music from the universe of H. P.
Lovecraft
Ignacio
Lois - voice
Victor
Nubla - sampler
1.
He knew that for him its meaning must once have been supreme; though in
what cycle or incarnation he had known it, or whether in dream or in
waking, he could not tell. Vaguely it called up glimpses of a far
forgotten first youth, when wonder and pleasure lay in all the mystery
of days, and dawn and dusk alike strode forth prophetic to the eager
sound of lutes and song, unclosing
fiery gates toward further and
surprising marvels. But each night as he stood on that high marble
terrace with the curious urns and carven rail and looked off over that
hushed sunset city of beauty and unearthly immanence he felt the
bondage of dream's tyrannous gods; for in no wise could he leave that
lofty spot, or descend the wide marmoreal fights flung endlessly down
to where those streets of elder witchery lay outspread and beckoning.
2.
There were, in such voyages, incalculable local dangers; as well as
that shocking final peril which gibbers unmentionably outside the
ordered universe, where no dreams reach; that last amorphous blight of
nethermost confusion which blasphemes and bubbles at the centre of all
infinity - the boundless daemon sultan Azathoth, whose name no lips
dare speak aloud, and who gnaws hungrily in inconceivable, unlighted
chambers beyond time amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile
drums and the thin, monotonous whine of accursed flutes; to which
detestable pounding and piping dance slowly, awkwardly, and absurdly
the gigantic Ultimate gods, the blind, voiceless, tenebrous, mindless
Other gods whose soul and messenger is the crawling chaos Nyarlathotep.
3.
In a detestable square a sort of procession was formed; ten of the
toad-things and twenty-four almost human torch-bearers, eleven on
either side, and one each before and behind. Carter was placed in the
middle of the line; five toad-things ahead and five behind, and one
almost-human torch-bearer on either side of him. Certain of the
toad-things produced disgustingly carven flutes of ivory and made
loathsome sounds. To that hellish piping the column advanced out of the
tiled streets and into nighted plains of obscene fungi, soon commencing
to climb one of the lower and more gradual hills that lay behind the
city. That on some frightful slope or blasphemous plateau the crawling
chaos waited, Carter could not doubt; and he wished that the suspense
might
soon be over. The whining of those impious flutes was shocking,
and he would have given worlds for some even half-normal sound; but
these toad-things had no voices, and the slaves did not talk.
4.
Now much of the speech of cats was known to Randolph Carter, and in
this far terrible place he uttered the cry that was suitable. But that
he need not have done, for even as his lips opened he heard the chorus
wax and draw nearer, and saw swift shadows against the stars as small
graceful shapes leaped from hill to hill in gathering legions. The call
of the clan had been given, and before the foul procession had time
even to be frightened a cloud of smothering fur and a phalanx of
murderous claws were tidally and tempestuously upon it. The flutes
stopped, and there were shrieks in the night. Dying almost-humans
screamed, and cats spit and yowled and roared, but the toad-things made
never a sound as their stinking green ichor oozed fatally upon that
porous earth with the obscene fungi.
5.
Down through this verdant land Carter walked at evening, and saw
twilight float up from the river to the marvellous golden spires of
Thran. And just at the hour of dusk he came to the southern gate, and
was stopped by a red-robed sentry till he had told three dreams beyond
belief, and proved himself a dreamer worthy to walk up Thran's steep
mysterious streets and linger in the bazaars where the wares of the
ornate galleons were sold. Then into that incredible city he walked;
through a wall so thick that the gate was a tunnel, and thereafter
amidst curved and undulant ways winding deep and narrow between the
heavenward towers. Lights shone through grated and balconied windows,
and,the sound of lutes and pipes stole timid from inner courts where
marble fountains bubbled. Carter knew his way, and edged down through
darker streets to the river, where at an old sea tavern he found the
captains and seamen he had known in myriad other dreams. There he
bought his passage to Celephais on a great green galleon, and there he
stopped for the night after speaking gravely to the venerable cat of
that inn, who blinked dozing before an enormous hearth and dreamed of
old wars and forgotten gods.
6.
By noon Carter reached the jasper terraces of Kiran which slope down to
the river's edge and bear that temple of loveliness wherein the King of
Ilek-Vad comes from his far realm on the twilight sea once a year in a
golden palanqnin to pray to the god of Oukianos, who sang to him in
youth when he dwelt in a cottage by its banks. All of jasper is that
temple, and covering an acre of
ground with its walls and courts, its
seven pinnacled towers, and its inner shrine where the river enters
through hidden channels and the god sings softly in the night. Many
times the moon hears strange music as it shines on those courts and
terraces and pinnacles, but whether that music be the song of the god
or the chant of the cryptical priests, none but the King of Ilek-Vad
may
say; for only he had entered the temple or seen the priests. Now,
in the drowsiness of day, that carven and delicate fane was silent, and
Carter heard only the murmur of the great stream and the hum of the
birds and bees as he walked onward under the enchanted sun.
HP LOVECRAFT