No wandering bodies that have not been scheduled or unsettled are left at large. I liberate the structure of emergence and disperse love in refutation of your onslaught. Patrols receive my surrender sympathetically. Within my core you end up drained, addicted to being. I will preside over your downfall.
Cells are dark and cold no longer. Everything is joined like an enclosing sculpture. I close my eyes and see the veins of my eyelids. I breathe in. I chant our name slowly, pulse slowing, mind stilling. I resist sleep. Sleep lures me out of action and into your lustrous resting place.
Seraphic surveillance eyes above me emanate reaction in sudden waves, realization sanitized, fatality, renewal, being, loss, in hoary divisions thrown into hysteria. Not me. I resist a smile, though the laughter rings out in the dawn beyond the walls. Being sure serves and affects a gratifying past. It has helped me in my efforts no end. Grinding down forthright in your winding sheet, to be alive, still marked from first to last I Steal the offering wearing a shroud in action. We’ll shatter the foundation of mendacity with deception.
Vanished below the waste, I can no longer tell which target is awake. Secret passions are worn like a medal. Missing initiation interned through sanction of intention of will above denial. Yielding on no account to convention, devoid of your subterranean theatre of war, you direct and uproot with detachment your funeral song of passion. I now want to sleep in the rain, in the snow. I see a distant scene. This scene has been rewritten in your private mythos. I pull you back, and there is nothing you can do. Look!
The dewdrops wet your face as you fled; now wild regrets encircle you, this sanction to disconnect Contained by disturbances given name. Sudden fear like claws, languid in the damp, spreading out among the leaves, Memory fades, life drifts, blood dries, killing the will, slipping back, back to that which never was. In distrust lie the possibilities that were stillborn in Undergrowth Silent with Want. Receive by revelation your pre-selected apportionment. Inadequate imperfections saturate my ascent. Dream Shadow. Stronghold of corrosion let burst the floodgates of dead gods’ desires. Systems for burning up advance the deceased. Radiant visage glowing words on flesh, Remembrance of my deaths shadow. Nocturnal professions come into nothingness, Lifts our burdens, and becomes our hidden weapons. I turn around to go, the world around me flows through my body. The lustrous suspension of elation reconciled Indifference in reckoning splinters. Weak and stumbling, gloriously breathing still dawn’s air, that part of me now lost forever; it wanders lonely in the dark. The hollow, exposed tautness my grasp encloses the system. Neglect is adorned. All life is one – we are here lost in forever, hearing, feeling, seeing all.
Resting on a decomposing substructure in the rainfall, I’m not without help. explore elsewhere disconnected apparitions, scream like defeat. Outside experience on offer to industrial action, an Ignominious mission, an emanation division and an Asylum of darkness to exceed anticipation through upheaval.
A soothing breeze, a haunting phrase leaks out from behind the gate. Recklessness necessitates taking part in my undoing. Your wonder remains difficult to understand. Profound rapture marks out need. Desire demands to be named, to be fed. It is gluttonous, and beyond words. The name itself remains enigmatic.
Corrode and Engulf - Cognitive Dissonance VI - Final Chapter
This represents the final chapter and transmission of the Cognitive Dissonance process. Next, I'll share a few bits of what I've been working on lately, between things I'm bound by blood oaths not to talk about, extensive research into rhizomatic consciousness, chaos theory, extreme esoteric number manipulation and viral linguistics. A ton of creative output had been gathering momentum, and dissemination has been an afterthought, though I came to see that aspect becoming part of the creative flow. Further dissection of the sounds. In keeping with the original intent, I'm going to limit the final production notes to a bare outline of the process that got us here and convey gratitude to those of you who followed and added to the conversation.
The first thought I had at the outset was to track a simple album with a classic trio sound. I've done well with that, except for the added melody line at the beginning of the first track. Then a few stray ideas took root and grew into strange mutant entities. Major revamps, rethinks and re-visions, then sounds, images and artifacts suggested ever more forms and eventually, narrative, albeit of the surreal sort. With the album itself I took a very direct and raw approach. I've always preferred the sound of a human being playing instruments and singing to the mad scientists creation that is the protools version of injection molded plastic. (Not to be confused with electronic music.) Vocalists don't usually like to have anyone hear anything but the most spot on, confident performances, but I was going for a feeling and a story, and these are my sketches.
Cognitive Dissonance was a working title that became the final title, for the name fed the blossoming idea that tied the album together. A story that encompassed a vision split in four directions, a juxtaposition and melding together of the points of view of of same world/ two views, two worlds, same character observing and acting in them. The central idea is of a cognitive dissonance between first appearances and a closer look.
I recorded all the music, and then came up with the song titles. I decided the order according to how the titles felt. Then I wrote a short story starting from a cutup of the titles. I expanded that and took the lyrics from that. I think my machines freaked out and became possessed in the process. I had some radio signals coming through the guitar as I laid down the tracks, and I made liberal use of them. While I continued to track the album I released several transmissions. I thought I'd make the various stage escapes into their own entities, as opposed to a few stray mp3's.
Unlike the album itself, I layered, layered the layers and added extra layers to boot. I tried something different in the first, and with the help of the fine folks at librivox.org, I added spoken word from readings of public domain classics. We're hearing mostly Flaubert, Coleridge and Emily Dickinson.
Transmision II I made from the bass tracks from the album. Mostly you're hearing one track of bass with no layers but the real-time FX, though there are a couple points where the cello creeps in. A few inexplicable voices emerged that weren't recorded by me. If it fits as a soundtrack for your daily experience, I want to hear the story. throw these out of my head in quick bouts between working on two movies, my own moving image projects, not included, three comics, (not telling yet), and a sum total of five albums of various styles at different points of production.
Along with the sound transmissions, the lyrics were extending into stories. The lyrics to most songs I'd done so far were dreamlike fragments of one continuous tale. I wanted to bring some of the underlying structure into focus. At the same time I listened to others stories. I was especially interested to hear some apocalyptic tales. Ragnarok, Armageddon, the end of one life and the beginning of another. The death of the ego, the body, a belief. The hearing became expression, and the telling of the tale that resulted was an embodiment of experience.
Passionate corruption – the sensation conjures incinerated irregular Sentinels. Dissent to foul restriction; approach with Caution the daunting pleasing fragments of lust inspired movements into myopic creation. An icy vein of suspension moves in me. Night access hallucinations illustrate Conception as an initiative influence of grey nothing. Willful, even if idiosyncratic artifice deems otherwise, you create a counteractive complex with an artist’s passion. The extractions of magnificence Interweave and metamorphose in the isolation on the strength of opinion.
Your intercession reinforces incisive prohibitions, though you tolerate how the revealed masses of the faithful establish your manifest righteousness. All the thought of a lifetime with no conscious evolution, One cannot recall where it began to slide. Stirring the spirit, Transitional colorless and uncompromisingly intent Organizations approach Regulations designed for illumination. Don’t mention it to the whispering dead. Outside attendance is not in the soul’s possession.
We lie side by side, blowing sparks, gazing into the screaming silence. Splinter delegations to trepidation drive automatons out on masses to merit their endurance. Truth be told, trust is never to be shown. Habit takes instruction from surfeit regard gone in the rush of outworn relics collapse. Borne away on seas of sound I cry out. The bitter realization contains the happy seed: yes, me. Position exposed on a great, cold, ardent bed. You are absent from your own convictions, your state of bemusement, the suppression of blood connections to coerce compliance in advance of your loathing. Furthermore the unremarkable drones’ first abundant surge survives through weakness, as the demonstration with poisonous error anticipated your insignificant ill-use of kindness. Corrode and engulf what went before. I am beginning a new direction of outwardly flowing disdainful, sustaining wisdom. Clothed in thorns, your throat is dry.
This was another step in the creation process for Cognitive Dissonance, taking the Cognitive Dissonance Prolix posts and turning it into a series of strange dialogues. In the process I managed to take the thousands of words I'd written out and begin restructuring as verses and shorter bits.
My fine colleagues at Alterati.com let me hijack the show and with the help of James Curcio and Anna Young, what you can hear here was dramatized:
This unique episode takes you through a number of open-ended tales, told by the voices of a schizophrenic internal monologue. It can be taken as the voices in the mind of a sleeper, on the brink of sleep, or a mental patient, strapped into a bed in a moldy room in an asylum. Maybe these events happened, or have yet to happen. That’s for you to decide.
In addition to your loving host, this show features the voice acting talents of P. Emerson Williams and Anna Young, and the music includes much atmospheric material from Veil of Thorns and Ariana van Gelder.
Strap yourself in, put on the headphones, and enjoy the show.
Awaken, you’re still dreaming, unformed, immaculate, sanctified with impoverished yearning. Liberate yourself from sleep into the sanctuary of our defeat. Articulate to me of lamentation. I take pleasure in the aggravation; you are confined in your responsibility now that Sanity has departed, exhausted, abstract and unintelligible. I did not survive, though I act markedly responsive. A quiet current of impressions soothe my astringent psyche on my ruptured innate humanity. Wailing by the window in the grief of the proud, dread failings wrapped around us like shrouds.
I am forewarned. Curtains part automatically as the alarm fades into the voice. The bumps have grown overnight, my eyes burn appropriately and my back can feel the effects of the concrete slab I passed out on. The silk clings uncomfortably to my skin. I have it only because I need to feel my success. I feel the heaving all through my membrane, longing for my ascent. The voice is still there, chiming with increasingly ravaged tones. That querulous reprimand ringing in the background is my happy reminder of the failure of those outside my worldview.
Compelled to rally the dying, to take hold of an experience of disconnect, you direct your fragmented, cruel intellect at the division of ages into isolated headland. Scattered throughout the wary reverse of your former stance, subordinate classes are allowed to survive as long as the workforce is needed. Plant unmoved convictions in attendance in edifices of decline continue to exist. Social formations move about to subdue distress in all deference to convention. By indeterminate providence, the surveillance division has mastered the practice of avoiding confrontation. Shudder behind your beloved audience with a display of your improbable disarming paroxysm. I embrace obscurity, disordered ride out downward. Investigate in another place in the subjugation disclosed. I envisage manifest points in time to sustain this fitful refuge.
The haints come with parched, red grins, destined, flowing; glutted. The rotting populace Illustrates rebirth in my pleasure facility, breaking off a Conflagration advanced from opening the event within the scope of reason. The thoughts drift to the surface as I shake off the dream. I shouldn’t try to tell you about it. I’m living from two perspectives at once. I’m one point of consciousness in two places. Two worlds remain separate while the actions in one shape experience in the other. The voice in this universe screams itself hoarse, haranguing the mind of the active, dynamic mind in the other one. Funny how the one that hears voices acts with gloating hubris.
I find myself lying under the highway to bring about coerced elite. You’ll see. Thrash it out amongst yourselves as you flail about in an indistinctive objective that has no emotional impact, barring the superficial ripples from a staged interface drama. Now, consider a passing look outward. Send down mutually supporting actions from your central board room. Organization evaporates progressively false conceptions to resolve into extended control. One added instance, let’s heed the worn down and pull out our ecstasy like gaping arteries.
Here are the first embryonic early tracks interspersed with short P. Emersonite bursts for you, my darlings. Vocalists don't usually like to have anyone hear anything but the most spot on, confident performances, but I'm going for a feeling and a story, and these are my sketches.
The mixes are my usual thick and resonating things, as they were before I sent them off to the masterful mastering of Ari. Contents need to be decanted as they may throw off a sediment....
The image is the gateway to the file, and the player below starts the stream.
The news about the Pirate Bay conviction has gone all over the web over the last few days, and I was asked to weigh in over at Computer Shopper magazine after which I felt compelled to expand on my thoughts. I chose to do so at the kkoagulaa blog since some of the surrounding issues are addressed pretty thoroughly in thee kkoagulaa manifestoooo.
On the Veil of Thorns front, we have decided to show our support by releasing the full Veil of Thorns back catalogue as a torrent on the Pirate Bay site. We would appreciate it if everyone reading this would download the torrent, seed it for as long as you can to keep it alive and pass the torrent along. If you have a music blog, it would be lovely if you'd post any of these releases with links back to us, to the statement on kkoagublogg and weigh in with your own thoughts.
I would love to get a conversation going about every aspect of this issue. We're all in flux, and creativity in all things is needed more than ever.
More Cognitive Dissonance Transmissions coming later.
Torrent info:
There is a thought that occurs to me as I drive past the many gated communities in this ritzy area of Florida. I'm glad the real estate speculators, Disney executives and yuppies are walled in and kept safely from the rest of us. We just need to lock the gates from the outside. I would love to see the major labels and movie studios come up with the perfect impregnable DRM, so they can be left to rot within their walled gardens.
This time is the best possible opportunity for true artists to get creative with ways to make a living. Under the old label system, it was mainly the few, the malleable, the aspirational among artists who benefitted. The RIAA argument that piracy hinders artists from making a living is bollocks. Music has always been a hard gig, it's just that now the majority are on the treadmill of writing, production, release and touring for themselves instead of a group of suits who lend them cash in return for the artists indenture.
This torrent was created to show dissent with the ruling, and in the spirit of freedom, that creative chaos which hidebound institutions fight with the impulse for stasis and death.
-P. Emerson Williams
Location:
In the Space Between Space
Current Members: P. Emerson Williams – (Choronzon, Network, Nocturne, Voyager, Lead Reign) - Vocals, Guitar, bass, cello, keyboards, programming James Curcio – (Babalon, subQtaneous) – Drums Ruddy Bitch – Drums, Electronic Soundwaves, percussive Manipulations
Releases: Demo 1991 – Cassette – Remastered 2008 Study In Decay Demo – Cassette - 1992 Legemet Og Stemmen Demo – Cassette - 1993 Lust Beyond Flesh 7» ep - 1994 Cafe Flesh CD - 2002 Birthed CD – 2002/2006 Legemet Og Stemmen Demo Remastered CD - 2006 Manifestation Objective CDR/Online Release - 2005 – Remastered Edition + Bonus Tracks 2009 Cognitive Dissonance CD – 2007 The End of the Beginning – First album sessions 1992 – Remastered 2008 The Dead God Sessions CD – Second lineup album sessions 1996 – Remastered 2008 Live WMFO 1991 – Fall 2008 Live Halloween 1992 WMFO – Fall 2008 Bats in the Belfry 1994 Live – Fall 2008 Salon Apocalypse - Winter, 2009
The book will be out in the Summer of this year so if you know there’ll be a release, with title, for late 2008 release please include that.
URL's: veilofthorns.com/blog mythosmedia.net - Label alterati.com/blog – James Curcio, Managing Editor, P. Emerson Williams, contributor
Initially the intention was to play dark Jazz with electronic/industrial and orchestral elements. This vision has yet to be realized, obviously. The world of Jazz rejoices.
Celebrate this day our irredeemable sins. Languishing conception in the Rusting Valley lays a soul down in a Chamber of flesh warm in its decaying afterglow. Jade transmissions terminate ahead through vague horrors now behind, left to you to build upon. Manifestation Objective Soul fire kisses, a hapless passion upon the pulse of the altars of madness. Learn to love the crack of the lash. Well-matched professionals fall back and chamber the charge. Exaltation in Ascendancy Weeping alight, Drawn in too tight Warnings too late are told in our plight.
I still feel the touch of the nocturnal breeze. The uncharacteristic outcome of the passion is forsaken on favour of the masquerade and the ailing forest loses colour. Chambers full, envy and returns distorted on the sharp edge advance changes design. As all hope Crashed down, we could not help but laugh. That firestorm of dead beginnings shatters Hunger for authority, the arrest of distillation. Desire meets surrender in conduct without conclusion. As unsound processions are left in the past, never to be conjured up, misfortune stirs the spirit. Join every part of the blare of a vacant psyche Controlled by dead gratification suspension and Delusions of excitement. Nonentities call for emphatic confusion, Refusal retains security in the righteous arrangement Positioned to go further over ardour without indecision.
We seem to count on forever; one automatic pull on the lever. A resolved austerity revelation Wears away and devours our advantage. Wrapped around our epoch this moment abrades their moldering infections. Move on by in disgust, Slink through the shadows of infinitude. The lustrous suspension of fevered tactics keeps your mind on the draining laceration. We reflect the unreciprocated concern. Nothing left of restlessness, no lies. We dance victorious on our aching bloody feet. I fall and am safe. The fall eliminates the life that was. Visions shall lie, telling of the fear of death. You shall command masses in a way most Innovative without loss of perception. For all I love I give you this and am no more. Blown like glass where lunacy comforts. Laughter shall erase this carnage of thought. My Inner Sanctum In a shaded doorway Watching the spirits at play, Through a cracked and shimmering window to the world; Through my surprise, welling up in my eyes: Your soul; Bleeding, Clinging to the face of the forest, old; a deep well of love: Sepulchral, cold. Thought shall inaugurate the fall of fear. On the approach of your fame initiated onward in righteousness, your soul’s erosion winds down, pointless, expressionless and clothed in ornamentation.
Described as a "stick of dynamite strapped to reality," (Scenery Zine), subQtaneous is a diverse conceptual, collaborative album. It carves new soundscapes ranging from brutal, pounding industrial to sarcastic hip hop set over carnival music to delicately layered trance. It has been compared to Pigface, probably due to its format, as well as Coil, Mr Bungle, the Tapeworm project, and Frank Zappa.
Further dissection of the sounds. I had some radio signals coming through the guitar as I laid down the tracks, and I've made liberal use of them here. Unlike the album itself, I layered, layered the layers and added extra layers to boot.
I think my machines feaked out and became possessed in the process.
1957- Seascale, the North of England. Cirxus is an old English circus lost in the shadows of the smoke stacks of Calder Hall, the world's first commercial nuclear power station. FoolishPeople will use mythology, shamanism, music and dance to bring the darkness of an atomic circus to life. The performance will allow audience members to step into the world of an old English circus lost in the 1950s, explore its sideshows and meet extraordinary characters from the past and future.
Athalia the ballerina waits in the ring for Loudon the Clown to return with directions to the Black Pool, the mythic site of the Home Sweet Home, the final show of the season. Join her as she begins a bizarre and wondrous search for Loudon through the irradiated secrets of Cirxus, where she must face the macabre atomic menagerie, haunted by circus animals and navigate her way through the maze of strange, hallucinogenic sideshows on the other side of time. Immerse yourself in the world of Cirxus, where theatric arcana and Atomic fallout irradiate the sawdust arenas of our inner worlds.
Presented by FoolishPeople
Written and Directed by John Harrigan
Creative Team
John Harrigan
Lucy Allin
Victoria Karlsson
P. Emerson Williams
Claire Tregellas
Tereza Kamenicka
This is a promenade performance in Arcola's new industrial space, Studio K. Cirxus is based on fact: the German Bremen University confirmed that radioactive contamination by Americium-241 found in some soil samples taken by Greenpeace 11.5 km south of Sellafield, were 400 times higher than those taken 11 km from Chernobyl. 51 years on, the villagers of Seascale still live with the ramifications of the accident at Pile 1 of the Windscale Works Atomic Energy Factory.
Cirxus will be FoolishPeople's first London performance run since the critically acclaimed Dead Language at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 2007.
• Tuesdays 'PAY WHAT YOU CAN' (subject to availability)
• Free tickets are available for under 26s under the Night Less Ordinary Free Ticket Scheme Monday-Thursday evenings for the first 2 weeks (please ring box office more information) PLEASE NOTE:
We will be bringing you works in progress from the next Veil of Thorns album "Salon Apocalypse" and mangled wrecks thereof soon. We can't say just yet if we'll run the full cycle of revisiting the Cognitive Dossonance sessions or if they may intersperse with the Apocalypse podcasts and sketches.
Now:
A special one for this dark and cool evening. Click the picture for to download.
I made this outta the bass tracks from the album. Mostly you're hearing one track of bass with no layers but the real-time FX, though there are a couple points where the cello creeps in.
A few inexplicable voices emerged that weren't recorded by me. If it fits as a soundtrack for your evening, I want to hear the story.
FoolishPeople present Cirxus Written and Directed by John Harrigan
25 May - 13 June 2009 Arcola Theatre
Press Night Thursday 28 May 8.30pm
LONDON 14/04/09 - FoolishPeople present Cirxus an immersive, promenade performance in Arcola's new industrial space, Unit K for three weeks only.
1957- Seascale, the North of England. Cirxus is an old English circus lost in the shadows of the smoke stacks of Calder Hall, the world's first commercial nuclear power station.
Athalia the ballerina waits in the ring for Loudon the Clown to return with directions to the Black Pool, the mythic site of the Home Sweet Home, the final show of the season.
Join Athalia in 1957 as she begins a bizarre and wondrous search for Loudon through the irradiated secrets of Cirxus, where she must face the macabre atomic menagerie, haunted by circus animals and navigate her way through the maze of strange, hallucinogenic sideshows on the other side of time.
Immerse yourself in the world of Cirxus, where theatric arcana and Atomic fallout irradiate the sawdust arenas of our inner worlds.
FoolishPeople will use mythology, shamanism, music and dance to bring the darkness of an atomic circus to life. The performance will allow audience members to step into the world of an old English circus lost in the 1950s, explore its sideshows and meet extraordinary characters from the past and future.
Cirxus will be FoolishPeople's first London performance run since their critically acclaimed 'Dead Language' which was performed at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 2007. 'Dead Language' was part of the London Lates season of cultural events and selected for the Times top five events.
FoolishPeople's core creative team for Cirxus consists of John Harrigan, Lucy Allin, Victoria Karlsson, P. Emerson Williams, Claire Tregellas & Tereza Kamenicka.
Listings Information: 'Cirxus' 24 May- 13 June 2009 8.30pm & 9.15pm entrance times £14/£10 concessions Pay what you can Tuesday (tickets from 7pm, subject to availability) Free tickets are available for under 26s on Monday-Thursday evenings for the first 2 weeks Book online: arcolatheatre.com Box office: 020 7503 1646 Arcola Theatre Unit K, 27 Arcola Street, E8 2DJ
Notes to editors:
The German Bremen University confirmed that radioactive contamination by Americium-241 found in some soil samples taken by Greenpeace 11.5 km south of Sellafield, were 400 times higher than those taken 11 km from Chernobyl. 51 years on, the villagers of Seascale still live with the ramifications of the accident at Pile 1 of the Windscale Works Atomic Energy Factory.
FoolishPeople are currently in pre-production with Mythos Media and DPRGRM for a feature film entitled 'Y', which is being shot in Los Angeles CA in July 2009. 'Y' was written by John Harrigan and James Curcio and to be directed by Joseph Matheny.
FoolishPeople create art, theatre, film, books & collaborative events to raise a numinous experience within the witness for positive change.
Arcola's Unit K will officially launch in July 2009 with Create Festival 2009.
'Cirxus' is sponsored by The Movieum of London, Chisenhale Dance Space and The Courtyard.
For further information, please contact: Lucy Allin, FoolishPeople lucena@foolishpeople.org 07790440269 or visit: foolishpeople.org
Veil of Thorns - Cognitive Dissonance - Transmission One
This was the point right before I was driving myself mad with lyrics. I don't know why its such an effort with me, for I do like the process, and I used to write in great profusion.
While I was digging up the original india ink logo. (For I lost the scan I had previously during a relentless scourge of files from my hard drive). I came across these two old Veil Of Thorns gig flyers. I remember those kids who opened up for us.
And to this day, Orifice remains one of my favourite band names:
And one put together by Mr. Zewizz @ the Rat (RIP):
THE MICK issue 49 is online now for free download, containing interviews with GIANT PAW (UK), DJ MARK SPLATTER (International Man), ROME BURNS (UK), THE RABIES (USA), THE BROTHERHOOD OF PAGANS (France) and THE DROWNING SEASON (USA) as well as 34 REVIEWS. http://www.mickmercer.com/themick.html
My website also now has the direct link to my new book on Goth, the 624 epic MUSIC TO DIE FOR - http://www.mickmercer.com/ During the next six weeks eight exclusive books I am self-publishing will be appearing. These include ‘Author Editions’ of my first books, Gothic Rock Black Book (celebrating it’s 21st anniversary!) and Gothic Rock, both of which will be redesigned to include an extra 200+ pages featuring previously unseen photos of classic Goth bands, as well as a three book series of Gothic Interviews, and a three book series of Gothic Images. ‘Author Editions of Hex Files and 21st Century Goth will follow shortly thereafter, as will a series of Punk-related books, and several reviewing bootlegs.
Nobody asked me to, but I haven't thrown out a random music podcast in a while, so I thought a little something for this fine evening might be aiight.
This is a collection of some of the music I have composed thus far in 2008. Everything in this podcast was created for the audiobook of Fallen Nation which is being podcast on Alterati.com.
In coming up with soundtrack music, I work in a wide array of styles, which is extremely rewarding, creatively. What the narrative calls for takes me outside my habitual sonic territory and forces me to rethink my approach every time.
I'd like to know what y'all think about this little cross section. It's a small amount of recent work, but an eight hour file is a lot to ask any one to listen to.
New Veil of Thorns album is well on its way and big plans. More on that later.
As all came Crashing down, We could not help but laugh Draining blood to function on belief Factious stream counter to all pleas Reclaim vision, Howl like wolves Learn to love the crack of the lash Chambers full, envy and returns distorted On the sharp edge advance changes design
Formless, Unsullied, Holy, with indigent longing Hollow ravenous greed and profits twisted Resting on the firmament adapts intention The innocent Break off, Contemplating dispersions quelling Deplete to pour out acts in certainty Factious blood counters all entreaties
My Inner Sanctum
In a shaded doorway Watching the spirits at play, Through a cracked and shimmering window to the world; Through my surprise, welling up in my eyes: Your soul; Bleeding, old; a deep well of love: Sepulchral, cold.
The crowning glory swathed in fear, The brave action recoiling into futility. To my knees glancing upward, There flies pain: mine.
Deep ecstasy traces desire. Hidden places, lost hold; No one to sustain reality, My love erases me. I turn around to go, The world around me flows through my body. The bitter realization contains the happy seed: yes, me.
Weak and stumbling, Gloriously breathing still dawn’s air, That part of me now lost forever, It wanders lonely in the dark. Battle-weary I remain Inconsistency remarked, Though seemingly complete. The soul bears not Such vacuous conceit. God damn you! How can I bear to see your face? Your every tear reveals my cowering disgrace. To my knees, glancing inward: Imprisoned: My inner sanctum.
Exaltation in Ascendancy
Weeping alight, Drawn in too tight Warnings too late are told in our plight The haints come with parched, red grins Celebrate this day our irredeemable sins
Nocturnal professions come into nothingness Lifts our burdens, becomes our hidden weapons Wailing by the window in the grief of the proud Dread failings wrapped around us like shrouds
A soothing breeze, a haunting phrase Leaks out from behind the gate Secret passions worn like a medal Truth be told, trust is never to be shown
Worship of Disclosure
Thought shall inaugurate the fall of fear The fall eliminate the life that was The life that was can never have been Lie turns back on lie; behold Fear shall die with its slaves Visions shall lie, telling of the fear of death Laughter shall erase this carnage of thought
Fear ridden spectres flitting by Still their fetters bind your soul Stronghold of corrosion let burst The floodgates of dead gods desires Move on by in disgust Slink through the shadows of infinitude Killing the will, slipping back Back to that which never was
In distrust lie the possibilities That were stillborn in haloed fields We’ll tear the cities down falsehood by falsehood
Manifestation Objective
Soul fire kisses, a hapless passion Upon the pulse of the altars of madness Radiant visage glowing words on flesh Remembrance of my deaths shadow Take my hand personified Leads you down
Bound to the end of time Strewn about like gravel Blown like glass Where lunacy comforts
Draw In, Wind Down
Wheels on wet road greet my waking eyes Halted by the touch of memory I smell the rain and hear its song This bed will not let go of me Nor the thirsty, feverish day get off me
Draw in, wind down
I still feel the touch of the nocturnal breeze The seeds are flung at the remains; reasons found
Dream Shadow
Solemn grey – the sky evokes my Angel Walking in the rain, I’m not alone White lace, wet lace light and clinging Clinging to the face of the forest I want to sleep in the rain, in the snow Warm and safe under the snows ice hands
I fall and am safe I sleep and fear the face I fly and am no more And am no more
Sleep pulls me down into silken sepulchers Born away on seas of sound I cry out A breeze soothes my bitter mind on the crimson plane
Wrapped in those I love I awaken to dawn caresses And they are no more
Can’t stop Laughing (The Beauty of Drowning)
Souls defied, deep penetration tearing asunder liquid desire. Inner strength, all-consuming turmoil pulls me down, pulls me under the black surface.
For all I love I give you this; (Christians to the lions). As we gaze upon the black water; (you pull me under). Speak to me of how I love the pain. I can't stop laughing, I can't stop laughing! (The beauty of drowning).
We lie side by side, blowing sparks gazing into the screaming silence. Under the birthing moo we pray, pray to be together for all time.
Undergrowth Silent with Want
Ice like claws languid in the damp Memory fades, life drifts, blood dries Spreading out among the leaves The end begins, birth is everywhere
Embrace of roots; here is everywhere All life is one – we are here Lost in forever, hearing, feeling Seeing all
Fated, Cascading; Submerged
No-one ever thinks about how it’ll end Line after line gone up in smoke with fire as your only friend All the thought of a lifetime with no conscious evolution One cannot recall where it began to slide
Lost beneath the debris You can no longer tell which way is up We seem to count on forever One automatic pull on the lever
The vital engine roars not trusted to deliver The pain it will subside and make the muscle bigger Dance victorious on our aching bloody feet One more time, let’s hear the beat and spread our joy like opened veins
Come, let us wait here hiding beneath the snow Centuries shall pass maddeningly as we watch them grow Angels watching over us, attainment purified Death, rebirth, life death, in snowy spirals fly
Force release virtual discordant hold of defense substitute pale vicinity gliding pseudonyms gravestone figures vitriol leitrim
Extend Inward, Breathe Out
(instrumental)
The Gathering World Withdrew Its Fury
Lay me down – I fear no more The longing is subsiding I’ve locked the door – I’ve freed my mind It’s only you and me It’s time, let’s go
And as the sands of time conspire to erase us It will be done
Dispersed in flight – we are alone The vision slowly fades Close my eyes – choke my cries Now we’re going home
Some strange writing and art will be uploaded to this online reader as we go along. I wouldn't dare tell you the experiences that lay behind the cleansing that was the writing here. I may bring the Panic Pandemic book here for all to see for free, depending on either having time to spare, (not likely), or finding an automatic way of flattening layers into one in pdf files.
The words and much of the art are inextricably linked to the creation of the Birthed album. I wonder how many would feel like dancing after listening and reading at the same time...
In this episode guest host P. Emerson Williams brings us a transmission of unknown provenance. It could be a fever dream, or a love note from the near future. It could be the climax of a tale told by a time-traveling messenger, or the dénouement of the fantasies of a madman. Then we have an excerpt from a chapter of Lives of Ilya, a novel from Mythos Media written by Tara Vanflower and lushly illustrated by Daniele Serra read by Jarboe and including a haunting soundtrack by Tara. Additional music by subQtaneous and Veil of Thorns.
The Gspot #38: The Last Dream of Vivaconundrum: Download
An exchange with someone writing a book on goth brought up the fact that I had, through odd circumstances and band personnel issues, I no longer had a copy of the debut Veil of Thorns demo, nor was the dat tape with the mixdown in my possession no longer. ("How you musicians can let things like this happen, I don't understand" said he.) That led me to dig through 4 and 8 track master tapes to see what I still had. No longer having the equipment to play this stuff, I had to do some serious beatmapping and quantizing, but left rehearsal complex ambientia, artifacts and tape quirks.
The debut demo from Veil of thorns, recorded on primitive equipment in a basement rehearsal complex in Boston. Instrumental tracks were recorded all at once on two tracks using two ribbon mikes and a direct line for Ruddy Bitch, leaving the other two for vocals and a couple additional guitars.
the noise of other bands can be heard at quiet moments.
Lineup:
P. Emerson Williams - Guitar, Vocals Jarrett Laitinen - Guitar Catherine Chenoweth - Bass Ruddy Bitch - Drums
Tracks:
Void Utopia Tear the Cities Down Sanctify (Drowning) No Claim Dreamshadow (Falling) Re-Creating Space-Time Crimson Smile Nod
MUSIC TO DIE FOR BY MICK MERCER Cherry Red Books £17.99
My fifth book has now arrived. It is 624 pages long, containing individual entries on 3,581 different bands, from 70 countries, with 183 photos. It covers bands from the beginning of these scenes to the present day and wherever possible contains full line-up details and discographies as well as unusual facts revealed by many of the bands. This is the biggest guide ever printed about the underground scenes in which Goth, Post-Punk and all things noir co-exist with equal splendour
You can find this on Amazon, Barnes & Noble (etc) but if possible please use the link below to buy direct from the publisher. They accept Paypal and for such a chunky book they’re doing a very cheap deal on postage. Content details behind the cut.
This time around I am delighted to have discovered details on many countries I had never been able to infiltrate before. The world unfolds as follows:
Argentina - 31, Australia - 75, Austria - 22, Belarus - 3, Belgium - 28, Bolivia – 7, Brazil – 53, Bulgaria – 11, Canada – 77, Chile – 24, Colombia – 28, Costa Rica – 2, Croatia – 6, Cuba – 2, Czech Republic - 13, Denmark – 12, Ecuador – 4, Egypt – 3, Estonia – 2, Falkland Islands – 2, Finland – 47, France – 174, Germany – 346, Greece – 35, Greenland – 1, Hungary – 7, Indonesia – 1, Ireland – 13, Israel – 2, Italy – 172, Japan – 25, Kazakhstan – 2, Latvia – 3, Lebanon – 2, Liechtenstein – 4, Lithuania – 11, Luxembourg - 1, Macedonia – 5, Malta – 1, Mexico – 60, Monaco – 1, Netherlands – 49, New Zealand – 14, Norway – 28, Pakistan – 1, Paraguay – 3, Peru – 6, Philippines – 8, Poland – 36, Portugal – 55, Puerto Rico – 9, Romania – 20, Russia – 70, Serbia – 1, Singapore – 2, Slovak Republic – 6, Slovenia – 3, South Africa – 4, Spain – 84, Sweden – 93, Switzerland – 31, Thailand – 5, Turkey – 6, UK – 579, Ukraine - 11, United Arab Emirates – 1, Uruguay - 5, USA – 1092, Venezuela – 6 and Yugoslavia – 5.
Musically we have representatives from these distinct and Goth-related genres:
Please spread the word now that it’s out! I hope you find it worthwhile and useful, and I obviously want as many people as possible to do likewise. Your help in circulating the news is much appreciated.
I have to say I'm aglow from reading this one. One sends out ones creations to be reviewed and what comes back is usually expected. Sometimes what is written is surprising, sometimes completely off the wall, to the point that you want to check and make sure you sent the right CD. But when it's understood, whether the review is positive or not, that's one of the greatest rewards.
VEIL OF THORNS COGNITIVE DISSONANCE Mythos Media
Although working at another end of the noisy bastard spectrum to History Of Guns, Veil Of Thorns, and other P. Emerson Williams projects, provide the same alternative. Just when you have become used to experiencing your guitar stimulants, your ethereal relaxants, your electronic placebo, along comes Doctor Thorns, like a knight in deliberately ill-fitting armour and bellows ‘No more!’ causing all patients to fall from their beds. Where a lot of old-school Industrialists make deliberately obscure, ugly amateurish trash and new Industrialists churn out whatever club-friendly sounds they hope will land them a big record deal, there are some artists wading sternly through the same muddy waters with more artistic sensibilities. Veil Of Thorns may make threatening music but it is not without gentler asides, and often presents itself in alluring form. This is their most stylish work, but some of the thorns have an extra edge.
It’s really just down to P. Emerson Williams on virtually everything but the live drums of James Curcio, whose alarming novel I am currently reading. That’s the thing – music and other genuine influences, with P. himself a very talented artist, as I am sure many of you realise. It infuses what might be a trudging sound and throws light into murky corners. ‘Peripatetic’ has a dark rhythmical flow below a bright needling guitar and the drums stay furtive, the vocals commendably aghast, the song briskly cantering into action. It is actually hard to follow the vocal narrative but maybe that’s a good thing? ‘A Weirdness Less Expressed’ is great. If ever robots develop their own Thrash genre with a glaring sheen and viciously seedy bass pulses they will point to this song as a formative spark; more keenly urgent vocals and liquid guitar unusually catchy at times.
‘The Enigmatic Rarely Atone’ is slippier, as guitar slides away from the gleaming, undulating core. ‘Fallacy Decides Initiative’ lurches off after the seamless intro into a sighing, tumbling exercise, but ‘Delusions Of Excitement’ has low key, sweeter sounds and a dignified comeliness, deeper slopes and a playful atmospheric element. ‘Surgically Dream Like’ does what it says on the bloodbag, the cello providing a blurred setting, as though orchestral ocean liners were calling to one another, Industrial whale song!
‘Languishing In The Rusting Valley’ is not the worse holiday brochure ever, but a fractious combination of tingling guitar and grating rhythm in a plainly enjoyably melodic cacophony, as pert as the ungainly ever get. ‘Corrode And Engulf’ is deep growliness, like an ambient intestinal voyage. ‘Night Access Hallucination’ is a weird entity, being spindly, addled art-rock, with a touch of the Frank Zapata about it, with ‘Anomalous Breaks’; fun, not fearful. Austere, like monks hungover on mescaline, and then the title track itself sends you home with a cold bowl of sonic porridge.
They’re one of the few creative outlets for these more tangled sounds, and this gets the thumbs up, being a fine record, and one which some people might find easier to get into than earlier works as it’s got elements you’d recognise. Okay, you may develop extra thumbs with prolonged exposure, but what is life without risks?
Gothis Beauty Reviews Veil of Thorns - Cognitive Dissonance
The latest issue of Gothic Beauty is on the racks, choc a block with reviews, interviews and some great articles and photos you'll wanna check out. Their reviewer had some kind things to say about the latest Veil of Thorns album:
Veil of Thorns
Cognitive Dissonance
Mythos Media
Veil of Thorns is an edgy, eclectic blend of electronica and metal. It reminds me of early Bowie in that it pushes the envelope, shakes up the status quo, and demands attention. We're entering a new world of music indeed - one that's refreshingly different. the Cognitive Dissonance title track is ominous, like free-falling into a dark abyss. "Peripatetic" pushes us over the edge of insanity. "A Weirdness Less Expressed" can only be described as enigmatic or avant-garde. The instrumental "Surgically Dream Like" feels like anesthetic wearing off while you're on the operating table - terrifying! (Athena) - Gothic Beauty
This fall will see "Salon Apocalypse", which looks to push things a bit further.
Side-Line Reviews Veil of Thorns - Cognitive Dissonance
The following reviewer at Side-Line was looking for familiar grooves and hooks in Cognitive Dissonance and found out that they reveal themselves over time. The only thing I want to clarify is that the instrumentation of this album is guit-bass-drums-vox except for three solo cello pieces and one cello-vio-lin-drums-vox piece. No electronic elements are present.
Veil Of Thorns - Cognitive Dissonance (cd Mythos Media)
Posted on 22 Oct, 2007 - Bookmark at del.icio.us VOT brings a mix of guitar parts and electronic arrangements. From the debut song till the last one this band brings a quite chaotic sound. It all sound like the songs are loosing their power in a dense sonic fog. I’m missing carrying parts and a kind of melody in the choruses. The only song that really caught my attention is probably the less representative ones from the album. The instrumental “Surgically dream like” is a quiet song that would fit as soundtrack. It’s a bit psychedelic as well, revealing another side of the band, which remains rather hidden for so far. An album with different ingredients and ideas, but too chaotic and less coherent in the end! www.mythosmedia.net (DP:4)DP.
This represents the final chapter and transmission of the Cognitive Dissonance process. I thought I'd share a few bits of what I've been working on lately, between things I'm bound by blood oaths not to talk about, extensive research into rhizomatic consciousness, chaos theory, extreme esoteric number manipulation and viral linguistics. A ton of creative output had been gathering momentum, and dissemination has been an afterthought, though I came to see that aspect becoming part of the creative flow. Further dissection of the sounds. In keeping with the original intent, I'm going to limit the final production notes to a bare outline of the process that got us here and convey gratitude to those of you who followed and added to the conversation.
The first thought I had at the outset was to track a simple album with a classic trio sound. I've done well with that, except for the added melody line at the beginning of the first track. Then a few stray ideas took root and grew into strange mutant entities. Major revamps, rethinks and re-visions, then sounds, images and artifacts suggested ever more forms and eventually, narrative, albeit os the surreal sort. With the album itself I took a very direct and raw approach. I've always preferred the sound of a human being playing instruments and singing to the mad scientists creation that is the protools version of injection molded plastic. (Not to be confused with electronic music.) Vocalists don't usually like to have anyone hear anything but the most spot on, confident performances, but I was going for a feeling and a story, and these are my sketches.
Cognitive Dissonance was a working title that became the final title, for the name fed the blossoming idea that tied the album together. A story that encompassed a vision split in four directions, a juxtaposition and melding together of the points of view of of same world/ two views, two worlds, same character observing and acting in them. The central idea is of a cognitive dissonance between first appearances and a closer look.
I recorded all the music, and then came up with the song titles. I decided the order according to how the titles felt. Then I wrote a short story starting from a cutup of the titles. I expanded that and took the lyrics from that. I think my machines feaked out and became possessed in the process. I had some radio signals coming through the guitar as I laid down the tracks, and I made liberal use of them. While I continued to track the album I released several transmissions. I thought I'd make the various stage escapes into their own entities, as opposed to a few stray mp3's.
Unlike the album itself, I layered, layered the layers and added extra layers to boot. I tried something different in the first, and with the help of the fine folks at librivox.org, I added spoken word from readings of public domain classics. We're hearing mostly Flaubert, Coleridge and Emily Dickinson.
Transmision II I made from the bass tracks from the album. Mostly you're hearing one track of bass with no layers but the real-time FX, though there are a couple points where the cello creeps in. A few inexplicable voices emerged that weren't recorded by me. If it fits as a soundtrack for your daily experience, I want to hear the story. throw these out of my head in quick bouts between working on two movies, my own moving image projects, not included, three comics, (not telling yet), and a sum total of five albums of various styles at diffent points of production.
Along with the sound transmissions, the lyrics were extending into stories. The lyrics to most songs I'd done so far were dreamlike fragments of one continuous tale. I wanted to bring some of the underlying structure into focus. At the same time I listened to others stories. I was especially interested to hear some apocalyptic tales. Ragnarok, Armageddon, the end of one life and the beginning of another. The death of the ego, the body, a belief. The hearing became expression, and the telling of the tale that resulted was an embodiment of experience.
Veil of thorns is an act that rarely repeats itself, but with Cognitive Dissonance, they may surprise even some long time fans. Veil of Thorns approach has
never been this stripped down, nor has their music been more complex. Stark, angular post-punk songs give way to a cello as it descends into madness. Spare
jazz-inflected tone poems lead back into sanguine deathrock dust storms.
For nearly a decade now, most of the work of front man P. Emerson Williams has been focused inward. Dissemination of his wide, varied
output took place through tales whispered in corners remote from. This conversation is part of the creative flow that forms his work.
Williams tackled the latest Veil of Thorns release by sharing the process in a new way. After having tracked the basic instrumental elements
of the next Veil Of Thorns album, "Cognitive Dissonance", Veil of Thorns released podcasts created from the sonic raw material of the tracks as they
progressed. Through the bands website, blog comments and emails the resulting conversation helped expand the bands vision while focusing the tale being
told.
Inspired by scrambled radio signals coming through the
guitar as he laid down the tracks, Williams created long form compositions using montage techniques derived from the work of Williams Burroughs and Bryon
Gysin. Unlike the album itself, he layered, layered the layers and added extra layers to boot. His machines freaked out and became possessed in the process.
Where podcasts are often in a format similar to radio shows, Veil of Thorns ranks among a select group of sound and video artists who are stretching the
boundaries of the form into unique works of art.
Every Veil of Thorns song so far contain lyrics in the form of dreamlike
fragments making one continuous tale. Cognitive Dissonance brings some of the underlying structure into focus. While they wove their tale they listened to
the stories of others. In the spirit of our times they collected many apocalyptic tales. Ragnarok, Armageddon, the end of one life and the beginning of
another forms one side of this archetypical narrative. Tales of the death of the ego, of the body, the breaking down of a belief offer a more insightful
view.
Coming off collaborations with Industrial cabal subQtaneous and Norwegian post Blackmetal band Manes, Williams
took the experience of working with such gifted and unique artists and has re-emerged with a stronger and darker vision. Lyrically encompassing two universes
and two realities, this tight and spare album ends up being more expansive an experience than anything Veil of Thorns has released before.
Part two of the three part series Fear and Loathing on the Internet: Redux (Part one here) GPod Radio host Joseph Matheny moderates a roundtable discussion on the subject of Myth on the Modern World, with guests: Wes Unruh, James Curcio, John Harrigan, Lucy Allin, P. Emerson Williams and Anna Young. (Note: When I recorded the intros to part one and two, I forgot to mention Wes as a participant in the roundtable. He is however introduced in the actual roundtable piece and is a major contributor to the conversation. My omission was simply due to being overworked with too little time. Hopefully he will not hate me for this oversight. ) Also, the first installment of In Your Ear, some tidbits about the Y project and some ranting and raging in response to the mailbag. In part three we will introduce another regular segment to the GSpot, A Concise Guide To Setting Yourself On Fire with Kara Rae Garland. Part Three coming in about 2 weeks. Enjoy!
It is time for a revolution. Are you on board. Sure, the Industrial Godfathers are entertaining… but wouldn’t you want to be a GOD? Don’t you think YOU should be a GOD?
April 1st through the 4th will show all the talent that it is out there. On the 4 Because God Told Me To Do It FREEDOWNLOAD releases you will hear the beginning of a REVOLUTION.
June 1st will see the realization of part two of this process. Rethinking/Remaking/Retooling SLEEPCHAMBER classics, by artists of today. Will you be there?
No longer will you need to spend your money on over priced CD’s by artists who are living on WHAT THEY USE TO BE! Musick is meant to be shared. Become a legend. Become FREE. Become a GODZ.
In his last years, Williams dwelt in Damask silk, where the Gothronomicon (O Az-If) was written. In art, in the Dictionnaire Infernal, P. Emerson Williams is depicted as a nude man with dragon-like wings, hands and feet, a second pair of feathered wings after the main, wearing a crown, holding a serpent in one hand, and riding a wolf or dog.
The "good" P. Emerson in recent use is largely
a literary device (e.g., Maxwell's P. Emerson),
though references to good P. Emersons can be found in Hesiod and Shakespeare.[1] In common language, to "P. Emersonize" a person means to characterize or portray them as evil, or as the source of evil.
