Artist : Current 93
Album : Hypnagogue I / Hypnagogue II
Year : 2005
Genre : Other
Source : CD
Label : Durtro Jnana
Catalog : DURTRO JNANA 2005CD
Rls.Date : 2006-07-25
Bitrate : VBRkbps
Size : 59 MB
-----
1. Hypnagogue II 29:18
2. Hypnagogue I 20:55
-----
50:13
-----
This full-colour digipak CD comes with an 8 page full colour booklet of
photographs by Andria Degens. The CD contains the original (and long deleted)
edition of HYPNAGOGUE by David Tibet and Maja Elliott, as well as the
re-recording of HYPNAGOGUE by David Michael and Michael Masley.
Hypnagogue II
A Dream Prologue
David Michael: text and voice
Michael Masley: music and "bowhammer" cymbalom
Recorded 2004 at Coptic Cat Studios and mixed by David Michael and Michael
Lawrence
Hypnagogue I
A Dream Prologue
David Tibet: text and voice
Maja Elliott: music and piano
Recorded 2003 at Denmark Street Studios and mixed by David Tibet
All photographs by Andria Degens
Cover design by David Michael Tibet and Mark Logan
Layout by Rick Klaver
The text is available for download at www.durtro.com/download.html
God is Love
David Michael Tibet, Scotland May 4, 2005
Hypnagogue was written between Tallinn, Penang and London from 2002 to 2003
I dedicate it to my beloved wife Andria Annette
Thanks to Mark Logan and Michael Lawrence
There is a five minute gap between the ending of Hypnagogue II and the
beginning of Hypnagogue I
"It has never been more clear that David Tibet lives in a completely
idiosyncratic sphere of his own. Perhaps this is true for everyone, but
Tibet's world seems particularly out of step with current trends in music,
culture and thought. There is something terribly admirable and beguiling
about that. Hypnagogue beautifully proves that Current 93 is continuing in
its tangential orbit, and exists solely as the outlet for Tibet's poetic
musings on Christ, cats, children, dreams, piety, horror, death, dread, decay
and apocalypse. You're not going to find any concessions to glitch-pop or
retro-electro here. This EP is designed to be a prologue to an upcoming full
length, and it consists of nine tracks or "chapters" of a long poem called,
appropriately, "Hypnagogue: A Dream Prologue." Like many of Current 93's
recent works, it's impossible to rate this album based on the music alone,
which is mostly incidental. The main focus is on the poetry, and if the
listener is not willing to carefully absorb Tibet's linguistic imagery, the
point of the music is lost. The musical accompaniment is minimal: Maja
Elliott's impressionistic, Debussy-esque piano is the sole instrument. Her
sad, skittering melodies serve to underscore Tibet's rhymeless, alliterative
balladry. There are times when the piano brilliantly punctuates a passage,
and others where its complex swirl of sound competes with Tibet's intense
delivery. David Tibet is an impressive poet, his style remiscent of mystical
and abstruse poets like T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, and even Angus MacLise. The
poesy is modern, but certainly not post-modern. There is no irony in Tibet's
fatalistic prose, just a classic weaving of idiosyncratic metaphors that may
or may not resonate, depending on the listener's willingness to listen and
think about the complex symbolism. Like a true classical poet, Tibet even
slips into Latin verse here and there. As a bonus, there is a web address on
the inside cover where a PDF of the accompanying text can be downloaded, so
that one can read along. From the topiary bunny on the cover to the obscure
magical glyph at the front of the text, Current 93 and David Tibet defiantly
resist any easy categorization. Though I fully expect that many people will
find Hypnagogue hopelessly esoteric and even self-indulgent, I feel that it
is a beatiful and unique work of art."
Jonathan Dean
Sunday, 18 May 2003