Hiatus

Due to the ongoing technical difficulties of our file hosts, the Internet Archive, we have decided to hold off on further releases until the remaining problems are resolved (or we get tired of waiting and decide to take our chances, whichever happens first).

Many of our files are still only sporadically available, for which we can offer only a shrug and an impotent apology. Our frustration is tempered only by the knowledge that the Archive technical staff are busting their collective tail to overhaul what is, ultimately, a free service.

The situation is subject to rapid and unpredictable change, so it's worth checking back once in a while.

In the meantime, we're still knocking on hidden doors and developing new machines for dreaming. Stay on the beam for our Post-Repair season!

=PD

Nagual Art @ NTNS / To Repel Ghosts @ Dark Winter

Nagual Art appears on Not The Normal Shit Radio's new compilation, The Best of NTNS Radio 2007.

The compilation is free to download, and features the Nagual Art track The Whisperbox, from their album A Landscape Built by Whispers.

- - - - -
ALSO
- - - -

To Repel Ghosts is featured on this year's ambient holiday compilation from the excellent netlabel Dark Winter, available now for free download!

Dark Winter Holiday Compilation - A Candle's Golden Glow

"When the sky is dark and the temperature is low, comfort can be found in a candle's golden glow..."

TRG offered their arrangement of Silent Night from their 2005 album All Is Calm. Also featured are Last Nights of Paris, Ambage, Datua 1.0, Bunk Data, Larry Johnson, Mystified, Gothick, Ka-baalim, Jeffery Letterly, Zenith, Samsa, Mikrodepresja, Ryu, and Gurdonark.

New Release: Nagual Art - Adoria

Nagual Art - Adoria
[free download, 192kpbs mp3]

This is the Soundtrack of Adoria - the Lucid Winter Wonderland.

Winter reigns over the Northern Hemisphere, and Nagual Art celebrates in cold ambient beauty. Sound travels far in the frigid air, bringing wisps of voices and the woodsmoke scent of deep dreaming.

1. Fragments
2. Enter Adoria (I & II)
3. Leviath
4. Lisea
5. Mondwinter
6. Traumkristalle
7. Der freundliche Kleine
8. Schneezauber
9. Fatima
10. Theory of the Deep

Adoria - produced by Volador in 2006/07

Artwork by Dravidian A. Ageran (www.dasnachtmahrprojekt.de)

Guest: Hermann Voges, countertenor on "Schneezauber"

(Visit Nagual Art's MySpace page for an exclusive bonus track, Another Day in Adoria.)

- - - - -

To Repel Ghosts' previously-announced album has been delayed, owing to mastering problems. The album is being re-mixed, and will be released as soon as possible.

Work continues, as usual

Winter - meteorologic, if not astronomic - has arrived at the Plaguedream compound, and most of us were relieved from our usual morning duties to chip ice off everything. The automatic de-icer on the auxiliary transmitter tower froze up (yeah...), so I spent the pre-dawn hours up in a lineman's harness with a blow-dryer and a really long extension cord, thawing out the delicate coils on low heat. Not how I planned to spend my Monday, but it did turn out, on balance, to be to our great benefit, since my unusual vantage point revealed a worn insulator that, left to itself, could have burned out the entire unit, at a cost far exceeding the minor annoyance and windburn it took to find it. That's how it goes around here (and good thing, too, despite any grumbling at the time).

(Apologies for the minutiae, but I still have my feet in a warm-water bath as I type, so it's on my mind.)

More relevant to you, dear reader, I am pleased to say that To Repel Ghosts are putting the finishing touches on Partisan Songs, to be released very soon (assuming that the server difficulties of our long-suffering file hosts, the Internet Archive, are resolved promptly - stay tuned). The engineering stage of the album proved trying for all of us at the Institute - TRG's methods are not without their hazards - but things have quieted down since they went to post-production, and what I've heard of the album sounds like it was worth the damage to the studio facilities (which was extensive but, fortunately, mostly cosmetic).

Lastly, I would like to reassure the many listeners who wrote to us concerning the Noel Towers album that what you are experiencing is perfectly natural, and that the psychosensory effects, though unsettling to some, are ultimately beneficial, and will become less noticeable over subsequent playings.

Watch for more news as the month progresses - we have some good things in store!

=PD

To Repel Ghosts on MySpace

Founding Plaguedream artists To Repel Ghosts have a new MySpace page!

We're still waiting on Band and Bio information from this notoriously reticent crew, but they've agreed to post a demo track from their upcoming album - the long-awaited Partisan Songs - by way of appeasement. Watch for the full release in coming weeks!

While we're on the topic, if you're on MySpace and haven't yet Friended your favorite This Plague of Dreaming artists, now is your chance:

This Plague of Dreaming (label page)
Glenn Brown
Harel Gal
Nagual Art
Sublinear
Sypha Nadon
The Threshold People

and our Allies:
[Esc.] Laboratory

MySpace may be a disheartening quagmire, but it's also the place to hear demos and preview tracks, and to show your appreciation to the artists directly, if you like.

(Fabrizio Torri doesn't maintain a MySpace page, to our knowledge, but you can keep up with his doings at his blog, Jitterbug Poetry.)

Moving right along, I am pleased to announce that the Internet Archive has repaired many of the problems that have beset it of late, so that the recent albums from Glenn Brown and The Threshold People are once again available to stream or download. We apologize for any frustration the service interruption may have caused you.

EDIT: The Internet Archive situation is not yet entirely stable. Stay tuned, and once again we apologize.

New Release: Glenn Brown - 3 Crows & The Moon [EP]

Glenn Brown - 3 Crows & The Moon [EP]
[free download, 192kpbs mp3]

An ambient excursion into outer...and inner...space. Ethereal, dark, and haunting soundscapes for a sci-fi movie yet to be made.

About the Artist:

I make ambient soundscapes w/ electric guitar only...no synths or keyboards are used. I started playing guitar and learning music 20 years ago, and focussed on rock, jazz, and fusion for most of that time. In the last few years I discovered both ambient and 20th century classical music, and since then have concentrated on making dark ambient / dark drone music. If it sounds good when driving through deserted industrial areas late at night, then I know I’m on the right track…

About the Recording:

All songs performed on a 2005 Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster with Kinman pickups. Processing was done via a POD XT, Digitech RP-12, Dunlop Wah, and various VST plugins. Recording was done direct to computer.

These songs were taken from the album 3 Crows & The Moon, a conceptual piece concerning a melodrama taking place in the future, and set in space.

All songs written, performed, recorded and mixed by Glenn Brown.

Mastered by Marco Oppedisano.

Cover art by Charles Kerins.

Track Listing:
1. The Hundred Year Rule
2. The Ones Left Behind
3. A Crystal Fascination III
4. A Crystal Fascination IV
5. Free From What You Need
6. 3 Crows & The Moon
7. The Tanks Are Empty
8. Panorama Without Panic

New Shocks! New Thrills! NEW ALBUM!

The Threshold People - Seven Legs from an Eight-Legged Beast
[free download, 192kpbs mp3]

Skeletons! Monsters! Living Shadows that talk--and KILL!!

The Threshold People are back, complete with seven new slabs of throbbing horrorbeat to give you the wim-wams!

01. Trail of Bones (Lights Out) 1:57
02. Back to Darkness 3:12
03. Deja Vu (That Sound) 2:03
04. Undying Monster 5:17
05. The Blob 2:52
06. The Werewolf's Cure 3:32
07. We Didn't Have Much Time 2:52

Are you brave enough to follow the trail of bones into the lair of The Threshold People? Then turn up the volume and turn out the lights...

The most electrifying scare album of the year! Hear it now--but don't hear it alone!

[rhexisMUSIC] presents: St. Withiel Delivers From Evil

Something you should all hear: a new album of (mostly) covers from future culture-hero Withiel

[rhexixMUSIC] presents: St. Withiel Delivers From Evil

"An album of covers and quasi-religiose music, produced over the last few months. Some of these are quite beautiful, others are very ugly. Most of them weren't written by me, although some were."

Listeners familiar with Withiel's earlier work will find this album more intimate, with a softer and closer sense of space. His signature labyrinthine production style has been toned down a little on most tracks, with fewer overdubs and more emphasis on the solo vocal. The album hangs together fairly well for a covers collection, and Withiel sings them like they're his own. The only exception would be L. Cohen's Democracy, which nonetheless sounds like a heartfelt homage.

[Withiel's previous releases, and other rhexisMUSIC artists, can be downloaded free from the rhexisMUSIC website.]

The world is a vale of tears, but then there's Withiel, so it's alright.

Well, he's done it: Sublinear's album Pinned Beneath the Boiling Sky has reached the 2000 Downloads, a first for the label. Take a moment to congratulate him, won't you?

New Release: Noel Towers - To Jest Jądro Orzecha Włoskiego

Noel Towers - To Jest Jądro Orzecha Włoskiego
[free download, 192kpbs mp3]

"This is the kernel of the walnut" - A welter of restless jazz textures and electroacoustic processing, liquid sax taken deep underground for a congress of ghosts.

1. unsheathed
2. pearl
3. hid
4. kernel

Noel Towers - saxophones
Fabrizio "Baka" Torri - guitars
Kowal "The Blacksmith" Wieże - everything else

Noel Towers is an anglo-brazilian musician. At present he lives in Cracow, Poland, where he and Kowal Wieże are students of ethnomusicology at the university. Fabrizzio Torri will be familiar to our listeners from his earlier This Plague of Dreaming release Terra Lucida. [Recorded in Szczecin, Poland.]

The Beginning The End V.2

Harel Gal's album the beginning the end has been updated! At the request of the artist, the song away has been replaced with an updated version, and a new song, motoclick, has been added. If you have already downloaded the album, come get the additional tracks!

Accolades

Sometime overnight, three of our albums have passed the 1000 Downloads mark:

Nagual Art - A Landscape Built By Whispers
[interrupt:Jumper] - "music for unfinished movies"
Sypha Nadon - 11 Chants for Russolo!

If you are one of the lucky souls to have already downloaded these fine albums, then our thanks go out to you. If you have not yet had the pleasure: pray, deny yourself no longer! Life is hard and the nights are cold - seek consolation and strength in music.

Also, at some point in the next 48 hours will burst upon you the new album from Noel Towers! This multinational collaboration marks the end of a busy Summer for This Plague of Dreaming. Once again we thank you, loyal plaguedreamers, for listening.

Keep on the beam!

Frightmare Forest, and meta:Human

As the days grow short and the nights grow chill, we're pleased to bring you more Threshold People news!

Our resident ghouls have just licensed their song "The Pit" (again!) for use in the haunted attraction Frightmare Forest! If you're in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa area during the month of October, stop in and get the pants scared off ya!

Also, our friends [Esc.] Laboratory have released a new album on the test tube netlabel:

"Meet meta:Human, a kind of an Industrial-Techno-Goth-IDM trio from Germany. The Dark Ages of Technology is their own post-apocalyptic manifest."

Monster By Mail

Monster By Mail ("An original hand drawn monster sketch delivered to your doorstep!") recently featured The Threshold People song The Pit in one of their art-in-progress YouTube videos: Zombies vs The Anelian Race!

Enjoy the video, then go and get yourself a Monster By Mail!

(All proceeds from the MBM project go towards the artist's family medical expenses.)

New [Esc.] Laboratory Release:

[insect:industries] - "post.larvae.state"
[free download, 192kpbs mp3]

"So befremdlich Insekten auf uns wirken, so befremdlich muss wohl die Welt der Menschen und ihrer Maschinen auf die Insekten wirken.

"Was könnte für uns befremdlicher sein, als ein Insekt zu sein?"

The songs from post.larvae.state were originally made for the group-exhibition Insekten Frei.

The concept behind the album was to recreate the strange landscape of concrete immensity that confronts the insects living in our habitat, the urban sprawl.

The songs were generated through the use of an extraordinary scientific sample library of sounds made by insects and by some nighttime field recordings in the city. They were all put together in a Dub-session - jamming, adding some delays, reverbs, and the only electronic sound device, a Clavia Micro Modular.

- - - - -
01. human resource
02. hive like city
03. brain bugged
04. resource
05. HIVE
06. bugg_ed
- - - - -

This album is hosted at This Plague of Dreaming by special arrangement with [Esc.] Laboratory. For more information, visit the artists' website.

All Caught Up, and Other Tales

The long, dull transfer process is complete! Everything before this post has been copied over from the old plaguedream livejournal; this post and everything after is new and exciting!

Briefly, for those of you just joining us: This Plague of Dreaming is a nonprofit netlabel, and also forms the musical arm of the PlagueDream Institute. While much of our research is classified, that which has been cleared for public consumption can be downloaded free through our website or directly from the Internet Archive.

As those readers in New England can attest, we've lately had an early breath of Autumn. The nights have been cool, and the light has taken on that peculiar silver gleam. It won't last, our prognosticators assure us, but it has inspired a spike of (un)seasonal activity around the compound.

This past week was also the mugwort harvest at the Institute. We picked before flower, since it's not a propagation year, so the oil is stronger in the leaves (is it ever!). The first celebratory round of early brew is still reverberating, and many of us are still waking up each morning haggard and spent, days afterward. The fumes from the drying rack are causing the usual problems, but a favorable wind has so far kept most of it away from the village.

In label news, we will soon be hosting a new album from our German allies [Esc.] Laboratory, so watch for that in the next few days!

=PD

The Threshold People on Myspace

For those of you who keep track of such things, The Threshold People now have their own Myspace page!

As an incentive to go take a look, the fiends have uploaded a demo from their forthcoming album, Seven Legs from an Eight-Legged Beast! Be one of the first to hear, etc.

New Release: Nagual Art - A Landscape Built By Whispers

Nagual Art - A Landscape Built By Whispers
[free download, 192kpbs mp3]

"Nagual Art - the German Dark Ambient Soundtrack Project - was founded in 2005. Inspired by dreams and an abstract mindset, I try to render dreams audible and - the other way around - to provide a possible access to subconsciousness and dreams through music. Abstract-dark, confused-melancholic soundscapes with neo-classical influences emanate from this musical concept."

01. The Whisperbox
02. Bedroom Visitors
03. This Winternight Forever
04. Adoria
05. The Swan

"Stop your thoughts, start to dream, live!"

General news and whatnot

Hello, friends! I'm writing this update from the bunkhouse, since maintenance is smudging my office following last night's "incident." The Threshold People have kindly allowed me to crash with them (I can't stand the smell of sage, and won't be returning until my office is well and truly aired out), so I'm looking forward to a very long, popcorn-fueled night. Anyway, to business...

In June, I announced that our tenth release would be our label compilation. As you have seen, of course, we decided to release Terra Lucida as plague010 instead. The compilation has been postponed for a short time while we release work from several artists who have been waiting for us to get our act together (to be painfully frank). Watch for it before too much longer!

Next up: Nagual Art - A Landscape Built By Whispers

In other news, I do finally have a new intern to help out with the website. Unfortunately, he's an anarcho-primitivist, so he really hasn't been an awful lot of help with the technical side of things, but he makes Turkish coffee like he was born to it, so he stays. I'm also pleased to announce that the sheep mutilations have ceased, and the perpetrator has been dealt with, which will hopefully put an end to the unwanted attention the Institute has been receiving from the local farming community.

Finally, the crew of the airship Jane Guy would like to apologize to the former residents of 114 Broad St. Medville, Arkansas, for the late-night emergency ballast drop. Our accounting department will be in touch.

=PD

New Release from Fabrizio Torri

Fabrizio Torri - Terra Lucida
[free download, 192kpbs mp3]

Fabrizio Torri's first album for This Plague of Dreaming is a strange world of echoes, of memory, and of golden, shifting light. Torri's music is frequently retro in sound, but it has been filtered through the distortion of the intervening decades, rounding its sharp edges and blurring its outline in warmth and dust. This is music to listen to alone, with headphones and closed eyes and the sun on your face.

01. ambra baltica
02. gizmo
03. l'equilibrio
04. kid eternity
05. mago saverio
06. peg-leg pete
07. swedenborg
08. terra lucida

Another Milestone

With unprecedented speed, Sublinear's debut album Pinned Beneath the Boiling Sky [plague009] has exceeded 1000 official downloads.

Thank you, once again, loyal plaguedreamers.

In response to a question, a clarification:

An anonymous correspondent has questioned my recent report of Mr. _____'s unfortunate incarceration, wondering if I had mistakenly typed "15 years" when I meant "15 months," a more likely, though still somewhat immoderate, sentence for the crime of orchid smuggling.

Indeed I did not. Mr. ____'s sentence has been set at 15 years, and if I may say so frankly, he was lucky to get that. The orchids in question were more-than-commonly outre, as were his methods for obtaining them, and while I am not at liberty to elaborate, I might state euphemistically that the laws of Man were not the highest of those which were contravened in pursuit of his epiphytic prize, and this no doubt contributed directly to the unconventionally stiff penalty which he faces. Let us then consider "orchid smuggling" a convenient label under which to subsume a nested series of offenses the exact nature of which is unlikely to come to light, and allow the matter to rest. Further inquiry, my good Anonymous, will not profit you.

=PD

Milestone - First PlagueDream release to reach 1000 downloads!

Another update already!

This Plague of Dreaming is proud to announce that Night of the Threshold People [plague003] has reached 1000 official* downloads, our first release to do so.

Thank you, loyal plaguedreamers, for helping us make it this far!

*that is, downloads recognized by the Internet Archive's official counter

The state of things at the Institute

Summer is upon us here at the PlagueDream Institute, deep in the hoary hills of New England, bringing with it swarms of fireflies, the heady scent of night-blooming flowers, and an infusion of new talent: oneironauts Fabrizio Torri and Nagual Art have joined our ranks. Watch for new music from them in the coming months!

In the meantime, work is underway on This Plague of Dreaming's tenth album release, a compilation featuring label artists present and future, as well as featured guest artists.

In other news, the head of the Institute's Exploration unit was just sentenced to 15 years for orchid smuggling*, and in the resulting departmental chaos, our Outreach service was able to slyly requisition one of Exploration's much-coveted airships. Watch the sky over cornfields and lonely hilltops near you for the disco running-lights of the Jane Guy, and the throbbing sub bass which will announce another of their impromptu fly-over raves (for such lucky locals as awaken from their beds to follow the music into the night). I wish, sometimes, that I could fly out with them, but my work is here at the Institute.

Finally, I must apologize for the infrequent nature of updates both to this blog and to the main website - with new converts and wild-eyed pilgrims wandering into the compound every day, you'd think Personnel could spare me one to act as webmaster, but, alas, they retain them for their own darkly-hinted purposes. I suppose I shouldn't complain, as construction on our new subterranean facilities is progressing ahead of projections, but it still leaves me to maintain the department's web presence "in my spare time," when I'm not coordinating work in the lab. Grumbling aside, look for updated information (and a snazzy website redesign) in the near future.

Until the next update (whenever that may be), keep watching the skies, and don't get caught.

=PD

*the PlagueDream Institute categorically denies any knowledge of Mr. ____'s unlawful activities, and resents the implication.

Another Milestone

With unprecedented speed, Sublinear's debut album Pinned Beneath the Boiling Sky [plague009] has exceeded 1000 official downloads.

Thank you, once again, loyal plaguedreamers.

New Release from Sublinear

Sublinear - Pinned Beneath the Boiling Sky
[free download, 192kpbs mp3]

Music for a radiant abyss.

This is Sublinear's first album with This Plague of Dreaming, but his experience as a score composer shows clearly in his disquieting, cinematic trip-hop arrangements.

01. A Quiet Death
02. Night of the Reptiles
03. Shattered Light
04. Fragility
05. And the Wind In the Trees Is Like the Sound of Eternity
06. Breakdancing in the Rain
07. Bloodworms
08. Our Weapons Are Useless Against Them
09. Kill Us Before the Rains Come
10. Litany

Sublinear appeared alongside The Threshold People on Oddio Overplay's terrifying Halloween compilation Calling All Fiends.

MZR001: BOY DESTROYER: "RISE HORUS RISE"

"Mauve Zone Recordings is pleased to announce the release of its first digital bullet, "Rise Horus Rise", which is in turn the grand debut of noise supergroup BOY DESTROYER."

Featuring This Plague of Dreaming recording artist Sypha Nadon!

If you need noise, this album will hurt you so good.

Get more information, including an interview HERE

Download your pitiful life away HERE

The roller-skate boys sweep down a hill in a shower of autumn leaves. They slice through a police patrol. Blood spatters dead leaves in air.

The screen is exploding in moon craters and boiling silver spots.

"Wild boys very close now."

Darkness falls on the ruined suburbs. A dog barks in the distance.

Dim jerky stars are blowing away across a gleaming empty sky, the wild boys smile.

-WSB

New Release: [interrupt:Jumper] - "music for unfinished movies"

[Esc.] Laboratory:
[interrupt:Jumper] - "music for unfinished movies"
[free download, 192kpbs mp3]

"Making music means to us to free our hearts from agony, frustration, lust and the eternal sin. It`s a way of cleansing the soul. As we get deeper into the grains of sound we touch the intelligence of chaos." - [Esc.] Laboratory

01. replica (live)
02. endgame
03. refrigerator
04. story of Kain
05. move (live)
06. unknown applicant
07. Idoru
08. through closed doors

Germany's [Esc.] Laboratory are veteran sonic ritualists, and explorers of a liminal territory that will be familiar to our loyal plaguedreamers. The sound is industrial-dub, thrumming bass and echoic beats offering a pulsing glimpse of deep time traveling down the spine, the soundtrack to a lunar eclipse.

When [Esc.] Laboratory contacted the PlagueDream Institute in 2006, we were impressed by their dedication and craft, and affected by their trance-inducing sound. After intense negotiations, we entered into a mutually-beneficial strategic alliance. [interrupt:Jumper] is the first of several [Esc.] Lab projects that will be hosted by This Plague of Dreaming, according to the terms of that treaty.