A Sweeping Curve of Sound

This past few weeks has seen announcements from two Pagan-friendly music labels/distributors that they are closing up shop. First, at the end of June, the online folk music resource Woven Wheat Whispers called it quits.

“We didn’t have to close WWW, it was paying it’s way and no money was lost. It was just a decision about the future taken calmly at a point where we had time to think… It was meant to be fun and would have turned into slog at some point in the near future … We could have continued and would have done alright, but with Myspace starting to sell downloads, Amazon coming in and iTunes level of market dominance, there was little point. Even CDBaby now sell downloads alongside the CD. Exiting in a positive way seemed the best thing to do at the right time. WWW didn’t collapse, we have all the money needed. It was a decision taken about how far to push what was a small home operation delivered in my spare time.”

I mentioned Woven Wheat Whispers on this blog last year when they released (with Cold Spring Records) the amazing “John Barleycorn Reborn” compilation. Woven Wheat Whispers introduced me to some great artists, including The Owl Service, Cunnan, Arrowwood, Novemthree, Sharron Kraus, and The Horses of The Gods. It at times felt like the label/service was especially created for fans of The Wicker Man soundtrack (a high compliment in my book). Needless to say, WWW artists got, and continue to get, at lot of airplay on my podcast/streaming radio show.

Meanwhile, just yesterday, Dancing Ferret/Noir Records founder Patrick Rodgers announced that his popular goth/darkwave label would be closing down in November.

“After November, Dancing Ferret Discs (and Noir Records) will stop releasing new material. Of course this does NOT mean that our wonderful artists are hanging up their hats, nor that their albums will disappear. It also does NOT mean that anything will happen to Nocturne, Dracula’s Ball, Digital Ferret or IsoTank. It simply means that in the future, new albums by the DFD bands that you love will be released by other labels (or in some cases, by the artists themselves).”

DFD/Noir, aside from representing popular darkwave acts like The Cruxshadows, also introduced America to great European neo-medieval, ethereal, Pagan-folk, and darkwave bands like Corvus Corax, Irfan, The Dreamside, Faun, and Omnia.

Both of these labels/services have been instrumental in helping to expand the idea of a “Pagan music” beyond the New Age mediocrities and sub-par folk that many assumed was the norm. It showed that there were new generations of musicians across America, the UK, and Europe, that were making challenging and exciting music that dealt with themes near and dear to the Pagan soul. To say that the exit of Woven Wheat Whispers and Dancing Ferret/Noir leaves a hole is an understatement. So I raise my glass in toast to both of them, they have enriched us more than most will ever know.

You can expect tributes to both Woven Wheat Whispers and Dancing Ferret/Noir in upcoming episodes of my A Darker Shade of Pagan podcast.

I just came across an article in Zeek (a Jewish journal of thought and culture) from 2006 that discusses the recent revival of psychedelic music and the spiritual dimensions underlying “psychedelia”.

“For today’s psych-folk musicians, spirituality exists in the tension between the great heights of ego-dissolution and the sunken buried claustrophobia of the self — not in the escape from one to the other. Pysch folk, particularly with drone, can have the qualities of an incantation, of a spell, the words learned first as a prayer, but manipulated into something magical. And yet, there is something oddly pragmatic about it. Like any good folk music, it is the music of community, of simple songs that become part of an oral/musical tradition, music that can be passed on. The subversive side of psychedelia — the effect pedals, reverb, looping — means that the community that will sustain it is also one that is of the 21st century. This combination of technology and the echoes of British folk partly gives psych folk a pagan quality. But this peculiar brand of musical mysticism more readily evokes a kind of pantheism: Holiness is hidden in the world; the right tool, maybe the drone of a computerized loop, can be the incantation to set it free. “

Similar sentiments can be found in the “Wyrd Folk” movement, ritualistic and Heathen strains within Neofolk, and from individuals within the psych-folk movement.

“It should be noted that the underlying impetus of The Project Series is to reconnect the world to itself. Valerie is a film partially born from of a complex folk tradition, centuries of provincial culture. As global borders expand and cultural homoginisation ascends, it is important that artists spread the heritage and uniqueness of pre-21st century cultural identity, so that such identities can be discovered, valued, and hopefully preserved by a modern global culture that tends to forget the learned wisdom of its past. “

Part of my attraction to the psych-folk revival stems from this emphasis on pagan, folkloric, and immanent themes that can be found (either explicitly or in the subtext). It’s one of the reasons I include these artists (another is that I like them) within my A Darker Shade of Pagan podcast, and why I’m going to be covering them in my book (currently in process) on the history of modern Pagan and occult music.

Legendary British folk-rock pioneers Pentangle are reforming to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their Royal Hall performance where they recorded the live portion of the seminal double-album “Sweet Child”.

Pentangle

“On 29 June 2008, exactly 40 years to the day that unique British folk/jazz ’supergroup’ Pentangle recorded the live disc of their seminal double album, Sweet Child, at London’s Royal Festival Hall, the original band: Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Jacqui McShee, Danny Thompson and Terry Cox, will reunite and return to the Royal Festival Hall to celebrate their legacy. From their formation in swinging ‘60s London, Pentangle were one of the most exciting and innovative groups in the world, genuinely pushing boundaries and exploring new musical avenues. Simultaneously stars of the underground and darlings of the mainstream, they enjoyed an unprecedented degree of success worldwide for an acoustic band and their influence and musical impact is still revered and relevant today, as evidenced by the critical and commercial acclaim for The Time Has Come, and their BBC Radio 2 Lifetime Achievement Award presented in February 2007 at the BBC Folk Awards by Sir David Attenborough. This concert is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for long-time fans to revisit and new fans to experience for the first time the magic that is Pentangle.”

It is hard to overestimate just how influential Pentangle and other British folk-rockers were on the new crop of Psych Folk artists, the British Wyrd-folksters, and the Pagan music scene. Though the original lineup hasn’t worked regularly together since 1972 (though vocalist Jacqui McShee still tours with a band dubbed “Jacqui McShee’s Pentangle”), their shadow looms large on the current underground folk scene. A recent example being the 30th annual Brosella Folk Festival in Brussels, where several members of prominent Flemish folk bands joined with Jacqueline ‘Jacqui’ McShee and Danny Thompson to form “The Wicker Band” and proceeded to perform songs from “The Wicker Man” movie before a midnight showing of the film (an event I would have given my eye-teeth to attend).

The highlight was the special project, The Wicker Band. Their performance was dedicated to Antoine Courtmans, honorary president of the Friends of Brosella, who died in April. First, the group performed some songs which contained themes in relation to The Wicker Man film. Including music written by XTC, Malicorne, The Velvet Underground and some traditional numbers. There was also a beautiful duet between Neeka and Jacqui McShee, the classic folk song “My Husband’s Got No Courage In Him”.

No doubt fans are going crazy at the thought of seeing the original lineup live. In any event, its a good an excuse as any to explore this extremely talented and influential group. For a quick education on the band, why not start with their recently released box-set? You’ll be glad you did.

Downloads: Pentangle - “Cruel Sister”
(from the album “Cruel Sister”)

Links: Pentangle on MySpace, Bert Jansch on MySpace

The Baltic Times has an interesting article up about a joint Pagan-Christian Advent celebration in Lithuania.

“Vidury lauko grusele” (Pear-Tree in the Middle of the Field) is the title of the event in Vilnius City Hall where two creative folk groups … will perform songs and traditional folk dance … Some of the lyrics in Advent songs describe birds in a nest, trees, a garden, the sun and relationships … six women will sing fragments from the 33 traditional songs that unlock magic that can lead to a wealthier life and good fortune in the new year … The dancing for both events will feature soft movements mixed with those that are upbeat and loud.

Kulgrinda performing a sunset chant.

“Advent is a special time in Lithuania – a time to relax and spend time with family before the feast of 12 meals starts on Christmas Eve. The Latin word “advenire” is a time of waiting and preparing for the arrival of the Christ child. And for the pagans, it is a time for renewal of the season and of the human spirit.  “In pagan times, Advent is also a time of death in nature. Light and darkness are fighting, and in the pear-tree song we will sing about the transformation because people didn’t know when the sun would return again, so they sang about the tree of life,” explained Daila Urbanavicene, a Kulgrinda dancer. “ 

Participating in the event will be renowned Pagan folk group Kulgrinda, along with the Keisto Folkloro Grupe and folklore and dancing troupes Kursiu Ainiai and Sedula. Certainly a change of pace from the ongoing Christmas wars raging in America. Maybe if we all had to participate in folk-dancing there would be less bother over specific idealogical stances. For more commentary on this story, check out my blog “The Wild Hunt”.

I have always been a fan of the more haunted and esoteric side of the new wave of psychedelic folk. More Espers than Devendra Banhart, more British Wyrd Folk than Naturalismo if you catch my drift. So you’ll get a general idea of where I’m coming from when I say I really enjoy the sounds I find on the new split-EP from Novemthree and Arrowwood.

Both projects deal with haunting folk styles, sounds that evoke a sort of timeless atmosphere of poetry and myth. Arrowwood’s contribution weaves an almost ambient haze of melancholic moods, which, lead by vocalist Chelsea Robb (with accompaniment from Pythagumus, Lindsey Hoffman, Josh Lovejoy), transports you to a time when haunting laments were the bread and butter of troubadours everywhere. Meanwhile, Novemthree (spearheaded by Pythagumus) has a sound that evokes memories of the spooky pastoral folk found on The Wicker Man Sountrack (which if you know me, is high praise indeed). Songs that seem ready to turn the wheel of the year and initiate you to deeper mysteries.

The EP is a release on the new Little Somebody Records label, who utilizes unique packaging (two mini-CDs with some marvelous graphic design) to create a treasured collectors item. This is strong and talented work that should perk up the ears of any folk-music enthusiast, even if their tastes don’t run down the same crooked paths mine do. This is music that beckons you towards a dark wood, and you should heed its call.

Links: Novemthree @ MySpace, Arrowwood @ MySpace