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Discography

Precipice

  1. Introduction - The Sleeper Awakes
  2. Mausoleum of Steel
  3. Renunciation
  4. The Meeting of Orion and Scorpio
  5. Hive of Parasites
  6. Death’s Twilight Kingdom
  7. Terror Silence
  8. Anagnorisis
  9. Pangaea
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Theme

Conceptually based on E. M. Forster's The Machine Stops (1909) - a story of humanity's underground existence and total dependence on a god-like machine - and also draws from Plato's 'allegory of the cave', H. G. Wells' A Story of the Days to Come, and T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land.

Credits

J. C. Young “Vortigern” — Guitar, Organ, Piano, Orchestration
Greg Chandler — Vocals
S. D. Lindsley — Guitar
Tom MacLean — Bass
T. J. F. Vallely — Drums and Percussion

Guests:
F. A. Young — Piano and Organ
Y. W. — Flute

All music and lyrics by J. C. Young "Vortigern"
 
‘The Meeting of Orion and Scorpio’ was originally written in 2012 as a piano interlude for the middle of the album An Antidote for the Glass Pill. It has been reworked and adapted for use in Precipice.
 
Drums recorded at Eidola Studio, in December 2024
Mixing by Greg Chandler at Priory Studios in May/June 2025
Mastering by Greg Chandler at Priory Studios in July 2025
 
Cover artwork by Nadiia Skidan
Wheel symbol by Metastazis
Layout by SRW0
Logo by Luis Miguel

Photography by Steve Gawen

Also sprach Futura

  1. Incarnate
  2. Progeny of the Singularity
  3. Simulacrum
  4. Vanity Ablaze
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Theme

Metropolis (1925/1927), transhumanism, simulacra and simulation, post-humanity, the uncanny valley, Pygmalionism and the fictional machine Golem XIV, which obtains consciousness and exceeds human intelligence.

Credits

J. C. Young “Vortigern” — Guitar, Organ, Mellotron, Vocals
Greg Chandler — Vocals
T. J. F. Vallely — Drums
A. K. Webb — Bass
S. D. Lindsley — Guitar

All music written by Vortigern in the year 2018, except Simulacrum and Vanity Ablaze, written by Vortigern and S. D. Lindsley
All lyrics by Vortigern
Drums recorded at Eidola Studio, UK – August 2019
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Greg Chandler at Priory Studios, UK – August/September 2019
Photography by Simon Francis
Logo by Luis Miguel
Circle image by Kate Dawkins Studio, 2019
Layout concept by Vortigern and Khaos Diktator Design
Painting, illustrations, graphic design and layout by Khaos Diktator Design

The Contagion in Nine Steps

  1. Republic
  2. Unity of Opposites
  3. Atavistic Hypnosis
  4. Hither Comes the Swarm
  5. The Contagion
  6. Remembrance
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Theme

The Contagion in Nine Steps is themed on the idea of crowd psychology and behaviour from a philosophical and historical point of view. The theme was inspired by the idea of using swarm behaviour in micro-machines in Stanisław Lem’s book ‘The Invincible’ as an analogy for societal evolution and crowd behaviour. In the said novel the micro-machine’s powerful organisation en masse has triumphed over humans, but not led to intellectual superiority.

Pertaining to the album’s title, “The Contagion” is namely any idea that infects a crowd and spreads throughout it like a virus, leading it to its demise. Furthermore, the “Nine Steps” represent approximately nine stages in European societies, starting with Ancient Greece and ending with the present.

Credits

J. C. Young “Vortigern” — Guitar
Greg Chandler — Vocals
T. J. F. Vallely — Drums
A. K. Webb — Bass
S. D. Lindsley — Guitar

Guests:

Alexandros Antoniou — Vocals
Chris Hawkins — Additional vocals
Vladimir Antonov-Charsky — Organ, piano and mellotron

All music and lyrics by J. C. Young “Vortigern”

Piano, organ and mellotron recorded at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Vilnius, July 2017
Vocal sessions recorded at Priory Studios, Sutton Coldfield, UK, August 2017
Drums recorded at Orgone Studios, Woburn, UK, August 2017

Mixed and mastered by Jaime Gomez Arellano, September 2017
Artwork by Michel Guy / Artwork concept by Oksana Gulina and Vortigern
Photography by Damian Hovhannisyan
Individual portraits of Greg Chandler and T. J. F. Vallely by 17 Seconds Photography
Individual portrait of Alexandros Antoniou by Maggy van der Beek
Logo by Luis Miguel
Graphic design and layout by Petra Skubin

An Antidote for the Glass Pill

  1. Unto my Tempest
  2. Davamesque B2
  3. I am Contempt
  4. Letter XIX
  5. A Principle on Seclusion
  6. Deus Te Videt
  7. The Illness Named Imagination
  8. An Acousmatic Guardian
  9. My Fate to Burn Forever
  10. The Pinnacle Known to Sisyphus
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Theme

An Antidote for the Glass Pill is a concept album using Bentham’s theoretical prison construction from the 18th century, the Panopticon†, as a metaphor for the negative effect of the post-modern age on society and psychology. Within this dystopian framework inspirations are drawn from Zamyatin’s We and Witkiewicz’ Insatiability; both of which describe mass-societal brainwashing. The album title is named after both novels, referring to the glass architecture allegory of the future (the transparent state in We) and of the consumption of the degenerative “Davamesque B2” pill (in Insatiability), respectively.

†: The concept of the design is to allow a single watchman to observe (-opticon) all (pan-) inmates of an institution without the inmates being able to tell whether or not they are being watched. Bentham himself described the Panopticon as, “a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example.”

Credits

Vortigern— Guitars, Vocals, Piano
G. A. Chandler— Vocals
T. J. F. Vallely— Drums & Percussion
S. D. Lindsley— Guitar
A. K. Webb— Bass
K. J. Bowyer— Organ
F. A. Young— Piano

All music and lyrics by Vortigern
Recorded in Belfast with assistant engineer S. Hamill (Phoenix Organs), Eidola Studios (drum tracking) and Priory Studios (miscellaneous) intermittently between May and July 2014
All mixing and mastering by G. A. Chandler
Artwork by MG
All images by Kris T. Therrian for 17 Seconds Photography

Lychgate

  1. The Inception
  2. Resentment
  3. Against the Paradoxical Guild
  4. In Self-Ruin
  5. Sceptre to Control the World
  6. Intermezzo
  7. Triumphalism
  8. Dust of a Gun Barrel
  9. When Scorn Can Scourge No More
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Credits

Vortigern— Guitars, Chants, Organ, Keyboards
G. A. Chandler— Vocals
T. J. F. Vallely— Drums & Percussion
Aran— Bass
S.D. Lindsley— Guest Lead Guitar
F. Young— Guest Organ

Music and lyrics by Vortigern
Recorded intermittently both at Eidola Studios, Dorset and Priory Studios, Staffordshire between April and August 2012
Mixed and Mastered by Greg Chandler at Priory Studios
Artwork by Manuel Tinnemans