LINK: https://polypores.bandcamp.com/album/ongs-hat-compleat-official-soundtrack

Also, a great write-up of this project: https://moonbuilding.substack.com/p/issue-73-1-august-2025

The soundtrack to the audiobook version of Ong’s Hat: Compleat

New addition: Hat Complete soundtrack! The dl now includes a PDF of the text version of the book, kindly provided by Joseph Matheny. It’s full of links to take you down that rabbithole. If you’ve already got it, just dl it again to get the PDF.

Back in the early 1990s, a conspiracy theory/urban legend was doing the rounds on internet messageboards, about a group of scientists and mystics who opened a portal to an alternative dimension in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. In Ong’s Hat:Compleat, the creator of this fascinating piece of living, infinite art, Joseph Matheny, talks to podcaster and AI wizard Sequoya Kennedy about its intentions and origins, and all manner of highly weird shit that happened in the process.

It’s a tale that intertwines early AI, paranormal encounters, emergent phenomena, and the nascent Internet culture of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The story is a rich tapestry woven from diverse cultural threads:

Psychedelic and avant-garde art movements

Punk rock and industrial music scenes

Experimental theater and method acting

Hermetic magick and beat literature

The Esalen Institute’s influence

Philip K. Dick’s literary works

This narrative is a modern spiritual quest that blends these eclectic elements into a compelling journey.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — –

I’m super-thrilled to be involved with this, as a big fan of both Matheny and Kennedy’s previous work. Those who are watching carefully might remember that Matheny’s Ong’s Hat project was a big inspiration behind my album “There Are Other Worlds”, so it really means a lot to be onboard.

The soundtrack was created using a modular synthesizer I put together for the occasion, relying on a number of techniques including (but not limited to) chaos, random generation, feedback loops, tarot, the I Ching, cybernetic systems, trance, self-generation, mind-altering chemicals, The Gateway Tapes, and automatic writing.

I hope some of you will check this out, it’s a fascinating story, weirder than most fiction, and somehow still self-perpetuating…

Check it out here: josephmatheny.com/ongs-hat-compleat/

(Also available on Amazon/Google Play etc)

I’d highly recommend either paperback or audiobook “Ong’s Hat: The Beginning” as a good place to start.

Or the audiobook/podcast “This Is Not A Game” by Marc Fennell — which offers a good intro to the whole thing,

credits

released July 28, 2025

Written and performed by Stephen James Buckley — October 2024

Thanks to Joseph and Sequoya for having me onboard, and to Peter C Hine and his part in making these connections happen.