VA - Beyond The Veil Of Time (A Butterboy Compilation) (4 x CDs)

AMBIENT

VA - Beyond The Veil Of Time (A Butterboy Compilation) (4 x CDs)

Sub-titled A musical equivalent, This set began as a response to reading Amazing Stories, and more specifically Beyond the Veil of Time by B. H. Barney (1932). The comic does not overwhelm with dialogue or explanation, instead, it opens a conceptual space. Its ideas arrive quietly, through suggestion rather than instruction, and that restraint was what stayed with me. Reading it felt less like consuming a story and more like entering a state of attention, where illusion, belief, and scientific explanation coexist without immediately cancelling each other out.

I found that ambient music felt like the natural companion to that experience. Not as illustration, nor as a cinematic soundtrack, but as a parallel process. Like the comic, ambient music operates in a liminal space: it suspends conventional temporality, foregrounds texture over narrative and invites the listener into an active engagement with sound and duration. The tracks here unfold slowly, often in subtle layers, creating an environment where perception itself becomes elastic.

The pieces were chosen to move alongside the ideas suggested by the comic rather than its plot. Early selections carry momentum and curiosity, echoing the initial sense of discovery. As the set progresses, structure loosens and sound becomes less assertive, mirroring the way the comic questions the boundary between magic and method. What begins as fascination gradually shifts toward reflection, where explanation does not remove mystery but reframes it. Through drones, minimal motifs, and sustained textures, the listener is invited to inhabit a temporal space that is contemplative rather than prescriptive.

This compilation is meant to be read with as much as it is listened to. It can sit in the background during the act of reading, or it can function afterward, as a way of re-entering the atmosphere the comic creates. In that sense, it is not an adaptation but a continuation. The music becomes another layer of the same inquiry, one that unfolds in time rather than panels. Its intention is to extend attention, to encourage subtle noticing, and to create a quiet resonance that amplifies the comic’s speculative impulse.

Ultimately, this set exists as an extension of the reading experience, a space where sound, idea, and duration meet. It treats the comic not as a finished object, but as a point of departure, inviting the listener to remain beyond the veil a little longer. Ambient music, in its restraint and expansiveness, provides a vessel for that continuation. It feels like a conversation in stillness, a continuation of the same speculative impulse, expressed through sound instead of ink. (B)

I’ve included a PDF of Beyond The Veil of Time by B. H. Barney (1932), which inspired this set and is available in the downloadable file.

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Track lists

CD1

01 Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois & Roger Eno - An Ending (Ascent) 4:26 1983

02 Steve Roach - Structures From Silence 28:33 1984

03 Tangerine Dream - Love on A Real Train 3:58 1984

04 Biosphere - Poa Alpina 4:10 1997

05 Stars of the Lid - Requiem for Dying Mothers Part 2 7:37 1999

06 Boards of Canada - Roygbiv 2:29 1998

07 Fennesz - Endless Summer 8:29 2001

08 William Basinski, Lawrence English - Mono No Aware 1.1 5:39 2003

09 Max Richter - On The Nature of Daylight 6:11 2004

10 Hammock - Turn Away and Return 5:13 2005

11 Oneohtrix Point Never - Zones Without People 3:59 2009

12 Grouper - Alien Observer 3:56 2011

13 A Winged Victory for The Sullen - Steep Hills of Vicodin Tears 4:25 2011

14 Tim Hecker - Virginal I 6:16 2013

15 Loscil - Endless Falls 7:55 2014

16 Ryuichi Sakamoto - Andata 3:26 2017

17 Gas - Narkopop 1 4:52 2017

18 Jon Hopkins - Abandon Window 4:57 2018

19 Kali Malone - All Life Long (for organ) 8:38 2019

20 Caterina barbieri - Fantas 10:31 2019

CD2

21 Popol Vuh - Brüder des schattens - Söhne des lichts 18:50 1978

22 Vangelis - Le Singe Bleu 7:41 1973

23 Cluster - Es war einmal 5:25 1976

24 Michael Stearns - Encounter (Awaiting The Other) 3:29 1988

25 Harold Budd - Bismillahi 'rrahmani 'rrahim 18:27 1974

26 Laraaji - Being Here 25:22 1980

27 The Orb - Little Fluffy Clouds 4:27 1991

28 Global Communication - 14:31 14:31 1994

29 Aphex Twin - #19 (Stone in Focus) 10:14 1994

30 Oval - Textuell 7:23 1995

31 Atrium Carceri - Black Needle 5:08 2003

32 Kammarheit - Hypnagoga 4:08 2005

33 Eluvium - Indoor Swimming at the Space Station 10:29 2007

34 Jan Jelinek - Moiré (Piano & Organ) 6:54 2011

35 Raime - The Last Foundry 5:53 2012

36 Ben Frost - Venter 6:45 2014

37 Jóhann Jóhannsson - Flight From the City 6:31 2016

38 Susumu Yokota - Saku 5:45 2018

39 Abul Mogard - Half Light of Dawn 6:49 2019

40 Sofie Birch - Myrian Myriad 11:28 2019

CD3

41 Klaus Schulze - Velvet Voyage 28:25 1979

42 Ashra - Ocean of Tenderness 12:42 1985

43 Hans-Joachim Roedelius - Selbstportrait I - Gewiss 4:46 1979

44 Constance Demby - Novus Magnificat, Pt. 1: Soul's Journey 6:51 1986

45 Pauline Oliveros - Quintessential, alternative version 4:51 2023

46 Seefeel - Climactic Phase #3 8:25 1993

47 Future Sound of London - Lifeforms (Path 5) 6:05 1994

48 Nurse With Wound - The Bottom Feeder 5:09 1996

49 Growing - Southern Wrights 5:08 2003

50 Scorn - Silver Rain Fell 7:36 1998

51 raison d’être - The Hidden Hallows 8:21 2006

52 Keith Fullerton Whitman - Stereo Music for Acoustic Guitar, Buchla Music Box 100, Hewlett Packard Model 236 Oscillator, Electric Guitar and Computer - Part One 5:29 2005

53 Gaspar Claus, Lyna Zouaoui - Mer des mystères amoureux 4:25 2021

54 Mountains - Choral 12:53 2010

55 Demdike Stare - Hashshashin Chant 6:20 2011

56 Huerco S. - Plonk IV 5:33 2014

57 Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - An Intention 3:59 2016

58 Visible Cloaks - Wintergreen 2:47 2017

59 Sarah Davachi - Perfumes II 6:57 2018

60 Lawrence English - The Jungle 8:36 2021

CD4

61 Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene Part I 7:40 1976

62 Terry Riley - A Rainbow in The Curved Air (Instrumental) 18:39 1969

63 Gavin Bryars - Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet - Single Version (with Tom Waits) 3:42 1971

64 Isao Tomita - Claire De Lune 5:53 1974

65 Jon Hassell - Dreaming 6:04 1981

66 Paul Horn - Mirage for Miles 11:54 1976

67 Robert Turman - Flux 3 11:54 1981

68 Herbie Hancock - Rain Dance 9:17 1975

69 Holger Czukay & Rolf Dammers - Boat-Woman-Song 17:23 1996

70 O Yuki Conjugate - Raindance 7:19 1987

71 Ujang Suryana - Sorban Palid 5:33 1986

72 Andrew Chalk - The Plain 13:43 1997

73 Caretaker - All you are going to want to do is get back there 3:46 2011

74 Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Love’s Refrain 7:37 2013

75 Félicia Atkinson - Joan 6:46 2019

76 Julianna Barwick - The Harbinger 5:50 2016

77 Midori Takada - Crossing 8:54 2017

78 Ellen Arkbro - For Organ and Brass 20:08 2017

79 Luigi Tozzi - Calipso 9:15 2019

80 Alvin Lucier - I Am Sitting in a Room 45:24 1970

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Music weaves itself into the fabric of our emotions, dances through the corridors of memory, and whispers to the soul of who we are. Sharing these stories deepens the connection, turning the experience into something timeless and profound.

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