THE CHORONZON MACHINE

Video Stills (selected by Orryelle from the footage of Michael Schoell and Peter Haren), Audio samples, Script extracts and Lyrics from the Ritual Opera:

SCENE 0 Fool) /11 (Strength/Lust)

[Includes 10 (Wheel)/21 (World/Universe) Beginning...]

In the darkness and silence there is the sound of JACKAL 1/3rd putting the collection 3.33c illuminati coin p-chink into the slot of The Choronzon Machine. CHORONZON's voice is heard in the dark: 'No, it's not'

A Spotlight fades up on The FOOL who is sitting naked in lotus position, meditating. His elemental tools are near him on a diamond cloth.

CHORONZON: 'It is Not, it is Nothing, and I am the Guardian of the Abyss of Nothing, the void from which everything comes'

More lights fade on as CHORONZON speaks, as if generated by his voice. Slowly gears start turning as his babble gains momentum and the TREE OF LIFE MACHINE starts up (Sephiroth Wheels turning). CHORONZON is embedded in the midst of the machinery, tubes and pipes and wires connecting him to it. Seven tubes run from the seven infernal sephiroth wheels on the TREE MACHINE to his Seven heads.

BABALON is astride his back, riding him as he rides the machine. The faster he talks (about his garden etc.) the more cogs and wheels start turning, gaining momentum as he transmits the Logos...

Ever so slowly (i.e. beyond the average eye's discernment of visible movement) the WORLD DANCER begins to rotate upon her axis, also beginning her slow (butoh) orbit around the periphery of the entire Stage area.
Throughout the rest of the play she completes one turn upon her own axis while moving along one segment of her orbit, presenting with each rotation a different body mudra which represents the first card being presented in each Scene.

HARLEQUIN SONG

(An extract from this song can be heard on the HARLEQUINTET PAGE)

'Ha-ha-ha-harlequin, dresses in a daimond skin' -as FOOL springs up and gets dressed
'The ha-ha-hand of Harlequin, Wears a diamond stone' -FOOL shows off diamond ring on wedding finger
'The hashish of Harlequin gives a diamond stone' -FOOL sniffs flower of tropical plant in machine.

'Ha-ha-harlequin sits in a diamond throne' -FOOL lolls in throne for a while, then suddenly gets up
'The ha-ha-hand of harlequin deals a... havoc hand tonight!' - FOOL pulls off and throws the diamond ring away
'The jester stands on the top of the pack, in daimond colours bright' -FOOL stands up
'The ha-ha-hand of harlequin deals a � havoc hand tonight!' -FOOL bundles up the elemental tools into a pack, slings it on his wand and over his shoulder and sets off...

'THE CHORONZON MACHINE' Song

An extract from this song is playing/loading now. It is from track 3.33recurring of THE CHORONZON MACHINE CD by The HarleQuintet. Words and music (c)02 Evan Flux. Each time track 3.33 recurs it is 33.3% of it's previous speed (this is the first recurrence, the initial speed track can be heard on The CHORONZON MACHINE mainpage), until it disappears into infinity...)

FOOL skipping along carefree singing.

FOOL: 'Reality is melting, and things are in a flux,
Faster and faster, the rush
Technology has given us a pandora's box
Higher and wider'

CHORONZON: '...the slush. Uranium, titanium, tentacles of rust'

FOOL: '...wrap around our frame.
The future arrives before the past
To teach decay' ( CHORONZON: 'decay')

CHORUS
FOOL: 'We've got nothing to lose, and everything to gain.
This is nature's news, and her laws shall remain�'

CHORONZON contradicting him simultaneously:
'You've got nothing to gain, and everything to lose�
�(and her laws) shall change'

(JACKAL 3 plays vertebrae bone glockenspiel with FOOL's lines:) 'If we take her by the hand and sacrifice our certainty,
We may wake with both our hands inside Pandora's circuitry'

FOOL and CHORONZON (in a round): 'Three hundred and thirty three, the number of Choronzon's Machine
333 pulleys and levers heave
333 the number of Choronzon's Machine (CHORONZON: '�My Machine')
333 spindles prance and weave
333 the number of Choronzon's Machine
33.3 jackals dance the scheme'

In 333 section of this and following Choruses the machinery builds up progressively, both aurally and visually (inc. Video Projections). Gears winding, levers, pulleys etc. The music at this stage has an innocent feel, the mechanisms sound like child's toys -whistles and bells etc., although there are vaguely ominous undertones in CHORONZON's harmonies.

FOOL: 'A factory of dreams weaves the fractal
In an optic cave
Visions which splinter and slither,
Pterodactyl patterns at play
The dogstar shines through the eye of a jackal
In a twin embrace
The beast writhes as his parts angle
For nature's kiss

CHORUS (repeat)
After 2nd Chorus lyric: '33.3 jackals dance the scheme' JACKALS 1,2, 3 and 1/3rd dance whimsically in the instrumental, a vaudevillian dance with vertebrae canes (from the glockenspiel).

[ Final verse:] FOOL: 'Our DNA crumbles like castles made of sand,
From advancing lagoon
A black beast emerges,'
-CHORONZON comes forth from machinery. 'and brings us to the shambles
Of our shadow's return
And so our bones glow and dangle'
CHORONZON: '�in a toxic malaise.'

JACKALS 1 & 2 form a gateway with the FOOL and STRENGTH cards held vertically on either side of and in front of CHORONZON.

FOOL passes through it, then passes CHORONZON, whom he pushes aside -one head at a time as they bar his path, heading towards Video Projection in the background of gypsies running off into the trees.

JACKALS 1 & 2 bring the FOOL and LUST cards together at the top behind FOOL, then pushing this to MidStageFront forming the first triangle of a House of Cards.

FOOL: 'The gypsies have headed far into the hills, and they cry, "Awaaayyyyyyyyy�"' FOOL promptly falls through the slit in the Video Screen.
Simultaneously CHORONZON, hoisted by JACKAL 1, falls UP into Hanged Man position.

Jackal OneThird asks:

Put another Coin in The CHORONZON MACHINE

Images (except where noted otherwise) and text copyright (c)02 Orryelle Defenestrate-Bascule
Animated Cogs courtesy of SevenOaksArt

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