Youtube gives me all kinds of suggestions on a daily basis, of course based on recent listening so this one is likely enough. The title of this particular CRYO CHAMBER offering drew me in though. There is more than one way to envision a dying world, I suppose. One might be catastrophic or apocalyptic. Another might be a slow dying of light, and then decay. That’s where this one caught me. It’s always been a hunch of mine that it won’t be fire and brimstone but probably something a lot less grand, more of a JOSEPH CONRAD, Heart of Darkness scenario.

“I have wrestled with death. It is the most unexciting contest you can imagine. It takes place in an impalpable greyness, with nothing underfoot, with nothing around, without spectators, without clamour, without glory, without the great desire of victory, without the great fear of defeat, in a sickly atmostphere of tepid scepticism, without much belief in your own right, and still less in that of your adversary.”

It’s still very cinematic in nature, in my head at least, and every film needs a soundtrack. That’s Cryo Chamber’s mission statement, apparently. I chose the image above over the video’s choice, despite that the notion of a cat bearing sole witness to the decline delights me in a dark humorous way. How very… cat. My image though, from WALLHAVEN has more of an ANDREI TARKOVSKY element or mood to it, of organic wasting. It’s not exactly where my head is at, in this moment or usually, but it’s something I think about often. I realize that we visually imagine the end of the world in strictly post-nuclear terms, with the Earth as dry and ashen. There are other distinct possibilities.

The world of course, isn’t going to end. Our time here may come and go but I’m fairly certain life of some sort will rise out of a new ooze, which future occupants may imagine, in whatever language they use, as primordial.

It’s funny though. This is what I do many mornings, this cathartic exercise of purging the darkness so that I can let the light in. Anyone who reads me on a regular basis must think I’m a fucking lunatic. Maybe there is truth in that. I do believe though that you have to embrace the darkness to truly appreciate and embrace the light. What would any sunrise be if it were never dark? Would people still rise and be cheery and go about their business with optimistic BRAND NEW DAY excitement? Or would it be merely the same old thing as yesterday and the day before? There’s no spring without winter, as people of European descent (or any other people who know a history of seasons) might say.

I’m not sure really. All I know is that it’s time to open the curtains.

Selah