Abyss of Hallucinations is an occult inspired Mörk Borg setting built on the nihilistic psychedelia of Aleister Crowley’s Book of Lies.
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I am terribly excited to share this album with you. I think we accomplished our goal of creating a soundtrack that will induce an altered state priming you for the ritual exploration of the Abyss of Hallucinations. I have spent a number of nights laying in bed with headphones listening to this beginning to end and awakening only to find myself wholly dissolved into nothingness.
We have been on a modular synth journey for a long while now, but this is the first album where we got to put it to serious use. It allowed us to get way more lush with subtle complexities and just go outright weird at times. We are constantly learning and I expect much more modular work in the future! Likewise, I think this album is markedly our findest work to date!
So go give it a listen!
And here's some shots of the j-card...PDFs are available via Bandcamp and will also be distributed through Backerkit along with download codes.
You will receive a download code via Backerkit. To redeem that code visit the link below and enter your code.
The album is currently a private release for backers only!
By Night,
Max Moon
Hello Backers!
First Draft of the Collected Edition DONE
Holy Hell! The first draft of Abyss of Hallucinations Collected Edition is complete and in the hands of Walt, our inglorious editor for the project. Walt and I have worked together recently on the Black God's Kiss box set and I can attest to his thoroughness as well as the playful rot in his spirit that welcomes the Abyss. I can't wait to see how he helps me hone this for you all!
This marks a significant milestone, as I started writing this project three years ago! It has held a spot in my "currently working on" list ever since. We still have a long ways to go until completion, but my will and stamina are strong.
There is something bittersweet about having finished the first draft. I have been so ensorceled by the Book of Lies these last few years, that it often felt like a relationship. Despite reading every word innumerable times, I never left a reading without discovering something new! The thought of no longer pouring over those 93 chapters is both refreshing and sad. I guess in the sadder moments, I will just remind myself that there are always more adventures to be written even after the book has been published!
Soundtrack is Recorded!
Cthulugans rose from the deep waters of the Puget Sound to isolate in a cabin in the woods on Whidbey Island during a rare gorgeous snowstorm.
Over the course of our entombment, we wrote and recorded about an hour of music. This is my favorite music we have made to date and I think we have done well to capture the spirit of the Abyss. For each track, we began by rolling on a d93 table of chapters and then read aloud that chapter from the Book of Lies to take inspiration from.
The tracklist is not final, but this is what we are thinking:
1 - Steeped Horsehair (6:31)
2 - The Glow Worm (5:48)
3 - The Cry of the Hawk (8:29)
4 - The Battle of the Ants (6:24)
5 - Twig? (4:53)
6 - Sic Transeat (6:33)
7 - The Star Sapphire (16:32)
Two of our sonic/spiritual inspirations for this work were Marjorie Cameron's The Wormwood Star and Mortiis' Song of a Long Forgotten Ghost...though I don't think what we have made sounds at all like either!
We will be working on the j-card for the cassette and then once that is ready, we can deliver the digital soundtrack. Cassettes will obviously take longer, but for those who wait to listen to the physical object, I applaud your endurance.
While crafting music we also took breaks to explore, play, and garner inspiration. We did some more playtesting of a game we have been working on for a very long time. We also finally played Forbidden Psalm, which was fantastic. And we got in a play of an old microgame I have been dying to try, Dimension Demons. I played the Demons and the Demons won. Humans all died.
We were visited by a cougar, met some deer, and attempted to revivify a massive jellyfish to no avail. While exploring we found a coconut on the frozen beaches. The coconut mystery remains unsolved, but Monty Python fans assure me that they know the answer.
Traveling with my modular synth was stressful...and it turned out I was right to be anxious. Airport security fucked up the wood case and, for some ungodly reason, unscrewed a bunch of modules, losing some of the screws. Luckily, in my hasty packing, I accidentally brought a bag of screws and intentionally brought my favorite screwdriver, so I was able to reinstall everything nicely. Case repairs will happen eventually.
Here's a photo of a Cthulugan entranced by aural emanations.
We will lock orders on the 31st of January. At that point you will receive an email notifying you that cards will be charged 48 hours later on February 2nd.
Addresses will not lock until closer to fulfillment, so you will still be able to access your survey to update your address until then. We will send an update closer to fulfillment before we lock addresses.
-Max Moon and Exalted Funeral
Yuletide greetings backers!
Quick update to say that the BackerKit Pledge Manager will be sent out to backers starting this weekend! We will send out the smoke test to 5% of backers in the next day or so. The remainder of surveys will be sent out starting early next week. Any backer that has not received their pledge survey by Wednesday December 27 should reach out to us at [email protected].
“May the New Year bring you courage to break your resolutions early! My own plan is to swear off every kind of virtue, so that I triumph even when I fall!”
Exalted Funeral and Max Moon
My dearest HIMOGs, filthy fools, and aspirants of O! I am beyond grateful for your collective support in this strange and holy endeavor to extract mind and transmute it into dirt. The disease of consciousness we share will surely endureth.
As I close my eyes, I can see the flames dancing toward the stars above the City of Pyramids as we enter N.O.X. I will carry this vision with me as I write the final words of the manuscript.
It has been a dream of mine to see the Abyss gathered up in a pulchritudinous body since I first began this bizarre task of gamifying the Book of Lies. And in this ritual work, I could never have progressed without your support. To those who have walked the Path since the dawn, thank you. To those who are but babes in the Abyss, I welcome you with the deepest appreciation and look forward to your first death. You have all played a critical role in making the Abyss of Hallucinations.
To those who backed the V.V.V.V.V. edition, we will be in touch. I look forward to working with you and Brien.
As we move forward in this year of work, you can expect monthly updates. I will also let you know as early as possible if the timeline needs to be pushed back for any reason. At this point, we have lots of slack built into the schedule to allow for unforeseen circumstances, and while I have many divination tools at my disposal, I cannot claim to be certain of anything other than the world is a beautiful puddle of chaos.
More information on the BackerKit Pledge Manager and Pre-order Store coming later this week!
Now strike the bell three times and cry out with me, “Hriliu!” For we have completed the initiatory phase!
By Night,
Max Moon