SAMHAIN (31 October 2011)

The musick dedicated to this Sabbat is:

MORTIIS

ÅNDEN SOM GJORDE OPPRØR




Original Issue: 1995 Cold Meat Industry (CMI.31)

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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 http://www.metal-archives.com/:

Onward from the slower, majestic predecessor, Fodt Til A Herske, Mortiis continues to bring you on a journey with the epic releases he has created. With Anden Som Gjorde Oppror, he is able to continue with his musical anticipations. Unlike the slower, more emotionally connected predecessor, the sophmore album of Mortiis shows a different side. You can just picture marching into a battle with this music being the ambience to surround you with every step you take upon the frostbitten grounds.

Words can hardly describe Mortiis. As in the first full-length release, Mortiis continues to create music that's like the soundtrack of a majestic film setting. Though unlike the first one with the mere castle standing within your vision, Mortiis decides to bring a more epic warlike theme to the second full-length release. You'll feel ready to march into battle to slay the enemies. Unlike most warlike opus' you find, this release is more natural form of the warlike atmosphere that remains to keep you on the edge of your seat with passion for the true beauty that music can create and allow you to visualize.

Mortiis again is able to define the true wonders that music can create upon the souls. Showing the more natural sounds of atmospheric brilliance through his early works. With the heavy, more furious sides of music. Possessing very harsh surroundings in a medieval visualization, and then to persue a light more peaceful side. Even with war, there must be peace. Mortiis is able to capture both sides of the spectrum through this second journey known as Anden Som Gjorde Oppror. Mortiis is also able to conclude both epics with a climatical ending that reaches much higher plateus each time.

This album cannot be denied as a brilliant work of art. Mortiis is able to display every feeling in a manner so clear with this release. From the more angered emotions, to the victorious feelings, to the darker emotions still lurking in the shadows. Everything in put together into the perfect formation to show all aspects of the story being told. Much like Fodt Til A Herske, Anden Som Gjorde Oppror was able to tell a story with not a dry moment. All of it remains a beautiful essence of the true art behind his musical brilliance.

There is no questioning of Mortiis' creations. This album is clearly parallel to Fodt Til A Herske with the true feeling of Mortiis lying right inside the undertow, but at the same time has a soul of its own that is sometimes hidden under the shadows of Mortiis's first release. Everyone will remember his very first masterpiece, but this one shows an equally, if not more powerful beast as Mortiis is able to mature his sound. When in comparison with the predecessor it's clear that Mortiis has evolved through the time between the two releases as he makes a more complete feel with this second album. It can no longer be shadowed and break out of the cacoon as it brings its own spirit into existance with two new epics which keep the body of Mortiis' music, while expanding the horizons into the very peaks of each mountain, and higher into the heavens of musical beauty, power, and epic brilliance.

IMBOLC (02 Febrary 2011)

The musick dedicated to this Sabbat is:

SEPI KUU

RANNAN USVASSA


Original Issue: 1980 Heliander (Help 703)

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

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An amazing find... intense droning Finnish vocals and searing fuzz guitars with hand percussion. Sounds like the more serious tracks on Walter Wegmuller's "Tarot" album. Or even Sergius Golowin's "Lord Krishna Von Goloka". Comes completely out of left field, and is pretty much one of a kind, especially considering the time and place.

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from New Gibraltar :

Rannan Usvassa (Heliander HELP 703) may be the most obscure Finnish progressive rock album. In fact, even the identity of the musicians behind the pseudonym Sepi Kuu is unclear. Stylistically Rannan Usvassa (In the Mist of the Shore) is actually more late-in-the-day psychedelia than progressive rock, as most of the album's twelve short tracks build on a few chords strummed or arpeggiated on acoustic guitar, over which an unsonorous voice more recites than sings blank verse about existential angst and mysticism by the numbers. Organ, oscillators and flute gather their modal mist around these structures, while a fuzz guitar occasionally snakes up to thicken arrangements with background growls or, in the case of "Puhukaa mitä puhutte" ("Say What You Will") and the title track, understated solos, in a style remotely comparable to early Jade Warrior. Bass and percussion also make appearances, played with the same homespun plainness and lack of technical boasting that marks the whole project - for better or worse.

There is a decidedly amateurish air about the monotonous staccato thrum of "Tämän linnoituksen on kestettävä" ("This Fortress Must Stand") or the stop-start, kindergarten-variety proto-industrial-metal muck that accompanies the vicious circle of amateur-philosopher homilies in "Ajatus" ("Thought"). And yet "Muuratut kasvot" ("Bricked Faces") digs up surprising lyricism from its dusky vocal melodies, ringing guitar arpeggios and meditative keyboard solo, while the one instrumental "Manvantara" cleverly flanks its centre-position solo flute with asynchronous sets of drums panned to the opposite sides of the stereo field, each coupled with a feedbacking guitar or synthesizer. As a small-time psychedelic album Rannan Usvassa is quite acceptable, but any aura of lost classic obscurity may have furnished it with is totally unwarranted. And obscurity was a fact in 2004, for the original vinyl was very rare and no CD release existed (the Tachika pirate-CD-R edition does not rate as one).

Kai Karmanheimo

FULL BEAVER MOON (21 November 2010)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

AUTUMN SHADE

EZRA MOON


Original Issue: 2007 Strange Attractors Audio House (SAAH049) Buy it here!!!

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

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from http://www.tinymixtapes.com/:

Tulsa, Oklahoma native Jes Leneé’s prematurely world-weary and timeworn vocals may betray a maturity beyond her years, but they also possess a damaged, little-girl-lost quality that suffuses her songcraft with a ghostlike, almost spooky ambience. Her lyrics, however cryptic and ambiguous, are nonetheless conveyed with an anguished candor that reinforces the music’s supernatural affectations, and while she frequently sacrifices profundity for abstraction, Leneé’s nebulous lyrics suit the tone of the music, which has a distinctly antiquated flavor to it. Her voice is expressive, but conversely yearns to convey something inexpressible, as on the beautiful and somewhat distressing “Red,” with its simple yet devastating melody and ominous lyrics.

Ezra Moon, Leneé’s debut release under the name Autumn Shade, illustrates the manner in which an album’s whole dynamic can be altered entirely by its production, and in keeping with her band’s moniker, there is an autumnal, almost gothic quality to these pieces, redolent of gray skies, wet leaves, and wood-smoke haze. The record’s opening instrumental, “Sparrow,” features a delicate piano figure that, with its slightly out-of-tune character suggestive of a creaky upright piano from an Old West saloon, ultimately dematerializes and dissipates as if into a cloud of dust motes. Leneé’s lyrics and plaintive, minor-key chord progressions convey a wistful sense of melancholy that, coupled with the record’s atmosphere, pack an additional emotional wallop. Ornate piano melodies are a testament to Leneé’s background as a classically trained musician and add a subtle hint of color to a generally sepia-toned affair.

Reduced to their constituent elements, which generally include little more than vocals, guitar, and piano, with the occasional violin and hammered dulcimer flourish, the frugal arrangements of these tracks are fairly straightforward. But the filigree production from Derick Snow infuses the music with something spectral and sometimes icy cold. Snow’s production also serves to emphasize the broad dynamic range of the instruments. This technique is manifest on the incredibly haunting “Spanish Willow,” which features a vibrant and animated acoustic guitar line that makes Leneé’s subtly reverbed vocals sound even more spectral and otherworldly, as if those of an apparition beckoning from beyond this mortal coil. Other shorter, more piano-driven tracks act as interludes that showcase the singer’s impressive dexterity on the keys.

Stark as these pieces are, they make amazing use of space; in between guitar strums or the deftly keyed notes of a piano we find ourselves paying attention to the lingering ambience, which seems informed by an earthy resonance. As if to even further emphasize the importance of space, atmosphere, and the visual aspects of Autumn Shade's music, Snow doubles as a live painter on stage. On the whole, Ezra Moon is an exercise in subtlety. Trim and succinct, these 12 tracks showcase the abilities of a talented, budding songwriter, and leave us waiting in earnest for more.

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from http://www.strange-attractors.com/:

Autumn Shade is the nom de plume of Jes Lenee', a stunning young songstress brimming with unbridled talent. Armed with a satchel full of pensively beautiful tunes, Lenee' possesses a voice as pristine as any your ears will have heard in this lifetime. The fact that Lenee' calls Tulsa, Oklahoma home only adds to the mystery, for her music is much more aligned with the astral plane than anything resembling the Okie Plains. Lenee' is a classically trained piano prodigy, who at the age of eleven was penning songs that won award recognition. Ultimately seduced by the craft of songwriting, Autumn Shade is a marriage of her piano prowess and folk-inspired guitar strumming, imbued in a heady ambiance and enveloped in some of the most heavenly, intimate vocals to have come down the pike in some time.

Formed in 2002, the band self-releasing an EP entitled Grandfather's Attic, which caused a stir in the Tulsa and Midwest area; in the live setting, the band incorporates painter Derick Snow, who creates his pieces on stage, allowing the moods to dictate the whim of his creations, lending a tactile visual element to the music. Set to splash with their full-length debut Ezra Moon, Autumn Shade has concocted a fascinating foray into an ethereal, yet emotionally raw netherworld.

Ezra Moon is a journey into a unique sepia-toned microcosm, one that intertwines folk, chamber music, psychedelia, avant-rock and indie singer/songwriter. Opening with the wispy "Sparrow", a delicate piano interlude softly fluttering in and out of focus like a foggy memory, the misty landscape spills into "Home", a folk-inspired lament driven by acoustic strumming and Jes Lenee's yearning vocals. Colored by additional instrumentation of violin, hammer dulcimer and percussion, and a healthy penchant for sonic experimentation, the narcotic, detached feel of Ezra Moon is reminiscent of albums by the female artists that helped define the 4AD sound. Jes Lenee's classical roots and compositional sense invoke the avant-chamber feel of Rachel's, if they were enveloped in the hazy folk atmosphere that Marissa Nadler resides in. Ezra Moon is an entrancing debut, inaugurating Autumn Shade into the contemporary folk scene with an understatedly personal and cinematic sound.

FULL STURGEON MOON (24 August 2010)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

FALKENSTEIN

HEILIGER WALD
UNDARBRUNNEN



Original Issue: 2008 Kraftplatz (KRPL 01) Buy it here!!!
Original Issue: 2008 Kraftplatz (KRPL 02) Buy it here!!!

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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 Heathen Harvest:

I was stepping right behind this band since the last year, marauding after it like a hunter behind a magnificent elk through high peaks and somber woods. This image may very well represent the mood of the music contained in “Urdarbrunnen” second album from this fantastic German neo-folk conformation dealing with nature, mysticism and a clear medieval influx in a way that presents them as an original and highly qualified musical compendium of the newest neo-folk breed. The production runs by none less than Axel Frank which adds with his presence a special insight and somehow magical aura. This is one of the best works from 2008 without a doubt, so get ready for the hunt. In the end this magical forest entity represented in the music from Falkenstein submits any hunter to his simple observation and respect, like any creature from Herne’s reign should do.

The tranquil melancholy that slips from the very first chord comes as cold breeze, a cloud of delicate drops of water splashing from a huge water cascade(just like the art cover!) marked by the snare that gives a touch of strong spiritual martialness. These following the tradition of classic neo-folk instrumentation: Guitar, dual male chorus and tenor like voice accompanied by delicate snares and a drum that serves as a vivid natural heart beat the music follows its introductory course with “Funkenfeuer” displaying all the awesome quality from Falkenstein at first sight. A quality of mystery derive from the voice at moments and a sense of ritual repetitiveness beautifully accommodates the more enhanced musical parts and chorus, making it more appellative and delicious for the listener, enjoying every bit of each passage represented. “Sonnerkraut” introduces a sweet flute melody that daintily settles like falling leaves in the music cadence, giving this soft touch that slips the listener in a very romantic and inspired pathos, subtle and gently compensated with the tenor tone of the vocals, a vocal set that sounds earthly and revitalizing. “Unter der weide” comes in a more epic Germanic fashion, accentuating the percussive aspect and introducing a synth line that comes as trumpets from forgotten castles while the guitar strolls with strong rhythmic passages, here the works starts to deliver more strength than beforehand just to increase this direction in the following songs. “Erlkoenig” & “Die odaliske” synchronizes both aspects; the melancholic bucolic feeling and some well poured folky martial touch but still able to preserve the subtlety and delicacy that consolidates their composition.

It is on “Grau sind masken” that the music takes again a distinctive turning point that exalts the spirit of any sensible listener, reaffirming the pathos and the vanguard of its unique sound . Slowly the guitar and the flute manifest its peaceful pastoral cadence, a beautifully crafted melody that achieves both the impression of the heart and the spirit aflame and then, right in the middle of the song just like an accidental apparition the rhythmic equilibrium and traditional pace gets switch into a thunderous folk march in a quasi sixties operative outburst fashion, a bit of protest music accent is perceived as influence and the trouvadoresque guitar play is really a vanguard bet in here. This song alone comes as one of the aces from the whole compendium of great songs that constitute the album, truly the pounding heart from the body work.

Now the album steps away again from the predetermined formula from the songs beforehand and the neo-folk tradition. The addition of a violin accompanying the guitar along with the excellent vocal and chorus arrangements transcends the common ground of other neo-folk formations giving the music an almost classic tonality by means of composition. All the elements and turns contained, all the wide versatile musical display of the work shows the outstanding power and capacity from this band and its rather difficult not to get impressed by the music or the spiritual quest inside its core, track by track there is an evident union that adheres to each piece making a wholeness that puts the listener in a position where its a guest and advocator.

“Siegfried schwert” comes as another division this time mixing pastoral like cadence with the epic tone displayed at some sections. It is important to note that the martial tone is never obfuscating or predominant but rather accomplishes a moral accompaniment that diverts the spirit and empower the melody. Not a march but rather an endorsement to the natural cadence of the folk tune. The following songs: “Der sonnwendmann”, “Halfdan, Ragnar’s son”, “Blummentod” and “Walpurgisnacht” accomplish a narrative quest full of mythos and more traditional neo-folk construction respecting the distinctive aspect that defines Falkenstein, particular cadence, use of rhythmic drums, flutes and snare with the Spanish guitar rambling its excellently crafted melodies and everything fusing perfectly in a whole resume of incomparable beauty and ecstatic sensibility. Another surprise awaits the listener with the apparition of “Weltenbaum” a song that originally appeared on the first album takes here a different approach, introducing the flute as prologue to later commence with the chorus and from there on preserving the ritual martialness available on the previous version, comparatively beautiful in its own particular incarnation. This ritual aspect in the drum section marks a rule inside the album and serves a practical functionality for the epilogue as the final song increases this sentiment. “Heiliger holunder” is markedly ritual and remits to strange mountain ceremonies around a gigantic blaze with people dancing at night, the chorus and the rhythm marks an almost tribal cadence while the guitar and the drum join arms in their mighty graceful dance. The reign of Falkenstein is now fully explored in this album with this final ritual.

The sweetness and light found inside this album transcends the common stereotyped notion from standard neo-folk associations, ritualistic and melancholic with heavy influx of classic arrangements, ingrainedly melodic the works centres its magic from the chemical perfection of all these aggregations . Its originality comes from the extremely elasticity and fragility that comes from every piece although preserving a strange modus operandi that allows drums to play their role without devastating the sweet cadence of the melody. The chorus lines made with two male voices, both tenor, one high pitched and the other low adds another special touch to the magic that Falkenstein summons with their music. A band that steps away from the stagnation of the genre by giving mobility and vanguard to their compositions, aside from adding uncommon aspects to the neo-folk aesthetic, who said classic composition and ritual martialness, folky melodies and graceful heathenism cannot coexist together? “Urdarbrunnen” teaches an important lesson in musical heterogeneity and syncretism, the marvellous configuration of apparent dissimilar orders and finalities (just like ritual folklore and classicism joining together and fitting perfectly) that presents a sense of union during the whole work, making song by song and track by track a cohesive and inspiring experience for the listener. Very well worked, highly recommended!

YULE (21 December 2008)

The musick dedicated to this Sabbat is:

IDITAROD (THE)

THE GHOST, THE ELF, THE CAT AND THE ANGEL

Original Issue: 2002 Bluesanct (INRI 065)

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

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1 The Roots Of The Butterfly Bush (3:31)
2 Black Strung Bow (1:00)
3 Afternoons Like This Are Hard To Come By (7:22)
4 Raga (In D#) (6:44)
5 Cycle Circle (4:40)
6 The Falling Of The Pine (9:54)
7 Ich Tanzte Weit (2:09)
8 New Magic In A Dusty World (1:58)
9 Let No Man Steal Your Thyme (3:55)
10 The Nameless One (4:08)
11 Unfortunate Lass (5:40)

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from All Music Guide:

Though they're from Rhode Island, the duo comprising Iditarod (Carin Wagner and Jeffrey Alexander) sound quite a bit like a British psychedelic-tinged folk or folk-rock act.

Those enamored of the sound of vintage artists in that tributary, like Donovan, the Incredible String Band, and Pentangle -- and of more recent artists that obviously owe something to that style, like Robyn Hitchcock and (far more obscurely) Damien Youth -- might well be inclined to enjoy this record, though it's not explicitly imitative of any of those artists.

While the music's often acoustic guitar-based, the pair play a pretty impressive range of instruments on this CD, from moog and wine glasses to tamboura, singing bowl, and chimes, with some other musicians adding touches on cello, recorder, bouzouki, and more. As the title indicates, there's a mythological-stroll-in-the-forest tinge to their approach, with some electronic effects and backwards-distorted guitar lines adding a bit of psychedelia, without ever submerging the essentially folky ambience.

They may be mood-setters more than they are songwriters, but the mood's a good one: melancholy, subdued, and slightly eerie folk-rock, with quite a bit of varied texture, and an avoidance of the drone and monotony that afflict many other bands working similar territory. The vocals, as befits such material, are suitably fragile and wistful, if not exceptional, broken up by haunting instrumentals that have a touch of exotic (sometimes Indian) mystery.

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from Dusted Reviews:

The Iditarod, a pagan folk-psych duo (Carin Wagner and Jeffrey Alexander) from Providence, Rhode Island, is group of such artists. Their latest full-length The Ghost, The Elf, The Cat, and The Angel combines eclectic acoustic instrumentation (acoustic guitars, tamboura, dulcimers, bongos, bells, singing bowls, musical saws) with electronics (moogs, turntables, phonographs) in meandering arrangements and ambient treatments of medieval folk songs.

Titles like "The Roots of The Butterfly Bush", "Afternoons Like This Are Hard To Come By", and "New Magic in a Dusty World" might lead one to think that The Ghost, The Elf, The Cat, and The Angel should be catalogued along side the Brit-folk romps of The Pentangle, Fairport Convention, and The Incredible String Band, but this is not the case.

Electronic drones and layers of low-end strings expand the songs and turn them into brooding pieces of ambient bad vibe. Although the influence of 60's British folk is clearly evident on their cover of the traditional "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme" (a song that Pentangle made famous in '68) The Iditarod's somber approach gives the song a hollow funereal feel that sounds like it is being sung by heavily sedated Nico or a half-asleep Mary Timony.

These comparisons could be compliments or insults depending on your politics, either way I don't believe The Iditarod have hit their stride yet. The ever present Grimm's fairy tale and druid aesthetic wears thin after a couple of minutes and the band too often sacrifices the subtleties of songcraft in favor of dark atmospherics (a fate I'm afraid too many psych-bands succumb to).

Fans of Loren Mazzacane Connors and Ghost (two Terrastock faves) may enjoy The Ghost, The Elf, The Cat, and The Angel, but I only say this because the patience I lose with The Iditarod is the same patience I lose with them. Too much attention to texture and mood simply leaves the songs self-conscious and unmoving. Mixing the detached ethereality of great British folk with the tones and textures of the contemporary avant-garde can be a match made in psych-heaven, but more often than naught, it comes across as forced and transparent.

If you really need such a thing to get you through the night, you might do better by P.G. Six's recent Parlor Tricks And Porch Favorites, the Tower Recordings re-issue of Folkscene, Appendix Out's The Night Is Advancing, or even Alastair Galbraith's Cry.

SAMHAIN (31 October 2008)

The Musick dedicated to this Sabbat is:

WHEN

SVARTEDAUEN (THE BLACK DEATH)


Original Issue: 1992 Tatra (TATCD 008)

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

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1 The Black Death (38:27)

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from Jester Records:

In 1992 came When's heaviest piece, Svartedauen (The Black Death), inspired by Norwegian artist Theodor Kittelsen's drawings with the same name, describing the ravages of the plague in Norway during the Middle Age.

This single 38-minute piece is by many considered Pedersen's most evocative album.

Svartedauen contains elements from Norwegian folk music played on fiddle and mouth harp, terrifying symphonic parts à la Death in the Blue Lake with pounding drums, choir and strings, and a carpet of other grotesque sounds: hearses, moans of the dying, rats, flagellants? whips and a scythe being sharpened, to name a few.

Did you record sounds yourself, or did you get them from elsewhere?

LP: "I mixed many of my own sounds, and borrowed some from Norwegian Film. Bernt Kanstad, the technician, was working there, so I got access to many sounds that I sampled, looped and used manually. And I recorded many scraping sounds on a big, old cello that was standing in the studio, but many of those sounds were heavily manipulated afterwards, so you can?t always hear that they are cello sounds. I like working that way: not using entirely natural sounds, but doing something extra with them".

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from Volcanic Tongue:

When is the solo-project of Lars Pedersen, known for his work in Norwegian art-rockers Holy Toy in the 80s. His When project seems to be his own musical playground, as every album seems different from the other.

The later works have been prog-rock/pop vein, but Svartedauen, his third album from 1991, is a pure 38 minute musique concrète sound-collage. Svartedauen translates to The Black Death and the album is an abstract sound-journey of the plague entering and ravishing the Norwegian countryside in 1349, killing two-thirds of the Norwegian population within a year.

The album was inspired by a series of haunted and eerie drawings of Theodor Kittelsen from 1900 on the subject. Pedersen has made a soundtrack to it.

Fans of Norwegian black metal will recognize the Kittelsen art as the same that adorns the cover of several Burzum albums. A little known fact is that Burzum, and most other black metal musicians during their church-burning heydays, were big fans of this When album. Listening to it with that in mind it actually makes a lot of sense.

Svartedauen in many ways manages to evoke the feeling of doom and medieval dread that the rock-Satanists attempted with distorted guitars. It’s a scary and uncomfortable listen.

FAREWELL MOON (epitaph musick)

This post is dedicated to Hector Zazou (11 July 1948 - 08 September 2008)

ZAZOU HECTOR

SAHARA BLUE

CHANSONS DES MERS FROIDES

Original Issue: 1992 Made To Measure (MTM 32) & 1994 Sony Music (COL 477585 2)

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Margot-meter: 4 moons / 5

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Tracklistings: Sahara Blue and Chansons Des Mers Froides

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from Wikipedia�:

Zazou first came to international attention as part of the ZNR duo with Joseph Racaille, where both played electric keyboards. Their 1976 debut album Barricades 3 was notable for its "strong Satie influence, stripped to minimal essentials, everything counts".

Long-time collaborators include trumpeter Mark Isham; guitarist Lone Kent; cellist and singer Caroline Lavelle; trumpeter Christian Lechevretel, who has appeared on all of Zazou's albums after Sahara Blue; clarinetist and flutist Renaud Pion, who has appeared on all of Zazou's albums since Les Nouvelles Polyphonies Corses; drummer Bill Rieflin; and Japanese recording artist Ryuichi Sakamoto.

His discography demonstrates his affinity for cross-cultural collaborations, and incorporated modern techniques and sounds in re-recordings of traditional material. He was influenced by Peter Gabriel's album Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ in his fusion of musical polarities (traditional and modern, electronic and acoustic) on his own album Les Nouvelles Polyphonies Corses.

Zazou regarded his work during the 1980s as his time of apprenticeship in the studio. On his 1986 album, Reivax au Bongo, he experimented with fusing classical vocals with an electronic backdrop. On his 1989 album, Géologies, he combined electronic music with a string quartet.

The albums that he has released under his own name from the 1990s onwards are usually concept albums that draw from literary or folk sources and revolve around a specific theme. The collection of songs on each album assemble contributions from a diverse and global range of pop, folk, world music, avant-garde, and classical recording acts.

Zazou's 1992 offering, Sahara Blue, was based on an idea by Jacques Pasquier. Pasquier suggested Zazou commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of author Arthur Rimbaud by setting music to Rimbaud's poetry. Contributions included spoken word from Gérard Depardieu, Dominique Dalcan and music by Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance, Tim Simenon, and David Sylvian. He even adapted a traditional Ethiopian song.

In 1994, he released the album Chansons des mers froides (called Songs from the Cold Seas for the anglophone market). The album was based on ocean-themed traditional folk songs from northern countries, such as Canada, Finland, Iceland, and Japan. It featured vocals by pop and rock artists such as Björk, Suzanne Vega, John Cale, Värttina, Jane Siberry, and Siouxsie Sioux in addition to recordings of shamanic incantations and lullabies from Ainu, Nanai, Inuit, and Yakut singers. Musicians included Mark Isham, Brendan Perry, and the Balanescu Quartet. A cameraman accompanied Zazou on the project and they shot and recorded in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Japan, Scandinavia, and Siberia. The single "The Long Voyage" was the only song to be an original composition from Zazou. He wrote it in gratitude to his record company Sony who gave him complete artistic liberty. Performed by Suzanne Vega and John Cale, it was released as a single in 1995. The single featured remixes by Mad Professor as well as Zazou himself.

His 1998 album, Lights in the Dark, showcased ancient Celtic music sung by Irish singers.

Zazou's collaborative 2000 album 12 (Las Vegas is Cursed) with Sandy Dillon was regarded as a financial and critical failure. In the book "Sonora Portraits 2", which accompanies the CD Strong Currents, Zazou says that 12 (Las Vegas is Cursed) was his most elaborate album. He describes it as a work of black humour and regards his instrumental composition "Sombre" on the album as one of his best songs ever.

Strong Currents was released in 2003 and featured an all-female vocal cast which included Laurie Anderson, Melanie Gabriel, Lori Carson, Lisa Germano, Irene Grandi, Jane Birkin, and Caroline Lavelle. Musicians included Ryuichi Sakamoto, Dennis Rea, Bill Rieflin and Archaea Strings. The album took six years to complete.

In 2004 Zazou released a companion CD of sorts, L'absence, which included instrumentals, many of the same female vocalists that were featured on Strong Currents, and one male vocalist, French singer Edo.

Zazou has recently been a member of the musical collective named Slow Music. The lineup also included Robert Fripp and Peter Buck on guitars, Fred Chalenor on bass, Matt Chamberlain on drums, and Bill Rieflin on keyboards and percussion. He contributed electronics to the group's music, and much of his recent work, including a soundtrack for Carl Théodor Dreyer's silent film La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc and the multimedia collaboration released as a CD in 2006, Quadri+Chromies, has focused on electronic sounds produced on computers.

A number of recent projects are documented on the Music Operator interactive multimedia web site, which graphically documents his recent collaborations while in the background his recent music plays. In january 2008 Hector Zazou released his newest album, Corps électriques, featuring "one of the original riot grrrls" KatieJane Garside, Bill Rieflin, Lone Kent and fusion jazz trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær.

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.

RED MOON (musick & other arts)

KÖNER THOMAS

NUUK

Original Issue: 1997 Big Cat Records (ABB1000 CD - as part of Driftworks box)

Reissue: 2004 Mille Plateaux (MPM 003) (Buy it here!)

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

As you all probably already understood, I've a real love for Thomas Köner. Without any doubt my favorite artist.

During my summer holidays, I was lucky enough to experience live his "Pneuma Monoxyd" audio-visual installation (see picture at the end of this post).

Unfortunately, I was totally unable to grab on film the power of his infra-sound barely-lit ambience...

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1 Nuuk (Air) (4:50)
2 Polynya I (6:31)
3 Nuuk (Day) (7:24)
4 Amras (5:35)
5 Nuuk (Night) (4:13)
6 Polynya II (7:22)
7 Nuuk (End) (5:55)

DVD-1 Nuuk (Suite)
DVD-2 Nuuk (Air)
DVD-3 Nuuk (Day)
DVD-4 Nuuk (Night)
DVD-5 Nuuk (End)

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from Dusted Reviews:

Thomas Köner's Nuuk is, in many ways, a crystalline example of ambient music. The album provides ample room for sound to be experienced as mood, thereby allowing the listener to translate his/her emotional reaction into words, with very little interference. As often the case, the process of filling empty spaces with descriptions of the music's strengths seems to run counter to Nuuk's primary objective: To reach beyond the artifice of the conceptual, and to touch more directly upon an individual's core of aural perception.

Tomas Köner is a formidable manipulator of sound and image. As I have not personally experienced the latter, I will do my best to convey my impressions of the former. This is no hindrance, as the four pieces found on Nuuk provide ample fodder for the mind to conjure spectacles akin to the physical landscapes Köner uses in his accompanying visual presentations.

Geological shifts, with their unceasing yet patient modulations, form the crux of Köner’s musical analogies; the full weight and implication of time and its corresponding transmutations are felt deeply as the album extends through its cycles, each piece gaining glacial momentum as sound carves grand canyons in gray matter. Nuuk is superficially similar to albums by other electronic manipulators of sound, most notably The Caretaker and Deathprod; each of these artists are familiar with crafting portentous and unsettling soundscapes. Köner’s creations, however, opt for awe and natural majesty as their core, as opposed to the malign funhouse visions and icy caresses of the aforementioned artists.

It isn’t often that a CD can shock the mind into realizing one’s relatively infinitesimal universal position. How is it that I feel dwarfed by mere audio? Is there a link between spatial magnificence and the delineation of sound? It seems Köner has spent much time investigating the relationships between space, size and time, and has somehow found music to be a more than adequate descriptor of said interrelation.
Casey Rae-Hunter

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from Thomas Köner homepage:

Köner uses sequences of images from webcams as raw material, which remains constant in his basic focuses. He has traces of people and their vehicles come to appearance acoustically, but not visually. The shift from day to night and the influences of the weather give motion to the segments. In this way, in his shortest work NUUK, which lasts just over 6 minutes, he condenses a total of 3,000 individual web images taken from the Internet into one scene. Despite the cinematic motion of the image, it seems like a still photo.

RUNIC MOON (nordic musick)

COSMIC TRIGGER
POLAR REGIONS

Original Issue: 1993 Silent Records (SR9345)

Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

Nordic ambient musick masterpiece by the likes of Andrew M.McKenzie (The Hafler Trio) and Zbigniew Karkowski!

Read the intricate (as expected) story behind this recording here

1 A Viking's Lament (30:12)
2 Sunrise Over The Crystal Fjord (30:16)

from Reign of Toads:

Continuous choirs of angelic voices within a gentle and steady synth envelope. Drones within drones. These voices are saying something--not necessarily in the literal sense, but vibrationally.

The amazingly interesting (and almost believable) liner notes evolve the experience so that this CD becomes a tool. The mythology includes a complete listing of the 29 phonemes employed within this recording alongside their corresponding mythological significance. The obscured history detailed within the liner notes alludes to two gentleman who worked in a mine somewhere near the Arctic for 20 years, ended up doing some sort of sense-dep tank and black-room living for another month or so, and then went on to some university sound laboratory where they met up with Andrew M. McKenzie of the Hafler Trio.

WSB sums it up on the back cover's collection of quotes: "Humanity may be an outmoded vehicle, but it is still capable of constructing mechanisms that can enable us to leave where we are stuck. This is not an artifact. It is a tool and should be used as such.

from Amazon:

This amazing album is a journey in itself. The story behind it's inception is even more amazing. Put this album on and immediately one's mental state seems to level off and clear out. Everything becomes 'smooth' but on a higher level. One seems to rise above this cacophany and slide through chaotic corporeal reality with ease. Many uses in many different 'states' of consciousness. Recently used with Salvia Divinorum. Nice and grounding for the participant.

SACRIFICE MOON (offering musick)

ASWYNN FREYA
THE FRUITS OF YGGDRASIL

Original Issue: 1987 Eyas Media ( EYAS 006)

Reissue: 2002 Edition Ananael (Ananael Audio 01) Buy it here!!!


Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

Well, this one was a big big surprise for me and I really have to thank one of this blog readers for "donating" this shamanic jewel; unfortunately I'm not able to remember his/her name.

This is magick musick of the highest degree - a true bridge towards arcane (and mighty) forces!

1 Havamal
2 Voluspa
3 Wotan
4 Invokation Of The Gods
5 Knighting
6 Sigdrifumal
7 Northstar
8 Ragnarok
9 Panzer Rune
10 North
11 Futhark
12 Nietzsche
13 Seeker

from World Music Central

If you find you have an interest in the magical properties of rune songs, Freya Aswynn's Songs of Yggdrasil, released by the metaphysical book publisher, Llewellyn is worth a listen.
This CD delves deeply into the actual chants performed by the Nordic shaman Freya.

According to the CD liner notes, "In Shamanism one of the most valued techniques is the use of sound. There are two main techniques: chanting and drumming, which are combined with breath control and synchronized with a heartbeat. The main reason for employing these techniques is to achieve an altered state of consciousness... There are two different kinds of trance states. One is exhilarating and leads to tremendous amounts of energy; in this state magic acts can be performed usually on the spur of the moment..."

Freya goes on to describe the second kind of trance which is a journey state and the shaman's attentions are turned inward.

The chants that appear on Songs of Yggdrasil recount the shaman's journey and in this case the shaman journeys through nine worlds, where various Nordic gods/goddesses and entities such as Odin and Freya are evoked. In the past, I had read a book that described the journeys of seidr (Nordic seers) in which the seidre would sit on a high chair and drop into a trance where the seidre would journey through the nine worlds bringing back information for those ceremonial attendees seeking answers.

I'm not sure how Freya's recording fits into this practice. However, the chants included on the CD represent particular runes and vibrations associated with those particular runes. Freya cites, "Through chanting the runes, one can express the meaning of that rune." Her recording demonstrates the galdr technique.

Whipping wind and howling wolves accompany Freya's chants. This creates a gothic atmosphere and easily sends its listeners on an inward quest. Freya also explains what and whom she encounters on the journey as well as, performing various invocations and chants. Also note that the chants on this CD are not melodic. While drums appear on at least one of the tracks, this recording represents sound healing through the use of shamanic chants.

However, if you are interested in pursuing the sound healing aspects of rune songs and would like to explore the Northern Mysteries, then picking up Freya Aswynn's Songs of Yggdrasil along with her book, Northern Mysteries and Magick (Llewellyn), will get you off on the right foot. Working with sound and loving intentions could transform the world we live in for the better.

I am certainly not an expert on rune songs and I can find very little in the way of books on the subject, at least ones written in English. I will say that rune songs are worth exploring as both a musical and a magical practice.