Crazy Alchemist: Dark Academia
Candlelit library energy for long study blocks: steady 60–80 bpm pieces, narrow dynamics, minimal percussion, and warm noise beds to keep you in the zone.
Books & Media
Discover book recommendations, film reviews, music suggestions, and media that explore the mystical, historical, and supernatural themes.
18 articles found
What to Watch: Penny Dreadful - From Victorian Street Serials to Gothic Prestige TV
A deep dive into Showtime's Penny Dreadful, the series that brought Victorian horror literature to life with stunning visuals, complex characters, and a masterful blend of supernatural terror and human drama.
Hackländer’s Fairy Tales: Rediscovering a Lost Treasure
A forgotten 1843 collection returns in a new English translation-Hackländer’s fairy tales mingle whimsy, humor, and human truth. Read an excerpt from “The Dwarf’s Nest.”
Satan as Storyteller: A Journey from Paradise Lost to Modern Times
From epic poetry to comics and TV, authors keep returning to a dangerous device: telling the story through the Devil’s eyes. Here’s the long arc, the hot moments, and why it still works.
Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror
Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922) is the Dracula story in thin disguise-sued by Stoker’s estate, nearly destroyed by court order, and saved by a few surviving prints. Part expressionist nightmare, part legal thriller, all-time horror landmark.
Announcing the Crazy Alchemist Podcast
A new way to explore the strange and the luminous: the Crazy Alchemist Podcast brings alchemy, occult history, and folklore to your headphones. Episode 1: Count von Kufstein’s bottled spirits.
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1975): From Historical Mystery to Cinematic Marvel
A stranger appears in Nuremberg with almost no language and an impossible past. Herzog transforms the case of Kaspar Hauser into a spare, poetic film about otherness, education, and the stories we tell to make sense of the world.
Album Tip: Ludovico Einaudi - In A Time Lapse
Minimal motifs, wide emotion: Einaudi’s 2013 suite maps time and memory with piano, strings, and quiet electronics.
Album Tip: Raoul Vignal - Years in Marble
Close-miked voice, detailed fingerstyle, and air you can hear-Raoul Vignal sculpts stillness into songs that keep unfolding on repeat.
Film Tip: Amadeus - Mozart, Salieri, and the Genius Myth
A candlelit Vienna, a jealous confession, and music that refuses to behave-Amadeus turns the Mozart–Salieri rumor into a lush meditation on genius, envy, and faith.
Album Tip: Edin Karamazov - The Lute Is A Song
A modern virtuoso turns a centuries-old instrument into living speech-Renaissance laments, Baroque arias, and contemporary color on one luminous record.
Movie Tip: The Name of the Rose (1986) - Medieval Mystery Classic
A brooding, book-scented thriller: a Franciscan sleuth, a labyrinthine library, and a string of deaths that turn a monastery into a battlefield over truth.
Pizzica Indiavolata - Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino
CGS turn Salento’s ecstatic dance tradition into a blazing, contemporary folk album. History, highlights, and why ‘Nu te fermare’ still floors a dance floor.
Book Tip: Perfume - The Story of a Murderer
A razor-sharp gothic fable about genius, craft, and the power of scent-Süskind’s ‘Perfume’ makes smell feel visible and dangerously persuasive.
Movie Tip: The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) - Gothic Comedy with Fangs
Bumbling Professor Abronsius and his assistant Alfred chase legends into the Carpathians-and stumble into Count von Krolock’s moonlit ball. Equal parts eerie and gleeful, this is the vampire movie that winks while it bites.
Album Tip: ADN Baroque - Théophile Alexandre & Guillaume Vincent
No gut strings, no candlelit chapels-just countertenor and piano revealing the text, breath, and pulse at the core of baroque emotion.
Book Tip: Occult Botany - Paul Sédir’s Concise Guide to Magical Plants
Plants as living symbols: Sédir’s ‘Occult Botany’ maps virtues, signatures, and planetary affinities-bridging grimoires and modern herbal craft.
The role of alchemy in literature and pop culture
Alchemy is the master metaphor of transformation-fueling poems, gothic labs, modern fantasy, arthouse cinema, and game systems-because it asks the oldest question: can we change, and what will it cost?