Petteril - The Leems Boyste (2023)

Petteril's 'The Leems Boyste' is a contemplation of the surreal and allegedly true story known as 'The Doddleston Messages'. After stumbling upon a YouTube video introducing the premise of the story, Petteril was so fascinated by the bizarre tale that he investigated further. In the weeks that followed Petteril's musical practice was consumed with the eerie, supernatural subject matter of the story.

Petteril says, "It was just so bizarre. A Sixteenth-century man communicating with a school teacher in 1980s England via a BBC micro that was put in his chimney by an incorporeal entity from 2109?!"

'The Doddleston Messages':
In the early 1980s, before the world wide web, a man in the village of Doddleston, England claimed that via word processing software on his BBC microcomputer Model B, he was able to communicate with a person from the 16th Century and with an entity from the future known simply as 2109. He later published their conversations in his 1989 book 'The Vertical Plane'. During the two-year discourse, various 'experts' were brought in to investigate the phenomenon but they were unable to offer a satisfactory explanation nor to prove or discount a hoax. The messages ceased in 1986 when a final prophetic disclosure from 2109 revealed "there is another person" and that there exists a book (written by the 16th Century man before he died) which might "make other worlds not seem so distant" and which is to this day still hidden somewhere in Oxford.

"The picture that the story paints is so enticing, whether it's true or not—and obviously it's probably not— it's still a brilliant science fiction concept with a really singular mood to it. It's so spooky, dark and gloomy. There's something so appealing about that juxtaposition of dismal, grey, rural 1500s England; with the green glow of a terminal on the CRT screen of early stage 80's computer tech; with a cryptic future entity harbouring an apparent purpose but reticent to reveal its objective. As the premise of the story unravelled, more and more weird things happened. That feeling of eerie bizarreness just became how I wanted my music to sound for ages afterwards. I wanted to channel the gloom! The visual in my head is so gritty and shadowy—I like that kind of stuff."
Petteril

The "Leems Boyste" is Early Modern English (EModE) for 'box of lights' which is how the 16th Century character (Lukas/Tomas Harden), describes the glowing device in his chimney that he uses to send his time-defying messages.

The story has been covered in podcast format, via various YouTube videos and blogs and even has a subreddit where theorists and investigators scrutinise and discuss the text of the Vertical Plane, search for Tomas' book, like something from an Indiana Jones movie and buy up old BBC Micro computers trying to replicate the phenomenon. Original paperback copies of 1989's 'The Vertical Plane' are highly sought after and can sell for close to £500 online although it is possible to find digital versions of the book with a little googling.