Ivory Bunker Recordings
Welcome to the world of Tomoroh Hidari, 'Pataphysics' Ivory Tower gone underground
Pulp Glitch-Breaks: Lovecraft, Lucifer and the story of The Dead Sounds
A couple of days too late for Lovecraft’s lesser feast, and aeons too late to change the fate of the Earth being invaded by some Elder Gods and Great Old Ones…. yes, I’m setting the tone for some eldritch horrors here:
I was young and I needed the trouble, so what better than to wake up great Cthulhu and go mad… And thus it came to pass that back in 2004 my debut album, The Necrophonicon, was spawned.
It’s not, nowadays, the oldest album of mine available online as some like Alien Audio Absurdities or Dubnihilism were recorded earlier, they just never saw a release until years later. But it was, following a couple of compilation tracks and remixes, my first full length release at the time. In its original form it came out on CD (ISO13) on Isolate Records, a pioneering US electronic/IDM/Breakcore label run by mastermind Wai Cheng aka Optic, who sadly passed away in 2006. “On The Verge Of The Best Madness So Far” was originally intended as follow up release on 12″. More on that in an upcoming post.
For logical reason The Necrophonicon was labelled a Lovecraftian thing (that, in the opinion of some at least, shouldn’t be). The name was inspired by the Necronomicon, here becoming the book of dead sounds. I liked the idea of “killing sounds”, as literally a lot of the sounds on the album where samples that were “killed” – mangles, mashed up, distorted, resynthesized until their original life had left them, and they took up some form of zombie- or afterlife. There are also a number of tracks that all are lovecraft inspired – Miss Cthulhu84, Innsmouth Rock-A-Doodle, Frozen Deserts (with its vocal sample from an audio-play of At The Mountains of Madness) or Tentacle Ballet.
But it also had more general pulp & some sci-fi influences – Battle for the 10th Planet, I did it for Satan… and some weird La Vey inspired bull-isht bits Luciferette and I. I certainly saw it more as a pulp/sleaze/b-movie kinda thing, than strictly Lovecraftian. And now you all know…
Recently, after almost 20 years (yay, anniversary in October 2024 – may need to think of something for that), The Necrophonicon has entered the realm of Streaming Services:
Also Apple Music; Youtube Music; Youtube; Amazon and Juno Download, amongst others.
Hardcore adepts, of course, will buy via Ivory Bunker Bandcamp!
For those after a bit more trivia – the very first Lovecraft story I read was “Cool Air”. I found it in a collection of horror stories in our school library. Yes, school libraries are important! I was, however, already familiar with the name from its very prominent feature on cover of Iron Maiden’s legendary Live after Death album… Among my favourite stories are Dreams in the Witchhouse (which I’ve adapted for a compilation, the name of which I still find unspeakable… I mean, we all know how scared of anything to do with sex HPL was…); Dreamquest for Unknown Kadath, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, Mountains of Madness (one of those books, along with William Gibsons Neuromancer that I make a point of re-reading every couple of years) and In The Walls of Eryx. But there are, of course, many more.
Soon, quasi part 2 on this topic, a bit of background on “On The Verge Of The Best Madness So Far”. Stay tuned (or out of tune, as long as you keep vib(rat)ing… f’thagn
Denryoku Mirai – out now everywhere!
My most recent release, 3 track digital single Denryoku Mirai is now out on Bandcamp and all major streaming platforms.
Please follow links below for your platform of choice!
Bandcamp:
All the streams & other web shops:
Thank you for listening, sharing, following, buying, adding to playlists etc!
For more background info on Denryoku Mirai see this post here:
13 Objects and Solipsism in the bruitversum
I’ve never quite managed to stick to a single style within the realms of the Tomoroh Hidari sonic universe, to some degree because interests changed over time, but also because it is fun to indulge in different approaches.
Sometimes I chose or choose different aliases, such as the now defunct his Namelessness Is Legion (hNIL) or its successor 明日の音 (Asu no oto – a pun on Tomoroh Hidari: Tomorrow’s Noise). At other times I just think F# it and go with the original nome de plume. Such the case on the two (and a half) releases on bruitversum. Formerly bruit.at, bruitversum – now releasing via the bandcamp Zaibatsu of noise-anarchism explorers Farmers Manual, was founded by brothers Walter & Gert Brantner aka Dr. Nachtstrom and FM’s v93r respectively.
Founded around 2007 if memory serves well, bruit.at (discogs) emerged into the then burgeoning netlabel scene with a small number of select releases by artists such as the above named, plus Kabelton, Photophob and more. They also released a beautifully curated tribute to Philip K Dick compilation album. And eventually fell silent again. Many years later, with the advent of Bandcamp, a new spark of activity led to some of the original releases as well as some never before released music popping up again.
Among those my original release for bruit.at, originally titled (deep breath):
13 Objects, or a Dadaist, A Surrealist And A Group Of Random Bystanders Marvel At The Ferocious Whateverism Of The ‘Pataphysician.
Shortened to just 13 Objects now, the download now includes many of the source sounds, all created from 13 different household objects (pots, pans… etc.).
As of a few days ago 13 Objects is also available to stream via the usual suspects (spotify, apple music, youtube, amazon music, deezer, tidal, etc.) LINK or available via Juno Downloads.
With the various tracks paying homage to music concrete pioneer Pierre Schaeffer, Sigmund Freud (as spiritual reference of the Surrealists), outsider tape musician Todd Dockstader and French inventor (discoverer) of ‘Pataphysics, Alfred Jarry, this is “Post-modern ‘pataphysic popular music in the guise of music concrète.”
Released only in spring of 2023, after being saved from rotting away on a harddrive, the short “…but is it Solipsism” Ep features experiments in stochastic synthesis done and some of my earliest drone ventures. These pieces were created in 2004 using Cecilia – which I still frequently use, Csound (which I never got very far with tbh) plus some, according to my notes found with the files – although I don’t remember what exactly – creations done in Audiomulch.
A lot more minimal than 13 Objects, here titles are mostly inspired by the readings of Beat authors William S. Burroughs – apparently “It’s all the sane” was a favourite saying of his and Jack Kerouac (Zen Lunacy), with the “Waste-Time Continuum” being my personal description of days spent deep in je nai sai quoi.
“…but is it Solipsism” is, much as 13 Objects, available via subscription services (usual suspects) and from Juno Downloads.
But as always, your support on Bandcamp does reach musicians and underground labels best.
Bruitversum on facebook
Bruitversum bandcamp
Electricity Future coming on 4th August
Denryoku Mirai, a three track single of tracks I recorded on my trip around Japan in May of this year is due to be released coming Friday 4th August 2023 on Ivory Bunker Records Bandcamp, with streaming services & other download stores following a week later.
Tracklisting:
- Denryoku Mira
- Hakata Morning Kabukicho Nights
- Kyoto Hotel
All tracks were recorded live to stereo using a Roland Aira Compact T8 groovebox, a Hikari Instruments DUOS synth and the Zoom HD4N recorder. Track 1 & 3 recorded in Kyoto, Track 2 Recorded in Kabukicho, Shinjuku, Tokyo with additional field recordings taken at Hakata Station, Fukuoka. Edits and mastering at Ye Bunker ov London July 2023. (Cover created with a little help from St. Able Di Fusion)
The setup used, here at the hotel in Kyoto
The title track Denryoku Mirai (Electricity Future) is up for listening on Soundcloud:
Follow at Ivory Bunker Bandcamp to be notified of the latest releases as soon as they go live.
5G Music Technology where I picked up the Hikari Duos is synth heaven on Earth, or more specifically at Harajuku Jingu-Mae
The past in the present, the present dreaming of Waikiki
A long, long time ago… as the story starts in the year A.D. 1999, in an era of watching a lot of Johnny Bravo, Kurosawa, Seijun Suzuki, Shinya Tsukamoto films while listening to surf music and drinking Pina Coladas (not sure about that last bit tbh, but we did party like it was 1999) I created the two main mixes that eventually became the backbone of “On Waikiki Beach”. Finally released as an EP with two 2020 mixes (a more straightforward remix and an Aso no Oto drone version) on Ivory Bunker Recordings, it can still be obtained via my personal favorite platform, Bandcamp:
The EP was reviewed on Igloo Magazine quite favorably at the time:
On Waikiki Beach flutters with an experimental electronic smorgasbord that doesn’t let up during its 24 minute stay—its distracted and meandering sonic debris is one that we’ll continue to revisit.
https://igloomag.com/reviews/tomoroh-hidari-on-waikiki-beach-ivory-bunker
ワイキキビーチのに日本の女の子 (which is pronounced as “waikiki bii-chi no ni nihon no onnanoko” and translates to Japanese Girls on Waikiki Beach – I did mention the influences above…) is the first track, build around a meandering guitar patch, a sample from an attempt to play surf-style on guitar myself, mangled with the mighty Vaz-Modular. The beats were heavily inspired by Autechre’s “Flutter” and are pretty much completely non-repetitive.
“Oh Yeah” is the second track from the time, taking the same guitar drone file but this time with some breakbeats and sub-basses.
ワイキキビーチのに日本の女の子 ２０２０年リミックス is the 2020 remix of the title track. I’ve even done a video for this, very repetitive on this occasion (the video.)
Finally Asu No Oto was Dreaming of Waikiki Beach on a Cold Noisevember Night, an exercise of one alias remixing another…
There you go, the sins of youth still hold up musically in later years…
… and are now available on all the major streaming services for your convenience. Pick your poison below and enjoy. Please share if you like, add to playlists etc. It all helps!