The underground scene is not only limited to extreme metal and hardcore/punk genres but there are many other unique and different dimensions of art as performed by CREPUSCULAR ENTITY in this interview. You just need to have the openness to accept everything that has been done by Ken Jamison, a great personnel behind CREPUSCULAR ENTITY who is also the owner of a label called BASEMENT CORNER EMISSIONS. - Interviewed by Atandistorted [May 5, 2023]
Hello! What’s up today? Well, please tell us the history of Crepuscular Entity? Who is behind it?
Hello, I am Ken Jamison, from Oregon on the west coast of the US. I am the flesh and blood behind Crepuscular Entity. I also have the wall noise project Hana Haruna and I am in several duos like FOTO, Suyuin, Crepuscular Rituals, and Crepuscular Zombie, and have been making experimental noise since early 2018. I also run the (mostly) netlabel Basement Corner Emissions. I originally was in the noise duo Danshoku Dino and Crepuscular Entity (or CE) was my solo material. After the dissolution of Danshoku Dino my energies went full-time into CE, Hana and the label. Having no instrumental musical talent but loving the audio arts, CE was essential for my creativity.
What actually inspired you to form Crepuscular Entity and in more detail, how would you like to describe the music/sound created by this project?
CE came about because I had ideas in my head that didn’t fit in with Danshoku Dino as a collaborative and were more individual to me personally, and also because I knew the duo wouldn’t last forever. With CE I primarily make experimental sounds, focusing mostly on harsh noise, ambient, and some drone, but I have a wide variety of concepts mixed in and will add anything to the brew that makes it sound good to me. It’s primarily improvised on analog gear; I have a few dial synths and lots of effects pedals to run the sounds through, and also some looper pedals to gather found sounds to mutilate and distort to whatever I need. I just try and keep it as interesting as possible.
Do you have any reasons why it is named as Crepuscular Entity?
Crepuscular Entity basically means ‘twilight being’. I like the idea of twilight as this area of neither fully light or fully dark, but obscuring everything into not-fully-knowable mists or fog. Dimness as an ideal. I try not to be obvious in what I do and to allow things to be interpreted by the mind of the listener. Plus it stands out in this era of noise all about women’s stockings or skinny ballet dancers or oozing pus or a bunch of no-longer-original themes. It’s an abstract in a time of specifics.
Tell us some of the best workpieces and releases from Crepuscular Entity?
Wow, after hundreds of releases I honestly am not sure I can do that. Pick from my children? You can go to Basement Corner Emissions (or BCE) and just start with the most recent and go backwards. And often much of my best stuff is on the splits I do with other projects. Actually listening to my tracks on splits here and there is a good way to catch a variety of what I’ve done. And listen to the other project as well, which is what splits are all about.
What were majorly emphasized everytime you write and record a track?
As I said above, improvisation. I may start on a track with a basic concept, work out a loose structure, perhaps a time length and maybe how I primarily want it to sound, but when I hit record I try not to overthink what I’m doing, but let the flow of the sounds work themselves out and then improvise what I do from there. There’s no writing, all composition is in the moment, from my head to my fingers on the dials and then to an unforeseen end. It forces me to use my brain and stay engaged. It’s also more fun for me that way.
Do you put any message on each piece of work? How do you determine the track title?
No message, at least not in a strict sense. I love the abstract and do nothing with a determined meaning. My influence is not other noise acts but free jazz. Little structure, but chaos somehow filtering out into some kind of flow and ebb. As I’ve gotten older I have found that I have no interest in narrative forms in artistic endeavors, whether it be literature, film, TV or music. It is reflected in my sounds; no story, no neat finish, but oddities and strange nuances as ends in themselves instead of just moving a story along. I do have interests in history and remote and abandoned places that often enter as influences and these often get reflected in the final titles of tracks, but it’s more of a feel than of strict interpretation. My noise is just sound moved around according to my own impulses.
Please introduce more about your label - Basement Corner Emissions?
BCE came out of the ashes of the old kv&gr/recs label after the end of the original duo/partnership/friendship. kv&gr/recs started as a format for our own material but grew quickly to include other acts. When I had full control of the label I wanted to take it in a fresher direction, emphasizing newer and different experimental and noise projects over the usual suspects in the genre. I noticed the big name labels all seem to be a cabal of the same dozen US white males in cahoots with the same dozen European white males. It was getting boring. I wanted more diversity, not in a sense of political correctness, but because those outside the precious few were actually making better and more creative noise. I was finding great stuff in Latin America and Asia that were being ignored by the tastemakers, who after reaching the apex of the harsh noise pile seemed more intent on pushing others down and keeping the spoils for themselves. So I figured someone had to grab up all the good shit coming out of The Philippines and Indonesia and Thailand and India and Brazil and Argentina and other places not considered by the hipster labels and also promote the fact the best noise comes out of unusual circles nowadays. And of course female representation which is just as sparse. For a form that considers itself the most underground and unique of musical forms it seems to have no problem in letting the testosterone flow too freely. BCE exists to give new artists a leg up and a place to have their works heard, and to release albums by projects that were favorites of mine that might not get a call by the elites. I want good sounds, not fashionable ones.
Thanks for the answers. Anything else you want to say about Crepuscular Entity and to zine readers?
Please have a listen to the label and if you make noise or experimental sounds please consider contacting me through the contact page on Bandcamp or the social media links there. Or at basementcorner@outlook.com. I can’t promise I’ll release your work but I will give it a serious listen and the policy is pretty open door. And if you’re looking for sounds to listen to try projects you’ve never heard of and the more underground labels. I can tell you there’s nothing fresh going on with the well-known noisemakers, just a lot of 15-year-old re-releases on vinyl by labels trying to look cool. That is definitely not the future of the genre.
