Music selected by ammel. This project asks the artists who created it to select books.
The fifth installment is Iglooghost, an electronic music producer from the UK who combines the fairy tale elements of Japanese electronica with the aggressive beats of the UK scene. In his 2024 album "Tidal Memory Exo," he brought his own vocals and a dark, decadent worldview to the forefront, creating not only an auditory but also a visual space-time.
The book he selected was "Sisyphean" by Dempow Torishima, a Japanese science fiction writer. ).
- When I first introduced this project to you, I was surprised that a Japanese author—especially an SF writer—came to your mind so quickly! But at the same time, I found it very fitting. I feel a strong connection between science fiction and your musical style.
"It came to my mind so quicky because I rarely read books these days haha! I feel really lucky that a book I found on a whim seemed so perfectly align with everything I’m interested in right now. I’ve been making a lot of music with putrid biomechanical oceanic themes over the last few years, so Sysphean resonates with me a lot."
-if you don’t mind sharing, how did you first come across this book?
"I discovered Sisyphean because I loved the cover. It’s a beautiful pencil drawing (by Dempow Torishima) of a giant fleshy organic egg-like structure."
- I have long enjoyed reading science fiction by authors such as Philip K. Dick, Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury, Keikau Itou, and Enjoe Tou, but I had never heard of Sisyphean by Dempow Torishima until now. The world it creates—so vividly represented in its cover art and illustrations—is interwoven with complex language, making it feel not inorganic but deeply organic. I truly enjoyed reading it.
"It’s really amazing — it’s written in such a densely complicated and alien way that I feel a borderline disassociative effect as I’m reading it. With nothing earthbound or recognisable to anchor yourself onto, you have to just passively accept that Sisphean’s world is never going to even attempt to explain it’s context to you. It’s hard to tell where descriptions of physical, organic, or mechanic processes start and end — meaning the book blurs the line between linear fiction and an incomprehensible instruction manual.
I feel that there’s a lot of science fiction that relies on constant humanisation and personification of unknown worlds and creatures — whereas Sisyphean feels like it’s set in an existence almost entirely devoid of recognisable occurrences. When there’s a fleeting moment of something earth-like or human-like in the book, you almost feel like it could be a pareidolia-like hallucination that’s arisen in your mind from staring into a maddeningly complicated world for too long."
-I think it’s the same in the English edition as well, but in the Japanese version, the book is divided into four chapters, each with a seemingly different world, yet they are subtly interconnected. Do you have a favorite among them?
"I think my favourite might be the first world presented. I think it feels very brave that the book opens up by presenting a miserable protagonist that is trapped in a cycle of some kind of bio-technical physical labour. You’re left naturally waiting for the innevitable trope of the protagonist escaping through a window and beginning a typical scifi adventure, but it just never ends. Instead, it becomes increasingly depraved and humiliating in increasingly more complex ways. I was really entranced by the gradual feeling that this story seems to follow narrative structures as unfamilliar as it’s own subject matter."
-Have books and the genre of SF been part of your life since childhood?
"I think I have been interested in creating dense worlds since I was a kid, but it was often around toys or media franchises. Obviously they’re rarely as complex as books or films, so I enjoyed trying to imagine or speculate mundane details that were never explained. I always enjoyed worldbuilding that had a lot of vacant space and unexplained core ideas — so hollow toy franchises were kind of perfect to daydream about in my head."
-I see, so your aurally and visually refined world is an extension of the “open-ended worlds” found in toys and media franchises. Speaking of visuals, I was reminded again when we met in person—your fashion is seriously cool! This might be a bit off-topic from books, but do you have any favorite clothing brands?
"Haha thanks so much! I like to try and find strange artefacts related to subjects I’m currently making music/visuals about. For example - attaching small fossils to necklaces or t-shirts from strange museum gift shops."
The day I happened to be back in Tokyo.
As I wandered through the city with no particular destination, I glanced at social media and felt a strange sense of dissonance from the phrase "WHO IS DJ Metal Newt Exo?"—posted by Iglooghost.
Following that feeling and my intuition, I descended underground.
I’m truly grateful that it led to this kind of collaboration.
If you see a book wrapped in glassine paper in a storefront, with the shadows of the letters faintly reflected,
Please feel free to pick up a copy and ask who selected it.
Music created by people who treasure that book or whose lives were influenced by it.
It is available at ammel.