SOFT ASH: 7 treatments of lethal atmospheric inversions (with a drifting narrative sense)
The first solo album from Shinjuku Thief's front man Darrin Verhagen features a deliberate shift in scale. Inspired by historical reports of a series of lethal atmospheric inversions many of the more overt theatrics of Shinjuku have been replaced on this CD with a more subtle approach - with rewards generally more gently seductive, benefiting the attentive.

August 95 - May 97

1.1 Soft Ash - origins
Unidentified historical source
The musical approach - Isolationist
Scored for filtered atmospheric recordings, electronics and voice
Voice - Hulda Lange
Recommended listening volume: medium low

1.2 The White Death part 1
The location - Meuse Valley, Belgium (1930)
The scenario - From 1-5 December, an intense fog occupied the heavily industrialized Meuse Valley in Eastern Belgium. Several hundred persons had respiratory attacks beginning on the 4th, and 63 persons died on the 4th and 5th. On December 6 the fog dissipated, and the respiratory difficulties ceased.
Pollutants - Suspected sulphur dioxide conversion to sulphuric acid and fluorine compounds.

The musical treatment - Electroacoustic
Sound sources dominated by (processed) spoken reports on the incident, & radio interference
Actors - Adam Joseph, Hulda Lange, Gisela Sawatzky and Ali Verhagen
Recommended listening volume: medium/medium low

1.3 MIC
The location - Bhopal, India (1984)
The scenario - Shortly after midnight tons of methyl isocyanate were released from a storage tank at Union Carbide, spreading as a fog-like cloud over a large, highly populated area. More than 2000 direct deaths reported.
Pollutant - MIC

The musical treatment - Post-industrial ambient
Sounds constructed predominantly from tape hiss from badly mastered recordings of Indian music
Additional electrical footage - Ed Bonderenko
Recommended listening volume: medium/medium high
Historical reports taken from Dr. Kurt Paterson’s “Ventilation, Stagnation, Inversions, and Case Histories” Lecture. (Michigan Technological University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.)

Thanks to:
Andrew Yencken, Robyn Radvlich, Andrew McLennan, John Crawford, Alistair Riddell, Francois Tetaz, Ryoji Ikeda, Bernhard Gunter, Larry Polansky, Telstra High Voltage Laboratories & BKS

Treatment 1.1 courtesy cci, Japan. Originally composed for Ryoji Ikeda’s “Statics” compilation, 1995

Treatments 1.2 - 1.4 appear courtesy of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, originally commissioned by “The Listening Room”, October 1996

Recorded at P3 facility. Mastered by Francois Tetaz . Photographs by Paul Nadalin. I+T=R

1.4 The Plague Wind
The location - London (1871)
The scenario - One of London’s renowned fogs, killing 1,150 people. A stationary anti-cyclone induced fog. Temperature was near freezing, and fog density was enhanced by many small particles in the air. Smoke concentrations averaged nearly five times normal. Pollutants - deaths blamed on synergistic effect of fine particulate and sulphur dioxide.

The musical treatment - Romantic
Scored for half valve trumpet, trombone multiphonics, violin, cello, treated piano and celeste. Tuned to Tibetan and Werkmeister scales.
Actor: Peter Hardie
Recommended listening volume: medium low

1.5 Chernobyl
The location - Chernobyl, former USSR (April 26, 1986)
The scenario - Shortly after midnight, an accident at the nuclear power plant saw the explosion-like release of a pollutant cloud which reached heights of 2000m. It contaminated Finland, northern Sweden & Norway, the Alps and the northern part of Greece, primarily through wet deposition.
Pollutants - Cs-137 and I-131

The musical treatment - Rhythmic minimalism (with sporadic ambient techno/glitch residuals, and an unnecessary flair for hyperbole). Scored for tuned bongos, toms, plucked cello, Russian news footage and artifacts.
Recommended listening volume: high

1.6 The White Death part 2
The location - Meuse Valley, Belgium (1930)
The scenario - From 1-5 December, an intense fog occupied the heavily industrialized Meuse Valley in Eastern Belgium. Several hundred persons had respiratory attacks beginning on the 4th, and 63 persons died on the 4th and 5th. On December 6 the fog dissipated, and the respiratory difficulties ceased.
Pollutants - Suspected sulphur dioxide conversion to sulphuric acid and fluorine compounds.

Treatment - Conceptually inaccurate ambience/falsified atmospheric
Scored for trumpet, field recordings of thunder, low strings, and recycled part one footage.
Recommended listening volume: medium low

1.7 Fragments
The location - Monongahela River Valley, October 25-31, 1948
The facts - 20 persons died, 17 within 14 hours on October 31
Pollutants - sulfur dioxide, particulate, and carbon monoxide in Donora vicinity

Treatment - organic
Scored for filtered pumpkin scrapings, sourced from the Shinjuku Thief “Witch Hammer” sessions.
Recommended listening volume: medium low/low