Magi©ian™ (Making music make a difference)

Because the old world is really going insane, we need a new one!
Voices were recorded in hostels in South Korea (Seoul and Gyeongju) with companions from Korea, Taiwan, Belgium, Germany, England... Thank you all!
This track is an extract from our upcoming EP: Time Zones, to be released in January 2024! 
Painting by Malka (detail).
Free Palestine!

Time Zones

A New World

Music by Kontra Sz & Val Akey.
- Kontra Sz: plays rythm guitars, lead guitars;
- Val Akey: drums-, bass- and keys programming (mixing and mastering) + cover art.
Many thanks Kontra Sz for the fantastic guitar play! https://soundcloud.com/kontra-sz

Release date:
12 January 2024

Captive Of Time (collab)

Magic Box

Jellyfish Palace

Portal To Another World

PS Perkins: Guitars, bass, lyre, vocals
Ron Thomas: Autoharps, Drums

Production notes:
---------------------------------------------
Very early on we wanted to use autoharps on this song to create a sort of swirling backdrop, reminiscent of the harps in Indian/Bollywood soundtrack songs of the seventies.

Right away there were challenges because the song is in B flat and is not wholly diatonic to begin with, utilizing a chord built on the augmented lydian scale in the choruses. So rather than transpose the song to a more amenable key (since the chromatic bits weren't going to work no matter what key we used) we instead re-tuned the autoharp. Moving through the strings one by one we tuned them either up or down a half step where applicable to bring them into key. Where the augmented chord hit in the choruses, we excluded those notes so that the autoharp was filling the diatonic parts of the chords and omitting the accidentals. It took us several tries to get it right. In the end we arrived at a chord progression that could be strummed on the autoharp and the modified chords could be played with existing dampers.

We also tuned the lyre so that the top half of the strings included the chromatic augmented notes while the lower register of the lyre was tuned using the diatonic, so the lyre could play the melody all the way through both parts of the song.

The inspiration for this song was essentially fourfold:
--------------------------------------------------------
First, H.P. Lovecraft's terrifying necromancer Joseph Curwen (from "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward") who masked his true identity in order to thwart suspicion from his fellow townsfolk. He has many secrets lurking in his underground catacombs where he performs acts of necromancy most foul, extracting the "salts" of the dead in order to raise them at will and learn the secrets of ancient eldritch deities.

Second, a poem by Rudyard Kipling titled "En-Dor" which was a warning against the rise of spiritualism and the cost of communion with the dead in the early 20th century.

Third, the biblical Saul who traveled in disguise to visit a witch at the city of Endor in order to summon Samuel from the dead and garner advice on defeating the Philistines, but who only prophesies doom for Saul. Saul dies later the next day in the battle of Gilboa.

Lastly, the story of Odysseus communing with the underworld where he enlists the help of Tiresias to have a chat with the dead and secure for himself a safe journey home.

They all seek communion with the dead for one purpose: to gain knowledge which only those who have crossed over between realms might possess. 

Lyrics:
-------------------------------------
A mask may reveal what it’s meant to conceal
From those who are standing beside us
Armor of pride, so we learn to abide
By the monsters which hide deep inside us
The monsters which lurk deep inside us
Oh, how they scratch and they bite us
The monsters which lurk deep inside us

Only to know what the professor knows

Eating black bread, wearing clothes of the dead
The soil soaked in honey around us
For fear if we failed, leave the ogre unveiled
And it’s back in the grave where they found us
Back in the grave where they found us
Freed from the ties which had bound us
Back in the grave where they found us

Only to know what the professor knows

In the catacomb vaults, we extracted the salts
From cadavers to lengthen our youth
Chanting the names at the edge of the flames
And a mirror to show us the truth
A mirror which speaks only truth
See how it seeks not to soothe
A mirror which speaks only truth

Only to know what the professor knows

In the underworld maze, in the night of no days
Concocting the plan we’re devising
Much to endure on the road to En-Dor
And to snatch from Elohim arising
To snatch from Elohim arising
Snatch from Elohim arising
Snatch from Elohim arising
Snatch from Elohim arising
Snatch from Elohim arising

BARDS:Of The Shimmering Seraphs

The Professor

So It Was

Various authors with some real-time processing captured from Radio Aporee.
It is interesting to discover how inspiring the single nuances of concrete sounds can be, with rhythms, melodic/harmonic cells, textures and more.
This material certainly lends itself very well to further processing for the creation of something else.
Radio Aporee is an excellent source of inspiration.

work in progress

The hidden beauty of concrete sounds v.1

ER WAR HIER

Themes From Forgotten Films Vol 2: The Reactor.wav

Slow slider moves on the Buchla Music Easel with looper.

SlowScape

2025-10-29

The Birth of Frankenstein

A reworking for this track in my archive originally created in autumn 2024, after a few versions in the last year i  find it fits well with the context of Haiku Music Challenge Naviarhaiku 617



an autumn nightfall
the skeleton of a huge fish
drawn back by the sea.

by: Saitō Sanki



Saitō Sanki (1900 – 1962) was a dentist who discovered his passion for haiku poetry in his mid-thirties, when his colleagues at the hospital in Soto Kanda convinced him to write a haiku for a collection. Later, he became one of the most important exponents of wartime haiku: he was imprisoned in 1940 during the government’s World War II persecution of controversial artists, and was officially forbidden to write until the end of the war.

haiku by Saitō Sanki

Picture by John Jason

more info here: https://www.naviarrecords.com/

an autumn nightfall (Naviarhaiku#617)

Mama (Junona. Part II)

10 laws of life

Flagship | Epic Cinematic Pirate Music

Song Owner/Creator : Duncan Lam

Project Record can be watched here:
https://youtu.be/kJgE8wnYSA4

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Use of my original work and covers is allowed as long as you give proper credit with my first and last name, including my channel link : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8fGysp10Lv31iRwRiRnN5g

For use of original scores and soundtracks composed by me, please let me know by dropping YOUR comment on the music you wish to use.

Duncan Lam - Flagship (Epic Cinematic Pirate Music)

⚡ Synthwave energy unleashed! ⚡ Shock the Algorithm returns with a brand NEW album — Ultraviolet Cosmos.
https://shockthealgorithm.bandcamp.com/album/ultraviolet-cosmos

🌌 Available NOW on Bandcamp — grab your digital copy today and step into the neon! 🌌

We have completed our "Time Trilogy"... 1 album and 2 EPs now available on CD! https://zuunzug.bandcamp.com/merch/time-trilogy-3-cd

A New World

Zuunzug

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