INSTRUMENTAL TRANSCOMMUNICATION
“I have been at work for some time building an apparatus to see if it is possible for personalities which have left this earth to communicate with us. If this is ever accomplished it will be accomplished not by any occult, mystifying, mysterious or weird means, such as are employed by so-called mediums, but by scientific methods.”
Interview with Thomas Edison in the October 16, 1920 issue of The American Magazine.
Within ghost hunting and parapsychology, electronic voice phenomena (EVP) are sounds found on electronic recordings that are interpreted as spirit voices. The term Instrumental Trans-Communication (ITC) was coined by Ernst Senkowski in the 1970s to refer more generally to communication through any sort of electronic device such as tape recorders, fax machines, television sets or computers between spirits or other discarnate entities and the living.
Claimed photograph of the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall, taken by Captain Hubert C. Provand. First published in Country Life, 1936
“Evocation of the Dead Ones" - Emile Bayard (1870)
in The History & Practice of Magick by Jean-Baptiste Pitois
BREAKTHROUGH - An Amazing Experiment in Electronic Communication with the Dead
by Konstantine Raudive (1971)
“It certainly sounds fantastic to assert that we have made contact with spirit-beings, i.e. the dead, through tape-recordings. Today, however, when more or less adequate technical devices are at our disposal, it is possible to test the facts by experiment and to lift them out of the realm of the fantastic. Tape-recorder, radio and microphone give us facts in an entirely impersonal way and their objectivity cannot be challenged. […]
Man has an inherent, stubborn characteristic: the wish to fathom his own destiny—within himself and concerning himself. We die whilst we live, for our concepts of life and death conceal the future that awaits us. From the fragments we hear in the voice-experiments I have made we can perhaps form some ideas about this problem. My research has led me to the personal conclusion that apart from the biological-psychical level on which we human beings here exist, there is a second level: that of the psychicalspiritual being, whose potentialities are only released after death. This psychical-spiritual being tries to build a bridge between its world and that of our earthly form of life, and it endeavours on its own initiative to make contact in order to guide those on earth into a new reality. Only someone who himself ventures to plumb these inaccessible layers of human existence, where we discern neither beginning nor end, only a forward compulsion of ourselves and our lives, can assess the true position.
It is quite possible that one day results will emerge from the voice-experiments that will have a bearing on the highest, indeed the ultimate goal man has sought throughout the ages and is still seeking the answer to the question: who am I and where am I going? Death might then be seen as no more than a metamorphosis from one state of development to another.”
“These voices had certain characteristics but, although twice the speed of normal human speech, could be clearly understood. Further investigation had shown that the voices did not appear at random but seemed to respond to invitation to manifest themselves. A great number of experiments had obviously been conducted, and the phenomenon was still being examined by scientists in other countries who had been called in by Dr. Raudive.”
Peter Bander, Preface to BREAKTHROUGH
Katsushika Hokusai - The Ghost of Kohada Koheiji (c. 1831–32)
THE SEEKER is a powerful representation of our inherent desire and ability to seek knowledge. Knowledge of the self and for the self. The Seeker offers a lifting of the veil so to speak - in which we have the opportunity to take a glimpse of ourselves in our raw, true form.
CREDITS
Instrumental Transcommunication original ebow improvisation recorded on July 27th, 2020. Released as Chants Magnétiques on ‘Dark Exits' (2020). Remixed in 2025 by Sébastien Dumontier, mastered by Laurent Roussel.
Acoustic & electric guitars, keyboards, Mellotron and voices played by Finrod Artîwelë. Additionnal cymbals played by The King Herself & Lavinia Roussel.