The Library of Babel

Info

Infinity is a concept that is quite familiar to UNHOLY TRIFORCE, having dabbled in the infinite with their 3½" floppy disk release CMD.EXE∞, which invoked software meltdown through an endless stream of command prompts. Taking inspiration from a classic novel of the same name, The Library of Babel is UNHOLY TRIFORCE'S tangible tribute to one of literature's most confusing conceptual stories.

Written by Jorge Luis Borges, an Argentine author who also inspired the name of another Auris artist, Book of Sand, The Library of Babel describes an architectural anomaly of an infinite library which theoretically contains every possible combination of letters needed to form every possible piece of the written word, - past, present, and future. Comprised of hexagonal chambers with a specific combination of walls, shelves, books, pages, and letters, the Library is filled with pure jibberish, but endless possibility. Librarians wander the halls eternally, searching for any form of organization or logic which might provide order to the chaos presented, with some committing suicide due to hopelessness at accomplishing the task.

Nothing we say will properly describe or give justice to the complexity of The Library of Babel, which is where UNHOLY TRIFORCE step in. Utilizing the insanely ambitious digital version of The Library of Babel, UNHOLY TRIFORCE performed a random search for a book from the portal, and digitally processed the text to speech to form a robotic, unemotional diatribe in an alien language with an unsettling subsonic drone beneath it.

Depending on your tonearm weight and anti-skate settings, this anti-record will either play perfectly, albeit with exorbitantly increased surface noise, or it will erratically skip around from groove to groove, lasting as long or as little as each session's random chance allows. We prefer the second experience, and encourage you to experiment with your turntable to simulate the most unpredictable conditions.

With each revolution of the stylus, portions of the print will be chipped off and erased by the stylus, revealing the audio material underneath it. Although the playback quality will improve with each session, the stylus will degrade, forever creating a balance to perpetually frustrate the listener; purposefully similar to that faced by the librarians of Babel...

3 copies are "Ghost" editions with transparent ink only on the B-side (non-anti)

A Note: Having inhaled countless poisonous vapors for extended periods of time while printing these and other projects, we neglected to notice that the URL for the Library of Babel online portal was incorrect on the obi strip. We added a "the" to the beginning erroneously. It should be: www.LibraryofBabel.info

Notice: Due to the hand-made nature of lathe cut records, the fidelity & consistency of each copy will vary slightly. An assortment of audio ailments such as dropouts, warble, pitch-bending, static, crackle, hiss & extreme frequency shifting are to be expected, and all flaws which may arise are entirely condoned as adding cohesion to the release concept.

Packaging

- One-sided 12" circle lathe cut polycarbonate record
- Screen-printed B-side artwork in black ink
- Screen-printed A-side in black ink over the audio grooves
- Screen-printed black 140lb obi with white ink
- Clear picture disc sleeve
- Sealed in poly bag

Tracklisting

A1 – 11:20 – The Library of Babel