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| Genesis P-Orridge, Gothenburg 1989. © Carl Abrahamsson |
It's never too late
or too soon to look back and enjoy the past. Especially when it deals with
future, as it does now. On June 29th, White Stains will resurface after a 20
year hiatus/hibernation. This in order to celebrate two specific projects:
White Stains' 1990 album At Stockholm
and Cotton Ferox' album Wordship
(2004). Is there a common denominator? Of course. We made these albums together
with Genesis Breyer P-Orridge – a living legend if there ever was one.
As we enter the stage
at Nefertiti in Gothenburg on the 29th, Genesis will be with us. Not to make specific
renditions or versions from our two albums, but rather to encourage and
celebrate the atmosphere they contain. Very likely, we will surf on this wave
of recurrence/resurgence to make a third album too. It would be stupid not to.
Late 1989, I organised
a small spoken word tour for Genesis in Scandinavia. We had also already
planned to record some of Gen's readings in a studio setting. As White Stains
had just integrated sonic wizard Thomas Tibert, who had his own studio,
everything moved on pleasant automatic. Gen read his poems perfectly – most of
them were recorded on first takes – and when we later made the music for the
poems it was like hand in glove on all levels. With textual material like that
and a reading that smooth and professional, it's very hard not to make history.
Other adventures then
intervened, as they usually do. But in 2002, it felt like it was high time
again. As Genesis was coming over to do a lecture on his work at experimental music
centre Fylkingen in Stockholm, Tibert and I prepared new music (then as Cotton
Ferox) and it was bliss all over again. The result was released in 2004 in the
form of Wordship. Some of these vocal
recordings had also been used on Cotton Ferox' debut album First Time Hurts in 2002.
Someone as versatile
as Genesis must surely have a hard time with projections from others. Is
Genesis an (oc)cultural engineer, an industrial music pioneer, a collage
artist, a philosopher, a magician etc? Well, of course, all of these and then
some. But there is one all-permeating quintessence that is unmistakeable.
Genesis is a poet. This is what fascinated me in the beginning of our
friendship, and it still does. That's why it'll be an honour to share the stage
with Gen and celebrate his/her poetry and the bizarre music that Tibert and I have concocted over the years. They go well together.
The performance will
be neither "industrial" nor "electronica" nor "spoken
word" but rather all of it in a colourful and quaquaversal mix created to
make emotional jump cuts and possible existential mutations. It will be a grand
old time spanning from ancient history to the distant future. I hope you'll be
there together with us at Nefertiti in Gothenburg on June 29th, 2013, on this exciting
adventure.
PS. You can buy all
of the above albums at the iTunes Music Store. By buying the albums instead of
illegally downloading them, you help us in the process of making and releasing
new music. Thank you.
I should also mention
that the concert is the public final event of a four day conference/symposium
at the University of Gothenburg dealing with esotericism, occultism, alternative
health movements and many other interesting things. Please consider taking part
in this too!
"In the
beginning there were White Stains." (Genesis 23:1)
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Hi! I'll be travelling to Gotherburg just for this event. I just noticed there will also be some discussions about Aleister Crowley on the day before and I'm wondering if you have any insight as to whether or not I should prepare myself to beg my boss to take the Friday off work. Any recommendations?
ReplyDeleteHi Emily! Great to hear that you're coming to the gig. Yes, the ESSWE conference is packed with interesting stuff. The question is: will Friday be enough? :) If you check out the lecture/panel programs, you might find more... Please make sure you buy the concert ticket in advance as we expect a lot of people there -- also people from the conference(s). Many thanks for your interest!
DeleteHmm, so this seemingly innocent weekend trip away has turned for the worse. After some bitter assessment of my current financial situation, it appears as though I may have to pretend I didn't go snooping around on the website, only to find more tantalising and riveting topics I would be incredibly interested in, and instead pretend I am simply satisfied with just the concert. Bugger me sideways!
DeleteI know, life is hard and filled with too many interesting things! But... Hopefully the concert will be an amalgam of everything that's interesting and then some!
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