Thanatropic Protocol by Gregory Ritchey

Thanatropic Protocol is both the title and the process — a personal system of creation built around decay, entropy, and transformation.

The word Thanatropic comes from Thanatos — death — and tropic, meaning “to turn toward.” It represents a conscious movement toward endings, not in despair, but in reverence for what dissolves and becomes something else.

This release continues that idea. Each noise piece is a kind of organism — a signal from another universe, alive and dying at the same time. Their names are nonsensical because they’re not meant to be understood; they’re fragments of an alien taxonomy, a bestiary of sound.

Threaded through the noise are improvised piano passages — the human element, fragile and searching. I often think of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier while recording: its perfect order, its symmetry, its faith in structure. Then I let that order collapse into distortion and chaos. Between those worlds — precision and ruin — this music lives.

Thanatropic Protocol isn’t about melody or rhythm. It’s about communication: between man and machine, noise and silence, life and the moment it fades.

Track Descriptions:
1. Carg-Spacius – 07:50
First sighting. Forms a lattice of sound around perception. Pulses with an internal rhythm not meant for comprehension.

2. Expul-daropist – 04:44
Flickering entity. Vibrates in sudden, discontinuous bursts; its language is static and half-remembered.

3. Harg-maylion (Hymn of Entropy-Convocation) – 03:40
Summons collapse. A congregation of decaying frequencies calling themselves into being.

4. Noncongruent piano prelude in A minor – 05:41
A human gesture, thin and trembling, probing the edges of alien consciousness.

5. Leth-Vaskis – 04:54
Dense, opaque organism. Feeds on resonance, its presence warps the air around it.

6. Na-isdu – 01:45
Fleeting specter. Appears and vanishes, leaving a trail of interference in its wake.

7. Expul-Ober-strup – 05:05
Membrane of sound stretches and folds. Communication through vibration only partially translatable.

8. Noncongruent piano prelude in C Lydian dominant – 04:10
Light from the human side. Notes flicker like sparks against the dark tissue of alien noise.

9. Skis-Thrastis – 08:18
Titan of the corpus. Swallows smaller signals, reshapes space with sheer density.

10. Xog-Urdu-luth – 05:36
Mechanical whispers. Thin, metallic articulation; the voice of something constructed, yet alive.

11. Noncongruent piano prelude in C# minor – 06:28
Human recognition — hesitant, fragile, an attempt to translate vibration into intent.

12. Xulo-sati-wogu – 04:06
Transient pulse. Collapses immediately after emergence, leaving only the memory of resonance.

13. Ulk-Umberis (Organ Puller #5) – 03:50
Ritual actuator. Pulls unseen levers in invisible chambers; a deliberate, eerie mechanism.

14. Noncongruent piano prelude in G minor – 03:46
Melancholy observer. Witnessing alien life through fragile, dissonant gestures.

15. Narcissistic Abuse – 07:09
Human anomaly. Emotional imprint distorted into alien echo, still recognizable in its pain.

16. Arxpul-Twayke – 10:32
Colossus. Expansive, multi-layered organism; oscillates between calm and violent eruption.

17. October 13, 2024 – 05:36
Temporal specimen. Captures a moment in linear human time; bending it into alien context. A homage to the shadowed one on distant shore. This is the day she disappeared.

18. C Lydian fragmentation of a paragon of romantic-classic piece – 08:46
Familiar form refracted. Classical memory shattered and reorganized in foreign frequencies. No odes to joy here.

19. Noncongruent piano prelude in Eb minor – 06:06
Tender probe. Human hand reaching through a lattice of incomprehensible sound.

20. Congruent piano prelude in C# minor
Resolution attempt. Order restored momentarily, yet echoes of alien chaos remain embedded.

dark ambient, funeral doom and solo piano emitting from Venus