About
Contrary to the definition of the word, Unconformity Records is an organization with one sole member. All individuals within the organization are different alter-egos created by the organization’s founder, who retains anonymity online under the pseudonym voyager. These alter-egos take the forms of Neko Drenas (Necrolith, sati-beku) and Bari Yukaro (Biolith, nepi-beku). Together, they represent two sides of the same coin: life and death, water and fire, air and stone; both existing at a crossroads between human and nature. They are portrayed as spirits in a realm separate from our own, but they are neither good nor evil. They both occasionally speak and write in a made-up language called nepa-sata.
Language of nepa-sata
Nepa-sata is a written and spoken language created by Unconformity Records’ founder, voyager. Though it is still a work in progress, it is already working its way into Biolith and Necrolith’s art. In Biolith’s latest album, seas: chapter 2, most of the titles and lyrics are in nepa-sata, telling a story about leaving human society to explore the sea.
. bovo , ot , a , kuga , e , az , nuvobegas .
. na , zuno , a , yugakuga , e , zanebas , zati .
. e , puropas .
. gonazo , a , betigonakuga , suki .
. se , ag , bukazaneba , pusuki .
. a , roqoz .
A riddle written in nepa-sata.
Unconformity Code
The Unconformity Code is the name referring to a set of pictographs that depicts four elemental beings that exist across the human realm (kajapa e bodezas) and the realm of spirits (kajapa e gakis), that together make up the core of Unconformity Records. In this depiction are Biolith (the spirit of life), Necrolith (the spirit of death), H U S K (the spirit of nature), and voyager (the spirit of humanity). They are joined together in the center by the six elements: water, fire, air, rock, life, and death.
The unconformity code.
Origin Stories
In the universe that encompasses Biolith and Necrolith, they each have their own origin stories for how they came into existence. Both started out as spirits encased within single atoms of hydrogen that eventually made their way into our world.
The Mountain Spirit Biolith’s Origins
Biolith began as a spirit contained within a single atom of hydrogen in a water molecule in the ocean. One day, the water molecule reached the ocean’s surface and evaporated into the atmosphere, being carried in a cloud that travelled across the continent of North America. The cloud gained altitude as it reached the edge of the Rocky Mountains. Soon, the water vapor began to condense, and it started raining. The water molecule containing Biolith’s spirit then fell to the ground in a light rainstorm over a 13,000-foot peak. There, at the base of the mountain, it was absorbed by a moss campion through osmosis and stored within the plant’s tissues. For centuries, the hydrogen atom containing Biolith’s spirit was moved throughout the landscape in different forms. Over the years, the area saw many faces, from the passing of native American tribes through the area to packs of wolves and herds of bighorn sheep. As the landscape around it changed, the alpine tundra at the base of the mountain remained largely untouched by humans. Then came the era of westward expansion. As European settlers travelled westward across North America, the wolves, sheep, and native peoples that frequented the area were nowhere to be found. The mountains that were once wild and teeming with life were now fragmented and quiet. Many years passed as the area remained dormant. Eventually, mountain goats were introduced in the area from the Pacific Northwest, soon becoming the dominant ungulate species in the alpine tundra there. As one herd of mountain goats was passing through the area, one of the younger goats grazed on a plant that contained the water molecule encasing Biolith’s spirit, absorbing the water droplet into the goat’s tissues. As the herd traversed over the face of the peak, the young mountain goat got separated from the rest of the group and stranded on a narrow rock spire near the top. Soon, a storm started brewing over the mountains. As the storm reached the top of the peak, it began to rain and hail. Lightning started striking the rocky spires. A stray bolt of lightning struck the young mountain goat, sending him off a steep cliff and towards the bottom of a valley, where he then fell to the bottom of a deep lake. Over time, the goat’s body started to decompose, releasing the water molecule containing Biolith’s spirit into the lake. As the lake water mixed, the molecule reached the surface of the water and Biolith became sentient, releasing the mountain spirit into the world.
Over the days that followed, Biolith’s spirit wandered through the wilderness, getting acquainted with the surrounding area. It was around the end of June, and the snow had mostly receded from the peaks, encouraging the start of spring in the high alpine tundra. Biolith noticed all the intricacies in nature and how everything worked together in a complex system, gaining a deeper level of understanding and appreciation for the natural world. On the fourth day of wandering through the wilderness, Biolith encountered humans for the first time. Watching from afar, Biolith was captivated by this new strange creature and followed them around, avoiding any contact with them. One thing that captivated Biolith about the humans was their language. Although never knowing what they were saying, Biolith loved to listen to the sounds they made to communicate things to each other. One day, while following a group of humans back to their camp late at night, Biolith stumbled across a notebook and started to look through it. Suddenly, one of the humans was startled awake in their tent. Biolith quickly ran from their camp, taking the notebook into the woods. Over time, Biolith started mimicking the human language by making new symbols and pronunciations similar to those he heard from the humans. All the symbols in this new language were composed only of straight lines, so they could be carved more easily into wood. The symbols started appearing throughout the woods, carved into trees and logs, puzzling hikers who came across them. Some people started spreading stories about a white spirit with flames for eyes wandering through the mountains, carving strange symbols into the trees as it went.
The Cave Spirit Necrolith’s Origins
Necrolith started out as a spirit contained within a single atom of hydrogen in the earth’s mantle. Eventually, through convection in the plastic-like asthenosphere, the atom started to rise in magma that traveled through the earth’s continental crust. The magma traveled upward through conduits, eventually forming a large magma chamber. Since it passed through continental crust, the magma was very felsic in composition, though still containing some mafic minerals like biotite. As the magma started to cool in the chamber, some minerals started to crystalize, specifically darker minerals like the biotite. Slowly, the rest of the minerals in the magma then crystalized as the chamber cooled, ultimately forming granite. Once the granite was fully cooled, bedrock layers above the granite weathered and eroded away, exposing the formation and creating a great unconformity in geologic time. Time passed and the area eventually became part of a shallow sea. Around the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian Periods, calcium carbonate from the shells of marine animals deposited, forming limestone. Millions of years passed, covering the limestone and granite with new sediment. As more time passed, the layers above the limestone and granite were weathered and eroded away, through lots of glacial and fluvial action in the newly formed river valley. Though much of the limestone was eroded away, some still stood with large outcrops appearing around the vast cliffs that stand as a part of the granite formation. As rainwater seeped through some of these limestone outcrops, it formed a series of caves deep underground. The rainwater eventually cut all the way through the limestone formation, reaching the granite and eroding the rock surrounding the biotite crystals that Necrolith’s spirit was trapped in. As the hydrogen atom that contained Necrolith’s spirit was exposed to the cave air, Necrolith became sentient, and thus the cave spirit was born into total darkness.
For thousands of years Necrolith’s spirit roamed the tunnels of the cave, completely cut off from the outside world. There, he became used to a life in total darkness, navigating the passages through sound. Around the turn of the 20th century, to supply the local mining boom, a quarry mine was constructed that exposed the cave to sunlight for the first time. Necrolith feared this newfound light and stayed within the deep lower passages of the cave, avoiding the entrance at all costs. Over time, people began to learn more about the cave’s existence and explore it for themselves. Though most of these early explorers were careful to preserve the cave’s beauty, over time people started to leave a lasting impact on the cave. They spray-painted and carved their names into the soft calcite walls, broke off stalactites, lit fires, and coated the passages in a thick brown mud. This made Necrolith angry at the humans. What was once a silent untouched place was soiled by the likes of careless humans. Necrolith began terrorizing any humans that entered the cave by leading them into the lower passages of the cave that were devoid of oxygen. On multiple occasions people were reported to have gotten disoriented and lost in the cave’s lower passages, some of whom had to be rescued. Over time, some people even reported seeing a dark figure within the cave’s depths with white glowing eyes and a smiling mouth full of jagged teeth, prompting some of the paintings that can be found on the cave’s walls. To this day, legends are passed down of a cave spirit haunting the cave’s halls, accompanied by the phrase: “not for long”.
A depiction of Necrolith in Bell Cavern, the cave in which Necrolith was born.
Accident reports from 2004 (left) and 1986 (right) of explorers getting disoriented and stuck in Bell Cavern (Credit: National Speleological Society, American Caving Accidents).