The Cinderlands Portrait Gallery is a reflection of where many find themselves, in this world and many variations of it... It is a message of understanding and sympathy. Hope for better times after hardship.

There is a place in the future, an arcology known as Aethelburg - the stories are real, time only changes the names. When the signal hums and the world turns, sunlight and structure are everything.

When the realms of possibility open and you find you've just begun...

Stories from the Æthelverse and beyond.

Follow the Thread, Feel the Weave.

Sevahem, Aways

The story of Circuit Bloom originates from Aethelburg, a sprawling, vertically layered metropolis where centuries of architectural history are intertwined with a constantly evolving, hyper-connected digital network known as the "Grid." The city's inhabitants navigate this complex environment, living in districts stratified by their access to and integration with the Grid, from the high-frequency 'Canopy' levels where data streams flow like rivers, to the dense, analogue 'Foundations' below, where older systems hum beneath the surface. Life is a constant negotiation between the structured, predictable pathways of the digital and the chaotic, organic reality of the physical. The culture values innovation but is wary of losing touch with the tangible past.

Legend says that before 3C arrived, the Signal Bloom Ensemble was formed in the 'Interference Zones', overlooked spaces where stray signals from the Grid collided with the resonant frequencies of the city's ancient Foundation layers. Two individuals, one steeped in the rhythmic echoes of the urban underground and the other a former data architect fascinated by harmonic patterns, met in one such zone, finding their disparate sonic impulses converged into a new, powerful signal that cut through the city's perpetual hum.

* Album Alpha - Welcome to AEthelburg *

The AEthelburg Division of {3C} functions within the sprawling arcology of AEthelburg, defined by its vertical growth, hyper-efficient systems, and a pervasive digital consciousness known as the "Grid" that optimizes everything from traffic flow to energy distribution. Aethelburg's architecture is a marvel of geometric precision, and its sonic environment is typically dominated by the subtle hum and click of data exchange. Yet, beneath the surface of this calculated existence, a counter-current yearns for expression that is complex, structured, but born of human intuition rather than pure optimization.

* Context * In a forgotten, low-level sub-strata of Aethelburg, where residual analog signals sometimes bleed through the ubiquitous Grid, our sonic cartographer and maker of bespoke resonant instruments has discovered that certain harmonic frequencies, when layered and pulsed according to specific non-linear patterns, could momentarily disrupt the city's pervasive hum. Drawn together by this shared fascination with structured resonance and temporal anomalies, they became the local temporal representative for the division, determined to translate the hidden beauty and complexity of their layered reality into audible form.

This Album is their first transmission...

It began as a grand project... Æthel's vision. A growing place, a city alive, and all in joy. Everything made sense, or at least it seemed to... as the city grew, so did the system of symbiosis, the Grid.

Before the city of AEthel's dreams, there was the downfall...

the Glass Plains are where many were lost.

The city hums... Æthell street isn't yet the main road, but it's the only one where you can still hear music, if you listen carefully.

This is some of the city's driving energy, inner world view and thoughtful effort to arrive.

Set deep within the spiral streets of Æthelburg, the towering arcology at the edge of time, this album unfolds like a coded whisper from one future self to another. Selling Souls for Second Hand Hope traces the blurred pathways of identity, signal decay, and synthetic prayer in a society where memory is currency and rhythm is resistance.

From the fractured clarity of "Strata Echo" to the final pulse of "Whispers from the Grid", each track resonates with the emotional architecture of recursive living. It's music for those who’ve drifted between selves, for those decoding past lives in electric light. Expect filtered skies, kinetic dust, and echoes of the fifth season, the one we lost before we were born.

This album belongs to the world beyond, but it plays here. Now. In the breath between architecture and myth.

"Stitch by Stitch, the Riverbend Narratives" is a heartfelt exploration of life's delicate intersections, moments when ordinary threads of existence intertwine to form extraordinary stories. Set along a timeless, ever-place called Riverbend, the album introduces a tapestry of characters, emotions, and revelations, each gentle stitch pulling us closer to the heart of our own human narrative. Through authentic acoustic melodies, introspective lyricism, and warm, resonant vocals, the album is another step on the journey to the mythic city of Æthelburg, where every story finds its way, and every listener finds themselves reflected in the river's flow.

Step into the electric heart of Æthelburg's nocturnal pulse. "Dance Dance Fever Dream" invites listeners to experience a night woven from memory, rhythm, and light, unfolding beneath the city’s neon embrace. Each track tells a story of encounters, connections, and fleeting revelations gathered in the vibrant clubs and mysterious corners of Æthelburg. Dance through echoes of human emotion, technological whispers, and the dazzling glow of a city whose nightlife lives at the edge of dreams and reality.

"Memory Circuitry" is a sonic memoir encoded in electricity, ache, and recollection. Told through the voices of Æthelburg’s hidden narrators; women whose experiences are etched into the emotional hardware of the city. This album captures the strange tension of introspection in a place where data hums beneath skin and memories are stored in fractured frequencies. Each track is a pulse of lived history, intimate, grunge-infused, orchestral, vulnerable. It’s a Saturday that never ended. It’s a night you’re still inside. It’s the soft static between identities. It is a field recording of the soul in recursion.

independence, yay.

15 tracks from a near-future recursion.

Æthelburg is rising. Signals are clean, systems smooth, optimization near total. And yet… it hurts a little more every time it gets easier.

independence, yay. lives inside this paradox, where bandwidth isn’t just capacity, but identity, exhaustion, intimacy. Across these songs you’ll find whispers of transmission loss, algorithmic tenderness, municipal grief, and quiet resistance. Some songs glitch. Some drift. Some bloom.

This isn’t the “bandwidth album.” But it is haunted by what bandwidth has become: status, currency, measure of self. What happens when your very being gets measured in throughput?

From “System Override (for Two)” to “Zero-Sum Garden”, these tracks aren’t answers. They’re artifacts from a world that feels uncomfortably close. A world that still believes independence is the opposite of entanglement.

* Received: Æthelburg Div. {BV: 2.1.1, CE: γ, Q: 9.6.6} *

Discovered . {Kinetic Catharsis} . sequence of data encoded by 'Resonance Glitch' - research indicates that the collective formed in the chaotic 'Underlayers' by individuals who couldn't suppress their resonance anomalies and felt the city's emotional suppression as a constant pressure. They scavenged discarded analogue instruments and interfaced them with glitching, unregulated digital tech from forgotten zones. Their music emerged as a deliberate amplification of these forbidden resonances, a sonic disruption intended to shatter the enforced calm of Æthelburg and give voice to the raw, unsmoothed emotions thriving beneath the surface.

This early chapter in the Æthel-verse explores themes of journey – both physical landscapes and internal emotional voyages. Finding moments of beauty or connection amidst complexity, the resilience of the human spirit in changing or challenging environments, and the quiet wonder of observing the world. Hope, longing, reflection, quiet anxiety about the future, framed within settings that feel touched by an underlying, almost invisible force of nature or progress. Pondering the interplay of memory and anticipation, the tension between seeking external adventure and finding internal peace. With clear, expressive vocals, layered with lush, harmonies and atmospheric and narrative depth, treating the voice as another instrumental colour within the ensemble. The mixed mode shares reflective code and the true tone grows through.

This one was just for fun...