Okay, so in the Backroom’s lore they say that the way you get in by mistake, the way you “no clip” in, is by stumbling in just the right way. Think of it as like an obscure QR code of human body movement. If you accidentally hit all those points, you fall in.

So here’s my head canon: The reason we see so much random furniture in the Backrooms– the scattered sofas and chairs, the occasional cabinet–is because it came with people. When do human beings move in awkward ways that they don’t usually? While moving furniture.

So, what if almost every piece of furniture in the Backrooms represents some poor bastard who slipped in because they stumbled and moved in just the right way with while trying to cart their flea market find sofa up the stairs?

Low-key tempted to write a fanfic where the ex-paranormal enthusiast MC (the novelty wore off a while ago) who now works for the SCP foundation winds up very unintentionally involved in some of A-Sync’s BS and has to put up with backrooms shenanigans.

Ryuichi Sakamoto: andata (Async  2017).

Han pasado 2 años, 9 meses y 28 días desde que Ryuichi Sakamoto nos dejó.

 El legado de este genial artista es tan extenso y rico que continúa revelando nuevas capas con el paso del tiempo. Lejos de concebir la música como un cierre o una despedida, su trayectoria no se interrumpió ni siquiera en las fases finales de su enfermedad: siguió componiendo hasta el final, manteniendo la creación musical como una práctica constante y esencial.

Hoy he sentido la necesidad de recordarlo

“I want to have less notes and more spaces. Spaces, not silence. Space is resonant, is still ringing. I want to enjoy that resonance, to hear it growing, then the next sound, and the next note or harmony can come.”

Ryuichi Sakamoto

quick where’s the almond water

There are some musicians that should have had their own labels as their careers would have felt empty without an enterprise such as that one I mentioned in their illustrious careers then. Therefore, Sakamoto founded Commmons, which housed many intriguing musicians, including the founder of the company. The latter released async, which resembles what Edward Said spoke of, when he discussed the term late style. However, there’s a forgetfulness present in the iscourse over this, because these words shouldn’t have suggested any bitterness. No, there’s an abundance of freedom prevalent, though this one feels hard-earned. Sakamoto’s async, to return to him, locates him in a playful mood that complements the seriousness of the LP.

I INTERVIEWED THE ORIGINAL CREATOR OF THE BACKROOMS

For anyone interested in Archipelago randomizers, I’ve been running an regular async, with the next starting on August 1st! Anyone is free to join and pick one or more of the ~250 allowed/supported games, just join my Discord server and read the rules!

Helena Basilova: Andata ( Homage to Ryuichi Sakamoto).

Homage to Ryuichi Sakamoto, editado en 2024 y grabado en el emblemático Funkhaus de Berlín, constituye una de las aproximaciones más refinadas y emocionalmente sobrias al repertorio pianístico del compositor japonés. La pianista Helena Basilova no se limita a la transcripción: reinterpreta desde una escucha atenta al legado sonoro y estético de Sakamoto.

La arquitectura del álbum ha sido cuidadosamente pensada: obras seleccionadas de discos fundamentales como async, 12, Out of Noise, Insen y Playing the Piano se reordenan no como una antología, sino como una nueva narrativa sonora. Los tratamientos electrónicos (aportados por el productor Maarten Vos), no distorsionan el timbre del piano, sino que lo expanden mediante texturas discretas, reverberaciones prolongadas y capas armónicas que funcionan como fondo atmosférico.  El uso de la electrónica, no actúa como mero adorno o fondo sonoro, sino que participa activamente en la construcción formal y expresiva de la obra, ampliando la dimensión acústica del piano sin desvirtuar su esencia.

En Andata, como en el resto del trabajo, Basilova evidencia un dominio técnico elegante que evita la saturación y prioriza la claridad del discurso armónico. La crítica especializada ha valorado con entusiasmo esta combinación de fidelidad estética e innovación tímbrica. El resultado es un álbum de cámara contemporáneo que escapa tanto del homenaje complaciente como de la reconstrucción especulativa. Un disco que honra a Sakamoto desde la precisión, la sutileza y una profunda sensibilidad artística.

Step into a post-human dreamscape inspired by Ryuichi Sakamoto’s *async* — where sound becomes light, memory takes shape, and silence breathes. Featuring original digital art by ©ekÓmnenos, this piece captures love, loss, and the sacred textures of a world shaped by music. #RyuichiSakamoto #async #a

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Ryuichi Sakamoto - “fullmoon” (from “async”)

En “fullmoon”, Ryuichi Sakamoto crea una atmósfera contemplativa donde la música y la palabra se entrelazan para reflexionar sobre la fugacidad de la vida. La pieza se basa en un texto filosófico que nos enfrenta con la idea de que nuestras experiencias son limitadas, aunque a menudo vivamos como si fueran infinitas. Lo más interesante es que esta reflexión no se presenta de una sola forma, sino que se repite en distintos idiomas, reforzando la idea de que este pensamiento trasciende culturas y fronteras.

Musicalmente, la composición es minimalista, con delicadas capas de sintetizadores y notas de piano que parecen flotar en el espacio, envolviendo la voz con un aire de melancolía y serenidad. La repetición de la letra en diferentes lenguas crea un efecto hipnótico, como si el mensaje se expandiera en un eco interminable, reafirmando su universalidad. En cada iteración, las palabras adquieren un matiz distinto según el idioma en que se pronuncian, haciendo que el oyente perciba el mismo mensaje desde perspectivas ligeramente diferentes.

“fullmoon” no solo es una pieza musical, sino una meditación sonora sobre la impermanencia. La forma en que el texto se repite en varias lenguas nos recuerda que, sin importar nuestra cultura o idioma, todos enfrentamos el paso del tiempo de la misma manera. Sakamoto logra convertir una reflexión filosófica en una experiencia sensorial, en la que la música y la voz se combinan para recordarnos la importancia de cada momento que vivimos.

Because we don′t know when we will die

We get to think of life as an inexhaustible well

Yet everything happens only a certain number of times

And a very small number, really

How many more times will you remember

A certain afternoon of your childhood

Some afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being

That you can’t even conceive your life without it?

Perhaps four or five times more

Perhaps not even that

How many more times will you watch the full moon rise?

Perhaps twenty, and yet it all seems limitless

the urge to create stupid backrooms fanart is too strong 💔

Having ADHD is like trying to run asynchronous code on a single-threaded CPU. Sure the OS can try to allocate CPU time for all of the parallel tasks running but it’s not efficient, takes a lot of time and is error-prone.

Also don’t forget the part where your manager says that we’ll try to look at something together later and it’s just like he went in and wrote await meeting(); into the middle of the main loop.

Your manager is also connected through a PS/2-port that can just send a CPU interrupt at any time by calling you.

“Null Zone Ahead”

2 Warning signs/pictograms + variations made in GIMP. Fanart for “The Backrooms” by Kane Pixels. Self-made, I recycled and altered the Async “A” I made for earlier fanart and used an altered version of the running man pictogram I also used in earlier art (both made by me).

Gosh these are just so much fun to make, I just cannot make myself stop. I love how this could be both an ‘ad’ for the series but also appear within it - Async might fashion something like this to warn the ppl working the Complex or in the wider world, depending on whether or not Null Zones become common knowledge.

I first made one and then decided I wanted to do a variation as well (a reoccuring theme with my art it seems); one is inspired by Found Footage 2, the other one by Informational Video.

I decided to make the sign Backrooms-yellow instead of the usual, more vibrant warning-sign-yellow, though I suppose Async would actually go with the classic yellow most likely.

(Addition: So I got another idea how to depict the 'no-clipping’ and it wouldn’t leave my brain, so I did the reasonable thing and made that version as well. Welp. Perfectionism is a curse and a blessing. The first row pics are actually the ones I made later on, 2nd row came first.)

“Enter Leave The Backrooms”

Pictogram/Exit Sign for “The Backrooms” webseries by Kane Pixels. Made in GIMP. I reused some pictograms that I made for my The Oldest View mockup signs.

This one took about 2-2,5 hours. Mostly because some part of me is now having *expectations* about what end results I can get (and also changes its mind constantly). Also because I have decided to try and not just make the stick figures stand out by recoloring the ‘gaps’ but actually making them transparent.

Modeling the threshold would have been more exciting if my brain didn’t first insist I make it inside the doorframe, but I like how it turned out in the end. Also making the Lifeform(/Bacteria) truly was a lot of fun.

Overall, there is still stuff I could improve upon, but for the time being I quite like how this turned out.

I also think I know where I originally might have gotten the idea from to make these signs - years ago, I owned a book called “Film In 5 Seconds” which did storytelling with pictograms in a very effective way. (So this is hardly the first time someone has tried something similar to what I am doing rn, though they are not using the 'exit sign’ format for example.) I really recommend the book, it is a lot of fun to look through.

Obligatory sidenote - GIMP is absolutely not the best program to make vectors and pictograms. If anyone wants to seriously get into that kind of art, I have read that Inkscape is supposedly far better suited (like GIMP, it is also free).

Adding the SCP & Async logos to my Ghostbusters suit so the people know I’m a Jack of all trades

Useful Quick Reference Links when Writing API Specs

Whether you’re writing Asynchronous or Open APIs unless you’re doing it pretty much constantly, it is useful to have links to the specific details, to quickly check the less commonly used keywords, or to check whether you’re not accidentally mixing OpenAPI with AsyncAPI or the differences between version 2 or version 3 of the specs. So here are the references I keep handy:

API Handyman’s…

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Because we don’t know when we will die
We get to think of life as an inexhaustible well
Yet everything happens only a certain number of times
And a very small number, really
How many more times will you remember
A certain afternoon of your childhood

Some afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being
That you can’t even conceive your life without it?
Perhaps four or five times more
Perhaps not even that
How many more times will you watch the full moon rise?
Perhaps twenty, and yet it all seems limitless

the organ ..