Unter dem Titel Mighty in Sorrow erscheint im Dynatox Ministries-Verlag eine Anthologie mit Gedichten und Kurzprosatexten, die vom Werk David Tibets und seiner Band Current 93 inspiriert sind. Zu den 26 Autoren zählen Andrew Liles (Vorwort), Thomas Ligotti, Joseph Pulver Sr., Nicole Cushing und Robert M. Price. Das Artwork stammt von der Malerin Aleksandra Waliszewska.
Schlagwort-Archive: Current 93
CURRENT 93: I Am The Last Of All The Field That Fell
Current 93 war von (An)Beginn immer ein Vehikel für David Tibets Obsessionen, künstlerischer und vor allem spiritueller Art. Daraus folgte vielleicht unweigerlich, dass Ideen und später dann die Worte und Wörter im Mittelpunkt standen, gerade da Current 93 eben keine Band im herkömmlichen Sinne war/ist, sondern vielmehr ein loses Kollektiv um den Fixstern Tibet. Dabei haben die immer umfangreicher werdenden Texte – die vielleicht der in den letzten Jahren stärker gewordenen kosmischen Perspektive („And did you call the night ‘bright’/And drink the sex of stars?“ wird auf dem letzten Stück gefragt) Rechnung tragen sollen – dazu geführt, dass ein Singen – das es bei Current 93 sowieso nie im herkömmlichen Sinne gegeben hat – noch stärker einem Rezitieren gewichen ist. Weiterlesen
THE BRICOLEUR: First Matter
Vom visuellen Eindruck her ist „First Matter“, das Solodebüt des Briten Michael Lawrence, von einer fast unscheinbaren Eleganz, und könnte schon deswegen so manchen Freunden dunkler, sakraler Klangwelten entgehen – denn dass solche auch ohne Gargoyles und okkulte Symbole auskommen können, gerät bisweilen in Vergessenheit. Wer sich jenseits des Plakativen orientiert, kann bei The Bricoleur eine Musik entdecken, die nicht nur finster und urtümlich dröhnt, sondern auch sehr ausgereift wirkt, denn „First Matter“ ist nicht nur ein Erstling, sondern auch der Abschluss einer längeren Zeit des Experimentierens und Kollaborierens, bei der sich Lawrence Wege mit Musikern wie Weiterlesen
Es ist besser, ein guter Heide als ein schlechter Christ zu sein: Interview mit Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson
Es gibt wahrscheinlich keine kulturelle Szene, die so auratisch aufgeladen ist, wie die Islands, was natürlich auch mit den Assoziationen zu tun hat, die die kleine Insel oft hervorruft. Gleichzeitig lauert hier natürlich an jeder Ecke die Gefahr des Klischees, der Stereotypisierung und damit letztlich Simplifizierung. Insofern ist es gut, wenn man mit einem Künstler spricht, der ein nicht wegzudenkender Teil des musikalischen Lebens Islands ist, der fast von Anfang an, seit den frühen 70ern, die Musik dort (mit)geprägt hat und dessen Mitwirken in zahllosen Bands und Projekten verdeutlicht, dass die Zusammenarbeit ein elementarer Bestandteil der isländischen Kultur ist, wie Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson im folgenden Interview erwähnt. Weiterlesen
It’s better to be a good Pagan than a bad Christian: An interview with Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson
Let’s start with your latest release “Stafnbúi“. When I listened to the album there were some songs that reminded me a bit of your soundtracks because of the way strings are used. But there’s also this rather modern song at the end. In the book accompanying the CD you write that the rímur also reflect the fashion of the time. Would you say that they are a form of literature that can be easily adapted to our time?
Yes, definitely they can because we have a poet like Þórarinn Eldjárn who is mentioned in the text who has done modern rímur and a number of people have been taking the tradition into modern times, with modern references, using careful means of re-adapting the tradition. So yes, it can be done but it has to be done with care and respect.
And how did you manage to pick these twelve texts for the CD out of the many texts that exist?
That was mainly something that Steindór did. We chose the rímur melodies together. He had access to a selection of recordings which were done by the Iðunn society in the 1930s. 200 of them have been released on CD alongside a book. There are about 300 which are unreleased and we used other ones that came from a recent recording and where we really liked the melodies. We narrowed it down from about 50. Much of the poetry is from the beginning of the 20th century. So it’s essentially not a big part of the rímur tradition itself.
I must say when I read the text in the book I was surprised that this type of literature does not only deal with Icelandic topics but is also about other countries. There’s even a rímur about Walt Disney.
Yes. (laughs)
The pictures that were chosen to go with the book shows the two of you in the landscape of Iceland. Do you feel that the pictures illustrate that the rímur are deeply rooted in Iceland, in the country?
The rímur belong to acoustic spaces like that because traditionally they were recited outside. In very small locations. So the reverberation was different. I think the rímur are appropriate to that type of surroundings.
You write a lot about the history of the rímur. Have you got a favourite theory how they started?
I think basically I mentioned that in the 19th century they were basically a peculiar meeting between a traditional template from the Bristish Isles and something from Southern Europe with the troubadours. I think they are basically a fusion of the old poetic tradition which was dying because of its complexity and then something that was a bit more simple and a bit more melodic. It was a window to the outside world. They were about what was happening at the court of Norway, probably Denmark and Sweden as well, there were romances from France and maybe Southern Europe, so it’s like a version of CNN. To see what is happening in the world outside.
I quite liked that you use that metaphor that it was the Euro Pop of the day. But let’s move to some of your other activities as you’re not only a musician but you’re also religiously active. Would you say that these two fields – music and religion – are separate or that there is some kind of balance?
I think they are of the same cosmological worldview. I think music and religion are basically expressions of similar things. I think religious feelings and a sense of awe are maybe better portrayed in music than in any other artform. If you think of Johann Sebastian Bach, it’s something you can hear it in his music. And he’s been called the fifth apostle. I think somehow that music is an expression of religious sense.
Then a work like “Odin’s Raven Magic“ is maybe a particuarly good example?
Yes, definitely because that was something that I I’d been thinking about for years. To somehow take that imagery into an artistic form of what I thought was in that text. It was a very conscious decision.
Are there plans to release it on DVD?
Oh yes. We finished the mix of it eight years ago. In 2005. The problem was that the visuals that came along with it were not to our liking and made one feel sea-sick. There were tons of cameras and things like that. We never liked the regular material. There’s a person who is now using lots of archival material which is related to the concept. We’re still waiting. If we’re happy with the outcome, it will come out on DVD.
You often heart that in Iceland Christian and Norse religious elements coexist to a certain degree. What made you choose the pagan way?
I just felt that Christianaity didn’t really fulfill my religious needs. Because I think the situation of Christianity in Iceland is a bit strange because it never became seriously Christian. And from the beginning of the 20th century the Icelandic church was more spiritualist. Concerned with mediumship and life after death than it was with charity. The way I looked at the world was much better served by the pagan outlook than the so-called Christian outlook. I think Icelandic Christianity is not far away from paganism. It’s very pantheistic. Most people have a sense of what nature is in life. So I think that it’s better to be a good pagan than a bad Christian. (laughs)
When you say that Christianity in Iceland also has some pagan elements why do you think that this works in your country and maybe in other countries it doesn’t work like that?
Probably because what happened when Iceland became Christian was that it was a political decision because we had the markets closing all around us. Christianly was like the EU of its time, so it was needed for trade. What happened was that the Chieftans had the same role as before, they just changed their old names. Then of course we started getting a lot of pressure from Rome because everybody who was a priest had wifes, mistresses and children. We decided that we would never listen to outside authority. So we did not listen to Rome. Later Iceland became sovereign. We never liked to be ruled by anyone. We were always in rebellion against things like that. I don’t think it is odd. We are so far away, nobody could really exert authority on us.
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So it’s a good thing to be so far off the beaten track.
Yes. Absolutely. (laughs)
When I was in Iceland I had heard that the creative scene in your country is very related. The people know each other. In Reykjavik everything seemed to be local. But would you also say that there is some globalized element there?
I think the global thing probably started with bands like Þeyr and Kukl and later with The Sugarcubes. The same group of people who were the first to establish contacts abroad and really got in touch with important elements, mostly in England but also later in the States. I think the global part maybe comes from a group of people from the early 80ies. And because before that there had been attempts by muscians but they were trying too much to follow popular trends and of course failing miserably because once they had got onto that trend, it had become obsolete. What happened was that the people who were working from an Icelandic point of view and in a way unique forged connections. It took a long time. I think what is important is that people assist each other because I think the best thing that can be said about the Icelandic scene is – many good things can be said about it, but that’s the best – is the collaboration. We don’t really work in isolation. The collaboration is really unique.
Let’s briefly talk about your soundtrack work. Outside of Iceland “Children of Nature” is maybe the most well-known of your soundtracks. You used elements from your collaboration with Current 93 on it. Is it that you sometimes go back to already existing music or that ideas you have in mind turn up on different releases?
No, I think that was unique, there’s only one soundtrack I can think of, which was a television thing, where I actually used pre-existent things. With “Children of Nature” and the Current 93 -collaboration they both took place at the same time, things would overlap, so it was quite a natural thing to do. I haven’t really done it since then. In a way it was a unique time and moment.
The following question is more on the funny side. On “Island” there’s some talk about a cigarette factory. What was all that about?
Oh, that is Einar, the singer from The Sugarcubes and Kukl . He’d talking about his grandfather’s cigarette factory in Germany. His grandfather had a cigar factory. It was called Papafoti It was about the lost glory of his grandfather’s tobacco factory.
That solves that puzzle.
(laughs)
I remember reading an interview in which you said that there had been plans to do a follow-up album to “Island”.
That was really sad because I was living on another island in Denmark. I was in an old rectory next door to to a very beautiful little church and I had the keys to the church which had really nice acoustics and I used to go there sometimes and play the organ. And I got the idea we could do a follow-up. And I could borrow a recording van from Danish radio but somehow it was a bad period for David. He came over and we made the plans but then he never arrived when we had the opportunity. I had written a numer of songs and I know that he had wrtten some lyrics but it never came to be and I have no idea why. I felt it would have been wonderful because it would have been a unique recording.
Just when listening to that it it is a pity that disn’t happen. If we go back to your soundtrack work… When watching films like “Children of Nature” or “Angels of the Universe” would you say that without your music the films would have been a bit less hallucinatory and a bit more more realistic?
(Laughs) I have no idea. I have absolutely no idea. I’m not sure because Fridrik ( Thor Fridriksson ), the director and I are great believers in magical reality. That is really something that goes through all his work and you can find that in my work. A world that is more magical. Maybe I just do what needs to be done.
This anticipates a bit what I wanted to ask next: You’ve worked on very different types of films. “Children of Nature” is a much different film than “Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre”. Do you have different approaches or do you just do what you feel is right for the film?
I can’t do every film that I’m offfered. There has to be something that appeals to me in those films. “The Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre” is after a script by an old friend of mine, Sjón and we have known each other for decades and we have the same sense of humour. The same sense of crazy references. It’s something that I do because I know where he gets the ideas from. We like little hints. Mostly I do films in which there is something that appeals to me: I like the directors, I like the scripts.
Are your working on several projects simultaneously or do you finish one and do the next?
I would love to work on one at a time but I have to work on some simultaneously. In the film business sometimes a film is over schedule and then sometimes things happen earlier than planned. So there are overlaps. I don’t like that but I have to do it.
One last question that I have. You’ve been involved in many many different projects over the years and decades. Are there any other projects at the moment besides your work on films?
There’s some piece that I’ve been working on for many years which needs some changing. It’s basically an orchestral work with visuals. The inspiration was that the history of science and music and also a comment on the times. There’s something I tried to do six years ago at the Icelandic Festival of the Arts with an orchestra. The first idea for that came in the late 1980ies. I actually took bits out of it and used it elsewhere. Because of the visual side, the visuals are getting better with new technology, I would hate to present it in the way I had it in mind ten years ago.
(M.G., U.S., T.E.)
Black and white photo: Dagur Gunnarsson.
Landscape photos: M.G.
I play the oud! I play music I love… Interview with Eliot Bates
Eliot Bates is a widely traveled man, for whom the term musician is certainly not sufficient. In addition to practicing the oriental instrument of his choice, the Oud (a short-necked lute, which is believed to be the predecessor of the European lute that has been used since the Middle Ages), he is an expert in Anatolian music, deals with the technical side of the recording of traditional musics, teaches at various universities both in the U.S.A. and in Turkey and has published a book on Turkish music at Oxford University Press. Since “Baalstorm, Sing Omega”, Bates also supports Current 93 live and in the studio. His work for the webzine Dancecult.net should not be seen as contradictory but as complementary, true to William Blake’s dictum “Without contraries there is no progression”.
As most of our readers may not know much about the instruments you play, could you introduce them to us? The latest Current 93 booklet mentions Oud, Bendir and Erbane.
The oud is an 11-stringed fretless lute that is played through much of the Muslim world, from Morocco to Malaysia, Turkey to Kenya. We know that 4-stringed ouds were played in Baghdad in the 6th century, but the instrument has changed a bit since then. At first glance an oud looks a bit like a guitar, but the playing technique is totally different, as is the modal system (makam), rhythmic system (usul), and just about everything else!
The bendir and erbane are both frame drums. Bendirs are simply a wooden hoop with a stretched sheep or goat skin face, while the erbane, which is local to Eastern Turkey and Iran, adds hundreds of little rings on the inside of the hoop. Frame drums are one of the oldest music technologies in the world – they’ve been played through much of the world for over 10,000 years.
What can you tell us about your first encounter with Arabian/Eastern music? Did you learn about the instruments you play in school or music academy, or have you been to one of these countries in earlier years?
Growing up in Southern California I rarely heard actual music “from the East,” but did hear a lot of twentieth century classical music by Bartok, Prokofiev and other composers who used folk dance rhythms and quoted Eastern European and West Asian melodies. That was my mom’s favorite kind of music; she played it on the piano and also had these wonderful Gyorgy Sandor recordings she’d play on the old Garrard turntable. I played quite a bit of this on piano myself before I encountered non-European instruments.
In the early 90s in California there were quite a lot of sitar and Hindustani classical music concerts, and I thought about learning that but it never quite happened. Instead, somewhat accidentally I stumbled into a new college ensemble called the UC Santa Barbara Middle Eastern Ensemble, and the director, Dr. Scott Marcus, persuaded me to pick up the oud. Everything began there, and quickly I sort of jumped in headfirst and got very involved with Arab then Turkish music. I went to Turkey in 93 to study oud with Necati Çelik and have been actively studying Ottoman art music, Anatolian folk music, the makam modal system, etc. since.
On your website you call yourself “ethnomusicologist, oud artist, audio engineer“. Are all three areas of your interest of similar importance for you? Do you see a huge difference between your academic interests and work and your performances as solo artist or with other projects?
I’ve been doing ethnomusicology, oud and audio engineering for 20 years now, and in some ways they feed into each other, but in other ways they’re very much compartmentalized. I had always tinkered with making home recordings, but after a string of disappointing experiences in California recording studios came to the conclusion that Californian rock engineers had no idea how to record oud or Middle Eastern percussion and I would need to do it myself. Once I got more into recording, I started to discover things that fed into my oud playing and creative process. My interest in recording also led me to do long-term ethnomusicological research into Istanbul’s recording studios, which I’m finishing a book about right now. I engineered a lot in Istanbul; I was a studio musician there as well, and I would not have been able to pull off the “academic/research” part of the project without that practical, hands-on experience.
But, for example, I have little interest in doing an ethnomusicological study of the oud, I’d rather just play it! I would never want to run a commercial recording studio again. When I create Kaderci recordings or do collaborations with other artists, I think of it as a form of research, but not research with the brain/mind. It’s research with the heart.
All I know about the origins of your music is that much of it derives from the tradition of arabic or other near east countries. This is, however, a large part of the world. Are you particularly interested in a certain country, or is your music influenced by several Turkish, Arabian and Persian styles?
I do listen to a lot of music from the region, but my focus has been on a few specific kinds of music from Turkey. In the 19th-20th century there was a romantic movement in Ottoman art music and numerous composers wrote stunning instrumental and vocal works – I’m thinking of Dede Efendi, Tanburi Cemil Bey, Ismail Hakkı Bey, and many others. This music works great on the oud automatically. This is the repertoire you learn if you go to a conservatory in Turkey, and most Turkish CDs of oud music are of this romantic period. I seriously studied this and continue to play it.
More recently I’ve been more interested in rural Anatolian musics, particularly the secular songs (deyiş) of the Alevi religious order, and the bozlak song form of Central Anatolia which is really beautiful and very “deep.” Because of my research in Istanbul recording studios I also encountered a lot of what is called “arranged folk music.” Arrangement is a very creative practice in Turkey; arrangers have found ways of adapting folk songs for all kinds of ensembles, ranging from groups of folk instruments to a jazz, surf-rock or heavy metal band, and most interestingly, folk instruments on top of metal/rock. Any and all of this is stuff I might listen to (and for a few years I listened to nothing but recordings from Turkey), but how much influence this has on my own music varies from none at all, to a lot.
Do you prefer to play old songs that already exist, or rather own compositions of the basis of traditional structures?
It’s good to keep things diverse – playing old songs, creating new works, playing old C93 pieces, creating new pieces for C93. I’m creating new things all the time, including the Kaderci solo stuff, collaborative things, and I still make live sound sculptures and immersive environments from time to time.
People from western countries often find it difficult to distinguish between „classical“ and „folkloric“ music, if it comes from other parts of the world. Is such a differenciation important at all and can we draw an exact parting line between it? How much does it mean to you and do you see yourself more as a classical or a folk musician?
Part of the distinction is real and has to do with nothing other than the context in which the music is played. There were special forms of music created and performed in the Ottoman and Safavid Courts, and a lot of why we inherit the idea of Turkish or Persian “Classical Music” has to do with this. However, the term “classical” has been appropriated by music critics and record labels to include non-court music, which may have originally been 19th century popular songs from Istanbul that were most definitely not classical or courtly in any way. Likewise, “folkloric” musics are assumed to be local village traditions with the assumptions that there is no song “author” and that music hasn’t changed at all in the village. There’s been much critique of the whole folk concept, since we now know that some of this village music has very specific origins and known authors, and we’ve been able to document rapid changes to village folk musics as well.
I’m very suspicious of classical/folkloric distinctions made today, either in Turkey or elsewhere, since they tend to be noncritical attempts to either increase or decrease the perceived legitimacy of the music. One example: for whatever reasons, even though Alevi music from Central and Eastern Anatolia is composed, authored, is serious listening music and has an unbroken tradition of performance going back just as long as Ottoman court music, it’s not described as classical music but as folk music. Alevi musics are some of the only polyphonic musics from anywhere in that region and are exceedingly complex. Why is this folk rather than classical, when nightclub drinking songs from the 19th century are classical but not folk? It’s nonsensical!
Western listeners have a hard time differentiating musics for a number of reasons. Many people today encounter the music of Turkey via “world music” programming or record labels, and there’s a long history of exoticism and Orientalism that has skewed perceptions and provided a lot of misinformation. But this is not just in the West – in Turkey, there is a long history of “self-orientialization” and a lot of romanticization of Eastern Anatolian musics by urbanites who have no idea what the musics are or what they mean.
In terms of what I do, I play the oud! I play music I love…
I found fotos from a performance you gave in an Istanbul bar. Have you played often in countries of the orient? What can you tell about the reactions of the people towards a “western” musician, who performs „eastern“ music?
I have a repertoire of some 500-600 works from Turkey/Egypt, and have done over 1000 performances of this, both solo and in small groups. When I was living in Istanbul and working in the studios I played out twice a week, one night at a meyhane (restaurant that serves alcohol), one night at a bar. It was a great experience, and I really like performing folk/light art music for Turkish audiences since they’re so passionately into it, dancing for hours, then crying and singing along when we’d sing melancholic songs. It’s totally different playing for American audiences; people listen silently and politely clap at the end of pieces. At least for this music, I prefer the Turkish way!
In terms of reactions, of course there’s the novelty factor of an American singing Turkish music, we were on TV, in newspapers, etc. That eventually wears off, and some people who regularly attended our Istanbul shows would start to actively comment on, criticize and correct our performances. They’d take my lyrics book in the middle of the show and cross off lines they thought were inaccurate and put other lyrics in there, and even debate with each other about precisely how to best correct a wrong verse. I loved this – it was an amazing learning experience. A couple of fans would make us compilation CDs with every known recording of a particular song we played, so we could better “copy” the “correct” recordings. People realized we genuinely loved the music and had respect for it, so there was a certain degree of respect for us based on that. This is what we experienced and what we overheard, but you’d have to ask Savaş, Ergül, Cevdet, Mehmet, Tülay, Mustafa and the many others who regularly came to our shows, they might tell you something different…
In recent years the orient has often been associated with violence and instability. You took part in a talk about “Music of Conflict and Reconciliation: The War in Iraq/Post-9/11 World“. What can you tell us about your experiences there?
The most disturbing thing that emerged in this symposium was the extent to which music has been used as a weapon of war or torture, mainly by US military forces, in both the first and second Iraq wars.
Would you say your music is (also) an attempt to reconcile orient and occident?
Not at all! If anything, my oud playing is an attempt to reconcile my left hand and right hand, my composing is an attempt to reconcile my atria and ventricles, and my engineering reconciles right and left brain… but you asked about orient/occident, and for me I wouldn’t know how to divide things that way. I think of it this way: Istanbul is a cosmopolitan and modern European city; it has its quirks, but so do Rome, Paris, Berlin, London, etc. It has always been connected to the rest of Europe to some extent, so when I was living there, I didn’t really have the sense that I was in a world that was radically different. I mean, of course, there are differences – the language is really different and quite tough to learn – but North Germanic languages and Mediterranean romance languages are similarly different.
In some of your works, jazz and break beat elements are included. Are these just several elements that you admire, or is there a particular „crossover“ concept behind it? When you make use of computers to create loops, do you feel that traditional instruments and modern technology can complement one another in a very fertile way?
I hear songs, textures, timbres, and orchestrations in my head. I always have. It’s a matter of being able to take what’s in my head and turn it into actual sound. Nothing arises from any preconceived concept – I’ve tried that out and it never sounds good. So I have these abstract sonic ideas/feelings/soundings, and try to find resonances – something I can play on the oud or percussion, on my analog synths, field recordings of desert landscapes or construction sites, or digital signal processing applied to something from the archive of sound recordings I’ve made in the past. Sometimes a solo oud recording emerges, sometimes it’s a harsh industrial texture, sometimes something else.
One question is more or less obligatory: How did you came in contact with David Tibet from Current 93, who was it that discovered the other? Can you tell our readers a bit about your first meeting?
I’ve enjoyed Current and many other former World Serpent/Rough Trade artists since the late 80s. David and I “met” on myspace, actually – David had been listening to quite a bit of Coptic Christian oud music from Egypt, I had been listening to Current, after a couple brief exchanges I mentioned I’d be happy to contribute oud to Current or other projects, and an hour later David had emailed me 20 mp3s of Baby Dee piano/organ parts!
David Tibet and his music is popular in various underground scenes from Industrial to Folk to Psychedelic, although he may not see himself as a part of that. How much can you as a classical musician identify with such counter cultural phenomena? Did you also have a sort of teenage punk rock period or the like?
I played in a couple industrial bands in California in the 90s, the heavily-amplified-found-objects-with-screaming-vocals kind of industrial, that is. All the music I’m interested is intense in some way, although intense acoustic folk music and intense industrial noise obviously involve different techniques. One thing I love about Current is the way that it has changed over the years while keeping the same core intensity. Of course, most of that has to do with David, who is such a superb lyricist, performer and visionary, and attracts such interesting collaborators.
What are for you the main rewards when working within a band context?
Well, I don’t like performing solo, I got into oud playing and recording in a very social way, and find collaborations to be the most rewarding thing. Music is a form of communication. It’s not a language, but it’s communication, and there is simply nothing in the world like what happens when good musicians get together and interact, communicate. It’s really fulfilling for audiences, too, it fills a void that nothing else does, and I think that’s why in this “digital” age there is such a thriving economy for live bands. Such as Current…
What can you say about your experiences during Current 93′s “gentlemen“-tour (as Andrew Liles put it)?
Ha, the “gentlemen’s tour”! It went really well, the audiences were wonderful and yet quite different from each other. We played mainly material from the new albums (Honeysuckle Aeons, Baalstorm) and the Aleph/Black Ships trilogy, and I think that made for a really powerful and dynamic set. The local promoters in Athens, John and Anna at CTS Productions, are at the center of the local black metal scene, were gracious and did a great job reaching out to the community. The tour also saw the first Current show in Denmark, and that one went so well that there’s talk of a Scandinavian Current tour soon. We could call that one “the son of the gentleman’s tour”..
Thanks for the interview and all the best for your future endeavors.
Thank you!
(M.G./U.S.)
Fotos: Ladi Dell’aira & David Bauwens
Vibrant Demons: Andrew Liles als Zeichner der organischen Groteske
Andrew Liles ist vor allem als Musiker bekannt. Schon in den 90ern ein unermüdlicher Bastler, machte er zunächst eher sporadisch mit minimalistischen Soundexperimenten von sich reden, meist in kleineren Auflagen auf CDr. Durch stetes Experimentieren vergrößerte sich sein Renommee recht bald, und die vor sechs Jahren erschienene „Vortex Vault“-Reihe ist aus der Geschichte soundorientierter Musik längst ebenso wenig wegzudenken wie seine Arbeiten mit Nurse With Wound, Liles’ wohl bekanntestem Nebenschauplatz zusammen mit Current 93. Die Zahl seiner musikalischen Kollaborationen ist groß, mit Daniel Menche, Bass Communion und Jean-Hervé Peron sind nur die bekanntesten genannt. Weiterlesen
V.A.: Hail Be You Sovereigns, Lief And Dear: Dark Britannica III
Je nach Zählung („John Barleycorn: Rebirth“ war ursprünglich lediglich als Downloadergänzung zur ersten Veröffentlichung „John Barleycorn: Reborn“ gedacht und wurde erst einige Jahre später eigenständig auf CD veröffentlicht) ist das der dritte respektive vierte Teil der umfangreichen Folkanthologie, die unter dem Banner des Zyklischen, des Säens und Erntens, des Werdens und Vergehens, das sich im Traditional „John Barleycorn“ widerspiegelt, von Cold Spring veröffentlicht wird. Weiterlesen
LITTLE ANNIE: Sing Don’t Cry. A Mexican Journey (Buch)
Little Annie, die in einer ganzen Reihe an Künsten unterwegs ist, ist keineswegs ein Chamäleon, auch wenn das gelegentlich behauptet wird. Wenn sie als Sängerin mit ganz unterschiedlichen Musikern von Crass bis Coil und Adrian Sherwood, von Larsen bis Baby Dee und natürlich Paul Wallfisch aktiv ist, spricht das zwar immer für einen flexiblen Draht zur kreativen Sprache anderer, und doch steuert sie dort stets ebenso viel von sich bei. Ihr Beitrag ist jedoch weit mehr als ihre mal forsche, mal etwas erschöpfter klingende Stimme in Alt. Ihr Name steht auch für eine ganz eigene elegante Abgewetztheit, einen ehrlichen, unbeschönigenden Optimismus und eine Stehauf-Mentalität, die auch den miesesten Szenarien noch etwas Kraftgebendes abzugewinnen weiß. All dies durchzieht auch Weiterlesen
Little Annie und Baby Dee: Album, Konzerte, Bücher
Little Annie und Baby Dee muss man Lesern unserer Seite wohl nicht extra vorstellen. Genrebegriffe prallen ohnhin ab an der Vielfalt ihrer Ausdrucksformen, und das Namedropping zu ihren zahlreichen musikalischen Kollaborationen wäre mit Current 93, Crass, Antony und Marc Almond gerade mal auf der ersten Seite angekommen. Dass die beiden Künstlerinnen nun endlich ihre Drohung wahr und gemeinsame Sache machen, ist allerdings eine Ankündigung wert. Die beiden Sängerinnen haben zusammen ein Album aufgenommen, das Ende des Jahres bei Tin Angel Records in London erscheinen wird, zu den Gastmusikern gehören u.a. Will Oldham und Eric Chenaux.
Auf das Zusammenspiel von Annies souligem Alt und Dees fragilem Falsett darf man ebenso gespannt sein wie auf die Fusion ihrer jeweils eigenen Ideen des Songwritings. Zuvor gibt es eine kleine Europa-Tournee, bei der die beiden, zum Teil in Begleitung von Paul Wallfisch und dem Violinisten Jordan Hunt, auch auf drei deutschen Bühnen zu sehen sind:
Di., 16. Okt. Roter Salon der Volksbühne, Berlin
Fr., 26. Okt. Stadttheater, Dortmund (im Rahmen von Paul Wallfischs „Small Beast“-Reihe)
Sa., 27. Okt, Kampnagel, Hamburg
Zudem ist von Annie vor kurzem ein illustriertes Buch namens „Sing, Don’t Cry“ erschienen, in welchem die Sängerin teils in Prosa, teils in Versen die Geschichte eines Mexico-Aufenthaltes erzählt, der ihr Leben verändert hat. In Kürze erscheint ihre komplette Autobiografie „You Can’t Sing The Blues While Drinking Milk “. Zum Album und den Büchern demnächst mehr in unserem Rezensionen-Teil.
MYRNINEREST: „Jhonn“, Uttered Babylon
Myrninerest, unter dem Namen, den die Outsider-Künstlerin Madge Gill dem sie kreativ leitenden Geist gab, und der im Current 93-Kontext erstmals auf dem ersten Teil der „InmostLight“-Trilogie, der Maxi „Where the Long Shadows Fall“, 1995 auftaucht, veröffentlicht Tibet, der sich auf diesem Album wieder David Michael nennt, zusammen mit James Blackshaw ein Album, das im Booklet als „Hallucinatory Cartoon Channelling of my Love for Jhonn Balance“ beschrieben wird. Für Tibet gibt es kein Stillstehen, wobei vielleicht die Gründung dieses neuen Projekts Weiterlesen
ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS: Cut The World
Die Vorstellung, dass unsere moderne Kultur von einer patriarchalen Denk- und Lebensweise geprägt ist, geht mindestens bis ins 19. Jahrhundert zurück und begleitet alle technokratischen Errungenschaften und ihre Schattenseiten als ein untilgbares Korrektiv. Das Anliegen dahinter ist keinesfalls bescheiden, will man doch dem phallogozentischen Denken (Derrida) eine feminine Sprache und je nach Credo auch Spiritualität nicht nur an die Seite stellen. Weiterlesen
Es gab ein klares Moment von manischer Aggression: Ein Interview mit Comus
Eine der vielleicht größten Sensationen der letzten Jahre war die Rückkehr von “legendary British pagan acid folk rock act “ (Aquarius Records) Comus, deren Debütalbum “First Utterance” vielleicht das originellste und irritierendste Zeugnis des Acid Folks war, das auch nach vier Jahrzehnten nichts an Vitalität, Virilität und Virtuosität eingebüßt hat. Weiterlesen
There was a distinct sense of manic aggression: An interview with Comus
In Jeanette Leechs Seasons they change she writes that “the music industry […]did not provide the infrastructure to support [First Utterance]“. Do you think that if that infrastructure had been provided, Comus might have continued?
Yes possibly, but there were other issues. In those days, and up until the end of the eighties, the British music scene was very fad/fashion orientated. These fads lasted a few years and dominated almost completely. The beat boom gave way to psychedelia which spawned many unusual bands such as Comus; and psychedelia was eclipsed by glam rock. Audiences for Comus began to dwindle steadily in number and so did the gigs. We were forced to disband. We also embarked on the Malgaard suite, which in retrospect was rather indulgent. and not the best way to go at the time and alienated us even more from the audiences‘ changing fashion trends.
Many writers pointed out the individuality of “First Utterance” and emphasized the great difference between your music and what was mainstream back then. What do you think were the main elements that made your music appear so strange and sometimes irritating to many listeners?
There was a distinct sense of manic aggression and exploration of dark psychotic elements. This was completely the opposite direction from the mainstream which was very love and peace orientated. No acoustic band had generated such power and edgy darkness, which is why so many death metal fans like us. It must have been difficult for audiences subjected to The Incredible String Band and Donovan to come to terms with Comus. Comus owes more in its sound to classical music than rock n‘ roll.
You stated in the past that you rather disliked the naive love and peace-attitude of the hippies in the 60ies. Looking back, would you say it was important for you to have something that could serve as a foil?
I disliked the weakness and wimpy soperfic qualities which seemed very flakey for what was supposed to be a revolution and, due to the lack of principle, the hippie movement became very hypocritical and contradictory and decadent. I wanted to react and shake the scene up a bit.
Today, many people have an ambivalent view of the hippie culture. On the one hand, there is this stereotype of the worldly innocent goody, which is often smiled at. On they other hand, we tend to see this culture as the spearhead of a generation that achieved a lot of important changes. Has your view on the whole hippie thing become a bit more positive over the years?
There is always some positive but, I think it is summed up by Timothy Leary’s famous remark -’Turn on, tune in and drop out‘ – which is the road to failure.Itshould have read ‚Turn on, tune in and drop IN‘. If you are going to change the world peacefully, you can only do it from the inside and there was a lack of clear philosophy which meant that the movement degenerated and became every man for himself.
In an interview in The Wire you said that at the beginning just after you had started again after all those years it was “like a tribute band learning other people’s stuff“. When did that change? Was it a rather gradual process or something sudden that made you think: “These are our songs“?
It was a bizarre period adjusting to who we were 40 years before. It was a slow and gradual assimilation and relating, which came the more we got better at playing the songs. I finally felt more identification with Comus when I started writing and came up with Out of the Coma.
In the booklet of “Out Of The Coma“ you reflect on the writing process and that you were thinking what topics might be suitable for the resurrected Comus. Would you say that compared to the past your approach to songs and topics is more reflected?
Yes, I have to think about it a lot more. It is more objective and not all my songs are suitable for Comus. There is a wealth of subjects for Comus and I am gradually unearthing them.
Was your decision to combine the past and the present on “Out of the Coma“ by including the only known recording of “The Malgaard Suite“ (and thus resurrect this “lost“ half of your unreleased second album) made to show some kind of continuity?
Yes, and to show what might have followed First Utterance if Malgard had not been rejected by our record company. A very different direction to what actually followed.
A few years ago, you did a concert and live recording with the Swedish group Piu, better known as Lisa o Piu. How did this cooperation come about and how do you estimate the music of this quite young band?
I was asked to play at Melloclub in Stockholm by the promoter Stefan Dimle and he said he had found a backing band for the gigs. When I arrived I was introduced to them. We had a rehearsal and the gigs went well. It was astonishing and rather surreal. I was hearing Comus but every time I turned round during the gig – it was all the wrong people!
With regard to music, lyrics and artwork “Out of the coma“ explicitly alludes to “First Utterance“. Looking back at “To keep from crying“ with the benefit of hindsight, is there anything on it which you find worth remembering?
Yes – one of the songs. I would like to do Down like a Movie Star if possible.
The new songs, especially “Out of the coma“ and “The Sacrifice“, have incredibly ferocious moments and your music is and was often extremely physical. To what extent is this physical aspect important for you now?
Yes – I put out a lot of energy for some one who performs sitting down. I think that the rage and energy of Comus is as important as ever and what excites an audience.
In some of the (old and new) songs, a mystified nature is presented as an archaic realm of fear and violence, but also with an aspect of powerful vitality. Would you say that it’s the real world (or a “more real” world), that you show in songs like “Diana”?
It is certainly a part of reality. Most songs are about sex and love, which is also a part of life. If you watch the news on television, I often feel that Comus have more resonance with what is going on.
In contrast to this, many people would probably describe natural or mythological settings as “otherworldly”. Your songs, however, hardly show any escapist or idyllic side, which is mostly associated with otherworldliness. Is this important to you?
I think fantasy can be used to illustrate real emotions. Otherworldly settings are used but the stories involve all the same human pain and stress. I was much influenced, when Comus first began by Lord of the Rings.
You contributed music to several films by Canadian director Lindsay Shonteff. What can you tell us about these films and the role of your music in them? Was there a certain common ground which made your music especially fitting to the atmosphere of the films?
We auditioned for Permissive and Lindsay loved our music, which is why he continued to ask us to do more film scores.He just thought us as suitable for the soundtracks.
The story telling of your songs and the visual imagery of the lyrics can easily evoke cinematic associations. Were you cineasts in the time of your first album, and would you even say that your work and its attitude fitted more to the films of this era that to its music?
As I said, the influence of Lord of the Rings and European myth, John Milton all seemed to provide dramatic visual imagery. Now that Lord of the Rings has been filmed, I think Peter Jackson did a very good job in bringing the images to life. I suppose that reading the books and some sci-fi authors just filled my head with visual imagery. I was at art college and my own illustration work, used for the sleeves, all filled my head with the visions described in words.
Are there plans to record more new material in the (near) future?
Yes – there are two new songs waiting to be rehearsed and two more on the way. We shall start rehearsing Samurai and Slave soon. Samurai is about the loss of a great warrior culture and Slave is about sex slave trafficing – a very topical subject. Both these subjects will bring Comus a little more up to date.
When did you first become aware that there were quite a number of artists that seem to have drawn inspiration from “First Utterance“?
Around 2000 David Tibet of Current 93 got in touch with me and told me they had recorded a version of Diana and Mikael Ackerfeldt of Opeth is a major fan and largely responsible for Comus reforming.
This question is slightly related to the last one. In the decades that all of you pursued different paths, were there any genres/artists that you found particularly appealing and which you felt were as vital and adventurous (to use some rather vague terms) as Comus had been when they started?
Perhaps nort as adventurous but, as a singer/songwriter I admired Joni Michell in the 70s. There were others- I remember first hearing Mechanik Destructive Commando by Magma and feeling an affinity with Comus. I really listened to a lot since then – Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads,Miles Davis and a lot of modern classical music such as John Adams, John Tavener, Gorecki and Arvo Part etc.
In recent years we noticed a number of (more or less folk related) artists, who did some singular works in the years around 1970, and then after some decades of either silence or unsteadiness started a second period of creativity. Besides Comus I think of Vashti Bunyan or Simon Finn, who all woke up out of a musical “coma” some years ago. Do you regard these comebacks as incidental phenomena, or do you see a certain connection between the last decade and the years back then?
There is a massive general come-back of bands and artists from the late sixties, both in Europe and the States. Every week I hear of another band reforming from the early seventies. It seems to be working and they obviously, like Comus, are reaching a new generation. Bands of our era are much revered. Agism has completely disappeared in rock music – something that I never thought would happen.
Some of your songs (and your band name, of course) drew inspiration from literature. Is that still something that is of relevance for you?
Less than before- it’s hard to find new material to read. Film and television can be a big stimulus because it is more random.
(M.G., U.S.)
Photos: HMV Formum: Zoe Plummer; band: Hannah Meadows
TREMBLING BELLS & BONNIE ‘PRINCE’ BILLY: The Marble Downs
Duette zwischen Sängerinnen und Sängern sind wahrscheinlich so alt wie die Musik selbst. Im Pop hat sich dabei besonders das Schema „böser Bube, nettes Mädchen“ bewährt, bei dem ein verwegenes Raubein seine Prinzessin umgarnt und dabei in charakterisierender Stimmlagenverteilung zum Ziel kommt oder auch nicht. Carter und Cash, Birkin und Gainsbourg, Campbell und Lanegan, you name it. Eine weitere, meist komödiantische, manchmal auch tragikomische Spielart davon inszeniert Kappeleien schon bestehender Paare. In nicht wenigen Fällen scheitert der männliche Part in seinen eitlen Bemühungen und wird Weiterlesen
JAMES BLACKSHAW: Love Is The Plan, The Plan Is Death
Alice B. Sheldon war eine amerikanische Science Fiction-Autorin, die vor allem unter ihrem männlichen Pseudonym James Tiptree jr. für ihre fantastischen und sprachlich wohl sehr evokativen Kurzgeschichten bekannt wurde. Ich hätte die erste Zeile von ihr noch zu lesen, und es wäre äußerst interessant zu erfahren, wie ich mit ihren Geschichten im Hintergrund auf James Blackshaws neues Album „Love is the Plan, the Plan is Death“ reagieren würde. Dessen Songtitel sind nämlich durchweg ihrer Prosa entnommen, und auch atmosphärisch sollen die Kompositionen vom Werk der Schriftstellerin inspiriert sein. Weiterlesen
CURRENT 93: And When Rome Falls
Konzertaufnahmen sind seit langem ein fester Bestandteil von David Tibets Diskografie. Ausgehend von den beiden als “All Dolled Up Like Christ” auf Doppel-CD herausgebrachten Konzerten in der New Yorker Ohrensanz-Foundation erschien eine ganze Reihe an Mitschnitten kompletter Auftritte, und zeitweise dachte man fast, die damals nicht gerade eifrig tourende Band wolle mit der Zeit buchstäblich jede Show durch einen schön gestalteten Tonträger würdigen. Alben wie “Cats Drunk On Copper”, “Halo” und “Birdsong In The Empire” entsprechen dabei quasi einem (später durch Rockelemente Weiterlesen
Hallucinatory Mahdis and Æons. Andrew Gilbert & David Tibet in Berlin
Die Maler Andrew Gilbert und David Tibet sind ein ungleiches Gespann, und doch verbunden durch einige interessante Gemeinsamkeiten. Beide sind Kinder des British Empire, und auf je eigene Weise prägte das auch ihr Werk. Tibet, der als Sänger von Current 93 eines der interessantesten und eigenwilligsten Kapitel alternativer Musikgeschichte schrieb, kam in der ehemaligen Kronkolonie Malaysia zur Welt und verbrachte dort seine Kindheit. In „England’s Hidden Reverse“ äußerte er, wie sehr ihn das Aufeinandertreffen verschiedener Kulturen und Religionen beeindruckte. Weiterlesen
MARC ALMOND & MICHAEL CASHMORE: Feasting With Panthers
Ein Festmahl mit Raubtieren – eine ebenso reizvolle wie bedrohliche Situation, bei der es zwangsläufig vom Wesen des einzelnen abhängen muss, welche der beiden Empfindungen als stärker wahrgenommen wird. Im spätviktorianischen England, als dekadente Ausschweifungen vor der Fassade bürgerlicher Prüderie gerade einen rebellischen Geist versprühten, bezeichnete man mit dieser Wendung eine konkrete Situation. Es ging um die Neigung reiferer Herren, sich die Gunst weniger betuchter Jünglinge zu erwerben. Und um das Risiko, dadurch Opfer eines Skandals zu werden. Weiterlesen