Sere by Eryth

Presenting a new EP in the 'Music for Dune' series, this time centred on the Tleilaxu

Touched on in 'Messiah' and expanded greatly later on, I found the idea of a Tleilaxu ghola, cloned and able to rediscover their original memories, a fascinating prospect. How does this work, does this consciousness physically exist, is this the case for all of us? Are gholas forever cursed to a cycle of unending deaths, or blessed to live forever? The three tracks here chart the thoughts of one of these gholas - initially reliving his thousands of deaths through his genetic memory, to a realisation that this gives him a form of immortality, to a transcendence of his physical form by imprinting his consciousness onto the cosmos. In gathering some inspiration through ChatGPT, it suggested this was the Tleilaxu concept of 'sere' - further digging suggests this isn't actually canon, but I like the sound of the word enough that I'm claiming it for this project. Further googling suggests it's old English for 'worn out' and 'barren of thought', which likely suits the eternal ghola's state of mind. The cover is an AI image, prompted to draw something which shows the uncanny similarities between the structures of neurons in the brain and galactic filaments across the cosmos.

The sonic imprint for the Tleilaxu chapter was always meant to be black metal, specifically the more twisted end - Blut aus Nord, Altar of Plagues, Oranssi Pazuzu, Thantifaxath, Deathspell Omega. Lots of dissonance, microtonality and odd time signatures, while maintaining a sludgy groove/propulsion and some of the typical Eryth elements. My usual mix template doesn't really work well for tremolo picking, so I have re-built this from the ground up. Guitars are now re-amped in VSTs (not that different to the amp/sim multi-effects pedal I used before) with a pitch drift element. A new, simpler, cleaner bass template has some nice bite and propulsion. Drums are beefed up, and the entire thing is drenched in an egregious amount of reverb. Vocals are also a new chain - with enough layered distortion and effects, this magically transforms some actually very weak recorded vocals into some proper howls and roars. Additional vocal credit goes to our new puppy Max for his howls and barks at various points

A Thousand Deaths
A twisting motif recurs throughout based on various knotty & atonal elements in the opening riff, some of the leads and the ending chiming notes. Various detours into sludgy/doomy parts bring the pace down and then back up. The ending crawl plays really well with the pitch drifting guitars, creating a unique queasy effect. A couple of transitions were tricky - I try very hard to make the tracks flow and not be jarring, as in so much death metal - but fit reasonably well within the track. Prise goes to Matt for his solos throughout - which have been frankensteined into something completely different but provided great inspiration. The lyrics here chronicle the many ways our ghola has died during his lifetimes, cursed to relive these again and again.

S'tori
A spookier track, using a 3-note bass riff over a 4/4 tresillo drum pattern, a polymeter which means you can never quite tell where the bars start or end. The middle riff is inspired by Steve Reich's violin phase, given a dissonant twist. Lyrically, our ghola is raging against his Tleilaxu masters, and looking to untangle his genetic memory from his cells. The title 'S'tori' is a (canon!) Tleilax word meaning 'spiritual awakening or enlightenment'

Quintessent
This track kicks off with a descending phrase which plays with the concept of a 3-over-4 polyrhythm. I was seeking an interlude as the track is otherwise pretty full-on, and one afternoon improvised a couple of knotty, quirky solos which I liked enough to keep in the final track. The ending switches to a more hopeful/positive tonality, via a droning tremolo bridge which I love the sound of. For our story, in the final phase of our ghola's progression, he discovers a way to imprint himself into the cosmos (borrowing liberally from Arthur C Clark's Bowman here…) and realise he will now live fearlessly for eternity, as a 'quintessent' entity. He has lost his humanity, but as he says in a nod to words spoken by Paul as he walks into the desert in Messiah - 'now, I am free'. The spoken dialogues during the solo and drone are adapted from Ulver's 'Perdition City', funnily enough

Ataraxia
A final contemplative piece, signifying the ultimate acceptance of fate, or 'ataraxia'. Leaning on the Locrian mode, chiming notes weave in and out of consonance/dissonance, and result in a peaceful feeing of closure after all the chaos.

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