AMBIENT ARCANA

 In this episode we take a deep dive into folkloric forensics with two strangely similar stories where a simple fingerprint just isn't enough to reveal the identity of a horrible fiend:

"The Werewolf" by Angela Carter from "The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories"/ Narrated by Danielle Barry

 "How the Hunters' Mother Became an Oni and Tried to Devour Her Children" from ""Tales of Times Now Past"

Stories from "The Konjaku Monogatarishū" translated by Marian Ury/ Narrated by Bob, Paul, and Jim Billbrough

All Music and Audio Production by Bob Familiar

A man takes a bartender to task for his indifference towards a young woman in need, but being ignored is the least of her worries.

It's Shirley Jackson's  "Jack The Ripper"

All Music and Audio Production by Bob Familiar

Narrated by Jim Billbrough

Giant Bugs! With Hats!

Donald Wollheim's strange tale of entomological terror - "Mimic" 

All Music and Audio Production by Bob Familiar

Narrated By Sean Brann

 A lonely man has a chance romantic encounter with a rich, beautiful, and mysterious woman during a hot night in Rome.

Is she too good to be true? Probably...this is Ambient Arcana after all.

It's William Sansom's weird tale of the preternatural consequences of a casual hookup -

"A Woman Seldom Found."

All Music and Audio Production by Bob Familiar

Narrated by Jim Billbrough

 In this episode a friendly family of Badgers helps out a starving Bear, only to have their kindness repaid with cruel betrayal. Also, Blood Magic!

 "The Badger and The Bear." from "Old Indian Legends" Retold by Zitkala-Sa

All Music and Audio Production by Bob Familiar

Jim Billbrough as The Badgers, The Baby Bear, and The Narrator

Bob Familiar as The Bear

Joey Pesce as The Dakota Avenger

This episode is dedicated to our good friend Tim Halle. Lead singer of 'The Archbishop's Enema Fetish,' founder of a religion worshiping a certain Mrs. Zinman of Newton, Massachusetts, and affectionately called Satan by many who loved him, Tim deserves an episode all his own, but it would need to be a very, very long episode. So instead we present a story about one of Tim's favorite obsessions: Badgers. He was mad about the Badgers. He was also very fond of birds, but that's a story for another day. Maybe. We'll see. It's sort of besides the point allegorically speaking, but anyway...Badgers!

In this episode we spend a delightful day in the New England hill country discussing the vagaries of cosmic dualism with a fiendishly pleasant host  in Jerome Bixby's "Trace."

All Music and Audio Production by Bob Familiar

Narrated by Jim Billbrough

 In this episode an interstellar trip to a distant nebula brings on a crisis of faith for the spaceship's astrophysicist in Arthur C. Clarke's Hugo Award winning story "The Star."

All Music and Audio Production by Bob Familiar

Narrated by Jim Billbrough

 We'd like to dedicate this episode to our good friend, band-mate, landlord, and poker buddy Tristram Lozaw.

Tris was an excellent bass player, film composer, magazine publisher, and writer. He was a major force in the Boston Music scene for decades, but, more importantly, our friend.  A simple Google search for 'Tristram Lozaw' will give you some idea of all that was left behind in the mighty wake of his life. We will miss him.

In this episode we present a 6-pack of strange and unusual stories by "Mr. Kafkaesque" himself - Franz Kafka.

"At Night," "Poseidon," and "The Vulture" translated by Tania and James Stern

"The New Advocate," "A Fratricide," and "A Dream" translated by Willa and Edwin Muir

All Music and Audio Production by Bob Familiar

Narrated by Bob Familiar and Jim Billbrough

Story Order: "A Fratricide," "Poseidon," "A Dream," "The New Advocate," "At Night," and "The Vulture."

 What would you do if you suddenly found your worst enemy completely at your mercy? Would you take revenge? Would you forgive?" Here are two stories that explore what happens when, out of the blue, the opportunity for vengeance arrives.

"One Of These Days" by Gabriel García Márquez

"Razor" by Vladimir Nabokov

All Music and Audio Production by Bob Familiar

Narration by Jim Billbrough

A man finds himself struggling against an invasive intelligence taking over his mind and trying to eradicate everything the man had previously revered and admired in Stefan Grabiński’s “Strabismus.”

Translated by Miroslaw Lipinski

All Music and Audio Production by Bob Familiar

Narrated by Jim Billbrough