Silas Ciarán

Silas Ciarán (born Daciea Silas Theiéry Ciarán) is a Romanian musician, occultist, poet, author, film-maker, linguist, surrealist, painter, tattoo artist, mathematician, record producer, advocator of psychedelics, psychoactives, and hallucinogens, and self-proclaimed Irrealist, among many other things. He was and is involved in a large number of defunct and still active musical, writing, and other such projects, based abroad, most notably Bicycle Sighs. He has oft been described as an Outsider musician and Outsider artist.

Biography

Ciarán was born in Transylvania, Romania. The year of his birth is uncertain, but it is thought to be between 1989 or 1990. He is of Egyptian, German, French, Russian, and Romanian descent.

Ciarán is also an avid chess player, ballet enthusiast, chef, journalist, reader, astrologer, philosopher, and an experimenter in any and all fields that may be presented.

Writing

In 1994, Ciarán began to collect scraps of newspaper and other pages of literature that he would find littered amongst the streets of the small village in which he lived. He would study these fiercely for the mind of one so young, attempting to piece them together as tangible and structured ideas. He wrote his first short story in Decembre of 1994, and his first poem in January of 1995. He wrote his first novel in March of 1998.

In the long Winter of 2002, having returned to Bath, England after a long departure from its grisly streets, he would hunker down in a disheveled, abandoned old shack on the edge of town and begin writing a comprehensive catalogue of short stories and poems. Beginning Decembre 11th and not ceasing until February 22nd, he wrote furiously, only stopping for short meals and bathroom breaks. This catalogue is to be released as two separate volumes, one of poetry and the other of short stories, sometime in 2009, by his own publishing house, Domovoi Publications, a substrand of the media label that he began, Domovoi Media.

Between 2003 and 2007, Ciarán would continue to churn out a small handful of novels (five) and novellas (two), reams of poetry (over four thousand pieces), short stories (over seven hundred), a collection of essays and articles (over thirty), three plays and an opera, and two collective thoughts, or memoirs.

Ciarán is known for his vast amounts of metaphor, literary word play, allusions, and an overall tangibility that holds every piece of his work as an author together.He can read, write, and speak a vast multitude of different languages, but opts to write predominantly in German, French, Russian, Bats, Romanian, and just recently, English.

Ciarán's works often have themes and elements of apocalypse, the world ending, pre-eminent death, heavy political and econimical satire, black comedy, dementia, Irrealism, and heavy outward sarcasm.

He cites authors such as Irvine Welsh, Anthony Burgess, H.P. Lovecraft, E.E. Cummings, Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Wolfe, Stephen King, Lord Byron, Richard Brautigan, Vladimir Nabokov, Sion Sono, Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary, Charles Dodgson, William S. Burroughs, Friedrich Nietzsche, Chuck Palahniuk, Adolf Hitler, and Ray Bradbury as monumental influences on his writing, as well as the use and study of psychedelics and hallucinogens, and more predominantly, the liquor Absinthe.

Ciarán is currently working on piecing together the aformentioned collections of poetry and short stories, all of which have been translated into English for publishing purposes, as well as piecing together a monumental written documentary of twelve years of the exploration of narcotics, aptly named "The House That Di Ethyl Built". He is also finishing his first English-language novel, "Qualia Contrived", and working on two others, "Yellow Paint Eater" and one which is yet to be named. As well as all of this, his is waiting on word from famed Horror author Stephen King as to whether or not he may be granted permission to use the concept of a story within King's 2002 short story collection "" to fuel a project of his own, a comprehensive collection of rest stop graffiti, which Ciarán had collected over the years.

He now writes under the pen name D.S. Ciarán. [Myspace. [http://www.myspace.com/dsciaran] . Retrieved on 2008-9-15.]

Music

In 1996, he began his first real delve into the music world. Before that, living in solitude, both physically and aurally, until the age of four, with nothing to sate the "growing buzz of noiseless sonic waves" building inside of his head, he began to compose sounds within his mind. Tinkering with and compiling on top of them, he took ordinary sounds, those of scrapes of fingernails and the opening and closing of doors, and began to construct them into actual Soundscapes, the barest and most native of what could be called found sound and ambient.

That same year, Ciarán experienced his first actual piece of music, it being the 1812 Overture by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. [Kruse, John. [http://www.mamrecords.com/bicyclesighs] . Retrieved on 2008-9-15.] In his words, "it forever changed the way in which I viewed anything concerning sound; the fact that cannons, something so destructive and powerful, could be used to translate something so daunting and beautiful, it warped the lens through which I heard".

He would also find the lull and lure of his first instrument, which turned out to be an abandoned toy piano in the back of an old antique shop. The instrument in question was broken, and only contained fifteen keys, but its anomalies "changed the way in which he would always view music".

After experienicing actual music for the first time, and already having access to a cassette player, the type which also doubled as a recorder, he began to steal tapes which did not interest him, and record over them. He would bring the recorder to the few music shops he could find, and record whatever keys came to him. He began collecting these recordings, which would eventually lead to become the first Bicycle Sighs collection.

Overloading his mental banks with as much music as he could find, a small amount, given the times and his location, he began to steal cassette tapes from markets in his village as well as a small cassette player on which to play them. His early listening catalogue included Frédéric Chopin, Vladimir Godar, Efta Botoca, Ludwig van Beethoven, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky, and Henriette Adélaïde Villard de Beaumesnil.

It was also at this young age that he was first exposed unwittingly to the full effects of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, something else that surely played its part, though he states firmly that "narcotiques do not make me who I am, I make the narcotiques who they are, and they are all middle-aged 'soccer' mothers driving miniature vans with Dunkin' Donuts coffee in the cup holder".

In 1999, he moved to Bath, England with his younger sister, and began to explore realms outside of the classical music genre. There, he found his first "band", Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and viewed his first film, Trainspotting, both of which he said also changed his approach and views on music and the collaboration of sounds forever. From that point on, all recordings that he made would have the full force impact of film reels upon them, always warping and flowing to fit an unseen moving picture inside of his mind.

From 2000 to 2006, moving from country to country, and participating in an endless stream of collective bands and solo projects, he would record a substantial amount of work, over seventy albums worth, ranging a vast gamut of genres and all being cassette tapes, of which no known copies can be found today, although the recordings do still exist in his personal collection.

It was during these years that he truly developed his personal lack of genre within his music, opting to only skirt and occasionally berate such classifications, and also the time in which he discovered such musicians and groups as The Ocean, Merzbow, Kayo Dot, mauldin of the well, Toby Driver, Sunn O))), Pelican, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, and many others which would play their part in helping to shatter any of what might have been left of his pre-conceived notions of music.

Also notable, was his excursion into the realms of Hip Hop music, his focus relying predominantly on such hyrbid genres as Acid Rap, Horrorcore, and Illbient. Thus began his own Hip Hop project, Crixit Armalite, with main influences being not other Hip Hop artists, but rather authors and historians.

In 2007, he would move to Nice, France, and begin a small, independent record label which he named Domovoi Records, after the Russian house spirit of the same name. After collaborating with and recording, packaging, and distributing a collection of handmade cassette tapes for local Black Metal and Doom bands, as well as two or three CDs for local acoustic acts, none of which exceeded press counts of thirty, and all of which are now long gone, he put the label on a hiatus in order to focus more on his writing and own music. It was during this time that he truly honed his talent for the piercing and unnervingly heavier side of his music.

During that year, he would begin a small acoustic project collaborating over the internet, alongside an American musician named Gregory Smoragiewicz, the project taking on a handful of monikers before settling on Pretty Little Lightning Paw, a dedication to A Silver Mt. Zion's 2004 E.P. of the same name. The collaboration produced only one song, and then went into hiatus. Months later, it would surface again, to produce another two songs, this time with another American musician by the name of Michael Coleman, an accomplished New Jersey native. The project is now on an indefinite hiatus, though there has been talk of Ciarán and Smoragiewicz returning to the project to continue working, or abandoning it and starting anew on another.

Ciarán spent the rest of 2007 busking on the streets of France, painting and performing music.

In the wintry transition between 2007 and 2008, Ciarán moved from France to the United States with the assistance of a man he had been working for on the side, tending to the construction of docks and small boats. Spending a handful of months struggling and attempting to find suitable grounds, moving from state to state in a blurred frenzy, he finally came upon the Northern woods of Ohio, stumbling blindly across an abandoned rail-way station which had not been used in some time. In the coldness and bleakness of Ohio winter, holed up and with nowhere to go, he began to fall back into the frenzied churning that was and always is his production of art, filling up every available sheet of paper with ink and paint, recording every waking minute, and writing on every blank line in reach.

He had been conversing with Smoragiewicz once again, and the two spoke of returning to their project, but nothing came of it. Smoragiewicz did, however, suggest to Ciarán that he should really try to get his music more into the public realm and reach, and therefore, suggested a Myspace page. Ciarán debated this for a while, and finally decided that it might help. He then created an unanmed band page, and uploaded the recordings which began his music career. Not expecting much, as they were very bare recordings of a six year old playing broken instruments, he was overwhelmed when the page received over two hundred hits on the six songs within the first ten days. He kept the page up and began developing the project into what it is today, Bicycle Sighs.

After a few months, Ciarán packed up house and left Ohio, heading for New York, and then New Jersey in due time, at the invitation of another New Jersey musician, James Phillips. Ciarán and Phillips lived and worked together for a month and a half, and they clicked instantly, feeding off of each other's invisible cues and like mindsets perfectly. They began two projects, Canary Squadron and Sleepers, the former of which turned into a "comedy band", producing anything from bluegrass to long, haunting piano and guitar interludes, to short stories put to random noises and guitar work, all with an overtone of sarcasm and inside jokes, and endearingly nick-named the "Godspeed You! Black Emperors of shit" and "Humourcore". For Canary Squadron, the two improvised everything that they played, and recorded three albums in under two months. They have thousands more ideas and plan on rekindling the project, which took a short break, in May 2009. The latter project, Sleepers, which also concerns the talents of Utah and Maryland musicians Halee Johnson and Andrew Mayton respectively, was a concept that Ciarán had developed a long while before, somewhere in 2005, and later honed in 2007. The concept of completely unbridled and bloodthirsty heavy music, in very spite of any acceptable genre. Ciarán recorded one album for the project, which he never released and does not plan to, and scrapped his original idea, which was more solo-oriented, and incorporated the idea of having a full band and playing shows/touring. Sleepers, like Canary Squadron, will be picked up in May 2009.

Ciarán also began a small acoustic project in April of 2008, named Spider Legs, Sparrow Veins, which takes a basic acoustic singer-songwriter approach, and completely warps it with the mindset of noise and dark atmospheres. He will be releasing his debut album, "Bat, Bat, Come Under My Hat..." in 2009.

Currently, Ciarán continues to develop more and more music every day, releasing his albums on various record labels, as well as building up his own, and developing a small community of friends, musicians, and distributors.He also plays around ninety instruments, and can neither read nor write music, in a normal fashion. He translates music notes in his head to mathematical equations, when he is not improvising. He enjoys rescoring films, and hopes to become a film scorer full time. He has a total of over seven hundred and fifty thousand pieces of music recorded, and records at least one piece every day.

Domovoi Media and The Hive

Domovoi Media

As an overall, Ciarán did not intend for Domovoi Records to go anywhere or be anything, more for it to be a small output for the projects of close friends of his. After its rebirth, it developed into a fully functional, four-stranded media label.

Domovoi Records

The seed from which Domovoi Media grew, Domovoi Records began as an outlet for a small handful of Doom and Black Metal bands in Nice, France, releasing twenty different cassette tapes spread out between the four or five bands, as well as two or three acoustic singles by other local French artists. These releases were very limited, not exceeding pressings of thirty, and they are all now long gone. Domovoi Records now has a large range of different musicians on its roster, and looks forward to its first "official" release in May 2009, the CD "The Day The Earth Stood Still", by Bicycle Sighs.

Domovoi Publications

Publications was the second strand which blossomed from Domovoi's mother label, and carried on its sister label. It was originally begun to incorporate the literary works of Ciarán and friends. Its first release will be the novel "Qualia Contrived", written by Ciarán. It will also be putting out a monthly magazine, named He Of The House, starting in June 2009.

Domovoi Films

Quickly following its kin, Films came along, in a sense, to close the circle, so to speak. Though it obviously had not closed yet. Films' first release will be a satirical and rather sarcastic look at films of yesteryear, mashed together with the short term comedy of today.

Domovoi Arts

Arts is, in a way, the "everything else" portion of Domovoi. The "bit o' this and that". Encompassing the output of photography, sculpting, painting, other drawing mediums, and anything else that can be thought of. A flood of releases will begin along with the rest.

The Hive

The Hive was Ciarán's idea of an artist's utopia. A place where people of like minds and spirits could come together without the hassle of the outside world, influences, and society, and merely create. No worries, nor restrictions. Construction begins June 2009.

Film

Ciarán has produced eight films. Two animated, three stop motion, and three live-action. He also does film scoring, and voice over and sound work.

Physical Arts

Ciarán has also produced over eighty full painted canvases, and believes fully in the concept of the Horror vacui. He is also an avid sketch artist, as well as has interest in tattooing.

Bibliography

* "Il puerta Co" short story (1994)
* "Ilsa" short story (1994)
* "Ene" poem (1995)
* "Deniltri'enta" poem (1995)
* "Ix xe" poem (1995)
* "шанс и причина" essay (1996)
* "шанс и причина II" essay (1996)
* "Le Corps Comme un Vaisseau" essay (1996)
* "Le Corps Comme un Vaisseau deux" essay (1996)
* "шанс и причина III" essay (1997)
* "La Progression Sexuelle de l'oiseau Femelle" essay (1997)
* "La Progression Sexuelle de l'oiseau Femelle deux essay (1998)
* "Le Corps Comme un Vaisseau trois" essay (1998)
* "Le Transport de l'esprit" essay (1998)
* "Le Transport de l'esprit deux" essay (1998)
* "Le Transport de l'esprit trois" essay (1998)
* "La Seule Fille a Nommé Wallace" novel (1998)
* "Le Transport de l'esprit quarte" essay (1999)
* "Le Transport de l'esprit cinq" essay (1999)
* "Zigaretten im Mund von den Ungeheuern" novel (1999)
* "Le Transport de l'esprit six" essay (1999)
* "Injurle" poem and short story (1999)
* "Le Transport de l'esprit sept" essay (1999)
* "La Progression Sexuelle de l'oiseau Femelle trois essay (2000)
* "La Progression Sexuelle de l'oiseau Femelle quarte essay (2000)
* "Pour Les Cieux" short story (2001)
* "Le Transport de l'esprit huit" essay (2001)
* "Le Transport de l'esprit neuf" essay (2001)
* "Le Transport de l'esprit dix" essay (2001)
* "Le Transport de l'esprit onze" essay (2001)
* "Je Suis Carpathian" novella (2002)
* "Le Corps Comme un Vaisseau quarte" essay (2002)
* Four thousand odd poems and seven hundred odd short stories (2002 Dec. 11th - Feb. 22nd)
* "Deniltri'enta Mes Ien" poem (2003)
* "Inc Je Dentuie Psoi" novel (2003)
* "Jeunos" novel (2003)
* "Le Transport" essay (2003)
* "Le Transport II" essay (2003)
* "Coralina" novel (2004)
* "Les Cigarettes Dans la Bouche des Monstres" novella (2004)
* "Katakuri-ke no kōfuku" play script (2004)
* "Shin daisan no gokudō: Boppatsu Kansai gokudō Sensō" play script (2004)
* A large collection of poems (2005)
* "Partono All'alba" opera (2006)
* "шанс и причина IV" essay (2006)
* "шанс и причина V" essay (2006)
* "шанс и причина VI" essay (2006)
* "Brecht" short story series (2007)
* "Les Araignées des Yeux" Memoir (2007)
* "Sol" short story and poem (2007)
* "шанс и причина VII" essay (2007)
* "шанс и причина VIII" essay (2007)
* "шанс и причина IX" essay (2007)
* "шанс и причина X" essay (2007)
* "шанс и причина XI" essay (2007)
* "Cani" collective thought (2007)
* "Qualia Contrived" novel (2008)
* Untitled Poetry collection (2008)
* "Yellow Paint Eater" novel (2009)
* "The House That Di Ethyl Built" novel (2009)
* Untitled Short Story collection (2009)
* Untitled novel (2010)
* "I Killed Ted Bundy: The Secret Transit Code of America's Highways" novel *(2011/pending)
* Untitled Post collection (2011)

Filmography

* "Coralina" stop action (2000)
* "Les Cigarettes Dans la Bouche des Monstres" stop action (2000)
* "Jeunos" animated (2001)
* "I Have But One Hand" stop motion (2002)
* "Candy" animated (2004)
* "La Seule Fille a Nommé Wallace" live action (2004)
* "Je Suis Carpathian" live action (2006)
* "Paccina" live action (2006)

Discography

Silas Ciarán

* Sixty one Untitled classical albums - Cassette tape (1996-2006) unreleased
* Untitled Black metal album - CD (1999) unreleased
* "Densi-tu+" CD (1999) unreleased
* "Da/niet" 3.5" Floppy disc (1999) unreleased
* Untitled Drone metal album - Cassette tape (2000) unreleased
* Eleven Untitled Doom metal albums - CD (2002-2006) unreleased

Bicycle Sighs

* "AU" Netrelease (2008) Mine, All Mine! Records
* "Gossenkind" CD (2008) Glassheart:stoneeyeS Inc.
* "Clouds: Untitled" 3"CD (2008) Mine, All Mine! Records
* "Bitter Pill" 3"CD (2008) 200mg Records
* "Faerie Tails" 3"CD (2009) Small Doses Records
* Untitled CD (2009) Glassheart:stoneeyeS Inc.
* "The Day The Earth Stood Still" CD (2009) Domovoi Records
* "Oceans - split with [praw] " 3CD set (2009) Mine, All Mine! Records
* "Reeds Become Teeth" Cassette tape (2009) Sassbologna Records

Spider Legs, Sparrow Veins

* "Bat, Bat, Come Under My Hat..." CD (2009) Domovoi Records

Crixit Armalite

* "O' Bog" CD (2009) Domovoi Records

Canary Squadron

* "Die Katze Macht Meow" CD (2009) Domovoi Records
* "Bedtime Stories" CD (2009) Domovoi Records
* "Meet the Beetis" CD (2009) Domovoi Records
* "General Genres" CD (2009) Domovoi Records

Sleepers

* Untitled - CD (2007) Never released

----Ciarán also collaborates with other artists, contributing tracks and sounds to albums and songs alike.

External Links

* [http://www.bicyclesighs.com Bicycle Sighs] official website
* [http://www.myspace.com/bicyclesighs Bicycle Sighs] on Myspace
* [http://www.myspace.com/crixitarmalite Crixit Armalite] on Myspace
* [http://www.myspace.com/spiderlegssparrowveins Spider Legs, Sparrow Veins] on Myspace
* [http://www.myspace.com/canarysquadron Canary Squadron] on Myspace
* [http://www.myspace.com/sleepersneversleep Sleepers] on Myspace
* [http://www.myspace.com/domovoimedia Domovoi Media] on Myspace [official website coming soon]
* [http://www.mamrecords.com/bicyclesighs Mine, All Mine! Records] official website

Notes and references