ANIHILA is a dark space ambient project from Flowers for Bodysnatchers composer Duncan Ritchie. This new project takes us to the most isolated parts of the universe. A place where space and time as we understand it twists to its own needs.

The two remaining crew of the space station Locus Meropis have only one mission, to maintain the aged station now many years past its initial mission goals. Locus Meropis was built to study the planet known as Adamah and, only proved our ultimate inadequacy to venture forth and understand the mysteries of the universe. The passive probing and continued missions to the planet surface returned data that could not be explained. Mission logs would be time stamped decades if not centuries in the future and sometimes the distant past. Time on this planet exists in a fluid non lineal state only proving we know nothing of this universe and, even less in our small understanding of it.
credits
released May 1, 2019

Composed and performed by Duncan Ritchie.
Mastered by Duncan Ritchie.
Cover art by Duncan Ritchie.
Released by Pretty Dead Girl Records.

The year, 2158. The Soviet Union has defeated the United States in the space race of the early 20th century. They now explore the outer reaches of our solar system mining, terraforming and colonising the planets, moons and asteroids that make up the Greater USSR System of Planets. Almost a quarter of a million Soviet Citizens now inhabit the planets and moons as far out as Saturn with all but a hand full of Cosmonauts now beginning the exploration beyond to Neptune. An area of space thought beyond the reach of human exploration and technology.

The Soviet kosmobushir (space tug) ‘Akademgorodok’ or ‘AKey’ for short is the ship now operating farthest beyond the reach. On a slow approach to Triton, Neptune’s most outer moon and crewed by lone Cosmonaut Yuri Leonov. His mission is the detailed scanning, detection and mapping of objects that long range scanners on the moons of Saturn can not detect. A methodical 4-Space Geometric scan done sector by sector by sector creating detailed spacial maps for future vessels to safely navigate, something the Akademgorodok can do by itself. The Soviet Union though believes the true exploration of space begins with the mind and body of Soviet Citizens willing to go “Far Beyond the Reach”.

The following transmission was received by Saturn’s deep space transmitter on Titan. It was received in the year 2172, fourteen years after the USSR space tug Akademgorodok was last heard from. What you are about to read is from a conversation between the ships onboard A.I. ‘AKey’ and Yuri Leonov. The only portion of the conversation received was from the ships A.I.

>mission entry/ts00142.2158/
>akademgorodok to leonov yuri attention requested/
>slow burn approach to triton/slingshot manuever to proteus enabled/
>object detected/object unknown/scans negative/
>request manual observation/
>statement unknown/
>proceed to asrd console/confirm eyes on/confirm anomoly/
>system parameter overide/2.41.60.43.81/unknown object protocol 4.9/
>object detected/composition unknown/object mass unknown/
>object unknown/object not listed in ussr or foriegn registery/
>object detected during surface scan of proteus/attention requested/
>incorrect/it appears to be in orbit/unable to calculare object orbit/
>correct/object appeared as negative space in proteus surface scan/
>we are/
>on screen/hold..../hold..../unable to calculate object mass/
>hold..../we are experiencing multiple onboard system faliures/
>incorrect/
>it cre__ates a neg__ative area in the surface scan of proteus/
>hold....cor__rect/
>the object appears to be in a con__stant state of flux/
>can__not calculate navigational dis__tance to object/
>hold....unknown/re__quest manual pilot flight control/
>cor__rect/but out going coms have failed/
>coms error unknown/
>hold..../hold.../understood/

Composed and performed by Duncan Ritchie.
Mastered by Duncan Ritchie.
Cover Art, Wallpaper and Digital Booklet design by Duncan Ritchie.

released August 31, 2020