Aokigahara graced my ears in the early months of me discovering the auditory realm of dark ambient music a couple years ago. The neoclassical elements on display enveloped me in this shroud of emotion. It felt so personal; the evocative piano movements, the brooding undercurrents of drones which perfectly captured the dreary headspace of trying to find a single reason to live. This record is so potent, so ethereal, and it was the one that compelled me to begin writing reviews in the first place.

A year later, Duncan Ritchie followed up his Cryo Chamber debut with its companion piece, Love Like Blood—a darker, more spiteful record. Three months later, he released a beautifully harrowing EP, Fall The Night, on his personal Bandcamp page. And now, about about one year since Fall The Night, Duncan is back with his third Flowers for Bodysnatchers record on the Cryo Chamber label, Asylum Beyond.

In this conversation, Duncan talks about his older project The Rosenshoul, his Cryo Chamber coupling Aokigahara and Love Like Blood, why he needed Flowers for Bodysnatchers to be something different than traditional dark ambient, and Asylum Beyond; a gruesome tale of bizarre ritualistic killings, insanity, and horror that drags listeners through the dark and deranged recesses of a murderer’s mind.

You can listen to the conversation in the player above or in the YouTube video below. Thank you for giving Duncan your attention and thank you for your continued support.

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Thank you so much, Duncan, for your time and thank you folks for listening. Support Duncan directly by following him on Facebook or Bandcamp. You can stream or acquire a copy of Asylum Beyond at Cryo Chamber’s Bandcamp. You can also download our conversation in the small player at the top of this post. Take care for now.