"Circe instructs Odysseus on the journey to the Underworld: Beach the vessel beside deep-eddying Oceanus and pass on foot to the dank domains of Hades. At the entrance there, the stream of Acheron is joined by the waters of Phlegethon and a branch of Styx, Cocytus." ~ Homer, Odyssey, 10. 513 (8th century BC)

Welcome to Hades Delta, a place where the waters of the underworld coalesce. 

I began initial tests for this project in early 2023, and despite many interruptions, I found myself returning to it again and again. Knowing that there's another fiery tide cooking in the background waiting to be examined just put me at ease. A first version was then part of the exhibition SentimentSuperSet at Untitled Gallery in Berlin in July 2024. Since then, I have continued to add to it, and Hades Delta evolved into a kind of sandbox for pondering ancient Greek mythology as a framework for abstraction, and embracing surreal fluid simulations as a central part of my Ikigai diagram.

I was set to conclude this project when I remembered Enya's 1986 gem Boadicea and felt that its melody was the animation's musical counterpart I had been struggling to pinpoint for some time. I've been obsessed with this track for a long time and decided to record an instrumental FM-synth version of it. Layering pads with little arpeggios and exploring digital humming and vowel-like sounds with my Yamaha FS1R was highly restorative labour. I hope you enjoy this simulation synthesizer crossover.

pong from styx in 1ms