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In the Talmud, a stupefying assertion: “The more men there are, the more images of the divine there are in nature.” This may have been true in the period when the remark was made, but it is belied today by all one sees and will be still further belied by all that will be seen.
E.M. Cioran, The Lure of Disillusion
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To withdraw indefinitely into oneself, like God after the six days. Let us imitate Him, on this point at least.
E.M. Cioran, The Lure of Disillusion
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Photo shot in Sweden, way up north, summer 2006.
Sean Penn’s latest feat, the beautiful and astonishing film Into The Wild, really gets your mind going. In itself the movie might not be that amazing in what it shows (even though there are some truly breathcatching scenes revealing Mother Nature in her true majestic pride) – it’s what the film plants in your mind that’s the most interesting aspect, I think. But in a way, there’s nothing new here. People have always broken up from their daily lives and sought out a more meaningful existence. I guess it happens everyday, with the exception that most of us who have those wild ideas of living alone in the middle of nowhere never turn those ideas into reality…
Based on the book Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer the film tells the true story of Christopher McCandless, a young gifted university graduate who leaves everything behind (parents, sibling, friends, money) to live alone in the Alaskan wilderness. This is his reality and this is his choice – as opposed to enduring the Spectacle, a consuming reality chosen by others. Freedom and moral inquiry are the keywords here, and Chris was widely influenced by the works of Henry David Thoreau, Jack London and Leo Tolstoy – like so many others before and after him. Hell, I’m reading Thoreau every now and then and every time I start to think about life in a cabin besides a pond in a forest unknown, where I can read, write, walk, listen and explore my freedom. I guess everybody have those thoughts when reading that book.
However, I’m so deeply rooted in the consumer’s society I probably wouldn’t make it through the first night, but I’ve made some choices that will sort of pave way for a more genuine life style a couple of years ahead. That’s my great plan anyway.
After having rented shitty apartments in shitty neighbourhoods and shared flats with friends for over eight years (which was kind of hell for me at times, since I enjoy being alone, not having to socialize and attend their parties) I decided to get my very own place. When the opportunity arose – money! – I bought an apartment in an area which suited me perfect. It’s close to the city, but it’s got all the nature you could ask for and that’s a good start when slowly trying to get away…
Also, I quit a lot of things which mostly brought me headaches. I quit doing the film club, I quit my stupid job and got another one which is awesome. Recently, even though my job is awesome, I decided to cut one day so now I work four days a week instead of five to be able to do more reading, writing and the stuff that really matters to me. I quit a lot of other shit as well, just time consuming mindless crap that I could do without. A visit to the Northern parts of Sweden living the life I’m seeking for five days also made it very clear to me that that’s the way one should live. I want to devote more time to reading, writing and exploring, preferably in an environment where I can live and dwell alone.
All this, in conjunction with the film and the books I’m reading, naturally makes me think a lot. It raises a lot of questions. Is breaking away from humanity the same as escaping from reality? Is it taking the easy way out, escaping all the problems? The ultimate egoism? Well, since I have no hope for humanity, and truly believe in a dark, sterile, dead future, why should I care about others? Well I do, because I’m a humanist as well. A misanthropic humanist. Wow…
But I guess it’s my way of dealing with reality; to be creative, dynamic and to constantly develop and nurture new “skills” and ways of thinking. To do that, one certainly needs time alone.
But hey, looking at how deeply rooted I am in this consumer’s society it’ll probably take me another thirty years to get my cabin and pond. Still, that’s what I’m hoping for. I’ll have to learn to cook first, though.
In an upcoming article I’ll hopefully relate all this to Spengler and modernity. Meanwhile, in case you missed, here’s some stuff I wrote earlier that kind of connects with these issues:
Living with the dying
Oswald Spengler – The Decline of Cultures
Här finns inget varaktigt och allmängiltigt (about Spengler in Swedish)
Great movies of the 80’s: Threads
Society’s sickness
Situationism – Part 1
Situationism – Part 2
Situationism – Part 3
Planet Earth and misanthropy
The art of psychogeography
Relevant blogs:
Oskorei
Fimbulvinter
To buy the best swedish translation of Thoreau’s Walden, click here for more info.
And to watch another great movie, check out Grizzly Man.
>From strenght, sweetness. From darkness, light.
The bees made honey in the lion’s skull.
I was fortunate enough to get a hold of Dylan Carlson, Earth mainman, when the band was visiting Roma, Italy, for their fifteenth gig on the European tour 2008. I did an interview for Sweden Rock Magazine which is featured (in Swedish) in issue #50 (alongside my review of the Treblinka/Obscurity/Uncanny gig, as well as an article about the true Poison, some reviews and more…). Do check it out, as it features a Pest interview, Mars Volta, Hellhammer and the usual dinosaur bands (the fake Poison is on the cover!).
However, the featured interview is only half a page, and I talked to Dylan for 45 minutes, so I thought I’d publish most of what he had to say right here. Enjoy!
I’m too tired to write a decent intro to the article, so if you don’t know anything about Earth shame on you.
Short history lesson:
1990 – Earth – pioneers of the drone genre – is formed by Dylan Carlson.
1996/1997 – 2003 (sort of) – Dylan combats drugs, quits playing guitar and becomes known for being the man who bought the gun with which Kurt Cobain allegedly committed suicide.
2005 – Earth… The return!
2008 – The latest and sixth/seventh album, The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull, is released and it’s fucking awesome!
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So where are you right now?
We’re at this venue in Roma, Italy, where we’re doing our fifteenth gig on this tour. We’ll keep on touring until March 9th, I think.
Have you seen the No Country For Old Men movie yet?
No…
But you know the movie?
Yeah, it’s the one based on Cormac McCarthy’s book. He’s one of my favourite authors, actually. He was a big influence on Hex; or Printing In The Infernal Method (2005, Southern Lord), his Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West book.
Hehe, even the titles are similar.
Yeah, haha!
When I watched the movie… You know, it has no soundtrack.
Ah, ok. Hmm… Hehe…
Your new album would fit right in there.
Oh, thanks! Some day, maybe… I would love to do soundtracks, but there hasn’t unfortunately been an opportunity yet.
By the way, what was the reason for recording the Hibernaculum album?
We had been playing some of the older songs on the last tour, and we decided kind of as a thank you to the fans to re-record some old stuff. And we also had the Plague of Angels song which was only available on the tour 12 inch, and we wanted to make that available as well, and then we had the Seldon Hunt documentary, Within The Drone, and we wanted people to see that, so we included that. Also, there’d be a longer period than a year between the albums so we wanted to keep the name out there, keep the momentum going.
So what are the specific differences between old and new Earth?
I think new Earth is more of a band, I’ve been playing with Adrienne (drums) for six years and with Steve (piano, keyboard, trombone) for four-five years, whereas in the past it was always me and some hired musicians. Now there’s a solid line-up, more of a band community. The only member who’s not full time yet is Milky who plays slideguitar, and we haven’t worked him into the permament line-up yet, but hopefully in the future he’ll be with us full time…
The previous albums were much more conceptual, there were sort of a concept and then the music grew out of the concept, as opposed to now where the songs really evolved out of playing together and then the concept for the record came second hand when we’d already done the music. When I sat back and looked at it arranging the songs for the album I could see this pattern here, this forming there and the big idea was formed right there out of the music, afterwards. This time we were kind of jamming and improvising in the studio.
What’s it like with song titles when playing instrumental music?
Normally I have more song titles than songs, but this time I had to sit down and listen to the songs and come up with titles.
But it still sounds conceptual, I think.
Yeah, maybe because we’ve been such a conceptual band in the past, but I definitely saw a concept there after the music was done. I guess either method you arrive at the same spot. It’s always Earth in the end. That’s the goal anyway.
As for song titles, I put a lot of importance in them. I think with instrumental music you’re not telling people what the songs are about so much, you’re hoping that the audience will participate and attach a meaning to them… I try to pick titles that… there’s not a specific thing they’re about, but they sort of sound… there’s another aspect of the music. It sets the mood. I’ve always liked titles that are kind of open ended in meaning. There’s what I think the song is about, the landscapes that I think that the song is creating, and then there’s the audience’s view.
So is there any story behind the album title, The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull?
It’s related to the Samson and Delilah story. There is a lion terrorizing the land, and Samson kills it, you know.
I guess you’re into minimalism?
I listened to that stuff a lot in the early days, like Steve Reich and La Monte Young… I still like that and consider it an influence, but I always find new stuff to listen to. Not necessarily new bands, but stuff that’s new to me anyway. I’ve always played and listened to minimalistic music, as far as I can remember… I’ve always liked stuff that hits a good riff and a good groove and sticks with it, as opposed to music that’s changing all the time. I’ve always liked that more than stuff that’s real busy. I like it when there’s something underneath holding it all together. The repetition… most of the stuff I like is of a repetitious nature, I guess. Groove oriented, riff oriented… Generally when I listen to music I just listen to music, not doing other things. It’s music time and I put on the headphones. I pay attention.
When you were away from the music scene for all those years, did you know about the upcoming drone scene that was going on… it kind of reinvented itself…
I pretty much quit everything and had to work my way back. I met Greg Anderson when he was still in Goatsnake, and I saw them play, but I wasn’t really aware of music at that time, I didn’t pay any attention. I realized why I was doing it, and the guitar playing was the stuff I really liked, the other stuff didn’t really matter. And if people like what we’re doing, that’s nice, but you can’t really count on that when doing music. My favourite part is just playing and practicing, learning guitar, the rest is just gravy.
Anyway, when I moved back to Seattle and started playing the guitar again I didn’t have any big plan to come back and play Earth again, I just picked up the guitar, and then some opportunities started coming up so I started doing it again to see how it worked out… And then Greg and Southern Lord said they were interested in releasing some new stuff, and that’s when Greg told me the whole Sunn 0))) thing, how they started out, and all those other bands…
Sunn0))) started as a tribute to Earth, right?
Yeah, they’ve been very open about their influences, very generous in their praise and what not… They’ve definitely taken it and moved in their own direction with it. It’s more of a technique than a genre, really. It can be used in all kinds of music, I don’t view it as a genre.
What’s the basics in that technique?
Playing against a pedal tone or an open note, like in indian music, blues, celtic music, african music… it’s all over the world, and now it’s being used in rock music. It was used in rock music in the 60’s by a lot of the psychedelic bands, and old jazz musicians…
Speaking of jazz and such, how did you get in touch with Bill Frisell?
When I started playing guitar again back in 2000 I had read this article by him and I was really into what he was saying, and then he had some music exercises that I was really into as well, and then fortunately enough Steve Moore, our keyboard and trombone player, had played with Bill a number of times and knew him, so he gave him a copy of Hex and invited us to a couple of our shows and he came down and checked us out, so when we asked him he was into it. It worked out.
How did it feel when he added his stuff to the Earth material?
He’s an amazing musician and an amazing person, and he really added to the music. He’s very collaborative… Sometimes those kind of things don’t work out and it turns into a duel or show off or something stupid like that, but he’s not that kind of musician. He just came in and worked with us for a couple of hours and left us with some tracks to use, basically said “here you go” and let us do with it what we wanted. He played stuff that really added to the songs, he’s not a show-offy guitar player…
So what’s it like when you play live, do you improvise a lot?
Yeah, there’s certain structures that we play together, and then usually I decide when it’s time to move on, and there are parts where there’s open areas for the piano to step out, or the drums to step out, or the guitar or all of us to step out, so… That’s the direction I’m hoping to keep moving in, since improvisation is my favourite form of playing. Most of the musicians I admire are improvisatory.
It’s really cool that you play really slow when improvised music always seem to be very busy.
Yeah, that’s something that’s always been strange to me. I don’t know why people always feel it has to be…
John Zorn?
Hehe… well. If you play slow and fuck up it’s definitely more obvious, haha! When we jam at our practice space and start improvising, it’ll start out a bit busy and then eventually it will work into this… I like it after we’ve been playing for a while and stuff calms down, it’s almost like you have to get that frantic stuff out and then you can start playing the stuff that matters and start choosing stuff more musically and expressive. It’s that first burst of freedom where you’ve got to schreech and schronk and what not, and then eventually it gets into where it’s calm and musical. Maybe a lot of improvisers would get into that if they played longer songs…
One last question, I heard you played at Greg Anderson’s wedding. Is that correct?
Yep, we played The Wedding March, Here Comes The Bride and the traditional wedding songs. And then we did a little set afterwards for the reception where we played our stuff. We played our style, so it was a very long wedding march, but it was outside and they had a long way to go, so… the band played on, haha!
And this is when Dylan’s phone slowly dies and all I hear is a faint “Hello?” and then we’re offline. I wanted to ask him about this gospel and Americana stuff that people are writing about regarding the new album, and his comments to that, but I think I know what they mean. It’s that majestic vision, that big sound which slowly builds and spreads over the desert. It’s that redness in the west. Psychedelic, but still with both feet on the ground.
Listen to Omens and Portents Part I: The Driver here.
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This quote is from one of the greatest works I know, Les Chants de Maldoror, The Songs of Maldoror, by Lautréamont, written between 1868-1869.
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Throughout my life, I have seen narrow-shouldered men, without a single exception, committing innumerable stupid acts, brutalizing their fellows and perverting souls by all means. They call the motive for their actions fame. Seeing these spectacles, I wanted to laugh like the others but I found that strange imitation impossible. I took a knife with a sharp steel cutting-edge on its blade and I slit my flesh where the lips join. For a moment I believed I had achieved my object. I looked in a mirror at this mouth disfigured by an act of my own will. It was a mistake! The blood flowing from the two wounds prevented me from discerning whether the laugh really was the same as others’. But after comparing them for a few moments I saw clearly that my laugh did not resemble that of human beings, i.e. I was not laughing at all. I have seen men, ugly men with their eyes sunk in dark sockets, surpassing the hardness of rock, the rigidity of cast steel, the insolence of youth, the senseless rage of criminals, the falseness of the hypocrite, the most extraordinary actors, the strenght of character of priests, beings whose real character is the most impenetrable, colder than anything else in heaven or on earth; I have seen them wearing out moralists who have attempted to discover their heart, and seen them bring upon themselves implacable anger from on high. I have seen them all now, the strongest fist raised towards heaven, like a child already disobedient towards its mother, probably incited by some spirit from hell, eyes full of the bitterest remorse, but at the same time of hatred: glacially silent, not daring to utter the vast ungrateful meditations hidden in their breasts, because those meditations were so full of injustice and horror; I have seen them grieve the God of mercy in his compassion; and again at every moment of the day, from their earliest childhood right up to the end of their old age, I have seen them uttering unbelievable anathemata, void of all common sense, against everything which breathes, against themselves, and against Providence; prostituting women and children, thus dishonouring the parts of the body consecrated to modesty. Then, the waters of the seas rise up, engulfing ships in their bottomless depths; hurricanes and earthquakes level houses; plague and all kinds of disease decimate families. But men do not realize this. I have seen them blushing, or turning pale for shame at their conduct on this earth – rarely. Tempests, sisters of hurricanes; bluish firmament, whose beauty I refuse to acknowledge; hypocritical sea, image of my own heart; earth, who hold mysteries hidden in your breast; the whole universe; God, who created it with such magnificence, it is thee I invoke: show me a man who is good… But at the same time increase my strenght tenfold: for at the sight of such a monster, I may die of astonishment: men have died of less.
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Emotions are tough to express in a sane way. It easily gets so very cheesy.
I know myself from reading song quotes where people say “OMG, this song really seems to be written specifically for me!” and I just go “Yeah, right!”. I guess you have to experience some seriously mindbending shit in life to be able to relate to cheesy stuff like that…
However, thinking about my personal situation right now where everything is just fucked up, when there’s no energy, no creativity, no pure thoughts going on – the things I’m used to – I was pretty moved by an old favourite song of mine. It fits right in there with the lyrics, the mood and just about everything. It also brings back memories to a time when “mainstream” music had some serious quality, substance and grace. Massive Attack did everything right in my ears and eyes: the music, the lyrics, the album covers, the videos… I find such quality very hard to find in the mainstream these days. It also reminds me of when they had to change their name to just Massive because of that stupid Gulf war in the early 90’s. How strange.
I know you probably can’t relate to this, because you don’t know me and what’s going on, but this song means a lot right now. However cheesy it may sound, the voice is speaking straight to me. Hehe, I’m laughing while writing this, cuz it’s kind of embarrassing, but fuck that…
Just sit back and listen to some good music and let it be.
Massive Attack – Protection (from the album with the same title released in 1994)
Dedicated to M and S.
This girl I know needs some shelter
She don’t believe anyone can help her
She’s doing so much harm, doing so much damage
But you don’t want to get involved
You tell her she can manage
And you can’t change the way she feels
But you could put your arms around her
I know you want to live yourself
But could you forgive yourself
If you left her just the way you found her
I stand in front of you
I’ll take the force of the blow
Protection
You’re a boy and I’m a girl
But you know you can lean on me
And I don’t have no fear
I’ll take on any man here
Who says that’s not the way it should be
I stand in front of you
I’ll take the force of the blow
Protection
She’s a girl and you’re a boy
Sometimes you look so small, look so small
You’ve got a baby of your own
When your baby’s grown, she’ll be the one
To catch you when you fall
I stand in front of you
I’ll take the force of the blow
Protection
You’re a girl and I’m a boy
Sometimes you look so small, need some shelter
Just runnin’ round and round, helter skelter
And I’ve leaned on you for years
Now you can lean on me
And that’s more than love
That’s the way it should be
Now I can’t change the way you feel
But I can put my arms around you
That’s just part of the deal
That’s the way I feel
I put my arms around you
I stand in front of you
I’ll take the force of the blow
Protection
You’re a boy and I’m a girl
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Just uploaded two new songs from the upcoming Massgrav album.
The album title: This War Will Be Won By Meat Eaters
Sound Pollution (USA) is releasing the album as usual, and hopefully it’ll be out this summer.
We were kind of satisfied with the sound at first, but decided we could do better in the mix. It took us forever, and we remixed the whole thing three times – and I’m still not 100% satisfied. I guess that’s impossible, but anyway…
I seriously can’t understand those big boys spending months and months on mixing an album (just look at Metallica and the recording of the Black album where they spend like six months just recording the hihat…). It’s so goddamn boring, and in the end I think we’d done better with the very first mix of raw material. We play “scandithrash fastcore” (japanese review quote), not Metallica metal, and we pretty much like to bang it out in one weekend and then it’s done and over with. Not this time, though.
And I really hate mixing, because it always sounds good in the studio, but when you get back home it’s a totally different story. So no matter what the fuck you do in the studio, it doesn’t really matter, cuz it won’t sound like that anyway. Seems like it’s pure luck if you get it right. I mean, we even did the classic Entombed trick: we listened to the album in a car stereo!
But what the hell, it’ll hopefully turn out cool in the end, some will like it and others will hate it, and some crazy people will even be willing to buy it off Ebay for hundreds of dollars thinking it’s rare or something…
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Psychogeography is about understanding and exploring the urban landscape. That specific term (“the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals”) was defined by Guy Debord and the situationists in the late 1950’s.
In an age where cultural and environmental degradation and commercial interest reign supreme, the need for something more and spiritual arise within the souls of the damned. Public space is for everyone, it’s the heart of democracy, and not only for those in power, for those with cash, for those with superior positions in society. But we all know that democracy is a scam and not to be trusted, so to break free from this everyday slaughter and outright meaningless traditions should be in everyone’s interest.
Pyschogeography speaks to the intellect as well as the act. The act is the beauty. The act of walking out there, drifting, finding, exploring and possibly even changing. Famous opium eater Thomas de Quincey when strolling around in the cities had no other goal in mind than to satisfy his curiosity about what might be discovered around the next corner. Some of the situationists navigated through the Harz region in Germany using a map of London. Stuff like that. To break on through to the other side.
You know how easy it is to stroll the same old paths everytime you go somewhere. Try another path (the Left Hand Path maybe?) and think about where you are, where you’re going and what the surroundings mean and how they guide and control your ways.
Cause And Effect – created by Akay, Klister-Peter and Made.
The psyche, the place and the relationship between the two. That’s pretty much what it’s all about. What effect the urban landscape have on us, especially when we’re not guided by commercials, when we choose randomly. And that random choice is what makes it so exciting.
Because we surely must admit that we are being controlled by various forced options every single day, everytime we choose to walk the streets – even though most of us don’t care about that. We want to get from point A to point B as fast as possible, not having to think, preferably without moving at all. But if you do care about the shit that’s being tossed at you, then this psychogeography thing can be pretty interesting, because in my mind it many times exposes the manipulation, and only then are we able to subvert that very manipulation and make our own choices.
This is the critique of urbanism.
“Only an awareness of the influences of the existing environment can encourage the critique of the present conditions of daily life, and yet it is precisely this concern with the environment (in) which we live which is ignored.”
Are you also unconcerned? – created by Akay and Klister-Peter.