A Sweeping Curve of Sound

Erik Davis sings the praises of medieval music ensemble Sequentia, who have created  several recordings directly inspired by The Poetic Edda.

“Thousands of acts these days attempt to create an atmosphere of European paganism in their music, from black metal bands to gothic ambient artists to neomedieval folk groups. I won’t say Sequentia’s Eddic music is the “real deal,” because it is heavily reconstructed, albeit at a rigorously intellectual level. But its uncanny turns, its eldritch but strangely familiar modes, and, yes, even its mild tedium, all conspire to create a rare musical vessel of the heathen imagination. The various renderings of the Völuspá scattered across both discs are without doubt the best way to encounter that great spectral poem—an apocalyptic sybil song that ranks with the ancienct “Thunder, Perfect Mind,” not to mention that creepy Cate Blanchett scene in The Fellowship of the Ring, in terms of its sacred-femme uncanniness and psychedelic fear factor.”

A list of the ensemble’s recordings can be found, here. I’ll certainly be investigating this group in the near future.

Interview with Daemonia Nymphe (it’s in Greek, so you’ll have to use Babelfish).

“[Daemonia Nymphe] was born in Athens, a city where contact with the ancient monuments is a part of everyday routine for her residents.”

Erik Davis sings the praises of Early Music.

“I recently asked Jay Babcock about writing a post for the Arthur blog about some early music records that have been rocking my world lately. He declined, saying that “it’s just too Ren Faire and geeky goofy, Comic Convention nerd costume filksinging stuff. Doesn’t travel well.” I totally understand where the man is coming from, and yet it still puzzles me that listeners attracted to acoustic psychedelia, exotic ethno instruments, Appalachian balladry, forest folk, and esoteric singer-songwriter stuff—i.e., people like me—don’t go in for the great stuff packing the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque bins.”

Slashdot posters debunk the superiority of analog vinyl over digital CDs.

“Certainly, some very well-made pressings can sound outstanding, even better than digital in a few cases. But the poorer signal-to-noise ratio, essentially unavoidable surface wear, and the distortion introduced by the medium, on balance, make digital a better choice when the highest quality audio is needed. One thing records do have going for them is that they tend to be mastered, counterintuitively, with a wider dynamic range than contemporary CDs. Of course, this is a product of human decisions, not the media, and the optimal solution to this is simply to abandon the current practice of excessive compression and limiting on CDs, as they offer a greater potential for dynamic range than records.”

The Deli SF reviews Death of A Party.

“In true Death of a Party fashion, the songs are full of adrenaline and gothic glam, yet this time around are less eerie and more accessible. “Sympathy for Miss Veronica” digs its hooks into you and doesn’t let go for the whole three minutes and six seconds while “The Ballad of Johnny” will have you stomping and dancing. On Red Meadows, Death of a Party are serving up their post-punk shaken, not stirred. ”

Klaxons are making noise in the U.S.A.

“We just wanted to sing about fantasy and nowhere,” said Jamie Reynolds, the Klaxons’ hulking bassist and chief theoretician. “The only thing that ties everything together on our record is that every single song is about nowhere and there’s no physical representation of anything. It’s all imaginary, it’s all fantasy and it’s all conjecture. … That was the goal – not to have something that you could see or hear or touch or smell.

Key 64 posts a tribute to Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge.

“Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge, born Jacqueline Breyer in 1969, passed away Tuesday 9th October 2007. Lady Jaye and her partner Genesis Breyer P-Orridge spent the past several years living an “art as life project” sometimes called “Breaking Sex.” The couple altered their own appearances to look more and more like each other, forming a third ” pandrogenous” entity they called Breyer P-Orridge.”

That is all I have for now. Have a good day.

Writer and Techgnostic Erik Davis (author of an excellently esoteric book concerning Led Zeppelin’s “IV”) weighs in on the recent Led Zeppelin reunion show, and what exactly the band was invoking that night.

“While the Zeppelin reunion show was indeed an invocation, what was really being invoked was not the devil but, well, the entertainment juggernaut that is Led Zeppelin. Market-wise, their live appearance was as well-timed as a bonfire on solstice: the band recently released their “new” Mothership collection, featuring barely a hair’s difference from their last new double-CD collection; there’s also a redux of the still-wack The Song Remains of Same. In October, the behemoths gave into the digital regime and agreed to offer up their catalog online—an agreement that brought them an increased royalty rate from their distributor Warner Music Group, who also negotiated to oversee their copyrights. (Sharks!) I just saw The Golden Compass, and was treated with a Verizon ad for Zeppelin downloads before the film—a movie that, now that I think of it, also features a airship beefed up with metallurgic technology. When I finally played the bootleg backwards, I distinctly heard the following during the awesome rendition of “Kashmir”: buyyy led seppelyn ringtonezz… “

Capitalism devours all, even Crowley-obsessed legendary bands it seems. But despite that, Davis is still a true believer.

“Feeding off this show at one remove, I was forced to recognize that I was still a believer, that live performance on a global stage can recall and retain something like majesty in our hypermediated age. Call it presence, if you will, or a piper’s call. I just know I wish I had been there.”

It remains to be seen if Led Zeppelin will continue to hold on to their legendary legacy in our digital age, will the sigil magick conducted in the sixties and seventies hold out?

Writer and “techgnostic” Erik Davis profiles the American Black Metal band Wolves in the Throne Room for Slate.com. Unlike their nihilistic/Satanic European brethren, Wolves in the Throne Room subscribes to a more Pagan, earth-conscious, and ultimately hopeful, worldview.

“The contours of this myth echo what my chat with the band after the Santa Cruz show confirmed: Wolves in the Throne Room are hard-core tree-huggers, with a Manichaean view of the environmental crisis and a pagan faith in the transformative powers of nature. I mostly talked to Aaron, an articulate and intelligent fellow wearing a green Tyrolean hat. After honing his politics in the Pacific Northwest’s DIY punk scene, Aaron moved to D.C. to fight the good fight as a secular lefty. It didn’t work out, and he moved back to Olympia, where a surprising series of spiritual experiences he hasn’t really talked about made him a clear-eyed seeker of earth wisdom. With his brother and their respective partners, he now lives on 10 acres of land near Evergreen State College, where his posse is painstakingly crafting a sustainable life off the grid. And finding time to play hard-core, shamanic eco-metal.”

For Davis, the marriage of brutal Black Metal and a Gaian environmentalist ethos makes perfect sense, considering  the mental effects of taking an unfiltered look at environmental calamity.

“This is disturbing stuff, and it’s supposed to be. I mean, aren’t you a bit disturbed? Lots of people who open their souls to today’s seemingly relentless assault on wild creatures and wild places find themselves gripped by bitterness, melancholy, and misanthropy.”

Considering the rise of Pagan-themed music across Europe, it seems inevitable that the more extreme metal genres would grab hold of a spiritual view of the world that allowed them to fight for something, while still opposing the dominant monotheisms. Will metal’s nihilism slowly give way to a reluctant polytheism or pantheism? For more on Davis’ love of Pagan-influenced metal, check out his paean to Viking Metal  at Powell’s Books.