Forms Of Things Unknown

Forms Of Things Unknown is an acoustic/electronic project dedicated to pan-idiomatic explorations beyond the pale of sectarian orthodoxies, being the brainchild and primary creative enterprise of San Francisco composer/multi-instrumentalist Ferrara Brain Pan.

Ferrara Brain Pan (birthname Steven Hitchcock) began his formal musical training on the flute as a teenager in the 1970s, later on as an adult extending his instrumental abilities to include other Western orchestral woodwinds such as saxophone, bass clarinet and recorder. A fascination with musical exotica and alternate tonalities led him to explore various ethnic wind instruments including the Australian aboriginal didjeridu, shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute), and the kangling (a ritual Tibetan trumpet made from a human thighbone), among others. The subsequent addition of harmonium, bowed psaltery, glockenspiel, percussion, and assorted electronics ranging from vintage oscillators and shortwave radio to digital signal processors led to a further expanded instrumental palette for Forms Of Things Unknown.

Ferrara Brain Pan's earliest musical experimentations developed in the wake of the original Punk and Industrial scenes in the late 1970s. Fresh out of high school and newly residing in San Diego, California, he became involved with the international Mail Art scene under the tutelage of Fluxus artist and historian Ken Friedman, which placed him in direct contact with Genesis P-Orridge just as Throbbing Gristle was beginning to make shock waves in the worlds of high art and youth music. Around the same time, Ferrara established fast friendship with noise music pioneer Boyd Rice, a creative association which was to have immeasurable influence on his own artistic and philosophical leanings. The two shared a predilection for nonconformity and subversion, a longstanding fascination with the historical and contemporary avant-garde, and an enthusiastic sense of possibility surrounding the emergent DIY culture of Punk and Industrial Music. A few experimental music collaborations in the realms of home recording and live public performance ensued, culminating in a trio formation with Boyd, Ferrara, and Robert Turman, but Ferrara had already dropped out of the picture by the time Boyd and Robert moved to San Francisco and released the first recordings under the name NON.

Through most of the 1980s, Ferrara Brain Pan's musical activities subsided as his energies were detoured (and to a large extent derailed) into other pursuits: graphic art, occult research and experimentation, and reckless exploration of the frontiers of human consciousness via sundry and illicit substances. A geographic move to San Francisco in 1990 precipitated a return to musical endeavors, as Ferrara began amassing a formidable collection of wind instruments and teaching himself to play them. At this time, he participated in the initial formation of longtime friend Timothy Hendricks' ambient dub project 23 Degrees. Ferrara's newfound excursions into exotic instrumentation gained unexpected exposure when a recorded excerpt of his wailings on the zurna (a Turkish double-reed woodwind similar to the Indian shenai or Moroccan rhaita) was inadvertently captured on a field recording in Death Valley and released as part of the 1994 comeback album Rien by the legendary Krautrock band Faust.

A 1998 meeting with dark ambient mainstay Ure Thrall (freshly relocated from Houston, Texas) led to a momentous advance in Ferrara's musical exploratory pathways, as the two united to co-found the dark ambient duo Darmstadt Pharmacy. Through Ure's encouragement and tutelage, Ferrara began to more systematically implement and integrate electronic technology into his musical productions. Though Darmstadt Pharmacy was to formally disband after a handful of gigs and one limited-run CD-R, the stage was set for the eventual emergence of Forms Of Things Unknown as an acoustic/electronic project founded upon the possibilities of the revolution in digital home recording technology.

Forms Of Things Unknown was launched as a solo recording project in 2002 and made its recording debut the following year with the mini-CD Cross Purposes. This first release was mixed and produced from material played entirely by Ferrara Brain Pan, excepting guest vocal performances by local talents Bob Ayres and Shannon Wolfe. A study in contradictions, the album featured a 16-minute original instrumental doomscape entitled "Black Candles & Pentagrams 'n Shit," paired off against a 14th-Century devotional Christian song and a cover of the morally ambiguous "Stupid Blood" (penned by UK punk legend Howard Devoto). A couple of aesthetically divergent compilation appearances trickled out during the next year or two, as a variety of personal obstacles conspired to slow down productivity.

After a four-year hiatus, Forms Of Things Unknown returned to the scene in 2008 with a remixed Nurse With Wound track (released on the Two Shaves and a Shine Remix Project CD). Following this, a recording deal with the new Pimalia label resulted in the release of two FOTU albums: a remastered edition of Cross Purposes and a full album of demos, outtakes and rarities entitled Black Trenchcoats & Swastikas 'n Shit. In 2009 Ferrara Brain Pan launched Everything But The Gargoyle, a darkwave duo featuring MySpace muse Pixyblink, with a four-song debut EP scheduled for release in early 2010 on the Pimalia label. With luck (or, shall we say, a bit of financial good fortune along with the requisite creative inspiration), the coming year may yet see the release of a new full-length FOTU CD (currently in production). And who knows what else may lie on the musical horizon - assuming the world as we know it doesn't disintegrate, collapse or unravel in global catastrophe in the next three years leading up to 2012!

Some of the above-mentioned past activities and associations of Ferrara Brain Pan are discussed at length on the Interviews page.


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	Forms Of Things Unknown is an acoustic/electronic project dedicated to pan-idiomatic explorations beyond the pale of sectarian orthodoxies, being the brainchild and primary creative enterprise of San Francisco composer/multi-instrumentalist Ferrara Brain Pan. Ferrara Brain Pan (birthname Steven Hitchcock) began his formal musical training on the flute as a teenager in the 1970s, later on as an adult extending his instrumental abilities to include other Western orchestral woodwinds such as saxophone, bass clarinet and recorder. A fascination with musical exotica and alternate tonalities led him to explore various ethnic wind instruments including the Australian aboriginal didjeridu, shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute), and the kangling (a ritual Tibetan trumpet made from a human thighbone), among others. The subsequent addition of harmonium, bowed psaltery, glockenspiel, percussion, and assorted electronics ranging from vintage oscillators and shortwave radio to digital signal processors led to a further expanded instrumental palette for Forms Of Things Unknown. Ferrara Brain Pan's earliest musical experimentations developed in the wake of the original Punk and Industrial scenes in the late 1970s. Fresh out of high school and newly residing in San Diego, California, he became involved with the international Mail Art scene under the tutelage of Fluxus artist and historian Ken Friedman, which placed him in direct contact with Genesis P-Orridge just as Throbbing Gristle was beginning to make shock waves in the worlds of high art and youth music. Around the same time, Ferrara established fast friendship with noise music pioneer Boyd Rice, a creative association which was to have immeasurable influence on his own artistic and philosophical leanings. The two shared a predilection for nonconformity and subversion, a longstanding fascination with the historical and contemporary avant-garde, and an enthusiastic sense of possibility surrounding the emergent DIY culture of Punk and Industrial Music. A few experimental music collaborations in the realms of home recording and live public performance ensued, culminating in a trio formation with Boyd, Ferrara, and Robert Turman, but Ferrara had already dropped out of the picture by the time Boyd and Robert moved to San Francisco and released the first recordings under the name NON. Through most of the 1980s, Ferrara Brain Pan's musical activities subsided as his energies were detoured (and to a large extent derailed) into other pursuits: graphic art, occult research and experimentation, and reckless exploration of the frontiers of human consciousness via sundry and illicit substances. A geographic move to San Francisco in 1990 precipitated a return to musical endeavors, as Ferrara began amassing a formidable collection of wind instruments and teaching himself to play them. At this time, he participated in the initial formation of longtime friend Timothy Hendricks' ambient dub project 23 Degrees. Ferrara's newfound excursions into exotic instrumentation gained unexpected exposure when a recorded excerpt of his wailings on the zurna (a Turkish double-reed woodwind similar to the Indian shenai or Moroccan rhaita) was inadvertently captured on a field recording in Death Valley and released as part of the 1994 comeback album Rien by the legendary Krautrock band Faust. A 1998 meeting with dark ambient mainstay Ure Thrall (freshly relocated from Houston, Texas) led to a momentous advance in Ferrara's musical exploratory pathways, as the two united to co-found the dark ambient duo Darmstadt Pharmacy. Through Ure's encouragement and tutelage, Ferrara began to more systematically implement and integrate electronic technology into his musical productions. Though Darmstadt Pharmacy was to formally disband after a handful of gigs and one limited-run CD-R, the stage was set for the eventual emergence of Forms Of Things Unknown as an acoustic/electronic project founded upon the possibilities of the revolution in digital home recording technology. Forms Of Things Unknown was launched as a solo recording project in 2002 and made its recording debut the following year with the mini-CD Cross Purposes. This first release was mixed and produced from material played entirely by Ferrara Brain Pan, excepting guest vocal performances by local talents Bob Ayres and Shannon Wolfe. A study in contradictions, the album featured a 16-minute original instrumental doomscape entitled "Black Candles & Pentagrams 'n Shit," paired off against a 14th-Century devotional Christian song and a cover of the morally ambiguous "Stupid Blood" (penned by UK punk legend Howard Devoto). A couple of aesthetically divergent compilation appearances trickled out during the next year or two, as a variety of personal obstacles conspired to slow down productivity. After a four-year hiatus, Forms Of Things Unknown returned to the scene in 2008 with a remixed Nurse With Wound track (released on the Two Shaves and a Shine Remix Project CD). Following this, a recording deal with the new Pimalia label resulted in the release of two FOTU albums: a remastered edition of Cross Purposes and a full album of demos, outtakes and rarities entitled Black Trenchcoats & Swastikas 'n Shit. In 2009 Ferrara Brain Pan launched Everything But The Gargoyle, a darkwave duo featuring MySpace muse Pixyblink, with a four-song debut EP scheduled for release in early 2010 on the Pimalia label. With luck (or, shall we say, a bit of financial good fortune along with the requisite creative inspiration), the coming year may yet see the release of a new full-length FOTU CD (currently in production). And who knows what else may lie on the musical horizon - assuming the world as we know it doesn't disintegrate, collapse or unravel in global catastrophe in the next three years leading up to 2012! Some of the above-mentioned past activities and associations of Ferrara Brain Pan are discussed at length on the Interviews page.
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