Tag: ambient music

The Yearbook, and other monsters

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

Finally making an effort to show up here and make some updates on the writing and publishing trajectory through December. It’s been a cool month. Three big publications – “Chasing Fox Palton” a new novella, Sean Monaghan’s Yearbook 2025 and “Barnacle” a new Venus Vulture album.

Let’s start with the Yearbook, since, among all that nuttiness, it’s probably the nuttiest.

A Yearbook. This is a 600+page collection of various publications from 2025. Short stories, novellas and even a complete novel. With afterwords and an introduction.

One unique story, “The Diorama”, never before published… because I realised after I’d written it, that it kind of had spoilers for the novel The Ingersal Ballet, so should not appear alone (it follows the novel in the volume, with an introduction recommending readers don’t even look at the story until they’ve finished reading the novel).

I guess this book is in lieu of writing a list of my year’s achievements here on the blog (but that was publishing six novels, sixteen short stories – including stories in Analog, Asimov’s and Pulphouse, four novellas and some occasional blog posts). A busy year I guess. I’m planning something even busier next year.

The contents of the volume are:

Sigrid’s Eagle (Traditional fantasy short story)

Mangled Gravity (Contemporary fantasy novella)

Heading For Boise (Horror flash fiction)

Caprock (Thriller short story)

Peruser (Cole Wright thriller short story)

Daisy And Maisie, External Hull Maintenance Experts (SF novelette, also winner of Analog’s Anlab Award for best novelette)

Lying Cameras (Contemporary fantasy novella)

Visit Me, Oh Dreamer (SF short story)

The Quiet Hours (Morgenfeld short story)

The Ingersal Ballet (Morgenfeld novel)

The Diorama (Morgenfeld short story)

All of which are still available individually (save for The Diorama which as I mentioned, I realised after writing it, contains spoilers for The Ingersal Ballet).

Releasing on December 31st the Yearbook retails at $9.99 for the ebook – find your favorite retailer here. The paperback will be $25.99.

Also directly from the website here seanmonaghan.com immediately.

I also have a new novella out – a mind-bending time travel tale “Chasing Fox Palton”.

In a twisted and tangled world, Time Operative Haylee Dahlen just wants to find the crook Fox Palton.

And no one knows exactly what Fox Palton wants.

A vast story of come-uppance and betrayal that stretches across the decades and centuries, with a pace that defies time itself.

From the author of the quirky time travel tale “Can You Outrun a T-Rex?”

$3.99 from the website here. Readers of this blog can use the code FoxP50 to get it for half-off ($1.99) – thanks! Code expires on February 28th 2026. Use it wisely.

Other retailers here, including paperback from Amazon ($14.99).

As a sideline, I also create soundscapes and ambient music as Venus Vulture. The latest release, just out on December 12th, is Barnacle. 40 some minutes of drifty, loopy drones. Available from Bandcamp, priced at $7. Also on vinyl from Elastic Stage, a little more expensive there at around $38, plus shipping. Both sites let you listen to the tracks for free, so there is that.

So that rounds out 2025. Big plans for 2026, including, once again, being present more often here (as in, rather than one big post about a bunch of releases, doing individual posts). I’ve tried that before and fallen over. I do, however, have some better structures around out for next year.

Thanks for reading.

Sean

Blurred Horizon – new Venus Vulture Album out now.

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

I have a new ambient album out now on the Zenapolae netlabel.

In between writing and more writing, I do find a little time to tinker with my modular rack and little bits and pieces of software and work up some electronic music.

Blurred Horizon garners some of its inspiration from time spent on Naoshima Island in Japan – the cover photograph was taken from the shore there. Coincidentally (or not), just along the road from where I took the photo, lies the Benesse House Museum, a wonderful gallery, which, at the time we were there, had a series of seascapes photographs by Hiroshi Sugimoto, which may bear some similarity to this photography. Sugimoto’s “Boden Sea” photograph appeared on the cover Richard Chartier and Taylor Deupree’s album Specification.Fifteen and later on the cover of U2’s No Line On The Horizon. Sugimoto’s photograph was taken elsewhere… Lake Constance, I believe.

Blurred Horizon is composed of fragments and loops. Plenty of slowly evolving drones. As I usually mention when I have new music out, this is music to write to. When I was starting out as a writer, I loved having soft ambient music in the background, but it was difficult in those days to find new music, so I found myself experimenting and making my own. Times have changed, and there’s more ambient around than I could really get a chance to listen to… and still I find myself taking a break from writing and making some more.

The album is a free download from Zenapolae. Enjoy.

Music For Writing

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

I have a new ambient album out on the Zenapolae netlabel. Distant Skies by Venus Vulture. Available for free download here.

Four drifty, droney background tracks, an hour of music to slide away on. Like the old definition I’m always striving for: interesting enough to be engaging, discreet enough to be ignored. Brian Eno, I think, said that.

I took the cover photograph of three vultures during my last trip through Okalhoma. Vultures seem appropriate, given my band name, right? I’ll be over in OK again later this year, visiting friends and family, finding more inspiration, and likely taking more photos.

I’ve mentioned before, but it’s always worth stating; many years ago, as a writer, I loved having some soft ambient music playing while I wrote. But in those days, it was tricky to find, especially here in New Zealand. So I fooled around with making my own. Nowadays, given the pesky internet with its netlabels (like Zenapolae), and streaming services, there’s plenty of ambient music around. I own and stream way too much. But I still have fun making it for myself, and it’s cool to put it out there this way.

Thanks for listening.

Also, since I talked about writing, here’s a link to a free downloadable short story on my website. Brickworks. Use the code “DistantSkies” (no gap) at checkout to get the discount of 100% off. Valid at least through to the end of 2025. Thanks for reading.

Two new Venus Vulture releases

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

When taking breaks from tickling away at a Qwerty keyboard, I sometimes noodle around with music. It’s always fun to activate different parts of my brain and still be creative.

First up is “Coiled Within Mountains“, released on Zenapolae.

Four ambient tracks filled with drifty loops and occasional snatches of melody.

Free download.

The second release, direct through bandcamp, is Salt.

Six ambient tracks filled with drifty loops and occasional snatches of melody.

Free to listen to on bandcamp, $US4- to buy the download.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ecosystem 8 – new Venus Vulture album out on Zenapolae

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

New release – Zen240 – Venus Vulture – Ecosystem 8

Mostly here I’m talking about my writing – after all that’s my main focus. In the background, though, I’m an amateur electronic musician (good to have hobbies, right?). I record and release under the ‘band’ name Venus Vulture. Ambient electronica. I’ve written elsewhere about coming to make ambient music – enjoying listening to it while writing, but having trouble finding it… that’s changed with the advent of the internet, but in the meantime, I found I enjoyed it, so kept making music.

Some of my albums appear on my bandcamp page. Some have come out on netlabels (Resting Bell, Testtube, Zenapolae), and I collaborate with Kendall of December Nightskies as an actual band – Shadows on the Snow, and we have a bunch of releases both independently and on netlabels.

My thanks to arnd from Zenapolae for his patience and back and forth with me while I put together this release. I like his description – “a delicate ambience made with modular synthesis”. That’s what I’m aiming for – delicate ambience.

I’ll write again about the ‘modular synthesis’ side of it – a shift over the last couple of years from computer-based composition to building a modular synth rig. arnd’s put an image of my rig there on the release page.

Ecosystem 8 is free to download.

New New New, finally

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

I’ve probably mentioned before that while I’m a relatively prolific writer, and probably not too bad at it either (a couple of awards along the way, so I must be doing something right on occastion), I can a little tardy at keeping this site up to date. What happens then is things build up and I end up jabbering about a half dozen things every couple of months, rather than one every week.

Hoping to change that. Maybe I’ll even schedule it. After all, I write fiction every day, why not talk about it every week? Similarly, I need to keep that sidebar, that’s probably showing on the right there, a little more current. And the pages links at the top.

Anyway, there are bits and pieces of news about new releases.

analog cover march april 2021My novelette “Problem Landing” appeared in the March/April issue of Analog, which was kind of cool. This story comes from watching footage of the SpaceX rocket boosters making their landings for re-use. The story, though, is set on Mars.

I have another story coming out sometime later this year in Analog – “Eyes To The Height”. Again, a failing technology story, this one set on the moon.

Yay for space.

Analog also have their own blog – The Astounding Analog Companion – and I have an interview in that, about “Problem Landing”. That came out quite a few weeks back. There are other good interviews and opinion pieces on the blog too.

I have a new book out – Core Runners – book 5 in the Captain Arlon Stoddard series. Available in all the usual places. The blurb goes like this:

Core runners 19 2 21 ebook“A missing ship. A distressed mother. A planet of mysteryThe disappearance of the Astro Astoria challenges the capabilities of Captain Arlon Stoddard and his crew in new and desperate ways.Finding the ship, and the familes aboard takes every resource the have.And More.Another thrilling installment in the exciting Captain Arlon Stoddard series.Space adventure at its best.”

Core Runners is available in print and as an ebook from the usual retailers – check here to grab a copy. Paperback is $9.99, ebook is $3.99.

Book 6 – Underworld Climbers – should be out in June. The copy-editing is complete, just need formatting and to organise the cover.

Blast Crater 2 4 21 ebookIn the meantime, another book in the middle-grade Matti-Jay and Dub Adventures series – Blast Crater on Endemo – comes out on May 20th. This is standalone, as all my series books are (as in, you can read them in any order), but it does chronologically follow on from last year’s Great Wall of Endemo, so if you’ve read that you might enjoy this one as a continuation.

This is the blurb for Blast Crater on Endemo:

“Filled with exotic wonderful sights, Endemo ranks as one of the most mysterious worlds in all of Ao space. With some time off after the challenging events at the Great Wall, Matti-Jay and her crew pay a visit to the stunning ancient crater in the northern reaches. Surrounded by gorgeous scenery, none of them expect bandits and crooks.But the crater holds secrets. Holds them close.Faced with impossible choices Matti-Jay and Dub dig into every resource they have. The crater gives no second chances.Another thrilling adventure in the Matti-Jay and Dub series, from award-winning author Sean Monaghan.”

vv cfLastly, for now, I have a new Venus Vulture EP out on bandcamp. “Crystal Falls” is a suite of three tracks of gritty, drone ambient. This is my first real release of music made with my modular synthesizer system. Previously I’ve worked with FLStudio, Oscilab, paulstretch and GoldWave, among others, to put together music. It’s quite a different experience working in the analog world, and doing more actual playing of the instrument, rather than clicking on the screen.

I’ve been building the system for the last couple of years, and it’s been something of a learning curve. Maybe that’ll be a good topic for one of those every week posts.

Crystal Falls is available on Bandcamp – $5.00 for the download. You can listen online for free.

Well, thanks for reading this far.  Right now I’m working on a new SF novel (which might end up just being a novella), then want to do some more short stories, and then some more thrillers. Later this year I’ll be repackaging my existing thrillers with new covers, and launching a new series. More on that to come, but there are three novels written so far – I should have two out before Christmas, with the third in January. Fair chance I can write and prep another before then, so there might be four of them by March next year.

Take care.

Two New Ambient Albums from Shadows on the Snow

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

 

It has been a while since I’ve posted about new music here. Some of you may know that while I’m primarily a writer, I also tinker with ambient music. I release solo works as Venus Vulture,  but I am also one half of the band Shadows on the Snow, with Kendall Keeler of December Nightskies. We trade files back and forth, building up tracks that way (Kendall’s based in the U.S, I live in New Zealand. Our plans to meet up earlier this year were put on hold thanks to the pandemic).

We have two new releases, available now from Bandcamp.

SHADOWS ON THE SNOW SHADOWS IN THE ARCHITECTUREThe first is Shadows in the Architecture. One long, evolving track, complemented by three shorter tracks. 

I really like this one. Unusual. Experimental. Quirky, even.

I’m especially happy with the cover. That’s taken from a building near where I live. Photographed around sunset, with the strange light and shadows highlighted. It feels appropriate for the release.

 

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Vapor Release possible cover imageThe second is Vapor Release. Again, a long evolving track that goes through several phases.

Kendall and I are fans of dark, moody tracks and I feel that this one really exemplifies where we’re at with our approach to music.

Kendall also collaborates with Charlie Naked, release music as Something Like Squids – check out those releases, all available through the December Nightskies Bandcamp page.

The Bristol Morton Equation – new Shadows on the Snow album out on Studio4632

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

Naturally, most of the words I post here are about my writing. That’s my main focus. But from time to time, there are other creative things that happen.

It’s been a while since Kendall and I had some new music out from out Shadows on the Snow project. Things have slowed down as we’ve both focused on other things.

But here we are, with a new album out on Studio 4632.

The Bristol Morton Equation is three tracks of long, evolving patterns, subtle repetition and, we hope, surprising moments.

Thanks to Candy from Studio 4632 for putting the release out. Available now to stream or download from Bandcamp.

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In the meantime, I am working on writing always. Lately I’ve been producing lots of short stories. It’s an interesting shift from novels. Also working on preparing the files for the updated releases of The Hidden Dome trilogy. Plan to have all those out at the start of August. Also working on final edits to Gold Embers, the third of the Chronicles of The Donner series. Yes, I have too many series, and I need to do a better job of tracking them.

I’m still writing a post a week for Pro Writers Writing, which keeps me on my toes. I’m going to be away for a while  later in the year, so I need to get well ahead on that to have a few posts in the bank. Heading off to Papua New Guinea, Korea and Taiwan. Should be able to do some great story research there. Looking forward.

Thanks for reading.