BC Smith
Strip away the parlor tricks, dim the lights, and let sound do something it usually is not allowed to do. We’re in Santa Fe with composer and magician B.C. Smith inside Phasmagorica, an immersive seance experiment where 13 guests gather around a table, choose trigger items, and step into a carefully designed mystery that lives in the liminal space between belief and disbelief. No mediums, no holograms, no cheap scares. The unsettling part is how personal it can feel.
We talk about how B.C.’s career in film and television scoring and his years performing theatrical seances at Hollywood’s Magic Castle led to a bigger question: what if you remove the tricks and build an experience that relies on intention, ritual, and a custom 13-speaker Dolby Atmos soundscape? He breaks down the paramusicology behind the score, from controlled randomness and graphic notation to serialism shaped by occult numerology, and why each seat at the table gets a different mix on purpose.
We also get into what happens after the lights come on: skeptics comparing notes with believers, synchronicities that repeat across nights, and the surprising way a shared mystery can build community in a disconnected world. If you’re curious about immersive theater, the occult salon tradition, Santa Fe culture, or the art of remembrance, this conversation offers a thoughtful entry point without demanding certainty.
