Saturday, October 13, 2012

Theatrum Mundi et Temporis (Joanne Paulo Gallucio, Venezia 1588)

A bit of historical information about the Bestia Centauri constellation, for those who may be interested.



Sunday, July 8, 2012

Diabolus Rex Comments On Bestia Centauri

We were somewhat surprised and flattered to learn that Diabolus Rex, occultural painter and sculptor in the tradition of H.R. Giger, and former Magister Templi of the Church of Satan, took time recently to comment upon an old essay of Bestia Centauri’s. The original Bestia Centauri text to which Diabolus Rex refers may be found here.

Below, we offer our brief response to Diabolus Rex in the following format: The original remarks that Rex cites, and then his comments, followed by Bestia Centauri’s (BC) rejoinders. Diabolus Rex’s complete and unedited remarks appear following these comments.

We hope that some will find this exchange to be of interest.

1. BC (original comment): [...] [T]he Beast and the Centaur [are linked] with what the writer and visionary Arthur Machen called, in a famous tale of his, “The Great God Pan”. This “god” is not some benign, “New Age” pagan nature spirit: It is the totality of all that is. Those few who have perceived the Beast too directly in rare moments usually go mad: The English word panic derives from the Ancients’ understanding of this idea.

   Rex: The writer here correctly observes a varnishing of the mythoes [sic] wherein the beast awaits sacrificial death to a second greater beast, but up-ends this perspective by joining the two creatures into a hybrid being whom he relates to the “Great God Pan” but is rightly one of the “Hounds of Tindalos”.

  BC (reply): The connection to Belknap Long's hounds is interesting, but one mustn’t be too literal, here. The relation is purely metaphorical, and alludes specifically to Machen’s conception. We wish to emphasize, in particular, the maddening effects of an encounter with a totality beyond conception.

2. BC (original comment): Those who resemble humans, but who are, in fact, demonic intelligences bearing the human form. This is what Nietzsche referred to as the Superhuman, a new sort of race—or, ultimately, species—altogether.

    Rex: This statement is collective in it’s [sic] perception, the authentic state is not a species, but a separate and distinct form, isolate.

    BC (reply): This objection seems primarily semantic. The species concept in general is, of course, open to question, but here it is merely a sort of shorthand, and, once again, not to be taken too literally. That said, we agree completely with Rex’s remark regarding separate, isolate, and distinct forms. If, however, these forms could interbreed, then the rudimentary biological definition of the term “species” might still obtain.

3. BC (original comment):  For those who wish to escape the general law, such conscious, self-directed evolution offers the greatest hope.

    Rex: Hope is a word for the weak and apprehensive, not the self directed. The Black Magician does not hope, but commands.

   BC (reply): Ah, yes, the specter of “Invictus” rises again! In fact, the word “hope” has an ancient lineage with multiple meanings and connotations. Our use of the word in this context was based upon one of these ancient and obscure meanings: “Expectation (without implication of desire, or of a thing not desired); prospect” (see the Oxford English Dictionary).

4. BC (original comment):This much is certain: However extraordinary, or even outrĂ©, one’s visions of “the Great God Pan” may be, the ultimate reality is vastly beyond the bounds of even the most advanced humanoid sensory abilities.

    Rex: This is a perspective held by those  outside of the preternatural and revelatory gnosis of the Magus.

    BC (reply): To be more precise, this is the perspective of someone who does not believe at all in the concept of the Magus or his alleged gnosis, let alone his authority. No one in his earthly incarnation is exempt from the limitations that inhere within that state—no one.

5. BC (original comment): If ever we were to confront it unmasked, we would likely face the fate of the narrator of Clark Ashton Smith’s epic poem The Hashish-Eater. Like him, we might stare into the maw of an utterly innominable force, and be consumed in the great alchemical furnace of the stars, “with lips of flame that open”.

   Rex: This statement reveals the scewed [sic] perception of the writer, who up to this point in his thesis has written from the perspective of the LHP. [...] The Satanist, the Black Magician does not seek submergence of the self, but refined definition in abject defiance of universal law.

   BC: This is an unfortunate misunderstanding. We accept partial responsibility for this misunderstanding, as we use a term, “crossing the abyss”, that has a “technical” meaning within occultism that we did not intend. The allusion to “consumption” was not to ego-death or assimilation, but, as we hoped our reference indicated, to an alchemical transformation, which is something very different.

In any case, it should be obvious that we do not advocate any sort of self-dissolution or merger within a greater whole, and that we also believe that preservation of the isolate individual intelligence, albeit transmuted, is paramount.

In conclusion, one should note that the remarks by Bestia Centauri that Diabolus Rex analyzed are at least ten years old, and that such views rarely remain static.

More to the point, Bestia Centauri is not seriously involved with magic or the occult, nor has it ever pretended to be. The purpose of the essay under discussion was to use certain concepts of the occult, and, specifically, the Path of the Left Hand, poetically, in order to introduce Bestia Centauri to the public. Those who take that statement too seriously, or too literally, merely reveal their own interpretive limitations. Indeed, the difference between Bestia Centauri and most occult practitioners we have met is that we do not insist upon the objective truth of our particular perspective. 

As for the “occult” and all the rest, art’s privilege is always to wander into areas where it does not strictly “belong”.

We express our thanks and appreciation to Diabolus Rex for taking the time to comment on our project.

Original Remarks By Diabolus Rex [BC: Typographical errors and misspellings are as they appeared in the original posting]:
Diabolus Rex – Wed, 03/16/2011 – 22:39
Releases on Afe:
Teratogenesis [afe093cd]
The Antediluvian Earth

This meditation on the sonic sorcery of dark ambient project Bestia Centauri was originally meant to be a response to a post on my FB wall by an online associate,  but as I delved into the perspective presented here, I decided to take the statements of the collective project in paragraphs and comment on them from the perspective of a Magus, quantum sorcerer, and occult engineer. All of my commentary is in bold…… [BC: We have changed Rex's boldface commentary to italics, in order to conform to the formatting of this blog.]

Myth is simply the re-interpreting of perceptions of temporal phenomena in terms of the trans-temporal. The “myth” of Bestia Centauri is one that I intuited in precisely this way. It began when I saw the cover of Tangerine Dream’s 1971 album Alpha Centauri. The cover was a strange, almost abstract black-and-white representation of that most proximate star, and it seeded my mind with a fascination with that region of the cosmos. In my meditations – a term that is much preferable to the New Age-like “pathworking” – I began to intuit a presence in this region: Bestia Centauri.
This region of space contains some of the hottest stars in existence as well as the occult super-nova SN1006 which made its first appearance on April 30th-May 1st (Walpurgisnacht) in the year 1006 BCE in the constellation of the wolf. In antiquity, this constellation was considered a monad with the Centaurus and was interpreted as an arbitrary animal about to be sacrificed to the centaur until Hipparchus of Bithynia named it Therion (the beast) some 200 years before the christian era. The accurate identity of this beast was unknown until translations of Ptolemy’s work into Latin identified it as “a wolf.” In Babylonian lore this figure was identified by his cuniform designate “UR” which identified all large carnivores, lions, wolves, mastive dogs, (the orgin of the gladitorial breeds), and bloodlusting supernatural beings.

Bestia Centauri is Latin for “the Beast of Centaurus” (hereafter, “the Beast”), an old and obscure name for what is now called the constellation Lupus (“Wolf”), near Alpha Centauri. The common tradition holds that the beast in question is a prey of the Centaur. This interpretation is, of course, incorrect. It is a sort of Christian-like sanitization of its deeper meaning, which links the Beast and the Centaur with what the writer and visionary Arthur Machen called, in a famous tale of his, “The Great God Pan”. This “god” is not some benign, “New Age” pagan nature spirit: It is the totality of all that is. Those few who have perceived the Beast too directly in rare moments usually go mad: The English word panic derives from the Ancients’ understanding of this idea.
The writer here correctly observes a varnishing of the mythoes wherein the beast awaits sacrificial death to a second greater beast, but up-ends this perspective by joining the two creatures into a hybrid being whom he relates to the “Great God Pan” but is rightly one of the “Hounds of Tindalos”.

The “physical” matter of the Beast is located in the aforementioned constellation. It lurks there, an indescribable force, in its lair of dark matter. (I would state dark energy), {This is the Ylem, the cosmic super-heated primordial sludge of the big bang at about 400.000.00 years after, composed of high energy protons} Certain artists and poets have periodically been inspired, wittingly or not, by this force, and have described elements of it and its influence in pictorial, poetic, and fictional works. Among these artists are H. P. Lovecraft,(AZATHOTH) Clark Ashton Smith, Arthur Machen, Edgar Allan Poe, Algernon Blackwood, William Hope Hodgson, John Martin, and many others. {The Hounds of Tindalos can rightly be understood as emissaries of AZATHOTH and as cannid-beings emminating from the lair of the Beast. They are the random elements that appear as a result of immersion into chaos theology and are “dangerous” to the mind unprepared for a manifestation with no common frame of reference.

The aim is to understand and channel the Cthulhu-like emanations of the Beast consciously, as a sort of Earthly avatar or representative. The Beast is akin to Lovecraft’s fictional Cthulhu, in that it “calls” those who are receptive to its nature.{angular resonance} Its emanations are closely related to what the Traditional Satanist group the Order of the Nine Angles terms “acausal” energy, a form of energy that is diametrically opposed to the causal energies that we perceive as a part of the tri-dimensional universe. This perception is arbitrary in time and demands the reduction of time by way of techno magickal concepts implemented in the ritual chamber. Acausal energy depends upon angular inertia information as they are linked in the workings of greater black magick. The figure of “Satan”, however, is a mere acolyte at the altar of the Beast, which is, in itself, far from such a human conception. {As Satan is the adversary of spirituality he is the nadir of the material reductive and un-related to Azathoth or Yog-Sothoth, In fact, the Beast is utterly beyond any human conceptions; one can, at best, use figurative and poetic language to capture its attributes. Beyond common human conceptions, yes, but noeticly apprehended by those elect few within the human equation who by cosmic force of will and refinement of the psych have transcended beyond this sphere, and live a dual existence both appearing in human form in the mundane plane, but also linked to Yog Sothoth the overmind and “super consciousness” and are themselves the demonic Lords of Chaos. At the same time, however, attunement to the Beast is a means of transferring to oneself acausal energy from the outer spheres, in order to increase chaos and “presence the darkness” on Earth. This statement is a primitive reference to elevation and transformation to the state of the GOTOS a being existing between two worlds, a master of black magickal reality who carries within himself/herself a degree of the essence of the Prince of Darkness, and is recognized as a being of frightful power through command of an Aeonic principle, (in the case of Diabolus Rex the Word Chaos) The diffusion of such energy is necessary to the transformation of an elect few: Those who resemble humans, but who are, in fact, demonic intelligences bearing the human form. This is what Nietzsche referred to as the Superhuman, a new sort of race–or, ultimately, species–altogether. This statement is collective in it’s perception, the authentic state is not a species, but a separate and distinct form, isolate.

Of course, the Beast itself cares nothing for the humanoid species, or for any other: It merely emanates the energies that enable certain inhabitants of the cosmos to “raise the sail”, and to harness these energies in a sort of self-directed evolution. XEPER, comming into being, the aeonic word of the Ipsissimus of the Temple of Set . As the esoteric tradition of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky states, the majority of the human race are, despite appearances, mere unconscious automata. (4th Way) They exist only to provide “food for the moon”; that is, to provide energy off which other bodies in the cosmic economy may feed. (to this I would add “psychic food” for the GOTOS of the Temple or Lodge) For those who wish to escape the general law, such conscious, self-directed evolution offers the greatest hope. (Hope is a word for the weak and apprehensive, not the self directed. The Black Magician does not hope, but commands.) Few, however, are capable of following this path to its conclusion. (it is also not a matter of choice, but of remanifestation into this sphere and a continuing metamorphosis of the elect)This is because such an evolutionary pattern invariably takes the form of the monstrous, albeit in the original sense of the Latin etymology for the term monster: a prodigy, a wonder, something outside nature. Thus the curse of the Magus who becomes a frightening enigma to common man.

In sum, tapping into the “crawling chaos” of acausal energies, such as the Beast emanates, is one pathway to the Superhuman.(The Choas Imperium interpret the “crawling chaos” as the force of will and transformation implemented in the angular streams of magickal reality by way of the dual minds of the Nyarlthotep-Diabolus Rex GOTOS Being) This is why the music mediated through the inspiration of the Beast is so unhuman; in its small way, it spreads acausal energies that will affect those who hear it either positively or negatively. For those who resonate to primal myths of chaos, to Lovecraftian vortices, to the secrets of dark matter, or to the interstices of interstellar chaos, the music of the Beast will infuse them with degrees of acausal energy. To those who are not attuned to these mysteries, however, the music will sound like mere noise, or may even cause or exacerbate physical illness. Despite the reverberant, flowing textures that provide its sole link with the genre of “Dark Ambient”, this music is also dynamic and, most of all, disorienting, akin to the effect of the strange angles of the architecture of R’lyeh.

It is electricity that best bears the forces described above, which is why electronic music, with its ability to replicate and create such strange sonorities and frequencies, is also the best means of propagating this form of acausal energy. Matter can be manipulated by the principle of 3, visualization ,concentration, and vibration. A sigil of proper geometric value sonicly delivered whether by voice or artificial means can loosen matter at the subatomic and allow for reformation. Sonic magick can only be strengthened by welding its principles to the mechanics of occult engineering, the current domain of the Ch.I It is also worthwhile to mention that, if others wish to interpret the above merely as an allegorical or metaphorical evocation of Rudolph Otto’s concept of the Numinous (Mysterium tremendum et fascinans; “a fearful and fascinating mystery”), then they are welcome to do so. This notion encapsulates the mysterium (something wholly other and altogether alien to anything that we experience in ordinary reality), and correlates it with the idea of tremendum, something that provokes awe and even terror because of its overwhelming power. It is, however, also potently attractive and alluring, or fascinans.The simultaneous  attraction<>repulsion of the alchemical Being Shubb Niggurath wherein lies the allegory of Satanic gnosis. Only the Black Magickal adept can confront this principle with impunity and understand it in totality, as he separates and distinguishes himself as superior to all other metaphysical forms.

Of course, no one would insist on the objective reality of these notions, “objective reality” being defined as the consensus reality of ordinary persons who define “reality” solely in terms of the five senses. Such a view, however, also does not call their reality into question. Arthur Machen accurately limned the nature of Acausal reality in his “Great God Pan”: Again, the form is more accurately encapsulated  as the Hounds of Tindalos as the “metaphysical emanations of AZATHOTH. The forms that it takes are protean, and will appear differently, in true shape-shifting fashion, to everyone who perceives them. For some, the Dark Gods may be an incomprehensible gaseous mass of interstellar matter, for others, a giant mauve insect on a black star. The common denominator is the feeling that accompanies these perceptions that rend, however briefly, the fabric of ordinary reality. This much is certain: However extraordinary, or even outrĂ©, one’s visions of “the Great God Pan” may be, the ultimate reality is vastly beyond the bounds of even the most advanced humanoid sensory abilities. (This is a perspective held by those  outside of the preternatural and revelatory gnosis of the Magus)  If ever we were to confront it unmasked, we would likely face the fate of the narrator of Clark Ashton Smith’s epic poem The Hashish-Eater. Like him, we might stare into the maw of an utterly innominable force, and be consumed in the great alchemical furnace of the stars, “with lips of flame that open”. Some may recoil in terror, but I can conceive of crossing the Abyss in no other way. In crossing the abyss the aspirant is charged with abandonment of the “ego” and the self by proper preparation to meet the demon “Choronzon” with the aim of monastic re-unification with the objective Universe, true death from the perspective of the Black Magician. This statement reveals the scewed perception of the writer, who up to this point in his thesis has written from the perspective of the LHP. The Authentic Black Magician knows that to embrace Nuit is obliteration and a surrender to entropy, a position that Crowley himself discovered in the final moments of his life. It is only through an immersion into the dark energy of chaos, (the abyss) that the sorcerer defines himself from the very darkness and roaring of the infernal equation of AZATHOTH . The Satanist, the Black Magician does not seek submergence of the self, but refined definition in abject defiance of universal law.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Commentary On "The 'Myth' of Bestia Centauri"

The essay posted immediately below, "The 'Myth' of Bestia Centauri", had its genesis in e-mail correspondence with one or two individuals who expressed interest in the project following the release of Ubbo-Sathla. The material dates from ca. 2002. I later expanded my ideas into a formal essay, which has since been taken, willy nilly, as a sort of "programmatic" statement for the project.


It now seems appropriate to re-publish the essay here. Of course, as anyone might expect, after a period of ten years, there is much that I would change if I were to write such a piece today. Because this is an archive of material related to Bestia Centauri, however, I shall let it stand unrevised, for others to make of it what they will. Is it a product of illumination, a visionary statement? Is it a load of pretentious bollocks? Is it an elaborate joke? Is it, in some measure, all three, simultaneously? Again, I leave this for the reader (and listener) to decide.

The "Myth" of Bestia Centauri



Bestia Centauri is Latin for "the Beast of Centaurus" (hereafter, "the Beast"), an old and obscure name for what is now called the constellation Lupus ("Wolf"), near Alpha Centauri. The common tradition holds that the beast in question is a prey of the Centaur. This interpretation is, of course, incorrect. It is a sort of Christian-like of sanitization of the real meaning of the actual tradition, which links the Beast and the Centaur with what the writer and visionary Arthur Machen called, in a famous tale of his, "The Great God Pan". This "god" is not some benign, "New Age" pagan nature spirit: It is the totality of all that is. Those few who perceive the Beast in rare moments usually go mad: The English word panic derives from the Ancients' understanding of this idea.

I locate the "physical" matter of the Beast in the aforementioned constellation. It lurks there, an indescribable force, in its lair of dark matter. Certain artists and poets have periodically been inspired, wittingly or not, by this force, and have described elements of it and its influence in pictorial, poetic, and fictional works. Certain of these artists include H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Edgar Allan Poe, Algernon Blackwood, William Hope Hodgson, John Martin, and many others.

My aim is to understand and channel the Cthulhu-like emanations of the Beast consciously, as a sort of "priest", or Earthly avatar or representative. The Beast is akin to Lovecraft's fictional Cthulhu, in that it "calls" those who are receptive to its nature. (The figure of "Satan", by contrast, is a mere acolyte at the altar of the Beast, which is, in itself, far from such a human conception.) In fact, the Beast is utterly beyond any human conceptions; one can, at best, use figurative and poetic language to capture its attributes. At the same time, however, attunement to the Beast is a means of transferring to oneself acausal energy from the outer spheres, in order to increase chaos and "presence the darkness" on Earth. The diffusion of such energy is necessary to the transformation of an elect few (those who appear to be like other humans, but who are, in fact, demonic intelligences bearing the human form) into what Nietzsche referred to as the Superhuman, a new sort of race--or, ultimately--species!--altogether.

Of course, the Beast itself cares nothing for the humanoid species or any other: It merely emanates the energy that enables certain inhabitants of the cosmos to "raise the sail", if you like, and harness this energy in a sort of self-directed evolution. As is stated in the esoteric tradition of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, the majority of the human race are, despite appearances, mere unconscious automata. They exist only to provide "food for the moon"; that is, to provide energy off which other bodies in the cosmic economy may feed. For those who wish to escape the general law, such conscious, self-directed evolution offers the only hope. Invariably, this evolution takes the form of what the uninitiated would call monstrous, in the original sense of the Latin etymology for the term monster: a prodigy, something outside nature.

In sum, tapping into the "crawling chaos" of acausal energies, such as the Beast emanates, is the pathway to the Superhuman. This is why the music mediated through the inspiration of the Beast is so unhuman; in its small way, it spreads acausal energies that will affect those who hear it either positively or negatively. For those who resonate to primal myths of chaos, to Lovecraftian vortices, to visions of icy planets whose volcanoes weep tears of blood, to the secrets of dark matter, or to the interstices of interstellar chaos, the music of the Beast will infuse them with degrees of acausal energy. To those who are not attuned to these mysteries, however, the music will sound like mere noise, or will even cause or exacerbate physical illness. For example, in the one negative review that my music has received so far, the reviewer complained that the music was similar to the effects of a stomach virus from which he was suffering! This is wonderful; it is exactly the sort of effect that the music should have on such persons! This music is intended to be dynamic and, most of all, disorienting, like the strange angles of the architecture of R'lyeh.

One should also note that it is electricity that best bears this force, which is why electronic music, with its ability to replicate and create such strange sonorities and frequencies, is also the best means of propagating this form of acausal energy. As a concluding note, it is also worthwhile to mention that, if others wish merely to interpret the above as an allegorical or metaphorical evocation of Rudolph Otto's concept of the Numinous (Mysterium tremendum et fascinans; "a fearful and fascinating mystery"), then they are welcome to do so!

Sunday, March 11, 2012

A Bestia Centauri Chronology

1999-2000:


The Bestia Centauri project begins. Initial works are composed using music hardware, and recorded in a professional recording studio. Although these efforts provide a worthwhile learning experience, the results do not meet the artist's standards, and therefore they have never seen release (nor shall they).




2000-2001


    •    Discovery of computer software tools for sound design and music composition. Initial experiments take place using Audio Mulch and ChaoSynth, in particular. The Virtual Waves program, which Bestia Centauri dubs "IRCAM Lite", offers tremendous inspiration, and serves as the primary source for Bestia Centauri's first proper composition, The Night Land, in mid-2001.


    •    The pieces entitled The Catacombs of Ptolemais, Ubbo-Sathla, Transition X, and The Measureless From Caverns Rise follow in quick succession. Some music material that was later to appear in the pieces Caligula and Teratogenesis is composed during this time, as well.


    •    Andrea Marutti of the Italian label Afe Records offers to release The Night Land on a compilation CD-R, to be entitled No Abiding Places. Though originally projected for release in late 2001 or early 2002, this compilation does not actually appear until mid-2006.


2002


    •    A steep software learning curve ensues. Considerable study and experimentation with music software. The Composers Desktop Project proves a particular revelation, and inspires the composition The Night Land II in January.


    •    C. Donovan founds the Somnambulant Corpse Recordings label, and offers to release a CD-R by Bestia Centauri. C. Donovan will also provide all of the artwork for this and future Bestia Centauri releases, with the exception of the Self-Immolation Rite "gates" artwork.


    •    Release of Ubbo-Sathla—EP CD-R (Somnambulant Corpse Recordings, March 2002; SC002)


    •    Following the release of Ubbo-Sathla, there is another flurry of composition: Colours Out of Space, Nyarlathotep, The Antediluvian Earth, Ambulant Shadows, and Beneath Exsanguinated Suns all take shape during this time.


            (Bestia Centauri belatedly apologizes to its listeners for the clunky title of Beneath Exsanguinated Suns, which reflects far too much reading of the tales of Clark Ashton Smith at the time!).


    •    C. Donovan approaches several artists, including Bestia Centauri, and asks them to contribute to an H. P. Lovecraft-themed compilation on Somnambulant Corpse Recordings.


    •    Spring: Interview with the Swedish Web site/'zine Ortus Obscurum appears.


    •    Release of The Outsider: An Aural Channeling of H.P. Lovecraft—CD-R compilation by various artists (Somnambulant Corpse Recordings, May 2002; SC004)


           Bestia Centauri tracks:


    1. Colours Out of Space
    2. Nyarlathotep


    •    The University of Toronto Electronic Music Studio requests a copy of Ubbo-Sathla for its music library.


     •    Afe Records offers to release Bestia Centauri's first full-length work, to be titled The Antediluvian Earth, the following year.




2003


    •    First half of the year: Composition begins on the most of the works that are eventually to appear on Bestia Centauri's final CD, Teratogenesis.


    •    Release of The Antediluvian Earth—CD-R (Afe Recordings, February 2003; AFE048LCD--limited to 150 copies)
    •   
            Bestia Centauri wryly notes that it takes several years for this limited edition of 150 copies to sell out completely.


    •    Mid-year: The Bestia Centauri Web site (now offline) is launched.


    •    In July, KUNM-FM, a National Public Radio station affiliated with the University of New Mexico, plays The Antediluvian Earth on its "Other Voices, Other Sounds" program alongside a piece by Steve Reich and computer music works from the CDCM/Centaur label.


    •    C. Donovan approaches several artists, including Bestia Centauri, and asks them to contribute to a themed compilation on the newly re-christened Somnambulant Records label. The concept is inspired by Suetonius's Twelve Caesars. Each artist will musically depict one of the twelve Roman Emperors of the House of Caesar. Bestia Centauri is asked to depict the Emperor Caligula (12-41 CE).


    •    In October, a representative of a so-called "Satanic" group  contacts Bestia Centauri and suggests that Bestia Centauri undertake a re-mix of a work of one of its members, called The Self Immolation Rite. Bestia Centauri counter-proposes an entirely new work based upon this concept (which will include a tacit critique of it, and which few will ever notice). Composition of the new Self Immolation Rite begins; the Teratogenesis material is put on hold, for the moment.



2004


    •    Composition of The Self Immolation Rite continues. C. Donovan plans to release it as the first glass-mastered, Red Book-standard CD on Somnambulant Records.


    •    Spring/Summer: Interview with the French 'zine Necrophonie appears.


    •    Release of XII Caesars: A Psychoacoustic Investigation of "The Twelve Caesars" As Immortalized by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus—CD-R compilation by various artists (Somnambulant Records, April 2004; Somnambulant SOM001)


           Bestia Centauri track:


              Caligula


    •    Release of The Self Immolation Rite—CD (Somnambulant Records, August 2004; SOMCD001--limited to 500 copies. "Gates" artwork by Von Sanngetall)




2005


    •    Mundane affairs, such as the completion of graduate school, job-searching, and geographic relocation occupy most of this year, and Bestia Centauri-related activities are minimal during this time.


    •    Spring: Interview with the German Web site Neo-Form appears.




2006


    •    Further work on the pieces to be included on the next Bestia Centauri CD, Teratogenesis, continues, as does the search for a label on which to release it. Justin of Cold Spring Records in the UK is among those who refuse it, in this case because it is not "ambient" music.


            Justin is also one of the few listeners who are perceptive enough to observe that Bestia Centauri's music is indeed not ambient music of any kind, "dark" or otherwise.


    •    April: Teratogenesis is completed.


    •    Release of No Abiding Places--CD-R compilation by various artists (Afe Records, April 2006; AFE030lcd--limited to 200 copies)


            Bestia Centauri tracks:


           1. The Night Land
           2. Transition X


    •    Andrea Marutti of Afe Recordings graciously consents to release Teratogenesis. He approaches Mauro Berchi of Eibon Records, also in Italy, who agrees jointly to release the CD with Afe.


2007


    •    Release of Teratogenesis—CD (Eibon Records/Afe Records, May 2007; BES073/AFE093CD)




                                                                            2008


  • The Bestia Centauri project and experiment conclude.