What inspired you to first start making music? And how did you come to be in your current incarnation? Or if you prefer, a brief bio aboutyou.

I was making music long before I had any ambitions to bring it out to the world. Learning to read music and being given a recorder and a classical guitar as a child, I immediately set about making my own little compositions.

The first Choronzon recordings were made from tape manipulations layered with loops of guitar and vocals. That approach informs recording to this day, inviting a certain element of chance. Chaos is Choronzon’s jumping off point, discord the quantum waves and the ripples therefrom are the patterns imposed on chaos as the work filters though ears and crania. The act of listening continues the act of creation in that sense.

Provide us with some info about your latest release…

This is the first release in which a purely musical intention is a major aspect. Taking inspiration from early influences and musical loves, like late -60’s psychedelic rock, Eddie Hazel’s playing on Maggot Brain, Carlos Santana was in harmony with the magickal intent.

Which ones would you consider your main influences both music-wise & non-music-wise?

The way Tony Iommi has always had such an individual tone, the jagged progressiveness of Voivod, the singular dark artistry of Celtic Frost, and everything about Killing Joke are constant reference points, and the subterranean cosmic horror aspect of Blue Oyster Cult becomes more apparent as an influence each year.

Beyond that, the works of Ligotti, Huysmans, and many more are very important. So is the visual work of Durer, Max Ernst, andOdd Nerdrum, expressions of otherworldly scenes, or Peter Milton whose work can convey layers of memory in a single image, and the feeling of being haunted by life and love.

In what way does your sound differ from the rest genre-related artists/bands and why should we listen to your music? In other words, how would you describe your sound?

The word I hear most in connection with our music is cosmic, and it is in accord with why the genre we most identify as is Xeno, for it comes from and expresses the outside. Outside the realm of conscious thought, outside society, outside genre and even western musical convention. Not as big a noise as other extreme metal artists, but much harder to listen to than most. Like a story of horror withouts the tropes of adventure, a listen is never conforming to a pre-packaged experience.

Please name your 3 desert islands albums, movies & books…

Books:

The Outsider – Richard Wright

La-Bas – JK Huysmans

Memento Mori – Muriel Spark

Albums:

Secret Treaties – Blue Oyster Cult

Revelations – Killing Joke

Handel’s Messiah – London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Choir, Frederick Jackson 1964 Recording

Films:

Mike Leigh’s Naked

Orson Welles’ MacBeth

Harold And Maude

Do you prefer studio or performing live and why?

Performances have been rare for Choronzon, and are always unusual and harrowing for performers and audiences. This is not a band, so normal venues are wrong, and there’s little ambition to bring it out. Even the recordings don’t stay static, and will change even from the same audio files as the wiring of those who listen long enough changes. Conceiving the art and projecting its energy out into the universe is the most rewarding part, and the artifacts and social presentation are ancillary to that.

Performing normal music in other contexts is great, but deciding which is better is hard. Apples and oranges.

Is there any funny-unique story you would like to share with us, always in relation to your music ‘career’?

Each release is followed by something cataclysmic happening out in the world, so maybe best not…

Which track of your own would you point out as the most unique and why?

Now, that’s an exercise in immodesty…. Maybe I Have Begun off Egregore Manifest Destiny, rhythm guitar that is like an alien playing bluegrass, 13/16 time signature. I don’t do much shredding guitar, but that rhythm part is close.

Would you like to share with our readers your future plans?

A strange time to be asking this. There seems little chance in the US to avoid a future of fighting off CHUDs, scrabbling in the ruins and ashes for survival. We will be doing our best to find the cosmic pivot point to throw the momentum away from that eventuality.

Free question!!! (Ask yourself a question) you wish to answer and haven’t been given the opportunity…

How does it feel to be living in the future Choronzon’s lyrics predicted?

I wanna jump back into the original timeline…

Photo Credits: Janice Dean

Curated by: Christos Doukakis

Recommended listening:

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Connect with Choronzon:

http://www.choronzon.org

https://www.facebook.com/Choronzon.MKTANTRA

https://www.panicmachine.com/

https://www.instagram.com/choronzon2393/

https://twitter.com/choronzon333