Tuck In and Prepared to Be Spooked With Darkfield Eternal

Darkfield Eternal is the third immersive audio experience from Darkfield Radio and certainly a unique experience within the confines of your bedroom.

From the minds behind the wonderful FLIGHT experience comes Eternal on Darkfield Radio.

Eternal completes the 2020 Darkfield trilogy with the previous two experiences Double and Visitors needing two people to participate Eternal needs only the one.

The binaural audio soundscape for each show situates every audience member at the centre of an intense, evolving narrative.

Each experience is communal – the Darkfield Radio app, available on IOS and Android, is designed to deliver each show at a set time and date, so not only are audiences experiencing the show either singularly or in pairs, but it is also replicated in hundreds of rooms across the world, much like going to the cinema for a screening, or a theatre for a play.

There will now be one of each show on every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday, with the ability to buy a package ticket, enabling you to experience all three shows on the same evening Taking part in all Darkfield Radio experiences is simple – you buy a ticket, download the Darkfield Radio app and enter your code.

At the designated hour, you put on your headphones and your own home becomes the setting for another world, blurring the lines between real and imagined.

What Is Darkfield Eternal?

Eternal is a new 20 minute immersive audio experience for one person alone in their bed.

The narrative explores the lure of eternal life and asks you what you would willingly give up to achieve it.

The show was origianlly commissioned by Bram Stoker Festival as a major highlight of the festival’s 2020 programme and received universal acclaim from both audiences and the Irish media.

You have been chosen and we thank you for your sacrifice.

In return we offer you the opportunity of immortality – but there are conditions.

You could, of course, wait to see what the future might bring. You could take your chances on a cure for ageing and death. The cure is coming – but it is not coming fast enough for you.

The Experience

Darkfield are masters of the binaural experience.

Using only standard apple earbuds I lay down in my bed, closed my eyes and the experience began.

After about 60 seconds my bed felt as though it was in the centre of a room, not a corner in which it resides in the real world as audio was surrounding me in a 360-degree space.

Floorboard creaks, birds chime outside and even the faint distant conversations that are taking place in other rooms of the house can be heard, all directed through these earbuds as a narration begins.

From pacing around the room the voice is being followed and your mind is conjuring up the setting which is being painted for you in audio.

Before the experience started we were asked to lie on the right side of the bed and within the experience itself you’ll find that you won’t be alone in your own bed.

The audio is done so brilliantly that your brain actually tricks you into thinking that someone is genuinely next to you in the real world.

Not only that but whispers in your ear almost feel like someone else’s breath on your neck and a jumpy moment or two will certainly keep you inside the story.

Keeping your eyes closed is paramount to the story being painted, it almost feels as though you’re unable to move.

Stuck in a coma or a deep sleep as this devilish offer is put on the table for you.

If there’s a negative regarding the experience I’d say that the narrative was very repetitious.

It didn’t seem to progress the narrative it only served to test out more binaural audio tricks which are good in one way but heavily distracted from the narrative.

Eternal ironically felt as though it was going on forever at times, almost dragging in places as I feel it could have been a good 5-7 minutes shorter.

But when the tense moments hit you’re definitely in the heat of the moment and whilst it’s not a particularly scary experience it’s a very unique feeling.

Audio mastery is paramount in this immersive experience where I closed my eyes and I almost felt like I was dreaming whilst being completely awake.

A very cool experience and one I thoroughly enjoyed even though I did wish it was a little shorter!