eal.ng

ealing
Revelry is a Gateway to the Valley Above the World

archival listening link…

Cover art for Revelry is a Gateway to the Valley Above the World

__~𒁂

placed in system on t20/10/2025

retrieved from system on a117.2.2387
archived from 49.816074, 156.795822
Kamchatka Fault Smuggler Line

30m06s

access archival listening link…

Produced and mixed by ealing

Mastered by Darren at Millenium Mastering

Art by Sim Cheuanghane / @onemilliondollarsplease

As the smuggler’s boat approached the delta, sloping earth rose out of the water and into the mist above. A dark line of pine trees obscured the mountain range behind. It was cold twilight, and the smuggler hushed the engine as the boat passed over the seaweed farms. A single-seater flat bottom glider, it was carrying nothing but a few halophytes, a 93_JV Pemphis Balange mangrove, a circuit-bent NuevaSun speaker and three empty fuel cans. To obtain these plants involved a daring heist – the smuggler broke into the under-water palace where they were used as personal oxygen pumps, and navigated for three days back across plate lines to this island1. A flat-bottom glider wouldn’t usually be used for open water, but it was required for the trip back up the estuary, laden with traps. Guided up the river by two repurposed drones, a flashlight on each, smuggler was met at the river’s fork by a member of the community, to help the journey through the dark forest, to the village.

As much of humanity either perished or migrated underwater, a few communities here rejected refuge underwater and founded a sustainable life inland. This section of the world was fortuitously inculcated from mass sea level rising and extinction events – abundant natural geo- and bio-diversity harking back to the last ice age, protection from acid rain by the west mountains and from pollution by the east. One of the few communities to survive long-term on terra firma, they benefited from generations of knowledge living in the forests and the hills. But even as the bears and salmon remained plentiful, even if the volcanic soil and geysers provided fertile soil for growth, the oxygen harvesting from the world below was becoming a worry. The <biocorp> technology could only provide so much breathable air for the two billion people underwater. From our records, <biocorp> was extracting the planet’s oxygen since at least a2356. The communities on this island – formerly a peninsula – needed back-up oxygen from somewhere and the plants would help re-oxygenate the growing houses.

The smuggler and guide broke the treeline, and the sounds of the large village become clear - revelry was already underway. The Festival of the Net, as we can understand it, was a harvest festival celebrating the humble net. Indeed, that bleak and harsh world was bereft of many causes for celebration, but a like this festival would spark a village into life. Made from pine bark and fungus fibres, a net caught salmon that fed on the seaweed farm, stored mushrooms and berries during foraging, a net was a hammock for where bears could not reach, a tool for washing, hauling and, of that era, a festival pastime.

As the smuggler settled into the festivities, a group had a net pulled tight over the fire, spinning in a frantic circle as music played, each participant taking a turn to jump off the ground, holding on to the net and, carried by the kinetic motion of the group, for a second or two flying… then rejoining their peers on the ground, and keeping the net taught for the other dancers to likewise fly. The fire imitated the dancers, leaping and smoking the frayed net. As the net eventually caught alight and was torn asunder, the dancers, carried by their centrifugal force, were sent flying outwards, crashing into the circle of onlookers surrounding them, laughing at the fun of it all. The revelry was a gateway, in this valley above the world. The music continued, forceful drumbeats over indistinguishable vocals, synths made from manufacturing detritus washed ashore, and organic materials.

During this revelry, rested at the foot of the smuggler was the old NuevaSun speaker, circuit bent to record patches of audio and archive it to localised satellites. One of these satellites recently crashed on our planet. A rudimentary caching error of encrpted data meant patches of audio, "ghost sonic hieroglyphics, were left undeleted for around 1650 years. Digi-archeologists stumbled across the trove of files from the Aquascene after noticing a discrepancy in the archive of <biocorp> pre-quantum bit storage.

We have decoded portions of the data, which appear to be from the Aquascene year of a2387. We present them to you today as cross-epoch sonic artefacts, existing as moments that extend out through time.

begin transmission __~𒁂

ealing Revelry is a Gateway to the Valley Above the World

__~𒁂

ealing
Revelry is a Gateway to the Valley Above the World