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.

All sounds (except "Morning" feat. an improvisation by Snow*Omen, cf. comment), voice, lyrics (except "Sunday" & "Dreams", cf. comments), field recordings, mixing and production: Velvet Something Superdark.

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Underground

Cold City. Soundtrack for an imaginary movie.
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).
-------------------------

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. Soundtrack

Violin-bow on electric guitar, analog bass synthesizer, effect pedals, unsynchronized loops, two tube amps, field recording (Kottbusser Tor subway station, Berlin). All sounds, mixing and production: VSS. Image: VSS.

This piece is part of the six-part series "Underground" 
https://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.

Improvisation on 3-string cigarbox-guitar, analog bass synthesizer, effect pedals, unsynchronized loops, tube amps, field recording (subway). All sounds, mixing and production: VSS. 

This piece is 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.

Subterrestrial

Field recording (Kottbusser Tor Subway Station, Berlin), analog bass-synthesizer, percussion, effect pedals, unsynchronized loops, voice, tube amps. All sounds, voice, lyrics, mixing and production: VSS. Image: VSS.

This piece is 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.

This is the sound of the future
This is the sound of the past

Where do we go when the world ends
What do we do if it lasts

Will you hold me in the darkness
Will you kiss me in the cold

So little time left for changes
So many stories untold

Only one train to tomorrow
Only one track in the night

Got no time got no ticket
Drifting slowly out sight

Will you hold me in the darkness
Will you kiss me in the cold

So little time left for changes
So many stories untold...

Night

"Tears" Subway-Remix https://soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/tears. Featuring an improvisation by SnowOmen: https://soundcloud.com/snow_omen/glasswork-nr-2. SnowOmen: 4 hands, 8 glasses, water, table. VSS: Electric Guitar, electroacoustic guitar, analog bass synthesizer, effect pedals, unsynchronized loops, tube amps, voice, field recordings (on the escalator, in the shower), lyrics. Mixing and production: VSS. Image: Kottbusser Tor Subway-Station, Berlin (photo: VSS)

This piece is 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.

There are these mornings
I open my eyes 
just to cry

There are these moments
right before dawn
when I die

There are the days
all I can say is
let it rain

There are the nights
I pray to sleep
not to wake
not again

But then there's you
there's only you
who makes me feel

Yes there is you
there's only you
makes me wonder

An I'm not
going under...

Morning

Personal dark ambient approach to "Gloomy Sunday". Original composition "Szomorú vasárnap" by R. Seress, 1933. Electroacoustic guitar, voice, field recording (Kottbusser Tor Subway Station, Berlin). All sounds, mixing and production: VSS. Image: VSS.

This piece is 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.

Sunday

Part 1 of the 3-pieces series "Birds": 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.

Birds, Part 1

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

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

Visitor

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 (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.
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

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 Etude

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.
------------
"And I 
Am the arrow,

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

Eye, the cauldron of morning."
-------------
Part of https://soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/sets/ariel

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.
--------------------------------
More Resistambient: https://soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/la-police

Those Were The Days

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

Whisk on electric guitar, Yamaha P-120 (church organ, grand piano), effect pedals, percussion, analog bass synthesizer, non synchronized loops, two tube amps. All sounds, mixing and production: Velvet Something Superdark. Image: VSS. 
Original track: https://soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/undertow

Undertow (Dark Mood Remix)

Dedicated to those who oppose.
---------------------------------
Analog bass synthesizer, fretless acoustic bass guitar, unsynchronized loops, two tube amps, breaking glass. Field recording taken at a demonstration in Berlin, July 2025. All sounds, mixing, and production: Velvet Something Superdark. Image: Police officer using a pain grip during an arrest, Berlin newspaper photo from July 27, 2025, edited by VSS.
---------------------------------
More Resistambient: https://soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/those-were-the-days

La Police

Electric guitar, e-bow, effect pedals, non synchronized loops, two tube amps, analog bass synthesizer, djembe. Audio-snippets taken from Fox News, 06.08.2025. All sounds (except the original voices), mixing and production: Velvet Something Superdark.

Chernobyl On The Moon

Part of: Dark Bouquet. Variations on a theme. soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/sets/dark-bouquet
All material - cut, altered, mixed at will - comes from a nocturnal solo improvisation with fretless acoustic bass guitar with piezo pickup, effect pedals (Carcosa - Dark Star - Obscura), non synchronized loops, three amps. Recorded in the room with Zoom H2n, edited in Audacity. All sounds made with the instrument. All sounds, mixing and production: Velvet Something Superdark.

Dark Flower

Another Dark Flower

Dark Flower Drone

Part of: Dark Bouquet. Variations on a theme. https://soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/sets/dark-bouquet 
All material - cut, altered, mixed at will - comes from a nocturnal solo improvisation with fretless acoustic bass guitar with piezo pickup, effect pedals (Carcosa - Dark Star - Obscura), non synchronized loops, three amps. Recorded in the room with Zoom H2n, edited in Audacity. All sounds made with the instrument. All sounds, mixing and production: Velvet Something Superdark.

Dark Flower Dream

Dark Flower Overdose

Remix and combination of VSS's tracks “Rain” and “Love” for a radio feature - 20 minutes of intense romantic dark ambient made with electric piano, violin-bow on electric guitar, analog bass synthesizer, effect-pedals, unsynchronized loops, two tube amps, breaking glass and field recordings. All sounds, mixing and production: Velvet Something Superdark.
Image: Face mask of a resuscitation dummy (photo: VSS)

Direct downloads enabled - Please respect the indicated CC license terms.
Support this work: EP "Heat - Love - Rain" on Bandcamp: https://velvetsomethingsuperdark.bandcamp.com/album/heat-love-rain-ep

Rain/Love (Radio Edit)

Rain&Love (Radio Edit)

Acoustic thunder-drums, electric piano, non synchronized loops, two tube amps. Field recording: Electromagnetic waves made audible with Soma Ether. All sounds mixing and production: Velvet Something Superdark.
Part of https://soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/sets/ariel

Magnetic Clouds

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

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

Eye, the cauldron of morning."
-------------
Part of https://soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/sets/ariel

Cauldron

Personal dark ambient approach to "Wonderful World", original L. Armstrong 1967 (remixed and extended version of an older VSS track). Electric guitar, percussion, effect pedals, voice, unsynchronized loops, two tube amps and a lot of time manipulation. Field recording: electromagnetic waves made audible with Soma Ether. All sounds, voice, mixing and production: Velvet Something Superdark. Image: inside a shop-window in Berlin Neukölln (photo VSS).
Please listen to part 2 as well: https://soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/wonderful-wasted-world-part-2

Wonderful Wasted World, Part 1

Electric guitar, voice, effect pedals, unsynchronized loops, two tube amps. All sounds, voice, mixing and production: Velvet Something Superdark. 
Part of https://soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/sets/tempest

Darkening

Flying

Remixed material from "Darkening" and  "Flying": Electric guitar, voice, effect pedals, unsynchronized loops, two tube amps. Field recording: Thunderstorm at night. Percussion sample: Crashing dishes. Poem read by VSS. All sounds, voice, mixing and production: Velvet Something Superdark. Part of https://soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/sets/tempest

Text: "An awful tempest", Emily Dickinson (1830-1886): 

An awful tempest mashed the air,
The clouds were gaunt and few;
A black, as of a spectre's cloak,
Hid heaven and earth from view.

The creatures chuckled on the roofs
And whistled in the air,
And shook their fists and gashed their teeth,
And swung their frenzied hair.

The morning lit, the birds arose;
The monster's faded eyes
Turned slowly to his native coast,
And peace was Paradise.

Tempest

Electric guitar, analog bass synthesizer, effect pedals, voice, unsynchronized loops, two tube amps, broken heart beats and a lot of time manipulation. Field recording: electromagnetic waves made audible with Soma Ether. All sounds, voice, mixing and production: Velvet Something Superdark. Image: inside a shop-window in Berlin Neukölln (photo VSS).
This is the second part of https://soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/wonderful-wasted-world-part-1

Wonderful Wasted World, Part 2

Personal dark ambient approach to Johannes Brahms' “Wiegenlied" (Cradle Song), Op. 49, No. 4, 1868, for music box, rubber bands and analog synthesizer. Using snippets from recordings with Jeanette McDonald, Elisabeth Grümmer, Hermann Prey and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, as well as an old radio introduction (speaker unknown). All sounds  - apart from the aforementioned excerpts - , mixing, and production: Velvet Something Superdark.

Wiegenlied, deconstructed

Handmade (Experimental) (Ambient) Sound (Art)

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

Velvet Something Superdark

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