Hi there! My name is Markov Soroka, I'm a Ukrainian-born-American immigrant. I’ve had monochromatic synesthesia of music for as long as I can remember, and I’ve been documenting this feeling in lore-driven concept albums since I was 12 years old.

Synesthesia is a phenomenon where one’s senses can be “mixed up” in the neural pathways of the skull. Mine happens to be that I’ve always vividly seen colors when I listen to music, and this gradually evolved into shapes, architectures, characters, and worlds as I’ve gotten older.

To put it another way, art and audio is my life. I see myself as a mad scientist trying out different things in the aural/visual field who is restless in their quest to make the stories real in whatever imaginative capacity they can. I have had many, many vehicles of creative outlet for expressing these stories such as painting, videogame design, and soundcapture, but I am primarily known as the musician and creative lead behind the black/doom metal projects Drown, Eternium/Tchornobog, and Aureole. Lately, I have also extended myself into the worlds of post-punk, ambient, and videogame soundtrack commissions as well and don’t see the horizon shrinking anytime soon.

My first demo, (Eternium’s ‘Aura Titian’) which came out when I was 15, was entirely self-produced and performed. At the time of writing, I am now gratefully 26 years old, and I have had the opportunity to exhaustively express myself on nearly a dozen albums that span over 5 different intertwining worlds in their own colorful universes, with 9 or so being released on long-play vinyl records.

My first album was released on Bandcamp in 2013, around the same time the platform had really started, and it has been my main place of sharing this stuff with everyone. I decided to always keep my albums Name-Your-Price, being extremely curious and passionate about knowing that people would support me only when they wanted to, hoping one day that I could work on nothing but what drives me the most -- music and story-telling, and so far, it’s worked and your support has driven me quite a lot. As times get darker and darker around us, I'm humbly asking for your support again, if you can spare it.

A while ago, Bandcamp rolled out this subscription service and I always knew I wanted to use this tool as a method to not only share, but to be even more transparent and collaborative than I have been with how anyone who chooses can support my endeavors, but couldn’t exactly think of a way to expand my story-telling while having people support me. After some time and a pretty cheesy-but-fun video-full-of-easter-eggs-and-secrets (see the top right), I’ve decided to finally launch my ideas.

If you have some money, would be interested in seeing me survive, I’d like to continue sharing my lore and stories with you!

For the price of a coffee or two monthly, here’s some ideas I have you’d get access to:

- A “Lore” card, digitally sent to your email every month, illustrated by various collaborators and artists I work with, explaining and writing out the stories of Tchornobog, Drown, Aureole, (???), (???), (???), and (???). As of writing this, I’ve cataloged over 200 characters, settings (which are all living and breathing in my stories as well), and events. I figured since I have so many of them, this would be a great way to shed some light on what is happening behind the lyrics, music, and artwork, which are all gateways into larger worlds. Eventually, with resources permitting, I’d like to be able to send out these cards physically to everyone, and even develop a tabletop or videogame around them all. In a way, you can consider this subscription a kickstarter for such a thing.

-I will set-up a private discord where we can discuss said lore, with you being able to comment on whatever project/story as you wish. In this discord, I’d have a Twitch link every month hosting a read-aloud of the current card and lore and answer questions if you have any! I'd also keep you updated on what I'm working on. Alongside this, I have a an absolutely huge back-catalog of unreleased music, which I'll frequently share whenever I can in the Discord as well.

- If I have extra/special merch for anyone (Think Black Libation Complete Vinyl Artset from Tchornobog, Tribute Cetacean painting 2xLP vinyl for Drown, limited run shirts etc) -- subscribers would get first dibs as a thank you for the support.

- An extra 10% off merchandise as a thank you for your help, which hopefully makes the $6 worth it in the first place!

- My albums will continue to be Name-Your-Price, so... if you've benefited off of that, now's a chance to help me survive as an artist!

I’ll have more ideas as I realize them, of course too, and would love to hear any ideas you have as well!

My extreme appreciation for everyone and anyone’s support over the last decade since I started releasing my music. I’ve grown up with a lot of you, many of you have changed me for the better, dragging me out of some dark places, and I genuinely wouldn’t be here without you. The last few years have been incredibly difficult, but I do as I always do, try to press on, grateful that I have something that matters to me, and even matters to others. Thank you for reading, and thanks to Bandcamp for hosting this service. The video I’ve attached here serves as small teaser of things that have happened, and things that have yet to come happen.

You will find me between the cracks and crevices...
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Markov Soroka
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My discography of albums so far, most of which appear in the video on this page:

Eternium - Aura Titian (2012)
Eternium - Repelling A Solar Giant (2013)

Aureole - Alunar (2014)
Aureole / Mare Cognitum - Resonance: Crimson Void (2015)
Aureole - Aurora Borealis (2016)
Aureole - Alunarian Bellmaw (2020)

Drown - Unsleep (2014)
Drown - Subaqueous (2020)

Tchornobog - Tchornobog (2017)

Krukh - Безглуздість! (2018)
Krukh - Чёрный свет (2019)

There are some I've been working on and will be realized sooner than later, which appear in the video as well. Thanks again for reading!