Today, Highbrow Lowlife re-releases Cotton Ferox' debut album from 2002, First Time Hurts. After Thomas Tibert and myself had decided in the year 2000 to make some more music after an almost ten year hiatus, this first album became a longed for, eclectic and truly weird record. To balance my own acute logorrhea in this attempt at spoken-wordism, we made sure to include some better and more competent figures: Genesis Breyer P-Orridge on the tracks Snake Hiss and Amenema and Michael Moynihan reading his own translation of one of Ernst Jünger's early and highly poetic war texts. Not forgetting the finishing pièce de résistance Phantasmoplasm, written together with and sung by our dear friend and musical genius Krister Linder. In all, the album is an ambitious attempt to leave the primitive but still powerful experimentalism of White Stains (1987-1994) and delve into more traditional musical structures. I think we succeeded quite well and I still enjoy listening to this album some 12 years down the road. We hope you will too, of course. The Highbrow Lowlife web site is now fully active, by the way. There are still some beta glitches but they will be fixed soon. The store is up and running and offers a competitive price level if you compare with other online megastores. First Time Hurts is now available at all major online music stores and streaming services. Enjoy as you see fit!
Cotton Ferox in Amsterdam, First Time Hurts-era. Photo by Braam Angstrom.
Krister Linder, 2002. A forest Phantasmoplasm!
Michael Moynihan in an Ernst Jünger state of mind, Vermont 2003.
Other Highbrow Lowlife news-quickies: there have been some additions to the video section of the site. New films by/with Sinnelag, The Mushroom Clouds, et al. Enjoy!
When Cotton Ferox began as an active project in the glorious year of 2000, Thomas Tibert and me had made the decision that we would work together with a diverse bouquet of talents when it came to the vocal contributions. As the first album grew, this also became the case. For First Time Hurts (originally released on CD in 2002), we collaborated with Krister Linder, Michael Moynihan and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge. A powerful mix, to say the least!
The sessions with Genesis turned into seductive lyrics and performances on the tracks Snake Hiss and Amenema. These were, however, basically recordings that were left over from material for our album number 2, Wordship, then already in progress. Not left over in a qualitative sense of course, but definitely in a quantitative one. Wordship is an album that was made entirely together with Genesis in Stockholm in 2002 (originally released on CD in 2004). There was also a DJ set at Kulturhuset and a sold out lecture at experimental haven/venue Fylkingen, about a legendary career spanning from Coum Transmissions, Throbbing Gristle, Psychick TV and to the then active Thee Majesty. Genesis showed some rare archival footage and I think almost all those present were mind blown to some extent during what turned out to be an amazing evening... Neil
Megson was the person that I was born and named as by my parents, and in 1965
Neil Megson invented a game. He invented a character, Genesis P-Orridge, and he
let him loose into the world. In the beginning Neil was being Genesis, and
Genesis was responsible for what the Art was and for the creativity, but Neil
was the puppet master of this alter ego and he was in control. But then, as
Genesis took himself more and more seriously, or as Neil did, he changed his
name, and people would meet him and it was only Genesis they were speaking to.
And there was no Neil any more. There was a point then when Neil was actually
forgotten by Genesis. It’s a strange question that puzzles me now: does Neil
still exist? (from the 2002 Stockholm lecture)
Genesis at Studio Konst & Ramar, Stockholm 2002.
Of course we had the previous similar project in memory and mind: At Stockholm, by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge & White Stains (originally released 1990, now available through Highbrow Lowlife). But we wanted it to be different and more modern. If we succeeded or not I leave for today's discerning listeners to decide. But we were happy with the album. We still are.
What made me proud was when someone told me that the album was like nothing she had ever heard before. To me, that's the finest review one can get. Although distinctly in the spoken word-vein, Wordship does manage to transcend the definition and I, at least, feel compelled to just shut down that kind of simplistic genre-jockeying. The long pieces Soul Searching and A Debris Ov Murder are like two very throbbing and hard working gristles, flanked by recurring organic themes and twists, yet always with distinctly different poetries and paces. Genesis' lyrics and the overall performance on this album are still among the finest I've ever heard.
So it is with pride and joy I announce that the album is now available in the digisphere. Listen on Spotify and/or buy where you buy. Please buy from the Highbrow Lowlife web shop if you like (this would make us happy). No matter what, tune in, stay focused, and you will be immersed in a lovely, emotional, haunting, sad, desperate and disparate soul searching megatrip unlike any other. Safe journeys!
Understen's Imaginär Koherens album from 2010 swept by underneath the radar of everyone, including Understen themselves. That's why it's a necessary privilege to be able to re-release this little gem of improv lo-fi psychedelia via the Highbrow Lowlife imperium-emporium. Way back when, in 1987 to be exact, two frustrated Stockholm youngsters got together to make some music. I was one of them. Jan Ekman was the other one. We called the band White Stains. That initial phase got me actively interested in making music and that is something that hasn't really changed, ever. To make noise or rock'n'roll or both together with Jan was a lot of fun and I guess the peak of our first phase of collaboration was when we played at the Hultsfred festival in 1989, with Thomas Tibert at the mixing desk. This concert can be heard in its entirety on the The Somewhat Lost Horizon album, which will, incidentally, also be re-released this autumn.
Jan drifted away as new folks entered the White Stains music machine but luckily we stayed in touch and remained friends. I guess it was inevitable that we would some day make music again. In 2009 we started talking about it and one thing led to another. This another would eventually be called Understen. The result of these very loose sessions became the album Imaginär Koherens ("Imaginary Coherence"). It was released in a nice little box with a CD, one photo by me, one drawing by Jan, and some other stuff. Only 100 made and still not sold out... Ha! Always the same old story! Anyway, a nice box and, most importantly, a very nice album. Acoustic guitars, improvised percussive bits, ranting, letting the MicroKorg run amok, voices, noises... Hard to describe, isn't it? We talked about David Crosby and Hawaiian hippies a lot, but those goals are hard to reach. Impossible perhaps. Or maybe we actually succeeded too well and transcended our own expectations? I think it's probably more of a David Crosby "zone" or a Hawaiian hippie "flow", to contemporize the lingo a bit. A joyous disclaimer: The album was made entirely without music software, sequencers, data bloaters, left brain halves, causal rhythms, optitech inflation, terrabytean delusions of grandeur, quantized thought processes, syncopations filled with opinions, Aristotelean assumptions, Euclidian prejudices, etc. It's just wild human stuff plugged into your ears basically. That's how we think Understen should be – and sound. As the album is now unleashed into an unexpecting digisphere, it might be nice to clean up some of the original videos too. The first one out is Returbiljetten - ej giltig!, which features our dear friend Sylvie Walder on beautiful ethereal piano. This one can be seen on the Highbrow Lowlife YouTube Channel, or, if you're too lazy to click the link, just watch it right here!
Understen's Imaginär Koherens is released by Highbrow Lowlife on September 26th, 2013. Stream where you stream, buy where you buy. But why not buy at the Highbrow Lowlife webstore?
Genesis P-Orridge at around the time of recording AT STOCKHOLM.
At Stockholm was the first full length album by White Stains. After a turbulent first year of existence, circa 1987-1988, the band had evolved from loud psychedelic rock to considerably more experimental vibes. A great instigator of this change was Thomas Tibert, who became an integrated member late 1988. This intersectional dynamic is clearly audible when listening to material from the era. Compare, for instance, the two final "93" singles (The Awareness and The Result) – essentially pop music in contemporary clothes – with the first ever White Stains performance at the Hultsfred festival of 1989: violent and experimental ad-libbing. Other interesting things happened at the time too. I made plans with Genesis P-Orridge to set up a Scandinavian spoken word tour for a mini-version of Psychick TV, ie Genesis and then wife Paula. There were some poetry festivals occuring here at around the same time, so we traveled to Copenhagen and Gothenburg, and then also did one in Stockholm. The gigs were more like performances than readings, as there was backing music and live tape manipulations. In all, a very trippy mix of lightheadedness and heavy duty existentialist spiritual poetry. While in Stockholm, we recorded readings of approximately the same texts that had been used live. This was in Thomas' wonderful home studio (called The Reality Studio, as a nod of appreciation to the 23rd mind of William Burroughs), where also all of the White Stains material was recorded, from The Awareness single up to the The Somewhat Lost Horizon soundtracks. Genesis was ultra-professional(as always) and as far as I can recall most of the recordings were "first takes". After this wonderful and impressive experience, Thomas and me merged the voice and tape recordings with the White Stains tracks we had prepared before, during and after the visit. We also had help from the very talented Per Aronsson in the structuring of things. Then the project took on a life of its own. My newly started publishing company Psychick Release also acted as a record label (or vice versa), and took on the challenge to release the album. In 1990, it came out and was very well received. The flow aspect with 70 minutes of non-indexed music was appreciated, as it facilitated/facilitates focused listening and not just impulsive track skipping. Later on, the album was re-released on CD by Etherworld (US, 1995 approx) and Voiceprint (UK, 2004). It was even later on released as an LP by Vinyl On Demand (Germany, 2011, as part of a beautiful Psychick TV box set), and has always had a presence somewhere, somehow. I even saw a bootleg of the Psychick Release edition in Russia in 2007 – truly an honor, as it was so amazingly well made. But now it's back to the old homestead again, as Highbrow Lowlife presents the full 70 minute flow version again, remastered by Thomas Tibert for your uninhibited listening pleasure. To celebrate this release we have posted a classic video clip from the era, aptly called At Stockholm, at the YouTube Channel. It was made by Fetish 23 in 1990 for the Psychick Release Video Trance Mission, vol 1. It features Super-8 footage of our little Temple Ov Psychick Youth spoken word tour with Genesis in 1989, including meetings with Nick Cave and Freddie Wadling. There will be more videos from this era uploaded soon.
AT STOCKHOLM 2013 REMASTER is available all over the digisphere from September 19th, 2013. Purchase includes a PDF booklet containing all the lyrics. Why not get this album straight from Highbrow Lowlife's own web shop? If you'd like to listen before buying, try Spotify or other quality music streaming services. Thank you.
Only once in a while do I retract from long term musical partnerships (and then only temporarily). Usually collaborations are fun and rewarding within a Third Mind framework. Usually they bring out entirely unexpected music that would have been impossible to make on my own. However, I've come to notice that it works the other way around too. When I'm totally alone with the audio structure spirits, the communication becomes transcending in a much more brooding and darker way. Sure, I can recognize elements and attractions that are mine and mine alone, but I'm more and more surprised in the solo setting these days. It's as if the Third Mind has become the norm and in long term musical partnerships one gets the hang of it after a while. The unexpected becomes the expected. Not creatively Kosher. Some years ago, I started making music on my own again. This time without any concept or umbrella (like an "album"). I was just curious to see where the intuition would lead me. I encouraged myself getting into a particular emotional mood, and then worked from there. All the instruments and studio gear were left out in the living room for weeks, driving me and my little family crazy. When I felt like recording, I did. Usually very late at night. The result of these expressions eventually became the album Själabränning and I called my solo project Sinnelag (approx "State of mind" in Swedish). It was issued on CD in a limited edition of 100 copies in 2010. Then I basically let it slip and slide. Anyway, recently I thought it could be interesting to listen to the album again. It was. It was dark stuff galore. What a dark trip! I think I actually got rid of some heavy emotional residue in the process of making that album, because I can recognize it all in there somewhere. Music can indeed be therapeutical. Thanks to the audio structure spirits. Now, it's all been digitally remastered, and it does sound a lot better. Thanks to Thomas Tibert, who is such a skilled mastering person! Of course this music needs to be out there in the digisphere. Now it is. For your listening pleasure (?)... All over the digisphere... Right now! There are some Sinnelag films too, as if the weird sounds aren't enough. To celebrate the digital release of the album, Highbrow Lowlife has just posted Pollen av aska on the YouTube Channel.
After having worked with so much weird music together since 1989 or thereabouts, Thomas Tibert and me decided that it would be fun and challenging to make some real pop music instead of the usual Cotton Ferox-structures. So that's what we did, from 2009 and onwards. The Mushroom Clouds were now catapulted into an unsuspecting cosmos. Back in 2010, we had amassed a bunch of tracks that were very conventional, yet trippy and perhaps even intelligent. Then we gave some serious thought to the vocal issue. Who could vocalize our vision? The best answer to that question was within reach: Gothenburgian chanteuse extraordinaire Elisabeth Punzi of Whipped Cream-fame drifted into the studio like elegant royalty and, as they so frequently say on TV these days, "delivered". The first result of this collaboration is the EP called EP I, which is available in the digisphere from September 5th, 2013.
Beauty and the Beats: Elisabeth Punzi flanked by Mushroom & Clouds, 2010.
There will be more from The Mushroom Clouds of course. Each EP will be a collaboration with a female singer and we hope to work with many different kinds of voices and singing styles in the near future. If you want to be involved somehow, just e-mail us. We will try to make this an audiovisual adventure too, so that each song gets its own video – or vice versa. We have now made our first public contribution as conventional songwriters. It feels good and we're very pleased with the result. And we are currently writing new songs for future adventures. Don't worry... We won't leave the experimental or the ambient or the electronic or whatever behind... But The Mushroom Clouds will always be a POP experience from this day and onwards. We hope that you'll join us on this musical mystery trip! The Mushroom Clouds' EP I is available from The Highbrow Lowlife Webshop, iTunes, Spotify, Wimp, Amazon and all the others... To see Mushroom Clouds and Cotton Ferox videos, please click here...
Howdy people! Autumn has now officially begun and there's a chill in the air to prove it. Wonderful! Time to get back to working routines and an evaluation of the times we live in. Some recent developments deserve special mention, and this little missive is meant to be a condensed update of sorts. To celebrate autumn, Highbrow Lowlife today release an album by Cotton Ferox called A Mega Golem Official. Some of you may remember this piece from Vicki Bennett's Radio Boredcast project back in 2011-2012, but now it's out there on its own: Spotify, iTunes, Wimp, Amazon et al... Wherever you usually shop or stream, it's there. The Mega Golem is a project that is well under way now. It's a magical creature (vide the Golem in Meyrink and others), that is made entirely out of art. Currently several artists are helping me to build this new life form. This official Mega Golem transmission constitutes the being's penis and testicles. This in no way implies that it's a specifically male creature though. To read more about the Mega Golem project, you should consult The Fenris Wolf, issues no 5 & 6, both available from Edda Publishing. Another Highbrow Lowlife-related recent manifestation is the posting of videos on our YouTube channel. We currently have five different videos uploaded there, and strongly recommend you have a look. This recent week, we flagged for the upcoming first EP by Elisabeth Punzi & The Mushroom Clouds, due out in the digisphere on September 5th.
The Mushroom Clouds-project is quite a big step for Thomas Tibert and me, as it deals with another form of music than we're used to: POP! We sincerely hope that you will enjoy our collaboration with the multitalented singer Elisabeth Punzi as much as we have.
The All Alone-video was made by Thomas Tibert, and the Lucifer's Rainbow one by me (with extra special thanks to the lovely Sara George). New from Trapart Books is an amazing book called " ''''''' " (being an exposition and elucidation of an eternal work by The Hafler Trio). The book is a poetic description of Andrew McKenzie/The Hafler Trio’s ongoing series of workshops and ideas. Part musical creation, part personal development, part experimental Gesamtkunstwerk and part complementary education. Available late September in a standard and a deluxe edition. At that same time, there will also be a brand new Trapart web site. New from Edda Publishing is an art book by Fredrik Söderberg called Jung Haus. And my own very first novel Mother, Have A Safe Trip (an occult science fiction sex thriller). Both books will be out early October, and more news will follow of course. I have recently enjoyed new music by the Swedish band/project Purple Elk. Dan Söderqvist is a genuine gem in Swedish music (consider Älgarnas Trädgård, Cosmic Overdose, Twice A Man...), and his new project Purple Elk (together with Jan Ternald) is no exception to his solid rule of psychedelic and beautiful brilliance. Purple Elk play contemporary psych with a literal as well as emotional H.P. Lovecraft vibe (the author more than the band of the same name). You can listen to Purple Elk right here. You not only can. You should. Another Swedish project that's been on my mind to write about is Ev Of Isis. The dark, brooding and menacing beauty of Swedish Josefin Hinders and American Amanda Schoepflin drag you away – willingly – on an inner journey that is scary and enthusiastic at the same time. Multiversal mind movie music and delicious dark femmebient of the finest brand. You can listen to Ev Of Isis right here! That's it for now. Until the next time, enjoy the works in this little dispatch irresponsibly and make sure to spread the information further!
Thomas Tibert, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Carl Abrahamsson. Photo by Ryan Martin.
Inspired and fueled by White Stains' successful concert together with Genesis Breyer P-Orridge in Gothenburg in late June, me and Thomas Tibert have decided to revitalize the dormant label Highbrow Lowlife. It was never really sent to the final rest, but after the limited CD release by Sinnelag, Själabränning (2011), it was definitely time to take a break. But... We have so much material in the archives and now also a much better distribution network for digital releases, so there's really nothing there to stop Highbrow Lowlife from becoming a very smooth vehicle for our musical expressions – new as well as old ones. There will be physical/tangible releases too, mainly vinyl, but that takes slightly longer to strategize. So we'll begin slowly but surely by making as much material as possible available digitally. The first release will be an EP called I Travel. Genesis Breyer P-Orridge reads a trippy poem to music that was originally made for our joint album Wordship (2004), but the EP also contains two remixes. The release date is August 15th, so stay alert! We have just now fixed our own YouTube channel, where we'll post old as well as new films by Cotton Ferox, White Stains and other relevant acts/people. The first video posted is I Travel F-Side. Enjoy! To see it in a slightly better quality, please go straight to the clip.
A Highbrow Lowlife website is also being structured and will hopingly see the light of day late August. Thanks for being interested. Stay tuned and you'll be provided with a lot of mind bending music!
