I just read Alan Moore's latest prose novel The Great When (Bloomsbury, 2024), a dark psychogeographical fantasy that takes place in 1949 London (or, "The Smoke") and its twisted sister, the supradimensional city of The Great When.
Populated by Arcana figures (related to Moore's concept of Ideaspace), we will come across the figuration of Crime, Harry Lud. This ominous figure has a sound dimension, described thus:
«...about it is an auditory halo of policemen’s whistles, gunshots, ambulance bells, victims pleading, frantic knocking-shop piano, breaking windows, weighty parcels falling into rivers, screeching tyres, a multitude of missing men and women bawling their surprise, or fear, or anger, and… »
I loved it so much that I started to try to hear it in my mind. I am not a composer nor a sound editor, so this is something very simple, silly, that I've put together with freely available files. It's just a collage, but I wanted it both panicky, jarring but with a sort of melancholy undertone, which the piano phrase I found has beautifully, I hope.
While the visual representation of the character is also incredible, I used a detail of the famous Mouth of Hell from The Book of Hours of Catherine of Cleves (mid-15th century). Its ample and moist, layered mouths convey the slippery terror.
