------------
Snow*Omen/Velvet Something Superdark collaboration.
Music: Snow*Omen @snow_omen (Recording of an improvised live performance. Electric guitar: VSS, voice: Y.A.). Field recording, percussion, mixing and production: VSS. All sounds Snow*Omen and VSS. Image: Möckernbrücke Subway Station, Berlin, at night (videostill: VSS).

Cold City: Vanishing

soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/sets/cold-city-soundtrack
-----------------------
Snow*Omen/Velvet Something Superdark collaboration.
Music: Snow*Omen @snow_omen (Recording of an improvised live performance. Electric guitar: VSS, voice: Y.A.). Field recording, percussion, additional sounds, second voice, mixing and production: VSS. All sounds Snow*Omen and VSS. Image: Möckernbrücke Subway Station, Berlin, at night (videostill: VSS).

Cold City (lyrics: Y.A.)
----------

Cold city wires us up
to the crispy 
winter lanes
to the chimes and bells of rust

We are fragile

Are we still warm in her hands?
Are we the aftermath of her night?
Are we her crumbling body of bread?

Cold city swallows us up
every morning
she takes us down
with her first coffee cup

We are fragile

Are we her little wicked friends?
Are we her nausea at breakfast?
Are we her crumbling body of bread?

She dusts the crumbles
off her teeth 
her pointed teeth
puts on her million fancy gowns

We are fragile

Are we her foxy lady friends?
Are we her agents of the dawn?
Or just her crumbling body of bread?

Cold city is the ageless queen
snowless
and dark 
with icicles she writes upon our skin

That we are fragile

Cold City: In Her Hands

soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/sets/cold-city-soundtrack
-----------------------
Snow*Omen/Velvet Something Superdark collaboration.
Samples from: Snow*Omen: @snow_omen, recording of an improvised live performance, electric guitars: VSS & Y.A. Sampling, field recording (subway trains passing through tunnel), voice, mixing and production: VSS. All sounds Snow*Omen and VSS. Image: Möckernbrücke Subway Station, Berlin, at night (videostill: VSS).

Cold City: Tunnels

soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/sets/cold-city-soundtrack
-----------------------
Snow*Omen/Velvet Something Superdark collaboration.
Samples from: Snow*Omen: @snow_omen, recording of an improvised live performance, electric guitar: VSS. Sampling, field recording (seagulls), mixing and production: VSS. All sounds Snow*Omen and VSS. Image: Möckernbrücke Subway Station, Berlin, at night (videostill: VSS).

Cold City: Concrete

soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/sets/cold-city-soundtrack
-----------------------
Snow*Omen/Velvet Something Superdark collaboration.
Samples from: Snow*Omen: @snow_omen, recording of an improvised live performance, electric guitar: VSS. Sampling, field recording, mixing and production: VSS. All sounds Snow*Omen and VSS. Image: Möckernbrücke Subway Station, Berlin, at night (videostill: VSS).

Cold City: Arterial

soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/sets/cold-city-soundtrack
-----------------------
Snow*Omen/Velvet Something Superdark collaboration.
Samples from: Snow*Omen: @snow_omen, recording of an improvised live performance, electric guitar: VSS, voice: Y.A. Sampling, field recording, mixing and production: VSS. All sounds Snow*Omen and VSS. Image: Möckernbrücke Subway Station, Berlin, at night (videostill: VSS).

Cold City: Dawn

Electric guitar, percussion, effect pedals, unsynchronized loops, voice, two tube amps, field recording (jackhammer). All sounds, voice, lyrics, mixing and production: Velvet Something Superdark. Image: Abandoned doll's head at roadside, Berlin (photo: VSS)

I don't see you
You don't see me

I don't hear you
You don't hear me

I don't touch you
You don't touch me

I can't feel you
You can't feel me

I can't kill you
You can't kill me

I'm alone
And you're alone

I am home
And you are home

We're together
Here forever

We're together 
Here forever...

Together Forever

Jackhammer field recording snippet slowed, spread into 6 (3 stereo) tracks, paulstretched for drone part, cut, reassembled. All sounds, mixing and production: Velvet Something Superdark.

This jackhammer also appears in "Together Forever": https://soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/together-forever & “Chimaera”: https://soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/chimaera

Jackhammer Étude

Breath, voice, violin bow on electric guitar, electric piano, effect pedals, percussion, non synchronized loops, two tube amps. Field recording: Electromagnetic waves made audible with Soma Ether. Spoken words: "Ariel" (1962), last verses, read by Sylvia Plath. All sounds (except Plath's reading) mixing and production: Velvet Something Superdark.
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"And I 
Am the arrow,

The dew that flies
Suicidal, at one with the drive
Into the red

Eye, the cauldron of morning."
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Ariel

Electric guitar, effect pedals, non synchronized loops, two tube amps, acoustic thunder-drums. Excerpts (partly processed) from the vocal performance "Moan" by Snow*Omen:  https://soundcloud.com/snow_omen/moan. Spoken words: "Aber ein Sturm weht vom Paradiese her" (But a storm blows from Paradise): Walter Benjamin, Über den Begriff der Geschichte, These IX (1940). All sounds: Velvet Something Superdark & Snow*Omen. Mixing and production: Velvet Something Superdark.  Image: Paul Klee: Angelus Novus (1920), altered detail (VSS).

Angelus Novus

Dedicated to those who oppose.
All sounds - including the music - were recorded during a rally against evictions, gentrification and police violence in Berlin on May 28, 2025.
Recording, editing, mixing and production: Velvet Something Superdark. 
Image: Police gather near the rally (Photo: VSS).
Spoken words at 2:48 (English translation): 
For every house evicted, there will be new occupations. For every killing, the cops will pay the price. We are here in firm determination and solidarity and we are showing that we will not be defeated. Get active! We don't have much to lose - but we have our freedom to gain.

Those Were The Days

Nocturnal improvisation turned into something quite sinister again....

Whisk on electric guitar, Yamaha P-120 (church organ, grand piano), effect pedals, percussion, non synchronized loops, two tube amps. All sounds, mixing and production: Velvet Something Superdark. Image: VSS.

Undertow

Handmade (Experimental) (Ambient) Sound (Art)

Velvet Something Superdark is 1/2 of  https://soundcloud.com/snow_omen

Velvet Something Superdark

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