Necro Futurist {ALTER}_Peace

The GSpot: P. Emerson Williams

2010-01-22T08:37:00.000-08:00

http://www.alterati.com/blog/2010/01/the-gspot-p-emerson-williams/

http://www.alterati.com/blog/?p=2825

Joseph Matheny in conversation with P. Emerson Williams and a new episode of In Your Ear, in which Psuke reviews Transpondency.

====

P. Emerson Williams is a visionary artist and illustrator, whose work has been displayed in galleries and events in Norway, Scotland, Boston, New Orleans, Salt Lake City, Florida and London. His illustrations have also appeared in countless publications, as the artist in residence at Ghastly magazine and as the illustrator for many other Goth and occult publications from California to Virginia, and Lithuania, England and Finland to Colombia, as well as covers for sevel titles from Original Falcon and Leilah Wendell’s book «Necromance». His art can be seen on the front cover of SLEEPCHAMBER’S return to action release “Socery, Spellls, and Serpent Charms”, as well as the Zewizz tribute releases “That’s Romance” (both part 1 and 2). He is a core member of FoolishPeople starting from London productions of Cirxus and The Abattoir Pages and continuing with the forthcoming A Red Threatening Sky on other projects in the works.

Williams’ experimental Gothic.Industrial act VEIL OF THORNS is approaching the twenty year mark in their career, and they continue to build on an ever expanding palette with «salon Apocalypse» and «Necrofuturist». Veil Of Thorns began as a Goth band in the early 90’s club scene in Boston but steadily moved toward a more eclectic sound. Not afraid to use any influence – you will hear styling’s of goth, hip hop, industrial, classical, and just about the whole kitchen sink. In 2009, VEIL OF THORNS formed a creative alliance with Inner-X-Musick, the label and music distributor run by the infamous John Zewizz of SLEEPCHAMBER fame.

Coming to fruition in 2010 are two releases from CHORONZON, P. Emerson Williams’ chaotic project whose twin roots lie in industrial and black metal music. CHORONZON, began as two separate and entirely unrelated projects with the same name: the eastern half was a Boston/Florida based black metal-styled band formed in 1986 by P. Emerson Williams, while its western counterpart was the San Francisco old school industrial project of Demimonde Mesila Thraam. In 2002, the two respective CHORONZONs became aware of each other via the internet, and agreed to share use of the name, before going still further and collaborating musically.

Prior to the merging of CHORONZONs, the East Coast CHORONZON released of a series of self produced cassettes before being signed to the record label Nocturnal Art Productions in 1998, and released the album «Magog Agog». Three more albums followed, in which the sound moved further away from conventional black metal into industrial and experimental territories. The first release from the conjoined CHORONZON was the double album New World Chaos, produced in 2005.

If that is not enough, P. Emerson Williams has more bubbling under the surface. Keep an eye out for renewed and exponential activity from kkoagulaa and Mythos Media in the coming year and the move of Necrofuturist {TRANS}_Mission, his radio show on Radio Nightbreed from web streaming to Sirius/XM sattelite radio.

Links:

Choronzon.org
Veilofthorns.com
FoolishPeople.com
Mythosmedia.net
kkoagulaa.wordpress.com
Innerxmusick.com
praysilence.org/page/radio-nightbreed
discogs.com/artist/P.+Emerson+Williams

Listen to or download show below

http://www.alterati.com/blog/2010/01/the-gspot-p-emerson-williams/

'A Red Threatening Sky' will now feature a collaboration with Space Engineering

2010-01-08T07:18:00.000-08:00

'A Red Threatening Sky' will now feature a collaboration with Space Engineering

FoolishPeople are proud to announce a first-time collaboration with Space Engineering for their upcoming project in the subterranean landscape of the Old Abattoir.

A Red Threatening Sky will now feature unique choreography by Johan Stjernholm. Space Engineering is an experimental dance company on the crossroads between art and science, bringing together exciting artists and cutting edge research on the body and movement. You can view more of their work at: www.SpaceEngineering.org We will be announcing other artists who will be involved in the event over the coming weeks. Discounted tickets are available now if you purchase on-line at: www.ClubAethereus.com

'A Red Threatening Sky' will now feature a collaboration with Space Engineering

Veil of Thorns - Abattoir Apocalypse Transmission I

2009-11-21T02:32:00.000-08:00

There is a theme, but an as yet nebulous one. I'm pulling together phenomena and experiences connected with art movements of the last hundred years and the corresponding societal upheavals that ran concurrently and which had an enormous impact on the birth, life and death of those art movements.

At the same time, I'm meditating on the similarities and interconnectedness of art and cultural groups and cults, magickal groups, religions, philosophical paradigm shifts and the growth they spur as well as the devastation they leave in their wake, both psychick and materially manifest.

And there's a book I'm desperately looking for, don't know the name of it, but its effect on people who read it seems to have been similar to the fictional King in Yellow.

This item is part of the collection: Ourmedia

Mediatype: Image
Creator: Veil of Thorns
Licenseurl: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/no/
Identifier: VeilOfThorns-AbattoirApocalypseTransmissionI
Addeddate: 2009-11-21 09:59:07
Publicdate: 2009-11-21 10:04:35
Keywords: VEIL OF THORNS; NECROFUTURIST; salon apocalypse; soundscape; ambient; gothic

Creative Commons license: Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Norway

Individual Files

Whole Item	Format	Size
VeilOfThorns-AbattoirApocalypseTransmissionI_vbr.m3u	VBR M3U	Stream
VeilOfThorns-AbattoirApocalypseTransmissionI_vbr_mp3.zip	VBR ZIP	178 MB

Audio Files	VBR MP3	Ogg Vorbis
Veil.of.Thorns-Abattoir.Apocalypse.Transmission-I.mp3	178 MB	60 MB

Image Files	JPEG
Abattoir.Apocalypse.Transmission-I.jpg	333 KB

Thumbnails	JPEG Thumb
Abattoir.Apocalypse.Transmission-I.jpg	8.58 KB

Information	Format	Size
VeilOfThorns-AbattoirApocalypseTransmissionI_files.xml	Metadata	2.38 KB
VeilOfThorns-AbattoirApocalypseTransmissionI_meta.xml	Metadata	1.38 KB

Veil of Thorns - Birthed

2009-11-15T00:25:00.000-08:00

We have made the album available once again, with new cover and a fuller remastered sound. This release marked a new approach for Veil of Thorns, laying a foundation that we are building on to this day.

Within the tracks on "Birthed", a CD by Veil Of Thorns, you can hear parallels to industrial bands such as Pig, Razed in Black and Nine Inch Nails and, more often than not, you can hear the pure creativity of P. Emerson Williams. Anything created by this man, the brain behind Choronzon (black metal tinged with experimental, ambient and industrial edges) , you would expect to be eclectic and creative. It's his trademark. Herein you'll encounter thick, pummeling, distorted spears of electro/guitar industrial, D&B, goth, dirgey slow industrial moodiness, etc., etc., etc., etc., in fact, etcetera ad infinitum. What's persistent in Williams' smooth, creative and original fusion of various elements is the sustained tone and mood, like that of a soul resigned to nihilistic fate. None of Emerson's creations are quite like anything else, even when you're hearing touches of something else in there. His fierce originality score another point for the underground.

Review by: Kristofer Upjohn, www.chaindlk.com

Tracklist

	Track	Duration
1	Starry Skies	4:33
2	Falling To Earth	4:01
3	Raining Down	4:35
4	bleedingacidcasualty	5:44
5	Enshroud	5:03
6	sanctify	3:39
7	Faith	3:32
8	Souls	3:54
9	In Your Goodness	6:32
10	Birthed	4:41
11	We Are	4:29

Download Album (MP3) - $9.99
Buy CD
iTunes

Shamanistic Madness - Veil Of Thorns Interview

2009-11-11T01:02:00.000-08:00

VEIL OF THORNS - SHAMANISTIC MADNESS

Over the last two years P. Emerson Williams has been extremely busy. His art work has been seen on the front cover of SLEEPCHAMBER'S return to action release "Socery, Spellls, and Serpent Charms", as well as the Zewizz tribute releases "That's Romance" (both part 1 and 2). He is heavily involved with Foolish People.org (with the current "The Abattoir Pages" production as well as the production "Cirxus" from earlier this year). Not to mention various other cover art project, book cover projects, creating musick with various bands, AS well as writing musick for his own projects -Veil Of Thorns, Choronzon, and Kkoagulaa - and that's just the tip of the iceburg.

October see's the release of two new CD's by Williams project Veil Of Thorns on Inner-X-Musick. Impossible to categorize, Veil Of Thorns began as a Goth band in the early 90's club scene in Boston but steadily moved toward a more eclectic sound. Not afraid to use any influence - you will hear styling's of goth, hip hop, industrial, classical, and just about the whole kitchen sink.

TOS: I imagine you are thrilled to be part of historic Inner-X-Musick. You were part of the Boston scene. You have been booked by John Zewizz for shows... It must in some ways seem like a natural progression.
VOT: Being part of Inner-X-Musick is more than I could have hoped for. I can't imagine a better fit. With most labels, the challenge for me is to rein ideas in to palatable song forms, but with Inner-X, the challenge is to live up to the long history of innovation, experimentation and forward thinking of the label and John Zewizz. This is a much more exciting and fruitful kind of challenge than the former kind which I look forward to taking on.

TOS: Veil Of Thorns (part 1 I shall call it) 1991 to 1994 saw you work with a few different collaborators before settling upon Chris McClain. Good memories?

VOT: Some amazing times were had, for sure. the first lineup started with just me and a jazz drummer (Sean Savoie) but by the time it was filled out with a bass player (Catherine Chenoweth) and second guitarist, (the late, great Jarrett Laitinen) that drummer was off to a new adventure in Japan. If he had stayed, the first demo may have sounded more like Cognitive Dissonance than what we ended up with for our first two demos.

At that time, Catherine booked all our gigs, which with her many biker friends brought us to biker bars as well as the first shows at TT the Bears in Cambridge and the late lamented Channel. The recordings from that time are definitely primitive, but I'm still proud of them. I would like to see less slickness in underground music than there is in general right now outside Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Chris McClain came in, bringing a new focus and maturity to proceedings.

TOS: Everything stopped in 1994. Then nothing till 2002 - 03 really, with "Birthed". Why the hiatus? What inspired the return?
VOT: Well, we were gigging a lot more in the period between -94 and -98, which ended up cutting into the writing and recording. If I had been more forward thinking, I would have had these shows recorded in audio and video. Many of the gigs included guest players and extensive improvisation.

We were slated to release our debut CD through Misanthropy Records by the end of this period, but was not to happen as Tiziana, head of Misanthropy decided to close the label. What ended up as "Cafe Flesh" and "The Dead God Sessions" were demos done for the label for this album. There are more than a hundred hours of material not included in those releases I have on DAT tape, some of which that may see the light of day at some point.

In 1997 I signed with Nocturnal Art Productions and released the first Choronzon album in 1998. This brought much more attention than Veil of Thorns ever got, and I focused on that for a bit. I recorded the Choronzon albums "Lilith", "Era Vulgaris" and "Larvae" in 1989/1999, and dropped out of all normal society for a few years following.

Basically I went into the woods and was deep in the grip of the Gwyllt. By the time I re-emerged, I was psychically stripped down to nearly nothing. There's a world of difference between the work prior to and following this time. My methods continue to evolve from what I established with "Birthed" to this day.

TOS: If I am not mistaken "Salon Apocolypse" and "Necrofuturist" were recorded during the same time. Was the intention to make two CD's? Was the correlation between the two releases always intended?
VOT: Both albums grew out of the process of working on "The Abattoir Pages" as part of FoolishPeople. The intention was to finish "Salon Apocalypse", as the concept I had been working with for this release was in the same realm that John Harrigan tapped into for "Abattoir Pages". Through countless sleepless nights and days of madness, "Necrofuturist" wrote itself as a further expansion of the studies and current we were working with. I would not have chosen to take on so much in such a short period of time, but I really had no choice in the matter.

"Salon Apocalypse", "Necrofuturist" and "Abattoir Pages" are inextricably linked, through current and source materials, all preparing the ground for "Pleasure", for which all this work is a mere prologue.

TOS: Both releases are giant steps in a direction one would not have suspected after "Cognitive Dissonance". In fact, as I go through your catalog - this is close to the shift that occurred with the 2003's "Birthed". Does this represent a shift in your personal life, or your musical interests, or both.
VOT: This represents a huge shift in everything I touch. I can't say that I know what will result, nor what I'll be when I emerge from the other side. We are all in the process of experiencing aspects of this process. We'll be living in a new reality, (or rather, we'll have reality tunnels exploded), by the end of this.

TOS: I suspect that this release is steeped in chaos magick. I could be wrong, as I listen to them - I am reminded of Burroughs and Gysin early experiments. Was this the process you used with the lyrics? With the musick?
VOT: Well, there's quite a bit of old school Western magick with more than a little shamanistic madness and gnosis. Also Goetic methods overlaid with, yes, Burroughs/Gysin experiments to break down language patterns. The musick was carved out of what started with dense layers upon layers of sound. The musick is still dense, but given pulse and negative space like a sculpture.

TOS: Who are the performers on the new releases?
VOT: On guitar I had contributions from the amazing Aidan McGoran. "Salon Apocalypse" was very loose and amorphous until he got his hands on the material. James Curcio was only on a couple tracks on this one, but his contribution to percussion and electronic manipulations was invaluable. My colleagues in FoolishPeople, John Harrigan and Lucy Allin provided the mythological framework these albums inhabit, as well as some source material which is present throughout. Pandora brings her contribution from a parallel universe. Too much analysis of that aspect would be unwise.

TOS: Will there be a live version of Veil Of Thorns?
VOT: I would love that, but it's hard to say. Member and collaborators are all over the world and busy with a lot of other things. If it does happen, it'll not be a regular rock'n'roll show methinks...

Posted by a blog for electronic minds at 2:57 PM

the smallWorld: Back in a BIG way!

2009-11-06T10:01:00.000-08:00

Hello! I’m back!

Yep, after nearly two years the Small World is back in action.

We just heard an excerpt from The H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast (http://www.hppodcraft.com), which is actually an excerpt from H.P. Lovecraft’s short story, The Picture in the House.

Chris Lackey and Chad Fifer are the host of the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast and we’ll talk with them shortly. But before we talk with Chris and Chad I’m going to very quickly bring you up to speed with what I’ve been up to.

Back in late 2007 the Small World website was hacked. Hacked so badly that I had to nuke the entire database and start from scratch. That really took the wind out of my sails because starting from scratch meant updating the site with 496 shows.

And to be completely honest, I was more than a little burnt out. I had produced nearly 500 shows and the workload was taking it’s tole on me. I had to arrange the interview. do the interviews and then produce three shows a week. And remember, this is a labor of love, not a paying gig.

So when my site was hacked it was the final straw.

Since then I’ve been producing a show called Solipsistic Nation, where I play the best of all genres of electronic music. Along with playing great music I also interview people from the electronic music community: musicians, record labels, festival organizers, etc.

If NPR produced had an electronic music show then it would sound a lot like Solipsistic Nation.

Producing Solipsistic Nation is a lot of fun but I’ve always had that itch ti interview people about things that fascinate me that have nothing to do with electronic music. When Joe Matheny suggested that I archive the Small World on Alterati I thought it would be a perfect time to re-launch the Small World on a twice a month basis, which is a workload I can handle.

You’re probably asking yourself: what the hell is Alterati?

Alterati is like a word that you don’t know the exact definition of but you know what it means. Rather than try to explain Alterati to you right now, we’ll talk to Joseph Matheny, Alterati’s founder, on the next show and have him explain it.

So… let’s get to today’s show.

As I mentioned, our guests are Chris Lackey and Chad Fifer. Chris and Chad produce the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast and H.P. Lovecraft was a science fiction slash horror writer who died in 1937.

You may or may not know Lovecraft but his writings have had an amazing impact on popular culture: from movies and comics like Hellboy to bands like Metallica and Black Sabbath. He’s also had a profound impact on writers like Stephen King, Jorge Luis Borges and Neil Gaiman.

The H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast treats the work of Lovecraft with a deft touch. Each week features excerpts from one of Lovecraft’s stories accompanied with insightful and often hilarious commentary from Chris and Chad.

Today’s incidental music was provided by Veil of Thorns with the track “The Reflection” from their album, Necrofuturist. You can hear more of their Necrofuturistic music at http://www.veilofthorns.com

We’re going to keep with the funnier side of H.P. Lovecraft and close the show with a bit from Smart Bomb Radio with “Cthulhu Is My Co-pilot” and Tom Smith’s “Cthulhu Fthagn.”

Smart Bomb Radio can be found at http://www.myspace.com/smartbombradio and Tom Smith can be found at http://www.tomsmithonline.com

You can reach me at smallworldpodcast@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/smallworld

Listen @ Alterati.com

NEW ON INNER-X-MUSICK - VEIL OF THORNS - "SALON APOCALYPSE"

2009-11-04T09:27:00.000-08:00

Experimental, Gothic, Industrial act Veil of Thorns have formed a creative alliance with INNER-X-MUSICK. P. Emerson Williams, Veil of Thorns frontman and multi-instrumentalist has completed production on the first album to be released on Inner-X Musick, Salon Apocalypse, which is the first new release since Cognitive Dissonance in 2007.

Approaching the twenty year mark in their career, Veil of Thorns continue to build on an ever expanding palette with their most varied release to date. From the stripped down, back to the guitar driven psychedelic heaviness of old the last release, the band return to to the organic shifting soundscape melding shades of electronic, classical, hiphop with a darker than ever gothic sensibility.

You can find Salon Apocalypse as well as other Inner-X-Musick products at;

www.innerxmusick.com

The Gspot: John Harrigan

2009-10-02T07:20:00.000-07:00

In anticipation of the upcoming performance of The Abattoir Pages, Joseph Matheny in conversation with John Harrigan about anything and everything that comes to their mind.

All music provided by Veil of Thorns
Songs, in order:

And the Beast of the Vision Still Roams in Dream
Intellectual Institutional Object
Thought Pollution Evolution

In Your Ear: Reviewing Selected Shorts: A Celebration of the Short Story

Guerrilla Zoo and FoolishPeople present The Abattoir Pages, a terrifying immersive Halloween experience, hosted in a vast, secret subterranean landscape that was once one of London’s largest abattoirs.

The Abattoir Pages combines immersive performance, art installation, haunting and treasure hunt-style activity to form a labyrinth of mystery and horror, exposing the earliest Gaelic and Pagan rites. Once inside, audience members will be free to explore the abandoned underground chambers, join the secret party or may be caught in the middle of the most terrifying of puzzles.

This Hallowe’en, the infamous horror author Helen Mayer will hold court at a debauched secret party. She will share the perverse and warped research conducted inside the old abandoned abattoir, which was the genesis of her greatest work. In this dark playground, the very nature of human terror has been tested, abused and fed into the living story ‘The Forest’.

The author invites you to solve the puzzle and unlock the terrifying history within the old and powerful pages hidden throughout the slaughterhouse. Each holds a key to learning the truth of an ancient tale, which will ensure your survival.

Tonight, a debt will be repaid to blood dishonoured. An eternal nightmare rises up from the depths of the dark boreal forest, in the shadow of the mountain. It comes to feed on new meat inside an old abattoir.

http://www.apocryphon.org/

The Gspot: John Harrigan

VEIL OF THORNS “NECROFUTURIST" Inner-X-Musick XXX 72 (2009)

2009-08-18T17:20:00.000-07:00

Inner-X-Musick is proud to announce it's first release by Veil Of Thorns. And because I run this blog - and because P. Emerson Williams is forward thinking artist - and because we both agree in the importance of the free flow of musick - and because the musick itself demanded it... You (the reader) reap the benefit.

"NECROFUTURIST" by Veil Of Thorns is the second non /SLEEPCHAMBER release on the newly revamped Inner-X-Musick, the first being the outstanding "Medical Report" by Grammal Seizure. However, "NECROFUTURIST" is the first release that is being offered as a FREE DOWNLOAD before the physical release becomes available.

For those of you who keep track of this sort of thing.. it's catalog number is XXX 72.

If you are familiar with Veil Of Thorns this release may catch you off guard. It is, as I like to call it, "Neo Gothick", although truthfully - Veil Of Thorns has started their own genre with this recording, and one could easily call it "retro futurist". Veil Of Thorns sound has always been unique, but certainly Gothic. Williams abilities as a musician has always set Veil Of Thorns apart from your standard "goth rocker", but through the new millennium Williams has also become a master of the process as well. It has paid off. "NECROFUTURIST" was methodically prepared for and then assembled. Each piece of the puzzle placed with veteran precision.

As with any Veil Of Thorns release, there is an overriding theme to the release. According to Williams,

"There is a theme, but an as yet nebulous one. I'm pulling together phenomena and experiences connected with art movements of the last hundred years and the corresponding societal upheavals that ran concurrently and which had an enormous impact on the birth, life and death of those art movements."

"At the same time, I'm meditating on the similarities and interconnectedness of art and cultural groups and cults, magickal groups, religions, philosophical paradigm shifts and the growth they spur as well as the devastation they leave in their wake, both psychick and materially manifest."

"And there's a book I'm desperately looking for, don't know the name of it, but its effect on people who read it seems to have been similar to the fictional King in Yellow."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_in_Yellow

If you have been following recent developments with Inner-X-Musick - you would know that XXX 71 is already slated to be Veil Of Thorns "Salon Apocalypse". But this is a case of putting the cart before the horse. Williams explains "Necrofuturist continues the theme of Salon Apocalypse. TAZ in a warzone, flowers on a landmine, love & war. Time out of joint. it's therefore appropriate that this came together first."

There will be a physical release in the future. Probably sometime in the late fall, after the release of "Salon Apocalypse". Of course all the information will be posted here as it become available. See www.innerxmusick.com for all the goodies!

Track Listing ...

1		Thought Pollution Evolution
2		Through The Fire
3		Standing
4		The Vandals Exquisite Corpse
5		The Lifeless Trio Kept Playing
6		Wailing In Glass
7		Waltz
8		Pleasure In Nightmare
9		Giving Ascent
10		Dancing Revelation
11		Let Loose Into That Good Mourning
12		The Reflection
13		Deny Fascination
14		The Only One Left
15		Die As One
16		Entertainments Subsume Concern
17		Head Up Get Out
18		The Dead Channel

Get it HERE

Read about Veil Of Thorns HERE

Posted by TheeBradMiller at 1:15 PM

SALON APOCALYPSE:

2009-08-18T08:49:00.000-07:00

"Secret Theater"

by Hakim Bey

As long as no Stalin breathes down our necks, why not make some art in the service of... an insurrection?

Never mind if it's "impossible." What else can we hope to attain but the "impossible"? Should we wait for someone else to reveal our true desires?

If art has died, or the audience has withered away, then we find ourselves free of two dead weights. Potentially, everyone is now some kind of artist -- & potentially every audience has regained its innocence, its ability to become the art that it experiences.

Provided we can escape from the museums we carry around inside us, provided we can stop selling ourselves tickets to the galleries in our own skulls, we can begin to contemplate an art which re-creates the goal of the sorcerer: changing the structure of reality by the manipulation of living symbols (in this case, the images we've been "given" by the organizers of this salon -- murder, war, famine, & greed).

We might now contemplate aesthetic actions which possess some of the resonance of terrorism (or "cruelty," as Artaud put it) aimed at the destruction of abstractions rather than people, at liberation rather than power, pleasure rather than profit, joy rather than fear. "Poetic Terrorism."

Our chosen images have the potency of darkness -- but all images are masks, & behind these masks lie energies we can turn toward light & pleasure.

For example, the man who invented aikido was a samurai who became a pacifist & refused to fight for Japanese imperialism. He became a hermit, lived on a mountain sitting under a tree.

One day a former fellow-officer came to visit him & accused him of betrayal, cowardice, etc. The hermit said nothing, but kept on sitting -- & the officer fell into a rage, drew his sword, & struck. Spontaneously the unarmed master disarmed the officer & returned his sword. Again & again the officer tried to kill, using every subtle kata in his repertoire -- but out of his empty mind the hermit each time invented a new way to disarm him.

The officer of course became his first disciple. Later, they learned how to dodge bullets.

We might contemplate some form of metadrama meant to capture a taste of this performance, which gave rise to a wholly new art, a totally non-violent way of fighting -- war without murder, "the sword of life" rather than death.

A conspiracy of artists, anonymous as any mad bombers, but aimed toward an act of gratuitous generosity rather than violence -- at the millennium rather than the apocalypse -- or rather, aimed at a present moment of aesthetic shock in the service of realization & liberation.

Art tells gorgeous lies that come true.

Is it possible to create a SECRET THEATER in which both artist & audience have completely disappeared -- only to re-appear on another plane, where life & art have become the same thing, the pure giving of gifts?

We take Kirkegaard's "leap of faith," but absent the old existentialist's Fear & Trembling & Sickness unto death. Our leap of faith into sorcery & secret theater is more like a wet dream than a nightmare, "awe-full", not awful.

We name our peerage of this new plane The Seven Dramaturgs. But no Peer Panel here, please. We prefer, like Jacob, to wrestle with our angels, & if our tussling turns amorous, all the better. Let the games begin. The Seven Dramaturgs show us that the universe wants, more than that, intends to play with us. We can be pawns or partners in this intention of The Seven Dramaturgs.

In Sufiism there is a belief in The Forty Guardians who protect & keep mankind from destroying itself. What's interesting is, these Guardians are human, but they remain completely unknown & are constantly in flux. Anyone in the world could be one of The Forty at a present moment, including oneself. Of course you would never know if you had been one of The Forty -- they remain anonymous even to themselves. That is why Sufiism calls for you to bow your head whenever you meet a stranger -- he could be one of The Forty Guardians.

Do we lead or follow The Seven Dramaturgs in their sorcery & secret theater? Ali Baba is merely one of The Forty Thieves -- each of The Forty Thieves is Ali Baba. The text does not begin or end here -- the pencil is passed like a baton amongst The Seven Dramaturgs. The universe is still being written.

VEIL OF THORNS SIGN WITH INNER-X-MUSICK

2009-08-15T08:07:00.001-07:00

Url: http://www.veilofthorns.com/blog http://www.myspace.com/veilofthorns

Eperimental Gothic.Industrial act Veil of Thorns have formed a creative alliance with INNER-X-MUSICK. P. Emerson Williams, Veil of Thorns frontman and multi-instrumentalist is currently completing production on the first album to be released on Inner-X Musick, Salon Apocalypse, which is the first new release since Cognitive Dissonance in 2007.

Approaching the twenty year mark in their career, Veil of Thorns continue to build on an ever expanding pallette with their most v aried release to date. From the stripped down, back to the guitar driven psychedelic heaviness of old the last release, the band reurn to to the organic shifting soundscape melding shades of electronic, classical, hiphop with a darker than ever gothic sensibility.

Salon Apocalypse is set to be released in September, 2009 and will be preceded by a series of podcasts and a digital only EP in late summer.

Salon Apocalypse track list:

Still Bloody Action

Intellectual Institutional Object

Ideological Corpses (Nearer To Hell)

Ultraviolet Nocturne

Rite of Spring (Fall of Empire)

And the Beast of the Vision Still Roams In Dream

The Play Is the Thing

The Wails of the Dying Merge With the Song of the Vandals

Experiment In Colour

Infernal Seduction

Induction

Abandoned Places

Doors Blown Open

previews of track for the next two Veil of Thorns releases can be heard at their MySpace profile:

http://www.myspace.com/veilofthorns

About Inner-X-Musick:

INNER-X-MUSICK is a record label/mail order catalog run by Industrial musick pioneer John Zewizz. Over the years INNER-X-MUSICK has a back catalog of well over a hundred releases, by bands such as Sleep Chamber, Controlled Bleeding, Jonathan Briley, 7 From Life, Daze Of Trance, The Flagellents, Hideous In Strength, Women Of The SS, Cult Ov The Womb, Mahcanik, Dokument, Noizeclot, Hunting Lodge, Human Flesh, and PSI Field. In the 1990’s Inner-X-Musick was the solely promoting Sleep Chamber musick, sharing releases with other labels (the Italian label Musica Maxima Magnetica,the German label FünfUndVierzig, and Cleopatra Records). Inner-X-Musick is back in 2009 with new releases by SLEEPCHAMBER and a new group of artists – including Choronzon, Grammal Seizure, Veil Of Thorns, and Batcheeba.

Url: http://innerxmusick.com

###

The Nightbreed Alldayer 2009!

2009-07-27T08:31:00.000-07:00

Nightbreed Recordings, in association with Pray Silence.org, The Church Of Nightbreed and Radio Nightbreed present
“The Nightbreed Alldayer 2009!”
(and Gothic Sounds Of Nightbreed 5 launch party)

On Sunday, 6 December 2009
At "The Purple Turtle" Camden, London, England!
Doors open at 3pm, event ends at 1am. There will also be a pass-out system until 7pm.
Tickets cost £15 in advance and £20 on the door (subject to availability)
Special launch party for the long-awaited "Gothic Sounds Of Nightbreed 5"!!!!
Everyone who buys an ADVANCE ticket for "The Nightbreed Alldayer" will be given a FREE copy of "Gothic Sounds 5" as they enter the club on the day of the event!!!!!
Running Order:
Two Witches (Finnish Gothic legends-first London show in 8 years!)

Midnight Configuration (Satanic Gothic stalwarts-first London show in 7 years!)

13 Candles (Legendary 90’s Nightbreed Gothic band – first London show in over 10 years + re-formation gig!)

Lupine (Top Nightbreed Gothic crew- first London show in 4 years !)
+ surprise guests
+++ The entire event will be streamed LIVE over the Pray Silence website for those members unlucky enough not to be there!!!!! To join go to:
www.praysilence.org
Also DJs will be setting the floors alight in between bands with a collection of classic goth, 90’s gothic underground, quality 80’s and darkwave only.
NO TECHNO, NO TRANCE NO WOOLLYHEAD! PURE GOTH AND GOTHIC-EVOLVED MUSIC ONLY.
DJs include (with more tbc):
Jon the Goth(Inquisition),
Zynthexia (From Finland)
DJ PO (Carnival Of Souls)
This event will be THE event of the year, be there or miss out on what will be a legendary night!
Tickets can be purchased from the following:
Stargreen Box Office Ltd
020 7734-8932 (Credit card hotline)
www.stargreen.com
(Internet credit card orders)
In person:
Stargreen Box Office Ltd
20-21a Argyll St
London
W1F 7TT
Or
Resurrection Records
Rear Basement
228 Camden High St
London
NW1 8QS
Or via mail :
Nightbreed Recordings (cheques and postal orders only + include a self addressed stamped envelope)
44 Ogle St
Hucknall
Nottingham
NG15 7FR
For all the latest info on this event and anything else to do with the Global Gothic Underground join:
Pray Silence/ The Church Of Nightbreed at:
www.praysilence.org

Nightbreed recordings reserve the right to change the line-up of the event, no refunds given. Refunds will only be furnished in the event of cancellation

The GSpot: Solipsistic Nation

2009-07-24T07:59:00.000-07:00

Joseph Matheny interviews “another Joe”, AKA Bazooka Joe, from Solipsistic Nation and formerly of the smallWorld. They talk about music, podcasting and get into a weird Joe to Joe cross interview feedback loop.

Also, another episode of In Your Ear, this week reviewing “Variant Frequencies” a podcast of (mostly) short fiction in the horror/subgenre sci-fi vein. From Puske: I pay special attention to the podcast novel which they debuted - “The Failed Cities Monologues” http://www.podiobooks.com/title/the-failed-cities-monologues/) - link is to the podiobooks version.

Read the rest of this entry »

Veil of Thorns had the pleasure of playing live on Bazooka Joe's show on WMFO in Massachusetts way back in the dark ages. I'll include those here:

Veil of Thorns first radio appearance one dark Saturday night on Tufts college free-form radio. The second guitarist was Jarrett Laitinen, who I recently learned died of a heroin overdose in 2004. In his final year he lost his father and stepmother in fucked up circumstances. I wish I had recordings that could give a good example of what an otherworldly amazing guitarist Jarrett was. He was the second guitarist on the first two Veil of Thorns demos from 1991 and 1992 respectively.

This is the original lineup:

P. Emerson Williams - Vocals, guitar
Jarrett Laitinen - Guitar
Catherine Chenoweth - Bass
Ruddy Bitch - Drums

Sourced from a reference tape recorded at the station. Some glitches and noise were minimized to the extent possible.

Whole Item	Format	Size
VeilOfThorns-LiveWmfo1991_64kb.m3u	64Kbps M3U	Stream
VeilOfThorns-LiveWmfo1991_64kb_mp3.zip	64Kbps MP3 ZIP	15.4M
VeilOfThorns-LiveWmfo1991_vbr.m3u	VBR M3U	Stream
VeilOfThorns-LiveWmfo1991_vbr_mp3.zip	VBR ZIP	77.0M

Audio Files	VBR MP3	Ogg Vorbis	64Kbps MP3
Veil of Thorns - Live WMFO 1991- 1 Obsession-Possession	20.9M	7.7M	4.2M
Veil of Thorns - Live WMFO 1991- 2 Tear the Cities Down	16.4M	6.2M	3.3M
Veil of Thorns - Live WMFO 1991- 3 Utopia	15.1M	5.7M	3.0M
Veil of Thorns - Live WMFO 1991- 4 Study In Decay	16.5M	6.3M	3.3M
Veil of Thorns - Live WMFO 1991- 5 Youll Never Know	8.1M	3.0M	1.6M

Veil of Thorns radio appearance a stormy night, Halloween, 1992 on Tufts college free-form radio. On second guitar we borrowed Dave, (can't remember his last name), the guitarist from Chuck.

This is the lineup:

P. Emerson Williams - Vocals, guitar
Dave (From the excellent Boston funk rock band Chuck) - Guitar
Catherine Chenoweth - Bass
Ruddy Bitch - Drums

VeilOfThorns-LiveHalloweenWmfo1992_64kb.m3u	64Kbps M3U	Stream
VeilOfThorns-LiveHalloweenWmfo1992_64kb_mp3.zip	64Kbps MP3 ZIP	23.2M
VeilOfThorns-LiveHalloweenWmfo1992_vbr.m3u	VBR M3U	Stream
VeilOfThorns-LiveHalloweenWmfo1992_vbr_mp3.zip	VBR ZIP	116.1M

Audio Files	VBR MP3	Ogg Vorbis	64Kbps MP3
Veil of Thorns - Live Halloween WMFO - 1 Obsession	17.0M	6.1M	3.4M
Veil of Thorns - Live Halloween WMFO - 2 Possession	4.9M	1.9M	981.6K
Veil of Thorns - Live Halloween WMFO - 3 Utopia	15.9M	6.0M	3.2M
Veil of Thorns - Live Halloween WMFO - 4 Void	15.8M	5.7M	3.2M
Veil of Thorns - Live Halloween WMFO - 5 Nothing Is Real	19.3M	7.6M	3.9M
Veil of Thorns - Live Halloween WMFO - 6 Sanctify (Drowning)	24.1M	8.7M	4.8M
Veil of Thorns - Live Halloween WMFO - 7 Souls In Flight	19.1M	6.7M	3.8M

Veil of Thorns - Manifestation Objective

2009-06-17T12:01:00.000-07:00


Price: US$ 10.00

THAT'S ROMANCE

2009-06-12T10:05:00.000-07:00

THAT'S ROMANCE.... 1 (2009)

Two many tracks were entered for this simply to be a one download deal. So, the release has been split into two. Assembled by me, and then all artwork was done by P. Emerson Williams. And as anyone who know, who has done artwork for me before - I goof up regularly so the Artwork is never really done...

This release is on the Foamin' Sodomy Records. And, if it ever gets pressed... that's it's label for the pressing as well.

The final deal on the pressing IS....

I will press it at no charge to me. But the only way that you can get a copy is to buy one. I know that sucks... but, what can I say. It's the best I can do on a budget (did I tell you I am laid off for 50 days.). All the profits will be given to a charity. It is a charity that helps Polar bears. John hooked me up with it. I don't know the specifics. Because I can't find them. But I will get it straightened out and up on the page as soon as it is available. There will be no pressing of your musick unless I get an email from you saying I can do it. No email - then your not on the release.

There will be no attempt at a pressing for at least a week, possibly two, until I get all the details worked out and emails in. I will be purchasing 2 copies of each of the two releases to start with. One for me, and one for John Zewizz. By the way, again so everyone knows this release was made with his blessing.

Label:	Foamin' Sodomy Records
Catalog#:	FOAMIN999
Format:	File/mp3
Country:	US
Released:	2009
Genre:	Unclassifiable
Style:	Unclassifiable

Track Listing;

1		Methel Zone by Tearpalm
		www.myspace.com/tearpalm
2		Kum Kleopatra by Kosmokrator featuring Kat Wild
3		The Nun (Fetish Convent) by Veil Of Thorns
		www.myspace.com/veilofthorns
		www.veilofthorns.com
4		Courtfield Road by Salakapakka Sound System
		ikuinen-kaamos.blogspot.com
5		Kiss The Whip by Batcheeba
		www.myspace.com/batcheebalyd
6		Way Ov The Flesh by darksouldealer
		www.myspace.com/dreamcell_labs
7		Inspiration by Noir Magnetik
		www.myspace.com/noirmagnetik
8		No Ones Heart Beats Harder by Bonequinho
		www.bonequinhologia.blogspot.com
		www.myspace.com/bonequinho
9		Zewizz by Mark Bradley
		www.myspace.com/downloaded1
10		Vivisection by Gadgetto
		www.gadgetto.com/
11		Dream Ov Life by Choronzon
		choronzon.org
		www.myspace.com/choronzon333
12		Fetish by Grammal Seizure
		www.myspace.com/grammalseizure
		theebradmiller.wordpress.com/theetransmissionary-movement-records
		grammalseizure.blogspot.com
13		Site Ov Pain/Site Ov Pleasure by 4 Years Of Suffering
		www.myspace.com/4yrsofsuffering

Get it HERE

THAT'S ROMANCE.... 2 (2009) FIXED

TRACK TWO IS FIXED!

The problem with putting things on to two releases is that people my think that the second release is not as good as the first release. Well, about 10 seconds into this release you will realize that's not the case. From Stpocold's hard driving first track all the way through mrtvi hypnotic (and loopable) final track - download two is just as good as download one.

A couple people have mentioned that they want to post the release on their site...

POST IT FAR AND WIDE... let it be like feathers in the wind...

Label:	Foamin' Sodomy Records
Catalog#:	FOAMIN1000
Format:	File/mp3
Country:	US
Released:	2009
Genre:	Unclassifiable
Style:	Unclassifiable

Track Listing;

1		Nightshade And Lemonade by Stpocold
		www.myspace.com/stpocold
		theebradmiller.wordpress.com/stpocold
		www.coldgraey.com/main.html
2		Submit To Desire by Habeeb
		www.myspace.com/lkerr
3		Bring Us The Nun by Kraken
		www.myspace.com/krakenrijovego
		rijovego.blogspot.com
4		Thee Eye Inside by Black Ark Psychedelick Soul And Jazz Revue
		theebradmiller.wordpress.com/the-black-ark-psychedelick-soul-jazz-revue
		www.myspace.com/blackarkpsjr
5		Twenty Three by Power Through Will
		www.myspace.com/powerthroughwill
6		The Distant Cry by @mpersand 2.0
7		Secret Initiation Ov Maiden by Mort Douce
		www.myspace.com/mortdouce
8		Monkeyman by Grimm
		www.myspace.com/thefuturelooksgrimm
9		Kiss The Whip by Gothick
		www.myspace.com/gothicknowledge
		www.gothick.co.uk
		theebradmiller.wordpress.com/gothick/
10		Erotik Apparition by Jake Shields
		www.myspace.com/jakeshieldsplace
11		El Topo by A Forgotten Tale
		www.myspace.com/aforgottentale
		aforgottentale.blogspot.com/
12		A Synthetic Woman by The Day Of The Antler
		www.phinnweb.org/finndiscog/STA/
B4		Insufflation by Kryptdust
		www.robbyrd.com
B5		Forever & A Moment (Loop- 4 clippings, 18 repeatings & 8 voices) by mrtvi

Get it HERE

The Eye of Mr.Slin

2009-05-17T13:09:00.000-07:00

Download The.Eye.of.Mr.Slin

Tension and disappearing. Sailors drown, crew die, people are replaced. Might I take the liberty to enquire that you have found your replacements? To fill in for you and keep the memory of who you are alive and well, as it were. Of course you have! Good. Very sensible indeed! Now listen, can you hear that wonderful noise? Two villages are fusing as a bridge of molten uranium connects two landscapes into one geographic location. Dear táttipáni, welcome to the Windscale Works Atomic Factory.

CIRXUS

25th May - 13th June 2009

Starting time:

8.30pm & 9.15pm

STUDIO K

Written and directed by John Harrigan

1957- Seascale, the North of England. Cirxus is an old English circus lost in the shadows of the smoke stacks of Calder Hall, the world's first commercial nuclear power station. FoolishPeople will use mythology, shamanism, music and dance to bring the darkness of an atomic circus to life. The performance will allow audience members to step into the world of an old English circus lost in the 1950s, explore its sideshows and meet extraordinary characters from the past and future.

Athalia the ballerina waits in the ring for Loudon the Clown to return with directions to the Black Pool, the mythic site of the Home Sweet Home, the final show of the season. Join her as she begins a bizarre and wondrous search for Loudon through the irradiated secrets of Cirxus, where she must face the macabre atomic menagerie, haunted by circus animals and navigate her way through the maze of strange, hallucinogenic sideshows on the other side of time. Immerse yourself in the world of Cirxus, where theatric arcana and Atomic fallout irradiate the sawdust arenas of our inner worlds.

Presented by FoolishPeople

Written and Directed by John Harrigan

Creative Team

John Harrigan

Lucy Allin

Victoria Karlsson

P. Emerson Williams

Claire Tregellas

Tereza Kamenicka

This is a promenade performance in Arcola's new industrial space, Studio K. Cirxus is based on fact: the German Bremen University confirmed that radioactive contamination by Americium-241 found in some soil samples taken by Greenpeace 11.5 km south of Sellafield, were 400 times higher than those taken 11 km from Chernobyl. 51 years on, the villagers of Seascale still live with the ramifications of the accident at Pile 1 of the Windscale Works Atomic Energy Factory.

Cirxus will be FoolishPeople's first London performance run since the critically acclaimed Dead Language at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 2007.

[ Buy Tickets ]

TICKET INFORMATION:

• Ticket Prices £14/£10

• Tuesdays 'PAY WHAT YOU CAN' (subject to availability)

• Free tickets are available for under 26s under the Night Less Ordinary Free Ticket Scheme Monday-Thursday evenings for the first 2 weeks (please ring box office more information) PLEASE NOTE:

• No concessions on Fridays and Saturdays

• Proof will be required for concessions

• All tickets are NON-REFUNDABLE

Cirxus Image by P. Emerson Willliams

The GSpot: User’s Manual for the Human Experience- CIRXUS

2009-05-15T11:15:00.000-07:00

The GSpot: User’s Manual for the Human Experience- CIRXUS

Joseph Matheny talks to Michael Dean about his newest book, A USER’S MANUAL FOR THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE. Also in this show: Sleepchamber and and excerpt from the Foolishpeople production of CIRXUS.

Show dedicated to my dearly departed friend: Dave Szulborski

Information: In the SLEEPCHAMBER bit, John Zewizz and co. gives updates on the band, shares tracks from the forthcoming album “Stolen Sleep”, and thanks the fans and collaborators who have supported the return of SLEEPCHAMBER.

Exerpt from Cirxus, a FoolishPeople production written and directed by John Harrigan. This psycho-audio sequence is produced and performed by P. Emerson Williams and directed by John Harrigan. A promenade performance will run from 25th May - 13th June 2009 in Arcola Theatre’s new industrial space, Studio K in London.

Share/Save

The GSpot: User's Manual for the Human Experience- CIRXUS [89:54m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Veil of Thorns - Notes From the Apocalypse Salon I

2009-05-06T10:09:00.000-07:00

The first rough mix of the next Veil of Thorns album. All instrumental but for one bit. You'll find as I post developments that this will mutate greatly over time as I turn these ideas into an organic whole.

A bit more philosophizing shall no doubt ensue, with some conversion with you I hope. Some collaborators will be announced anon.

I must say we done gone groovy with this one...

-P. Emerson Williams 2009ev

This audio is part of the collection: Open Source Audio

Creative Commons license: Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States

Individual Files

Audio Files	VBR MP3
Veil.of.Thorns_-_Salon.Apocalypse_roughmix	93 MB

Image Files	JPEG
salon-apocalypse	522 KB

Information	Format	Size
VeilOfThorns-NotesFromTheApocalypseSalonI_files.xml	Metadata	616 B
VeilOfThorns-NotesFromTheApocalypseSalonI_meta.xml	Metadata	674 B

GSpot- Falcon, Falcon, Burning Bright?

2009-05-01T11:28:00.000-07:00

Joseph Matheny talks to Nick Thacher and Linda Miller about Falcon Press and why there appears to be two Falcon’s selling virtually the same catalogs since the death of Dr. Hyatt.
Also in this episode: A new In Your Ear with Psuke, and a special bonus track at the end: James Curcio presents the first installment of the Join My Cult audiobook, and releases Join My Cult as a Creative Commons PDF that you may download at Original Falcon. Also, as a side note, we were contacted after this show was recorded by an organization calling itself the New EII. Keep an eye open for an interview with them in the future.

Listen at Alterati

Cognitive Dissonance - Prolix/Contamination

2009-04-28T07:56:00.000-07:00

No wandering bodies that have not been scheduled or unsettled are left at large. I liberate the structure of emergence and disperse love in refutation of your onslaught. Patrols receive my surrender sympathetically. Within my core you end up drained, addicted to being. I will preside over your downfall.

Cells are dark and cold no longer. Everything is joined like an enclosing sculpture. I close my eyes and see the veins of my eyelids. I breathe in. I chant our name slowly, pulse slowing, mind stilling. I resist sleep. Sleep lures me out of action and into your lustrous resting place.

Seraphic surveillance eyes above me emanate reaction in sudden waves, realization sanitized, fatality, renewal, being, loss, in hoary divisions thrown into hysteria. Not me. I resist a smile, though the laughter rings out in the dawn beyond the walls. Being sure serves and affects a gratifying past. It has helped me in my efforts no end. Grinding down forthright in your winding sheet, to be alive, still marked from first to last I Steal the offering wearing a shroud in action. We’ll shatter the foundation of mendacity with deception.

Vanished below the waste, I can no longer tell which target is awake. Secret passions are worn like a medal. Missing initiation interned through sanction of intention of will above denial. Yielding on no account to convention, devoid of your subterranean theatre of war, you direct and uproot with detachment your funeral song of passion. I now want to sleep in the rain, in the snow. I see a distant scene. This scene has been rewritten in your private mythos. I pull you back, and there is nothing you can do. Look!

The dewdrops wet your face as you fled; now wild regrets encircle you, this sanction to disconnect Contained by disturbances given name. Sudden fear like claws, languid in the damp, spreading out among the leaves, Memory fades, life drifts, blood dries, killing the will, slipping back, back to that which never was. In distrust lie the possibilities that were stillborn in Undergrowth Silent with Want. Receive by revelation your pre-selected apportionment. Inadequate imperfections saturate my ascent. Dream Shadow. Stronghold of corrosion let burst the floodgates of dead gods’ desires. Systems for burning up advance the deceased. Radiant visage glowing words on flesh, Remembrance of my deaths shadow. Nocturnal professions come into nothingness, Lifts our burdens, and becomes our hidden weapons. I turn around to go, the world around me flows through my body. The lustrous suspension of elation reconciled Indifference in reckoning splinters. Weak and stumbling, gloriously breathing still dawn’s air, that part of me now lost forever; it wanders lonely in the dark. The hollow, exposed tautness my grasp encloses the system. Neglect is adorned. All life is one – we are here lost in forever, hearing, feeling, seeing all.

Resting on a decomposing substructure in the rainfall, I’m not without help. explore elsewhere disconnected apparitions, scream like defeat. Outside experience on offer to industrial action, an Ignominious mission, an emanation division and an Asylum of darkness to exceed anticipation through upheaval.

A soothing breeze, a haunting phrase leaks out from behind the gate. Recklessness necessitates taking part in my undoing. Your wonder remains difficult to understand. Profound rapture marks out need. Desire demands to be named, to be fed. It is gluttonous, and beyond words. The name itself remains enigmatic.

Corrode and Engulf - Cognitive Dissonance VI - Final Chapter

2009-04-27T12:04:00.000-07:00

This represents the final chapter and transmission of the Cognitive Dissonance process. Next, I'll share a few bits of what I've been working on lately, between things I'm bound by blood oaths not to talk about, extensive research into rhizomatic consciousness, chaos theory, extreme esoteric number manipulation and viral linguistics. A ton of creative output had been gathering momentum, and dissemination has been an afterthought, though I came to see that aspect becoming part of the creative flow. Further dissection of the sounds. In keeping with the original intent, I'm going to limit the final production notes to a bare outline of the process that got us here and convey gratitude to those of you who followed and added to the conversation.

The first thought I had at the outset was to track a simple album with a classic trio sound. I've done well with that, except for the added melody line at the beginning of the first track. Then a few stray ideas took root and grew into strange mutant entities. Major revamps, rethinks and re-visions, then sounds, images and artifacts suggested ever more forms and eventually, narrative, albeit of the surreal sort. With the album itself I took a very direct and raw approach. I've always preferred the sound of a human being playing instruments and singing to the mad scientists creation that is the protools version of injection molded plastic. (Not to be confused with electronic music.) Vocalists don't usually like to have anyone hear anything but the most spot on, confident performances, but I was going for a feeling and a story, and these are my sketches.

Cognitive Dissonance was a working title that became the final title, for the name fed the blossoming idea that tied the album together. A story that encompassed a vision split in four directions, a juxtaposition and melding together of the points of view of of same world/ two views, two worlds, same character observing and acting in them. The central idea is of a cognitive dissonance between first appearances and a closer look.

I recorded all the music, and then came up with the song titles. I decided the order according to how the titles felt. Then I wrote a short story starting from a cutup of the titles. I expanded that and took the lyrics from that. I think my machines freaked out and became possessed in the process. I had some radio signals coming through the guitar as I laid down the tracks, and I made liberal use of them. While I continued to track the album I released several transmissions. I thought I'd make the various stage escapes into their own entities, as opposed to a few stray mp3's.

Unlike the album itself, I layered, layered the layers and added extra layers to boot. I tried something different in the first, and with the help of the fine folks at librivox.org, I added spoken word from readings of public domain classics. We're hearing mostly Flaubert, Coleridge and Emily Dickinson.

Transmision II I made from the bass tracks from the album. Mostly you're hearing one track of bass with no layers but the real-time FX, though there are a couple points where the cello creeps in. A few inexplicable voices emerged that weren't recorded by me. If it fits as a soundtrack for your daily experience, I want to hear the story. throw these out of my head in quick bouts between working on two movies, my own moving image projects, not included, three comics, (not telling yet), and a sum total of five albums of various styles at different points of production.

Along with the sound transmissions, the lyrics were extending into stories. The lyrics to most songs I'd done so far were dreamlike fragments of one continuous tale. I wanted to bring some of the underlying structure into focus. At the same time I listened to others stories. I was especially interested to hear some apocalyptic tales. Ragnarok, Armageddon, the end of one life and the beginning of another. The death of the ego, the body, a belief. The hearing became expression, and the telling of the tale that resulted was an embodiment of experience.

Individual Files

Movie Files	MPEG4	Ogg Video	512Kb MPEG4
	189 MB	183 MB	183 MB

Cognitive Dissonance - Prolix/Bleeding Through

2009-04-25T04:05:00.000-07:00

Passionate corruption – the sensation conjures incinerated irregular Sentinels. Dissent to foul restriction; approach with Caution the daunting pleasing fragments of lust inspired movements into myopic creation. An icy vein of suspension moves in me. Night access hallucinations illustrate Conception as an initiative influence of grey nothing. Willful, even if idiosyncratic artifice deems otherwise, you create a counteractive complex with an artist’s passion. The extractions of magnificence Interweave and metamorphose in the isolation on the strength of opinion.

Your intercession reinforces incisive prohibitions, though you tolerate how the revealed masses of the faithful establish your manifest righteousness. All the thought of a lifetime with no conscious evolution, One cannot recall where it began to slide. Stirring the spirit, Transitional colorless and uncompromisingly intent Organizations approach Regulations designed for illumination. Don’t mention it to the whispering dead. Outside attendance is not in the soul’s possession.

We lie side by side, blowing sparks, gazing into the screaming silence. Splinter delegations to trepidation drive automatons out on masses to merit their endurance. Truth be told, trust is never to be shown. Habit takes instruction from surfeit regard gone in the rush of outworn relics collapse. Borne away on seas of sound I cry out. The bitter realization contains the happy seed: yes, me. Position exposed on a great, cold, ardent bed. You are absent from your own convictions, your state of bemusement, the suppression of blood connections to coerce compliance in advance of your loathing. Furthermore the unremarkable drones’ first abundant surge survives through weakness, as the demonstration with poisonous error anticipated your insignificant ill-use of kindness. Corrode and engulf what went before. I am beginning a new direction of outwardly flowing disdainful, sustaining wisdom. Clothed in thorns, your throat is dry.

The G-Spot Episode #4

2009-04-24T03:22:00.000-07:00

This was another step in the creation process for Cognitive Dissonance, taking the Cognitive Dissonance Prolix posts and turning it into a series of strange dialogues. In the process I managed to take the thousands of words I'd written out and begin restructuring as verses and shorter bits.

My fine colleagues at Alterati.com let me hijack the show and with the help of James Curcio and Anna Young, what you can hear here was dramatized:

This unique episode takes you through a number of open-ended tales, told by the voices of a schizophrenic internal monologue. It can be taken as the voices in the mind of a sleeper, on the brink of sleep, or a mental patient, strapped into a bed in a moldy room in an asylum. Maybe these events happened, or have yet to happen. That’s for you to decide.

In addition to your loving host, this show features the voice acting talents of P. Emerson Williams and Anna Young, and the music includes much atmospheric material from Veil of Thorns and Ariana van Gelder.

Strap yourself in, put on the headphones, and enjoy the show.

The G-Spot Episode 4: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Cognitive Dissonance - Prolix/Corporeal

2009-04-24T02:18:00.000-07:00

Awaken, you’re still dreaming, unformed, immaculate, sanctified with impoverished yearning. Liberate yourself from sleep into the sanctuary of our defeat. Articulate to me of lamentation. I take pleasure in the aggravation; you are confined in your responsibility now that Sanity has departed, exhausted, abstract and unintelligible. I did not survive, though I act markedly responsive. A quiet current of impressions soothe my astringent psyche on my ruptured innate humanity. Wailing by the window in the grief of the proud, dread failings wrapped around us like shrouds.

I am forewarned. Curtains part automatically as the alarm fades into the voice. The bumps have grown overnight, my eyes burn appropriately and my back can feel the effects of the concrete slab I passed out on. The silk clings uncomfortably to my skin. I have it only because I need to feel my success. I feel the heaving all through my membrane, longing for my ascent. The voice is still there, chiming with increasingly ravaged tones. That querulous reprimand ringing in the background is my happy reminder of the failure of those outside my worldview.

Compelled to rally the dying, to take hold of an experience of disconnect, you direct your fragmented, cruel intellect at the division of ages into isolated headland. Scattered throughout the wary reverse of your former stance, subordinate classes are allowed to survive as long as the workforce is needed. Plant unmoved convictions in attendance in edifices of decline continue to exist. Social formations move about to subdue distress in all deference to convention. By indeterminate providence, the surveillance division has mastered the practice of avoiding confrontation. Shudder behind your beloved audience with a display of your improbable disarming paroxysm. I embrace obscurity, disordered ride out downward. Investigate in another place in the subjugation disclosed. I envisage manifest points in time to sustain this fitful refuge.

The haints come with parched, red grins, destined, flowing; glutted. The rotting populace Illustrates rebirth in my pleasure facility, breaking off a Conflagration advanced from opening the event within the scope of reason. The thoughts drift to the surface as I shake off the dream. I shouldn’t try to tell you about it. I’m living from two perspectives at once. I’m one point of consciousness in two places. Two worlds remain separate while the actions in one shape experience in the other. The voice in this universe screams itself hoarse, haranguing the mind of the active, dynamic mind in the other one. Funny how the one that hears voices acts with gloating hubris.

I find myself lying under the highway to bring about coerced elite. You’ll see. Thrash it out amongst yourselves as you flail about in an indistinctive objective that has no emotional impact, barring the superficial ripples from a staged interface drama. Now, consider a passing look outward. Send down mutually supporting actions from your central board room. Organization evaporates progressively false conceptions to resolve into extended control. One added instance, let’s heed the worn down and pull out our ecstasy like gaping arteries.

Veil Of Thorns - Cognitive Dissonance Phase V

2009-04-22T06:56:00.000-07:00

Here are the first embryonic early tracks interspersed with short P. Emersonite bursts for you, my darlings. Vocalists don't usually like to have anyone hear anything but the most spot on, confident performances, but I'm going for a feeling and a story, and these are my sketches.

The mixes are my usual thick and resonating things, as they were before I sent them off to the masterful mastering of Ari. Contents need to be decanted as they may throw off a sediment....

The image is the gateway to the file, and the player below starts the stream.

Much love,

-333

Artist/Composer: Veil of Thorns
Keywords: goth; experimental; Veil of Thorns; deathrock; gothic; dark; music

Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial

Individual Files

Whole Item	Format	Size
VeilofThornsVeilOfThorns-CognigtiveDissonanceV_64kb.m3u	64Kbps M3U	Stream
VeilofThornsVeilOfThorns-CognigtiveDissonanceV_64kb_mp3.zip	64Kbps MP3 ZIP	13 MB
VeilofThornsVeilOfThorns-CognigtiveDissonanceV_vbr.m3u	VBR M3U	Stream
VeilofThornsVeilOfThorns-CognigtiveDissonanceV_vbr_mp3.zip	VBR ZIP	39 MB

Audio Files	192Kbps MP3	Ogg Vorbis	64Kbps MP3	VBR MP3
V-CC-T-V.mp3	40 MB	24 MB	13 MB	39 MB

Other Files
VeilofThornsVeilOfThorns-CognigtiveDissonanceV_files.xml	3.69 KB
VeilofThornsVeilOfThorns-CognigtiveDissonanceV_meta.xml	2.19 KB
VeilofThornsVeilOfThorns-CognigtiveDissonanceV_reviews.xml	210 B