FULL STURGEON MOON (13 August 2011)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

CAMERATA MEDIOLANENSE

CAMPO DI MARTE


Original Issue: 1996 Discordia (Disc 093 CD)

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

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Do not forget to take a look at the comments section :-)

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from Old Europa Café:

This album was released back in 1996 and is still one of the very best Neoclassic albums ever ! True European music!

The quality of Camerata in their music stile is unique and no other group was able to achieve such results …

Fanfare, Drums, super wonderful Vocals especially the female ones, Cembalo plus other classic instruments, simply majestic sounds and exquisite compositions !

LAMMAS (01 August 2011)

The musick dedicated to this Sabbat is:

DER BLUTHARSCH

THE TRACK OF THE HUNTED



Original Issue: 2000 WKN (WKN 10)

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

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Do not forget to take a look at the comments section :-)

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from Stereo Invaders (Google Translation from Italian :

"The trace of the man who is prone to hunting," fate, oppression, predeterminism, escape, violence, foreboding, anxiety, grief, all this is contained in the title of the album and the music it contains. In perfect consistency with the ideal artistic vision and content by Albin Julius, Der Blutharsch. Dark ambient, martial neofolk with drifts; Titanism atavistic, primal well-commented that it would corrupt the exploits of Roman patricians, or the exploits of the heroic classicism of Prometheus, in constant struggle with adverse fate and divinity. If someone is pushed to label as "sacred music" that consists of Julius would certainly shocking and unorthodox in his thinking, but not so far away from the essence of true. Many ethnic and popular music (folk) got the basics of the Austrian composer to write this "TTOTH". We are in the presence of the usual track list (10) untitled; "let the music do the talking" to put American and undoubtedly contributes to donate so much mystery also the right atmosphere to the project Der Blutharsch. For those wishing to necessarily references, except the understanding that Albin Julius is very unique, I could mention a few moments of Death in June (with which our works well) and Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio, although compared to the Swedes there is less room for the esoteric and the occult here, however, the greater the interest in the human comedy, made of misery and nobility, power and submission. Albin plays and manipulates samples like no other, creating real works of symphonic ambient neofolk post-industrial, able to lift the soul of the listener and land at the same time. The track number 9 in particular is a sample (shown in full) of a 30s song in German, probably a song that he met his fortune under the Nazis. Fascist and neo-Nazi epithets are often saddled with Julius, so in the past prevented him from concerts in Israel, and this is largely due to the use of iconography and issues close to the Third Reich by Julius. A course nothing is worth the net claim against the person concerned, or his firm will be able to play in the land of David.

FULL BUCK MOON (15 July 2011)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

PALESTINE CHARLEMAGNE & HEEMANN CHRISTOPH

SAITEN IN FLAMMEN


Original Issue: 2009 Streamline (STREAMLINE 1026)

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

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Do not forget to take a look at the comments section :-)

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from Soundohm:

Saiten In Flammen, a new album by Charlemagne Palestine and Christoph Heemann follows their collaborative work on Palestine's heavy-metal-piano workout The Apocalypse Will Blossom with a more textural approach. As on The Apocalypse... the only sound source used throughout these two electro-acoustic explorations of the lower depths is the Bösendorfer Imperial Grand Piano, notorious for its unique resonant qualities.

The title is a German translation of 'strings aflame.' ...looking directly at the cloud, he saw that it was not a cloud, although what it was he did not know. It was a massive wall of utter blackness that rose from where it met the surface of the downward sloping sand far into the sky, so that he was forced to crane his neck to see the top of it. Lightning bolts still slashed across its face with devastating ferocity, and thunder crashed and rumbled.

The wall, he saw or thought he'd saw, was a monstrous dam raised against the sky, and over the lip of it was pouring something that was not water, a gigantic waterfall of blackness that was not water, crashing down across the face of it, a waterfall so solid and unbroken that he did not see the actual falling of it, but only had the hypnotic sense of its falling.

Watching it, he realized that it was not only thunder he heard, but the deep, awful roar of whatever was falling over the lip of the dam, the Niagara-like rushing sound of something falling down from great height, falling from the unknown into the unknown. It seemed to him that the very ground beneath him was trembling with the roar.'

FULL FLOWER MOON (17 May 2011)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

ROSEMARY'S BABY

ANDREW WOODHOUSE


Original Issue: 1986 Ricerche Studi Babalon (RSB 3/7)

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

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from L'Erba della Strega (Google automatic translation from Italian):

From the beginning of its work, RSB said to put the TOPY as a starting point and not necessarily of arrival.

This implied the fact that prior to putting in the fruit of his research could be of any type and not necessarily on one side or the other for stupid statement.

With the completion of this project, "Andrew Woodhouse is immediately and permanently ended the research studies Babalon and his work as TOPY Italian, also comes to an end the existence of Rosemary's Baby, a subsidiary of the music more complex project RSB : Babalon was researched and studied and, at the present time was recognized.

Below we publish the results.

RSB - July 1986



This is the statement that opens the book contained in the final production of Rosemary's Baby: The LP Andrew Woodhouse. After only a couple of years, as the group bids farewell to his supporters, admirers and followers, exalted, and not trendy. Print run 500 copies of the disc, 250 in free distribution. The title itself symbolizes the change took place in the group: in the film Rosemary Andrew is the name that would give his son, and will ultimately be called Adrian. Nearly a change of course.

Disk and the words contained in the booklet and in the letters that he wrote about Pierre, he could talk for pages, but I remember the premise made at the beginning of the article. I have uncovered the tomb where rests Rosemary's Baby, I tried to describe their past life, but I do not want to completely remove the veil that envelops the body. This we can do each of us if interested and with his head.

What is certain is that the project had actually worked well, the purpose of study and research had been fully pursued and at the time had come to maturity of the ideas with the point from which he had left had little to do. The results mentioned in the statement are not disclosed. Instead, they are presented as extracts from books by various authors, among which is expected to emphasize the preponderance of the quotations from the works of Rene Guenon: its opinions on the psyche and the magic, the modern world and human development.

The entire A side of the disc is occupied by an impressive cover of "The End" The Doors, re-run in a tribal, ethereal, dreamy, full of percussion and never disturbing and oppressive as it could be a "... The power of love." You find yourself floating in a smoky haze for the duration of the piece, even more exciting final for the registration of which the Rosemary's Baby have used some tools used by Tibetan monks for the last piece of the B-side The text is modified, you can read all handwritten in a copy of a calendar page dated July 3 (death of Jim Morrison ...), also attached to the disk. Text not changed at random, as Pierre explains in one of his last letters.

The B side is instead of three recordings. "ENI," Byzantine chant sung and celebrated in the Monastery of Xenophontos. "La ilaha illallah" Muslim who obsessively repeats the song title, which sounds like "There is no god but Allah." "Swayambunath" recording of a song made by Tibetan R'sB in the temple of Swayambhunath.

Pierre closes one of his last letters with the phrase "Seek the Lord." I believe that reflecting on this fact and the three songs that Rosemary's Baby have decided to include in the B side of the disc, you can guess what was the road that they were trying to take at that time.

FULL HUNTERS' MOON (22 October 2010)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

LAIBACH

NATO


Original Issue: 1994 Mute Records (CDSTUMM121) Buy it here!!!

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

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Miscellaneous reviews:

Following the 1992's "Kapital" and the launch of their new republic (don't ask), Laibach are back. You may remember their reinvention of Queen's "One Vision" as stirring Volk anthem, which somehow managed to highlight some peculiarly common ground between Nuremberg and Freddie Mercury ("Ein Fleisch!/Ein Mensch..."). You may even remember their slow detonation of "Sympathy For The Devil", reinvented as a funereal postcard from hell. Laibach have always been scary and hilarious - mostly at the same time. "NATO", I'm delighted to say, exceeds even their most burlesque moments.

Apparently, "NATO" is inspired by the state of flux gripping Eastern Europe. But don't let that put you off the fact that Laibach's penchant for dignying silly pop songs like Status Quo's "In The Army Now" with absurdly operatic pomp and Teutonic portent, reveals them to be more akin to a kind of solemn Slovenian Frank Sidebottom. On Europe's "The Final Countdown" Milan scarily intones, "We're heading for Venus/But still we stand tall", and immediately the poodle-permed rockers become ashen-faced harbringers of the apocalypse. Elsewhere, the album's theme of changing world orders takes the Holst ("The Planets"), Pink Floyd ("Dogs Of War") and Edwin Star ("War"), relocated within Laibach's grand vision of a Europe in flux at the of the millennium. Nostradamus, Wagner, Giorgio Moroder and the Warsaw Pact make ideal bedfellows. Quite how Laibach have kept a straight face for so long, is something I'll never understand. I wouldn't have them any other way though.

Peter Paphides, Time Out, 19 - 26 October 1994

It's always been very difficult to pin Laibach down to a particular style. Certain ingredients of their sound (a dark orchestral feel, heavily accented, sepulchral vocals) have remained relatively constant, and allowed the easy identification of their work. However, the context within which those characteristic features are used has varified widely. They've done everything from stage-related concept albums such as "Macbeth" to all - cover releases like "Let It Be" and "Sympathy For The Devil".

"NATO" fuses both of these extremes into a seamless whole, an album with a consistent theme that is implemented entirely through cover versions. Rather than stick with a single artist, the group have selected material from a number of sources and fed it through the Laibach mincer. Not all of the songs chosen were originally on the theme of war, but given their talent for making almost anything sound like it was recorded at a Red Army requiem disco, this isn't important.

First up is "NATO" itself. At some time in the dim distant past this track was Gustav Holst's "Mars" but Laibach have, in typically awkward fashion, taken the most intrinsically warlike piece of music on the album, and added a dance beat and assorted electronic burbles to produce a bizarre cross of full orchestra and lightweight techno that updates Holst's pre - First World War piece to an age of electronic warfare and laser - guided munitions. It works, but Laibach's interpretation is rather less doom - laden than the original, allowing it to meet the other metamorphosed covers here halfway.

Edwin Starr's "War" is equally unconventional. Part contemporary techno, part Laibach theatrics, the lyrics here have been cleverly altered so that Starr's original rhetorical question of "War - what is good for?" is for once actually answered. Science, religion, domination and communication, according to Laibach. More specifically, they list (among others) GM, IBM, Newsweek, CNN, Universal, Siemens, Sony... the list goes on. Very cleverly done, both musically and lyrically, even if Laibach's list of martial benefactors seems a little odd at times. Sony? Aren't they purely a consumer electronics firm? Or did I somehow miss the launch of the Bombman?

The first single taken from this album, a cover of Europe's "The Final Countdown", was a highly commercial mixture of lightweight Euro - disco and the usual Laibach ingredients. When I heard the single, I suspected the album version would be rather less explicitly dancefloor friendly.

I was right, but not to be expected degree. The version here does indeed suggest that the Pet Shop Boys have run off to a remote Balkan castle and begun experimenting with a pipe organ the size of a house and a heavily accented choir, but it's still rather more poppy and rather less overblown and pompous than I'd hoped. Still, it's pretty good and would certainly have Joey Tempest turning in his grave if he was dead in anything but a musical sense.

The thought of Laibach covering Status Quo is strange enough in itself but the blunt reality of it is stranger still. Their rendition of "In The Army Now" is recognizable, but reshapes the song in Laibach's own image as a blend of grandiose choral sequences and a dance beat. It works well but there's really not more I can say about it. Pink Floyd's "Dogs Of War" gets a similar treatment. I'm not familiar with the original, but regardless of how it originally sounded it's now a high BPM techno track with a choir and those gravelly Slovenian tones over the top. Again, it works well although it's difficult to say exactly why.

Probably the most faithful cover here is that of DAF's "Alle Gegen Alle". This is perhaps due to the stark minimalism of the original - there was so little to it to begin with that you can't really add all that much if you want it to remain recognizable. On the top of this, let's face it, even Shirley Temple would sound like DAF if she were to bark German lyrics over a stripped - down militaristic dance beat. Musically, it's very close to the original, but adds the inevitable Laibach vocals and choir, plus an odd choral bridge that suggests Laibach are considering adding the track to a 30s musical spectacular about the Nuremberg rallies.

The next track finds Laibach indulging in a little lyrical meddling, metamorphosing "Indian Reservation" into "National Reservation" with appropriate lyrical changes to slant the song towards the situation of the former Soviet satellites in Eastern Europe. It's perhaps not entirely fair to liken the current situation of the Eastern European states to that of native Americans, but musically the track's interesting enough and trundles along nicely.

Their interpretation of the old Zagen And Evans hit "In The Year 2525" hits some rather more firmly. The song was always rather more suited musically to their current approach than most of the material here, but Laibach have done some very interesting things to the track lyrically, replacing the umpteen - thousand years of future history chronicled by the original by a gloomy and decidedly apocalyptic history of the period 1994 - 1999. Those dark Slovenian vocals are perfect here, and manage to convey an incredible sense of world weariness, cynicism and sadness. The minimalist backing track of a thunderous heartbeat works well too.

The album is rounded off by the song I couldn't trace the original of. I know that it was originally "March On River Drina" (read: The War God Mars on River Drina, read: March On River Drina - which is a Serbian military marching anthem from the First World War) but that's about it - the credits for the original versions are, alas, printed rather illegibly on the disc itself rather than in the booklet. It looks like it was composed by Stanislav Binicki, but I'm unsure of the spelling of that surname and with my musical encyclopedia inaccessible can't confirm it. Anyway, regardless of the composer, Laibach's arrangement of the track is excellent. It begins in a dark and warlike vein, punctuated by male and female choirs, eerie moans and groans and a militaristic drumbeat before veering into a more contemporary vein. The slightly cheesy brass is a little odd - one picture Captain Kirk fighting a man in a lizard suit for the hand of a woman with green hair rather than anything military, and the choir sometimes suggests the flying monkeys from the Wizard Of Oz, but there you have it. Very enjoyable, even if it doesn't quite have the desired effect.

Overall, I'm very impressed. As always, it's difficult to compare this to any prior Laibach releases since they never seem to head in quite the same direction twice in succession. However, it's more likely to appeal to those who're into the group's cover material such as "Let It Be" than those who like "Macbeth" or their early work.

The interest here lies less in Laibach's distinctive take - no - prisoners approach to covering other people's material than in what their reinterpretations actually say. There's less parody here than before, with Laibach apparently focusing less on a demolition job of the artists covered than on using their material to get Laibach's own point across.

Of course, that's not to say that the material here couldn't be enjoyed in a parodic sense - "Final Countdown" is, for example, a fine example of the total war approach to cover versions that Laibach have used in the past. There's more to this on though, and it's by turns beautiful and terrible, although not quite to the same degree as their best material. Definitely worth a listen though, and as good an introduction to their more recent sound as anything they've put out in the past few years.

Al Crawford - awrc@access.digex.net

LAMMAS (01 August 2010)

The musick dedicated to this Sabbat is:

WALL JOHN

ALTERSTILL


Original Issue: 1995 UtterPsalm (UtterPsalm CD2)

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

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1 Fragmenta 11:04
2 Alterstill (Nothing Is Sacred) 10:17
3 Belief Not 8:57
4 Stunde Null (I) 7:06
5 Stunde Null (II) 11:38

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from All Music Guide:

The first in British composer John Wall's beautifully designed series on the Utterpsalm label, this limited-edition CD comes in a card-booklet slipcase. Housed inside is an aggressive and disorientating series of sample-based works, like a contemporary classical suite, although some of the chosen sample material is fairly unorthodox, such as Carcass; the power of the metal group is used to great effect juxtaposed against samples of contemporary classical, musique concrète, and free improvisations from the outer regions of 20th century music.

Sample sources range from Scelsi, Luigi Nono, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and company through to European free improvisation, black metal, and '70s Krautrock. John Wall's compositions sit nicely alongside the works of Rioji Ikeda, or some of the contemporary musique concrète from the French Metamkine CD series. Erik M, John Oswald, and Oval are all points of reference, although John Wall's vision and process is unique.

Few artists work with the attention to detail -- from production through to packaging and presentation, the work is beautiful. Rumored to have spent literally years making albums, it is easy to believe when hearing the complexities of the fine electro-acoustic transformations.

Sylvie Harrison

FULL PINK MOON (28 April 2010)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN

TABULA RASA


Original Issue: 1993 Mute (BETON 106 CD) Buy it here!!!

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

"Blume" and "Wüste" still resonating and haunting me from 1993!

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1 Die Interimsliebenden
2 Zebulon
3 Blume
4 12305(te Nacht)
5 Sie
6 Wüste

Headcleaner
7.I Zentrifuge / Stabs / Rotlichtachse Propaganda / Aufmarsch
7.II Einhorn
7.III Marschlied /
8 Das Gleissen / Schlacht
8.IV Lyrischer Rückzug

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from http://www.sputnikmusic.com/:

Latin for clean slate, its an apt title it would be the last album with Mark Chung and Muffi. The album opens with Die Interimsliebenden, with a funky bass by Alexander Hacke. Immediately you are struck by the lack of metallic noise and how melody is beginning to move to the fore.

Zebulon is spare and gentle melody and vocal harmonies devoid of any percussion until it explodes in the last minute or so. Still the release is lacks the abrasion of previous works.
Fans may at this point begin to feel that neubauten have softened and they may be right but then they are missing the point.

Neubauten have began to expand their sound, use noise more sparingly and effective. Blume is a haunting melody, lead by female vocals with Bargelds whispers under pinning it, at times dreamy and other times filled with sadness.

12305 (Te Nacht) is electronic beeps and metal scrapings and droning, not the strongest track but by no means filler.

Sie sees the band swap metal pipes for plastic tubing, a technique that they will reuse throughout later albums, at least until the end of the track where it comes in sparingly. While not as harsh as their more metallic songs, it still has the same intensity.

Wuste is a stand out track, using strings for the first time in a Neubauten album, as well as sand and burning oil. It starts off largely instrumental sounding like a Philip Glass composition, before
Blixa's whispered vocals creep in, at times they are barely audible over weird sounds and strings. Then the song abruptly ends.

Headcleaner builds from a low to hum over 1.03 mins punctuated by metallic percussion then dies down only start up again, and does this over its 15 mins.
Every time explodes the band throw themselves full long into sound smashing metal against metal recalling the glorious collapse of their debut kollapse.

Hearing it now the tension of the track it sounds like percussionist Muffi trying to drown out Bargeld and the rest of the band, it becomes easy to use the song as a metaphor for the inner tensions of the band and how they would never record another song as chaotic or tense as this track.

tomwaits4noman

FULL HUNTER'S MOON (02 November 2009)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

FROST BEN

THEORY OF MACHINES


Original Issue: 2006 Bedroom Community (HVALUR 2) (Buy it here!!!)

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

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1 Theory Of Machines 9:30
2 Stomp 8:26
3 We Love You Michael Gira 7:49
4 ...Coda 1:42
5 Forgetting You Is Like Breathing Water 11:13

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from Almostcool.org:

When readers of this site kept recommending Ben Frost, I knew that it was an artist I should seek out (as my readers most often know more than I do), and after hearing his album Theory Of Machines, I'm glad that I did. The second release on the fledgling Bedroom Community label, it's also the third release from Frost, and finds him pushing even further into powerful audio explorations that sounds something like Tim Hecker with occasionally punishing rhythms. He examines textures and timbres in lovely, and sometimes disturbing ways over the course of five tracks and just under forty minutes, mixing pastoral beauty with gut-churning blasts in other places.

The album-titled opener "Theory Of Machines" sets the tone with a super-slow build of filtered guitar that's almost crystalline in places. Eventually, slow-morphing sludgy bass enters the mix and the track builds to a powerful climax of screaming guitars and overdriven beats about two-thirds of the way through before melting into ambience again. "Stomp" follows, and takes a slightly different direction, with programmed beat thumps banging across a more barren landscape while distance waves of noise only creep into the foreground during a crunchy ending.

"We Love You Michael Gira" conveys a similar sense of dread as many tracks on the album, and this time Frost pulls it off by again barely keeping waves of feedback under control for the first half of the track before letting loose with a repeating high tone (that resembles a medical device warning sound) and some beats that are absolutely coated in feedback and on the verge of breaking down. A string coda at the end of the song does nothing to lighten the mood.

If the former track was barely-contained violence, then "Coda" is where things let loose with any pent up energy. The two-minute track is all scorching guitar noise, red-lined bass pulses, and hammering drums that finally blur out at the end. Given all that came before it, it seems only fitting that the closer of "Forgetting You Is Like Breathing Water" takes things down a great deal to warm repeated tones, filtered drones, and some subtle strings that sound something like a more layered version of the minimal pulse-tone work that Oren Ambarchi has mastered. Even though it's a shorter album, Theory Of Machines is by no means a light listen. With several moments that will make your hair stand up on end (both for sheer beauty and dread), this is definitely worth seeking out.

SAMHAIN (31 October 2009)

The musick dedicated to this Sabbat is:

SHINJUKU THIEF

THE WITCH HUNTER


Original Issue: 1995 Dorobo (Dorobo 009)

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

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1 Prelude - In The Wake Of Walpurga's Ashes
2 A Black Furrow
3 Cobwebs And Vinegar
4 Shadow Path
5 A Swim At Night
6 The Second Dream
7 Blue Flame
8 Smoke And Ice
9 Marias' Shirt
10 Berserkir
11 The Witch Hunter
12 Four Ember Weeks Of Ecstatic Sleep

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from http://www.darrinverhagen.com/:

For the second release in the "witch" trilogy, Shinjuku Thief descend further into the nightmare world of medieval superstition, paranoia and vengeance. East European violin, reflective passages of brooding ambience and occasional moments of hope are undercut by sheer orchestral violence and a chillingly bleak filmic landscape.

Overwhelming...gorgeous. If only most classical music could mean as much as this. I think this guy should be shipped off to LA to show Mr ravel a thing or two." - the Wire, UK

"A work of discipline and assurance and no little beauty, given an added dimension by its mysterious subtexts of found sounds and radio interference. Indispensable." - the Wire, UK (yearly wrap-up 1995)

"Like it's predecessor, a marvellously evocative album." - Al Crawford, USA

"Enchanting, bewitching, darkness unveiled. Essential" - Dark Angel, AU

"Top 10, office ambience 1995" - the Wire, UK

LITHA (21 June 2009)

The musick dedicated to this Sabbat is:

MARTIRANO SALVATORE

L's G.A. / BALLAD / OCTECT

Original Issue: 1968 Polydor (24-5001)

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

Track 1 is entitled "L's GA For Gas-Masked Politico, Helium Bomb, And Two-Channel Tape" and is an ASTONISHING piece of music!!!

Do you need something more to convince you?

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1 L's GA For Gas-Masked Politico, Helium Bomb, And Two-Channel Tape (24:19)
2 Ballad (11:46)
3 Octet (7:01)

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from http://ems.music.uiuc.edu/~martiran/:


"Blow your mind (and 50c) on the mixed media concert in Finney Chapel," suggest signs presently posted on the Oberlin College campus.

Featured on the avant-garde program tonight at 8:30 will be a staged performance of "L's GA" ("Lincoln's Gettysburg Address") by Salvatore Martirano, a theater piece for gas-masked politicos, helium bomb, three movie projectors and two-channel tape recorder.

Describing his notorious composition to a group of Oberlin students yesterday, Martirano said, "It starts with eight minutes of low sound that actually vibrates the floor (you get a massage), and ends with an organ version of 'My heart at thy sweet voice' from 'Samson and Delilah.' It gives a very exalted feeling."

The 24-minute piece, the composer explained, also incorporated Lincoln's speech recited in several dialects, films of faces, flowers, tongues and other things, and electronic sound from 24 speakers.

"It's not too loud for people who are accustomed to rock," he said.

The original impetus for "L's GA," which also exists in recorded and filmed versions, came from a lecture Martirano heard opposing the use of political subjects in art works. So negative was the former Marine's reaction that he decided to write a work showing that "it could be done."

Completed in 1968, the piece has received 35 performances in a variety of geographical locations and physical environments.

The audience reaction is different every time," Martirano said. "At the Electric Circus in New York, people were shouting and cheering. But in Portland, Ore., they just sat there, stunned."

Martirano reports, however, that his music has never stimulated violent responses.

"I try to make connections with the audience," he said. "I start with something they know - texts by Lincoln, Shakespeare, Dante - and then translate word inflections into many different sounds. Generally, people like my music - because it's easy."

Martirano's career as a composer began more than 20 years ago when he was a student of Herbert Elwell at Oberlin. After completing his undergraduate degree, he attended the Eastman School of Music where he studied with Bernard Rogers. He then received a Fulbright fellowship to Italy where he worked with Luigi Dallapiccola.

Numerous fellowships, grants, awards and commissions followed. And today as composer-in-residence at the University of Illinois, Martirano is securely entrenched in the university complex, which he regards as "a very enlightened place to be."

To an impressive list of compositions for orchestra, chamber ensemble, chorus, voice, electronic tape and mixed media, Martirano will soon add a new work scored for large orchestra, controller and bunny.

Wilma Salisbury

FAREWELL MOON (epitaph musick)

BANASIK CHRISTIAN

IGOR'S SMILE



Original Issue: 1993

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

After visiting San Michele cemetery in Venice and, in particular, Igor Stravinsky's grave (see my picture below), I'm in the need to pay my respectful hommage to this unforgivable Maestro of modern music.

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1 Igor's Smile (14:59)

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from Christian Banasik homepage:

This piece can be interpreted as bridge and metamorphosis between digitally mastered tape-recorded music and a radio play. The theme of the piece is the osmosis of language and music - and of narrative linearity and purely tonal speech material. The musical sections are created through the medium of a sampler.

Brief interludes of Igor Stravinsky´s most well-known ballets are sampled, partially transformed and varied by way of a number of different transpositions and loops. In each case the individual passages from various pieces are moulded into a specifically adapted harmonic context within the respective position.

The linguistic plane is represented by Stravinsky´s original voice from interviews and rehearsals (recorded between 1962 and 1965) as well as by commentaries of the premiere performance of "Sacre du printemps" in Paris (1913) which play a key role here. In turn, striking woodblock sounds serve as mediation between the two planes, accentuating the beginning or end of tones as well as to creating the third, superordinate plane distancing the audience from the historical material. The piece was produced at the Synclavier System of the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt.

List of orchestra samples:

sample 1: "Firebird" - "Infernal Dance" measure 1

sample 2: "Firebird" - "Infernal Dance" [15] m1-m4

sample 3: "Firebird" - "Finale" [16] m3/4, [17] m1

sample 4: "Petrouchka" - Part 1, "Dance Russe" m1-4

sample 5: "The Rite of Spring" - Part 1 (Adoration of the Earth, "Ritual of the Rival Tribes") [57] m1/2

FULL BEAVER MOON (13 November 2008)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

BLOOD AXIS & LES JOYAUX DE LA PRINCESSE

ABSINTHE: LA FOLIE VERTE


Original Issue: 2002 Athanor (ATNR 017) Buy it here!!!

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

A recent discovery for me and an unvaluable gem!

Totally mesmerized by this masterpiece...this is the sound of my beloved Europe!

I am the Green Fairy
My robe is the colour of despair
I have nothing in common with the fairies of the past
What I need is blood, red and hot, the palpitating flesh of my victims
Alone, I will kill France, the Present is dead, Vive the future.

But me, I kill the future and in the family I destroy the love of country, courage, honour,
I am the purveyor of hell, penitentiaries, hospitals.

Who am I finally? I am the instigator of crime
I am ruin and sorrow
I am shame
I am dishonour
I am death
I AM ABSINTHE

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1 Folie Verte (I Am The Green Fairy) (3:40)
2 Symphonie Verte (And Here I Am, An Absintheur...) (4:59)
3 Minutes D'Absinthe (Let Me Be Mad, Mad With Absinthe) (1:59)
4 Absintha Taetra (Opaline) (6:58)
5 Poison Vert (D'Après Frédéric Barbier) (6:57)
6 Avec Les Fleurs... Avec L'Absinthe (With Flowers And With Women) (1:58)
7 Absinthine (D'Après Emile Duhem) (0:55)
8 Variations Sur Le Thème De Corelli (By Venus And Cupid) (4:05)
9 Variations Sur Le Thème De Corelli (That Night, I Drank Deeply) (13:20)
10 Princesse Verte (D'Après Emile Spencer) (5:37)
11 Fée Verte, Vous Êtes Jolie (Chanté Par Affre) (2:10)

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from Athanor webpage:

Absinthe: La Folie Verte is a sonic and poetic invocation combining mind-altering music and powerful recitations of Absinthe-inspired poems of the fin-de-siècle.

These elements unite with a brilliant graphic presentation to conjure an emerald realm of euphoric delirium. It is also one of the most obsessive recordings ever made: the various melodies that float across these soundscapes derive from forgotten Absinthe songs of the past; actual elements of the latter, derived from old cylinder recordings and 78s, have also been carefully stirred and distilled into new formulations by Les Joyaux de la Princesse.

Furthermore, all aspects of this album (instrumentation, spoken recitations, and even the final mixing) were executed under the influence of the drink. The end result is an impressionistic tour-de-force and the ultimate aural hymn to la fée verte, the Green Fairy.

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from Compulsion:

Blood Axis & Les Joyaux De La Princesse release their long-awaited celebration of that intoxicant of aesthetes: absinthe. It is said Van Gogh sliced off his ear while under the influence, Hemingway, Poe, Rimbaud and Wilde regularly imbibed the green liquor, Picasso even painted The Absinthe Drinker. Long outlawed in many countries Absinthe is regarded as one of the most potent drinks ever, its psychotropic effect a result of the wormwood herb and exceedingly high alcoholic content.

Michael Moynihan has long been an advocate of the transcendental nature of absinthe, and has been instrumental in its resurgence in America. The debut Blood Axis album, The Gospel of Inhumanity, even featured an ode to this bedevilled drink. Like Moynihan, the other musicians on this CD have all become obsessed with the drink, distilling their own recipes and creating their own rituals to accompany their absinthe sipping evenings.

Absinthe: La Folie Verte is imbued with stirring orchestrations and lush string segments, while Moynihan with deadpan delivery recites poems culled from the late 19th Century. Absinthe: La Folie Verte evokes a turn of the century Parisian café with age-old absinthe songs salvaged from the past. Produced in collaboration with the Absinthe Museum, Auvers-Sur-L'Oise, this is a beautifully packaged and extensively researched document that should appeal to anyone transfixed with the mystique of the Green fairy. When one considers that the EU ban on Absinthe has been lifted, variations of the drink are available in UK public houses, and numerous books have just been published documenting the effects of the Green liquor it appears that Blood Axis and Les Joyaux De La Princesse have managed to capture the zeitgeist of today while conjuring an atmosphere of 200 years ago.

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from FluxEuropa:

In a collaboration with the French project, Les Joyaux de la Princesse, Michael Moynihan's Blood Axis forsakes militaristic bombast to deliver a homage to absinthe, the notorious fin-de-siècle tipple distilled from an infusion of wormwood. Michael reads from contemporary texts condemning or examining the gods and demons of the absinthe experience, against a dreamy mood-evoking ambient soundscape. With snatches of period music weaving in and out of the cacophony, the album successfully captures that sense of distance associated with intoxication as it takes us on a journey into the addled brain of the absintheur.

Absinthe had such a bad reputation - at least partly due to harmful additives - that it was widely banned for most of the twentieth century. An idea of the taste of historical absinthe can be gained from Pernod, a modern wormwood-free absinthe. Pastis is similar but the dominant flavour is liquorice rather than aniseed. Michael Moynihan and Annabel Lee of Blood Axis and Erik Konofal of Les Joyaux are all imbibers of the liquor and have long experimented with homemade varieties. Modern, commercially manufactured absinthe has only a tenth of the psycho-active 'thujone' present in the original, but my own experience suggests that even this has an effect more akin to drugs than alcohol.

BLUE MOON (musick by request)

AUTOPSIA/HUSSITE/KARL ROSSMAN/SPLENDOR SOLIS

PRAGER CODEX (Songs of Three Brotherhoods)


Original Issue: 1995 Discordia (DISC 050)

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Margot-meter: 4 moons / 5

My personal homage to the genius of Autopsia, one the the most underrated and influential groups of the post (martial) industrial scene

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1 Hussite - Haeresis (7:32)
2 Hussite - Interdikt (4:42)
3 Hussite - So Erschlugen Wir Ihn Im Vierten Jahr (3:40)
4 Splendor Solis - Destilatio (4:44)
5 Splendor Solis - Lux Aeterna (5:47)
6 Karl Rossmann - In Hora Mortis No.12 (4:25)
7 Autopsia - In Hora Mortis No.12 (Autopsia Arrangement) (4:10)
8 Autopsia - Crowd Together And Work Up At The Sky (10:21)

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from Discogs:

Autopsia is depersonalized art project dealing with music and visual production. Autopsia gathers authors of different professions in realization of multimedia projects. Its art practice began in London in late '70ies of the last century, and continued, during '80ies in art centers of the former Yugoslavia. Since 1990, Autopsia acts from Prague. At the beginning of its activity Autopsia issued a dozen of MCs, in the period after 1989, twenty CDs were issued, at first for Staalplaat from Amsterdam, then for German label Hypnobeat and London's Gymnastic Records. Autopsia's music can be found on numerous compilations issued all over the world. One of its compositions is a part of the soundtrack for Peter Greenaway's film "Pillow Book". Music production of Autopsia is associated with a large graphic production which consists of original graphic objects, design of flyers, booklets, CDs and a Web Page autopsia.net, with its offsprings: Autopsia TV and Illuminating Technologies.

STARLESS MOON (nacht musick)

GÜNTER BERNHARD

REDSHIFT/ABSCHIED

Original Issue: 2002 Trente Oiseaux (toc 021) Buy it here!

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

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1 Redshift (31:47)
2 Abschied (20:50)

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from Bernard Günter homepage�:

The constant growth of Bernhard Günter keeps going. "Redshift" is based on sounds he found on his DAT collections, dating from almost 10 years ago; they have been processed and reworked with the usual care for the micro-details, creating a canvas on which nuances and shadows propagate in hypnotic, repetitive fashion - classical Günter style. But the best track is "Abschied": a requiem for the kind soul of a deceased person (in this case, Bernhard's wife's aunt) it's worked from treated orchestral samplings which become a faraway, melancholic delicacy of tenuous rarefaction and faint breathing, pointed with the glowing of drying tears. Again, one of the most intense compositions I came across recently, a music that will make you think for long moments after it's over. [Massimo Ricci, TOUCHING EXTREMES]

This release combines two pieces, 'Redshift' (30 minutes) and 'Abschied'} (20 minutes), realized in 2001. Although they both fit Bernhard Günter's esthetic, they share no common conceptual bond, which prompted the artist to include two interchangeable covers. 'Redshift' was put together from old samples dating back to Günter's beginnings (circa 1993). The music mainly consists of three separate layers: a faint humming background, almost inaudible, and two tracks of rattling sounds (could be contact microphones) placed far away in the left and right stereo channels.
In headphones it produces a schizophrenic effect; on loudspeakers it transforms the room into a wide sound field you can loose yourself in.
Settings change in the course of the first three movements, but the basic idea remains the same. The last seven minutes leave a lone horn calling long notes in the distance. This mournful finale turns out to be the perfect introduction for 'Abschied' composed in memory of the deceased aunt of the composer's wife. Sustained tones, calm and discreet, weave an ever-changing pattern inducing a state of meditation. Are they strings or horns? At one point, through a short transformational process reminiscent of Trevor Wishart's 'Red Bird' or Bernhard Gal's works on 'Relisten', appear the sounds of a city street at rush hour. Instead of casting some light on the piece it makes it more puzzling and beautiful.

(Note by bg: I do not own a contact microphone, and the 'street noise' part is not a field recording, but also consists of instrumental sounds.) [François Couture, ALL MUSIC GUIDE]

Redshift is the latest release from sound artist Bernhard Günter. The title piece was composed using noise sounds from Günter's DAT archive, from his early sampling days in 1993. This long piece begins with faint crackling, soft fluctuations giving the impression of movement, of a gently changing sonic space. Beneath the crackling sounds is the quiet roar of a fan, a motor, a distant drone, but it too rests gently on the listening space. Sharper textures rise and fall throughout the piece, of varying frequencies and timbres, all of which create hypnotizing movements of fluctuating sounds perfectly suited for playback at medium volume. The disc also contains a second piece, "Abschied," which otherwise has no connection with the first. It was composed in memory of Erika Kedziora, an aunt of Günter's wife who had recently passed away. Slow moving, dissonant harmonics, sounding as if they were made using a combination of bowed instruments (stringed, metallic or otherwise), create a beautiful soundscape mourning the loss and celebrating the memory of a relative who is obviously very close to Günter's heart. The piece might not have any thematic or compositional connection with "Redshift", and yet these two pieces compliment each other well. The uneven crackling and subtle noises of the first piece are answered by the sustained notes of the second. A stunning new release, one that won't want to leave your CD player for days on end. [Richard di Santo, INCURSION MUSIC REVIEW]

RUNIC MOON (nordic musick)

DARLING DAVID

CELLO

Original Issue: 1992 ECM (ECM 1464) Buy it here!!!

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

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1 Darkwood I (2:21)
2 No Place Like Nowhere (4:39)
3 Fables (5:04)
4 Darkwood II (1:19)
5 Lament (2:50)
6 Two Or Three Things (4:43)
7 Indiana India (3:24)
8 Totem (2:13)
9 Psalm (2:23)
10 Choral (4:05)
11 The Bell (2:39)
12 In November (4:28)
13 Darkwood III (3:18)

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from Amazon:

Forget Darling's new age dabblings -- this CD and the work he had done with Bjornstad and others (The Sea and The River) on ECM is intensely brooding and beautiful.

"Choral" is simply one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've heard in the last ten years -- it rivals Arvo Part's work in austerity and beauty.

CASTAWAY MOON (desert island musick)

Kawabata Makoto's (of Acid Mothers Temple) all-times favourite album (read more at this page; #12 )

STUDIO DER FRÜHEN MUSIK

TROUBADOURS - TROUVÈRES - MINSTRELS

Original Issue: 1966 Telefunken (SAWT 9567-B), 1970 Teldec (6.41275 AW), 1974 Telefunken (SAWT 9487-A)

Reissue: 1995 Teldec (4509-97938-2)

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

A more than refreshing listening after my recent holidays in Provence & Languedoc-Roussillon! Essential

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CD 1

1. Pierre Vidal: Baron, de mon dan covit
2. Giraut de Bornelh: Leu chansonet' e vil
3. Salterello
4. Bernart de Ventadorn: Can vei la lauzeta mover
5. Veris ad imperia
6. A l'entrada del temps clar
7. Raimbaut de Vaqueiras: Kalenda Maia
8. Beatriz de Dia: A chantar m'er de so qu'eu no volria
9. Jacques de Cambrai: Retrowange novelle
10. Guiot de Dijon: Chanterai por mon courage
11. Lasse, pour quoi refusai

CD 2

1. Gillebert de Berneville: De moi doleros vos chant
2. Gace Brulé: Biaus m'est estez
3. Etienne de Meaux: Trop est mes maris jalos
4. Li joliz temps d'estay
5. Walther von der Vogelweide: Mir hat her Gerhart Atze ein pfert
6. Walther von der Vogelweide: Unter der linden an der heide
7. Walther von der Vogelweide: Nu alrest lebe ich mir werde
8. Neidhart von Reuental: Meie, din liehter schin
9. Neidhart von Reuental: Blozen wir den anger ligen sahen
10. Pseudo-Neidhart: Fürste Friderich
11. Neidhart von Reuental: Meienzeit
12. Chanconetta Tedescha I
13. Reinmar von Brennenberg: Wol mich des tages do mir alrest ist worden kunt
14. Chanconetta Tedescha II
15. Der Unverzagte: Der kuninc Rodolp
16. Frauenlob (Heinrich von Meissen): Ez waent ein narrenwise
17. Wizlâw III von Rügen: Ich warne dich, vil junger man, gezarte
18. Wizlâw III von Rügen: Loibere risen

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from Makoto's Listening Room:

This 2CD set is the most favorite album in all music in the world for me. Of course i have a vinyl box set too. I bought this cd at Fnac in Paris in Autmun 1999. then i could find so many troubadours cds at this shop, i was very surprised...because I'd never see such large troubadours' CD space in anywhere.

But one of my friend told me this CD and all this series were out of print now...
oh man... why??? I think any record company have to keep the catalog of "good music", even if the sales was not so good!

If i have to choose only one record in all my life, I'm sure to choose this one. I've never listened such beautiful and heavenly music... and I can feel very "acid folk" atmosphere too...

FULL STURGEON MOON (16 August 2008)

The Musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

BATTIATO FRANCO

FETUS

POLLUTION

SULLE CORDE DI ARIES

CLIC

Original Issue: 1972/1973/1973/1974 Bla Bla (BBXL 10001/BBXL 10002/BBXL 10003/BBXL 10006)

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

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Tracklistings

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from Gnosis2000:

Franco Battiato, as is well known, was an Italian pop singer who for a span in the 70s made a string of very experimental albums that fit very roughly in the vein of groups such as Opus Avantra or Pierrot Lunaire. Battiato on all of these titles (and beyond) set out to create completely new musical forms, and evolved from strange pop and rock realms to systemic and minimalist music before returning to pop music.

Fetus was his first and arguably not as impressive as his later titles. There are a lot of influences here, Italian popular music, folk, electronic experiments and tape collage all swirled into an unusual tapestry of music. I would say his folk/pop influences show through the strongest here, and with the albums short duration there's not a lot you can sink your teeth into.

Pollution, however, is a much more successful outing, with the disparate styles blending into a much more cohesive whole. Battiato's music can jump from neo classical to Italian progressive rock (somewhere between Sensations Fix and Le Orme) to space rock like Gong and on to bizarre tape collages with narration. It all adds up to a fascinating and innovative album with more humanity than you'd expect from this type of experimentation.

Sulle Corde Di Aries was Battiato's third release and showed his fascination for electronic, minimalist and systemic musics. As such, it is quite similar to "Pollution" except much more electronic based and with a more definitive style. There are also a lot of modern classical strains coming through here and a great spacey feel again reminding me of Sensations Fix or Gong at times. A simply fascinating album.

Clic is the Italian version and not the version that was on Island records. It too moves in a far more electronic direction, sounding like an avantgarde Klaus Schulze with lots of systemic patterns and neo classical vocals. This is often quoted as his best album, and certainly deserves a listen. The latter three titles, if not all four, all deserve the attention of those into experimental or avantgarde rock albums.

Mike McLatchey