Ben Chisholm & Felix Skinner - Burgeoning Verse (2018)

In early 2013, sickened by the accelerating decay of the world and their bodies, Ben Chisholm (Chelsea Wolfe) and Felix Skinner (Wreck & Reference) conspired an escape. Unable to afford a genuine rustic retreat, the two met in virtual reality. In a simulated oak paneled studio, unconstrained by the physical and financial limitations of real-life recording, the two availed themselves of the finest and latest simulated musical equipment. Armed with a dizzying array of vintage guitars, drums, bassoons, analog synthesizers, and boutique effect pedals (all simulated), the two churned out ten songs, recorded onto simulated 2” reel-to-reel tapes over the course of a single 36-hour marathon recording session. Satisfied with the songs, but unsatisfied with the inevitable digital quality of the recordings, Chisholm and Skinner approached the musical masterminds at Weyrd Son Records with an absurd proposition. They wanted to rerecord the entire album in a real professional space with real musicians playing real instruments on real reels. Far exceeding their overly generous advance and pushing the limits of their own sanity, Chisholm and Skinner spent over four years recording and rerecording real-life simulations of their original simulated recordings. Despite coming in grotesquely over budget, the two felt triumphant when they sent off the final master reels to Belgium at the end of 2017. Unfortunately, those reels never arrived. The shipping container they were in slipped off the side of the cargo ship it was on, and now they sit somewhere at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Bound to a release date and the growing demand of a clamoring internet fanbase, Chisholm and Skinner decided they only had one option, to release the original recordings from their simulation. Described by the artists as, “…like, a soundtrack to your dreams, or just like music for driving to, you know?” this fully instrumental masterpiece is finally in the public domain, released under the perplexing title, “Burgeoning Verse”. With the help of the crew aboard the official Weyrd Son Yacht, Chisholm and Skinner (who is still working on his scuba certification) are planning a deep-sea expedition to retrieve the original reels from their resting place on the seafloor. The anticipated release date is 2024.