Episode #4 of Fiddleblack’s podcast is now available on iTunes. As we teased earlier this week, “The Spectral Estate” is a special episode for us. We’re featuring a slightly modified format with an all-hardware, no-more-computer-music approach to our own compositions, and we’ve turned spotlights on our author readings, letting only a bit of reverb stand behind them as they read.

There’s a wonderful exception to this shift, one that differs out of artistic necessity: Film journalist and Fiddleblack author Alison Nastasi has contributed a fantastic reading of her story “For Eileen” (see last month’s issue) in collaboration with electronic music artist Robin Rimbaud, whom you may also know as Scanner. Rimbaud’s work here is entirely original—built, as we have for authors in past episodes, to carefully match his interpretation of the “For Eileen” tone. We think he’s done a wonderful job, splintering the author’s voice over extra bars to match the rising and falling deep sea oscillations behind her.

Fiddleblack author Adam S. Cantwell joins us for his first podcast reading. Having previously been featured in Fiddleblack #4 and Fiddleblack #8, as well as in our book Apparitional Experience, we find Adam again in the good company of legendary horror writer Thomas Ligotti. For this episode Mr. Ligotti gave his blessing, remarking that he was “entirely impressed with the readings” and that Adam’s voice “was resonant with intelligence and conveyed the words with superb clarity.” Adam’s reading of “The Spectral Estate” (Noctuary version) is not to be missed.

We close our readings this episode with a fresh contribution from first-time Fiddleblack author Eric Van Hoose. Eric’s work can be found in Fiddleblack #10, where his story in our “bodies” issue reminded us of the rock-dropping true crime panic that ensued in the early noughties. Eric reads “Remember the Bridge,” a sort of return-to-reality piece that brings us out of the fog.