EOSTRE (21 March 2011)

The musick dedicated to this Sabbat is:

TEATRO SATANICO

PAN IST TOD



Original Issue: 2007 Old Europa Cafe (OEMP 012) Buy it here!!!

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

To learn more about Teatro Satanico

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from Old Europa Cafe :

Do you think you can foresee how will sound the new Teatro Satanico’s songs ?
Do you think Teatro Satanico plays only elektronic music ?
Do you think Teatro Satanico has not more trick-or-treat to play on you ?
Do you know that PETER PAN was a real soldier and that he is dead and buried ?
Do you know that his grave is located on a mountain in Veneto, the Italian region where Teatro Satanico’s guys live ?
Don’t you believe it? Well, look to the photo of his grave on the cover of the new Teatro Satanico PAN IST TOD album !
Hardly to expect it, but these Italian devils recorded some real neo-folk tunes with a marching, pop touch this time !
And due to its peculiar oddity it will become a very unique feature into the official Teatro Satanico’s discography, since here we are talking about “no-synthesizer musik”, the trademark of the previous Teatro Satanico releases.
Expect the unexpected ! Believe the unbelievable !
Once again Teatro Satanico proves to be one of the more original and unforeseeable contemporary post-industrial project in a post-industrial scene full of poseurs, fake-artists and obvious predictable releases.
Beware of Teatro Satanico, they do bite your certainty!

FULL WORM MOON (29 March 2010)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

FERN KNIGHT

MUSIC FOR WITCHES AND ALCHEMISTS


Original Issue: 2006 VHF (vhf#101) Buy it here!!!

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

IMHO, the more beautiful folk-related album of 2006

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1 Song For Ireland
2 Awake, Angel Snake
3 W. Memphis
4 Murder Of Crows
5 Lintworme, Pt. I
6 Marble Grey
7 Shingle River
8 The Dirty South
9 Summer Of Throg
10 What The Crows Left Behind
11 Lullaby

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from Boomkat:

Fern Knight is guitarist, cellist and singer Margie Wienk in collaboration with a revolving cast of musicians, in this instance largely culled from the Espers line-up (Meg Baird, Greg Weeks and the ubiquitous Otto Hauser). As you can tell from both the artist name and album title, this project really isn't going out of its way to avoid the faerie folk typecasting acts like Espers are associated with, and sure enough Ms. Wienk guides her troupe of followers through the acid folk haunted wood with aplomb. As is often the case with this scene, much of the influence here has been taken from English folk fusion groups from the '60s and '70s. Opener, 'Song For Ireland' has that hypnotic Wicker Man feel that's referenced so often by this music, while 'Awake, Angel Snake' contains some of Greg Weeks' curiously medieval sounding acid lead guitar. As the album starts to draw to a close, 'What The Crows Left Behind' proves to be one of the finest things here; an upbeat waltz featuring Jesse Sparhawk's beautiful harp playing and some great ensemble arrangement and vocal harmonizing from the Espers crew. Music For Witches And Alchemists might turn out to be exactly the record you expect it to be, but given the quality of both the writing and performances, that's far from a bad thing. Excellent stuff.

FULL SNOW MOON (28 February 2010)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

CASTRO NICK & THE POISON TREE

FURTHER FROM GRACE


Original Issue: 2005 Strange Attractors Audio House (SAAH030)

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

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1 Sun Song 4:09
2 To This Earth 3:29
3 Unborn Child 3:40
4 Won't You Sing To Me 4:26
5 Waltz For A Little Bird 4:18
6 Guildford 5:13
7 Music For Mijwiz 2:42
8 Deep Deep Sea 8:09
10 Walk Like A Whisper 4:29

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from Splendid Magazine:

Nick Castro hails from Los Angeles, a city whose glitter and glare would seem worlds away from anything as comfortable and worn-in-feeling as Further From Grace. The acid folk-meets-Renaissance Faire aesthetic behind most of Further From Grace recalls medieval Britain more than modern La-La Land... but that's not nearly as dorky as it sounds. Castro and the Poison Tree (featuring members of Philadelphia neo-folkists Espers) are utterly convincing -- they seem contemporary, but never allow a breath of indie-rock pretension to steal into their sumptuous balladry. "Sun Song" opens the disc in fairly traditional troubadour style, with mourning cello and narrative steeped in the dark and supernatural. Soon it dissolves into a gentle melee of undulating flutes and choirlike singing (courtesy of underground folk luminary Josephine Foster). And that's when Further From Grace gets its hooks into you.

Castro's rich voice and gift for lyrical imagery find a comfortable home in Further From Grace's beautiful arrangements. The yearning, flute-like tune that decorates "To This Earth"'s introduction is echoed by the vocal melody, lending extra poignancy to the already evocative lines, "Her hair was red like the blood which she caused to flow through my heart / Her love was so pure, like a little bird in the sky / Flying right towards me, she's my one desire." Of course, Further From Grace has its share of clichés like "Her skin was white as snow", but the storyteller's empathy in Castro's delivery keeps them from sounding hackneyed.

Not all of Further From Grace follows the minstrel formula, though; Castro's 2004 debut wouldn't have gotten so much attention if he were afraid to experiment a bit. In the wordless "Waltz for a Little Bird", Adam Hershberger's mellow flugelhorn replaces the vocal with a wistful, rather circus-like melody, later reprised by guitar, over plonking piano. Placed at the album's approximate midpoint, the track functions almost as an intermission, signaling departure to regions less "folk" and more "acid". "Music for Mijwiz" primarily features the Arabic "double clarinet" of the song's title, working up to a rambling, multitonal buzz against complex hand drumming patterns. In "Deep Deep Sea", the flugelhorn once again takes center stage -- now moaning a wistful boat-whistle, now effortlessly running up and down the scale. A long, jammy interval shifts abruptly -- with a crisp bell tone, no less -- into delicate guitar picking, a fit transition into "Walk Like a Whisper", the album's slow, dreamy conclusion.

Further From Grace is an ambitious record. The studio artistry, the large number of musicians and instruments, the hodgepodge of styles -- all self-consciously demand notice and respect. But Further From Grace is also humbly built on the things that make great albums what they are: solid songwriting and arrangements, good lyrics, impeccable performances. It not only deserves your admiration, but a place in your CD player.

Sarah Zachrich

RUNIC MOON (nordic musick)

ORCHIS

A THOUSAND WINTERS


Original Issue: 1997 Cryptanthus (CYT 03 CD)

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

Über-rare pagan folk muzak from one of the co-founders of the important World Serpent Distribution label

p.s. fans of The Iditarod...DO NOT MISS THIS ONE!!!

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1 The Horseman (0:14)
2 Blood Of Bone (5:40)
3 Blackwaterside (3:42)
4 The Hare / Jennet (2:58)
5 Gallows Man (5:00)
6 Arcadia (4:28)
7 The Horn (0:23)
8 He Walks In Winter (6:14)
9 Magaera (3:21)
10 Winter (1:02)
11 Risen (6:13)
12 From The Iron Wood (7:49)

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from http://www.myspace.com/orchistheband:

ORCHIS is an English Dark Folk band consisting of Tracy Jeffery (who also sings with Cunnan and J Greco's SQE), Amanda Prouten and Alan Trench (Cunnan, SQE, Twelve Thousand Days (with Martyn Bates), Temple Music).

We have so far managed to release four albums to date starting in 1994 with The Dancing Sun (cryptanthus /World Serpent), which was more a collection of formative pieces than anything else, then in 1997 the concept album that was A Thousand Winters (cryptanthus / World Serpent). Mandragora (Trisol), an alchemical album based around the themes of life, death and the transmutation of the soul followed in 1999 and in 2001 Trait (a ‘best of’ released through the Russian Brudenia label).

Relocation and various tedious problems put ORCHIS on the back burner for a while whilst we buried ourselves in other projects like the busy bunnies we are; we raised our heads out of the mire again in 2007 with the ‘Other Days’ download ep via the (now sadly defunct) Woven Wheat Whispers legal folk download service...

There have been numerous compilation album appearances over the years, with some tracks turning up on the ‘Trait’ album. We like to think, as the Fairports had it, that we are Nicely Out Of Tune - there was the odd perfect take, but those were never the ones that went on the albums - rather it was the ones that kept to the True Spirit.... ORCHIS, the Ancient Kingdom of East Lindsey, 2009...

BLACK MOON (the dark side of musick)

SONGS: OHIA
GHOST TROPIC

Original Issue: 2000 Secretly Canadian (SC040) Buy it!


Margot-meter: 4.5 moons / 5

1 Lightning Risked It All
2 The Body Burned Away
3 No Limits On The Words
4 Ghost Tropic
5 The Ocean's Nerves
6 Not Just A Ghost's Heart
7 Ghost Tropic
8 Incantation

Together with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's "I see a darkness", one of Margot's favourites. THIS MUSICK HURTS!

Amazon review:

Molina furnishes a technicolour portrait of the more ethereal territory of spiritual wanderlust and saddened backward glances. As a result, Ghost Tropic is a liberating musical experience - carrying all the weight of worldly woes yet still achieving an exhilirating level of emotional transcendence.

Dirk Hugo

Ghost Tropic really lives up to its name; the album is haunted, otherworldly and utterly desolate, creating entirely its own existential landscape from scratch with the help of Mike Mogis and Alasdair Roberts. "Simply to live/that is my plan" sings Jason Molina, accompanied by the most minimal guitar you have heard since Mark Hollis ditched his band because they 'played too many notes'.

This record is dark, laying bare a spiritual isolation and emptiness which is rarely heard in any form of music. The album slowly evolves from acoustic beginnings to take in tropical environmental twitterings and creaky programmed percussion, ending with the final synth movement of Incantation, which sounds akin to Joy Division's "The Eternal" if it really did go on forever... Ghost Tropic is modern folk music that sounds like it has just crawled out of the swamp, completely unaware of conventions or anything that has gone before it.

Mr. R.A.Riggs