:)

Buscando pistas o loops de tablas en RedPanal para un tema que estoy armando, me crucé con Il Mondo. Buenas cosas hace el muchacho. Genera climas interesantes, fusionando una clara base india con cosas electrónicas y géneros musicales diversos.

Por fuera de RedPanal, Il Mondo también tiene su página en MySpace, ShermanSound. Mirándola un poco me llevé una sorpresa! Aparece un video donde está Guido Pera (El Negro pa´ los amigos) tocando un raga que se llama Jinjoti.

Rasikananda Das e Il Mondo (Germán Paz Ríos) en Tabla, Guido Pera y Ariel Chab Tarab en Sitar y una acompañante en Tambura, de la cual no conozco el nombre.

No sé tanto de música india como para explicar cómo viene la mano. Vamos a pedirle especificaciones al Negro. Sí tengo algunas percepciones y datos sueltos que hacen que la música India me parezca un continente fascinante para husmear.

ProductID: 12304 - Music CD Jewel Case - N/A Pages (Year: 9/2002)
Kosmic Music ~ ISBN: CDNF 005

Music is not only universal but also a binding force. This music album binds together the different music systems of the world.

The CDs features following tracks:

Revelation
Woman with a Mission
Shika-n-o-tonee
Vital Force
Remembering Norway

THE MUSICIANS

VIOLINS - Dr. M Lalitha and M Nandini
VIOLIN - Guest Artiste from Norway - Hege Rimestad
SHAKUHACHI - Guest Artiste from Australia - Carl Rathus
KEYBOARD - R Aparajit
BASS GUITAR - N V Anu
MRIDANGAM - Ramiah Vittel
GATAM - E M Subramaniam
DRUMS, DARBUKA - M Gopal
TALA, CONDUCTING - Mrs Subhalakshmi Muthuswami
TAMBURA - V Parimala
MUSIC COMPOSED & ARRANGED - Dr M Lalitha & M Nandini
MIXED & MASTERED - H Sridhar
TECHNICAL CO-ORDINATION - K M Suryanarayanan

*- This album is in the Top 10 Rating

La meditatione e’ ancora piu dolce con il tanpura! Il suo suono e’ talmente bello e genera una clama incredibile nel cervello. Per chi abita in citta e vuole meditare lo raccomando vivamente. Non e’ difficile suonarlo ma le note devono venire fuori dal cuore, poi passare alle dita e infine penetrare nella testa e nell’aria! Si possono anche cantare dei mantra semplici o vocalizzare note.

Si puo cantare OM per tutte quattro le corde e mantenere l’attenzione in ognuno dei sette chakra dal basso verso l’alto come nella foto:

• Prima di vocalizzare, toccare le corde secondo la velocita desiderata, o da lenta a veloce. 
• Chiudere gli occhi.
• Utilizzare le dita indice e medio. Alcune persone utilizzano l’indice per la prima corda e il medio per le alter tre. Altre viceversa. Altre solo una delle due dita.
• Iniziare a respirare facendo arrivare l’aria direttamente allo stomaco.
• Inspirare ed espirare cantando OM mentre si toccano le quattro corde.
• Ci dovrebbe essere lo stesso spazio tra una nota e l’altra e tra l’ultima e la prima.

Elles sont issues d'une famille de musiciens. Après Durban, Capetown, Londres et Liverpool, entre autres, elles ont révélé leur talent au public mauricien. C'était mercredi dernier au MGI. Les s--urs Lalitha et Nandini Muthusawmy ont subjugué la salle à la fois par leur technique et l'émotion qui dégage de leurs compositions. De la musique classique indienne et occidentale, mais aussi, world music et fusion, comme le morceau African Magic, dédié au public mauricien. Originaires de Chennai, Lalitha et Nandini Muthusawmy sont des ambassadrices de la culture indienne. D'ailleurs, elles s'expriment en quatre langues. Ce qui témoigne de leur riche parcours qui les a amenés dans différentes régions du globe. Lalitha détient un PhD de l'Université de Madras et a étudié à l'Université de Pittsburg, aux États-Unis, avec spécialisation en fusion et world music. Sa jeune s--ur Nandini a, elle, été formée à la London School of Oriental and African Studies. Elle y enseigne actuellement. La venue de ce duo à Maurice se situe dans le cadre de la fête Ougadi. Une initiative à mettre à l'actif du Centre Indira Gandhi pour la Culture Indienne (IGCIC), la Indian High Commission, ainsi que les instituts Rabindranath Tagore et Mahatma Gandhi.

A report that appeared in Mauritius

Tek Kişilik Kıyamet! - Metacafe
Açıklama: Stambouler Günlükleri hiçbir canlıya şiddet uygulanmasını desteklemez. İlgili yazı ve vidyolar birer makine olarak silahlarla ve atıcılık sporuyla ilgilidir.

Ek: Ülkemizde de silah konusunda müthiş sanatkarlar ve mucitler var fakat silah hakkındaki kanunlar o kadar sıkı ki yeni birşey yapanın veya mevcut mekanizmayı geliştirenin kaçak silah üretmiş gibi muamele görme ihtimali var. Patent konusu da yeni yeni oturmaya başlıyor. Hatırlarım da 6-7 sene öncesiydi bir adam av tüfeğinde istenilen fişeğin seçilip atış yapılmasını sağlayan bir mekanizma icat etmişti de hem patent alamamış hem de bahsettiğim zorluklarla karşılaşmıştı. Düşünün, 4-5 çeşit fişek yüklüyorsunuz ve o anda karşılaştığınız duruma uygun fişeği çok hızlı bir şekilde seçip ateşleyebiliyorsunuz. Yerli silah firmalarımız da gurur duyulacak seviyedeler. Müthiş gelişme var. Hatta dünyaca ünlü bir silah markası kataloğunda yerli üreticilerimizden birinin modelini kullandı ve bunun davası da sürüyor.

Why?

After writing for 3 days I hoped to come to some sort of conclusion aside from the stock `ah well it resonated with me at the right time.' Obviously there was something that pushed me really hard to do this project; I do know it certainly wasn't for any sort of tangible satisfaction. Certainly not ego gratification or financial gain.
Part of me needed to stretch out and do something crazy and illogical in an artistic and career sense. It's inevitable that things get horribly regimented and mundane. 
It's inevitable in this current climate that things feel hopeless and pointless at times.
I know subconciously I wanted to meddle in some sort of ambiguity with possible consequences. What more fun for a lawyer than an artist covering a piece of music that has never been released and not registered in the usual channels? (Probably a famous one would be more fun, since more dosh is involved)

Copyright?

The copyright of this piece remains to be a mystery to me. I have no idea how to respect this piece. I ran through the usual motions of calling agencies and the respective composer/publisher societies. They knew nothing about this piece. So I faced a dilemma: Bow down to the fear of copyright infringement and not release the piece OR take the risk, express my interpretation and love for this piece of music and share it freely and hopefully people will question our copyright laws a little along the way. As much as I am a musician that loves to get paid, the copyright laws and the publishers that wield them are totalitarian, short-sighted and absurd. A common trait of music law and RIAA is to kill a fly with a thermonuclear bomb and ignore the Sabre tooth tiger with the fangs in their backs. The business model has changed. They haven't.
As much as this all dwells within the hallowed Hall of Douchebags and myself being the self-appointed crusader in this whocaredom, (quixotic for short) it all felt quite right to do. Simple and honest enough reason to do something.
 

Artwork

I will admit the artwork was done hastily; more deliberate and literal with the darkness and demonic overtones than I usually prefer. But I continue to be amazed by how recent events just manage to sync up together.
The outline which appears to be a bird or a bat is from travelling around northern-ish Ontario (near the Hudson Bay). As you get further north, you find more and more abandonded houses and trailers.

Somewhere on Road 25 in one of the many towns with the name Wellington in it.

The weather was impossibly bad when me and the missus were out. The amount of snow and gusts gave the impression you were in the arctic. You know, the arctic BEFORE we lost it. (Global wamin SUXX11!) Anyhoo, one particular trailer was left derelict on the side of the road. Natch, the windows are all smashed out thanks to the bored kids indigenous to the area. Well, one window had a unique pattern thanks to the smashing.

This picture was taken at the beginning of the project, but not related to the project. Just a weekend out trying to find any beauty or dissonance in our drab sprawl.

The below picture was taken noodling around with the idea of creating a sigil or archetype with wood. That failed miserably in terms of being the visual centrepiece of the project. The face you see in the body of the broken window is the result of ashes on the outskirts of the wood shot. You can't see it, and nor did I when I did the initial copy/paste/invert. Pleasant surprise

 

Do you think Jimmy Page will ever hear it?
No.

Thus concludes our thrilling 4 day odyssey in copyright subterfuge, 27 minute free downloads, the avant garde, a cursory glance at esoterica, and self congratulation mutating into self conflagration.

*Management says I need to provide more content anyways.
For the detractors, rest easy. There's only one more after this. *
*Until I start talking about local activism, mountain biking, and promoting xenophobia.
 

Some basic timeline info:

Recording began on February 14th, finished on March 21st and released on April 3rd.
Probably one of the best recording experiences I ever had. No setbacks, no technical difficulties. Ironic considering the general mayhem that pollutes the history of the film and soundtrack.
 

The Drone

In the original soundtrack Page used a Tambura that you can hear through most of the 23 minutes.You know the sound if you have heard any Indian music in your life.
The reinterpretation takes a page from the Page (hah hah I slay me) songbook. The drone I used is a violin bow on an electric guitar; a signature of his. The bowed guitar was multitracked as well as run through a pitchshifter to give that grind effect.
 

The melodies

The original features the ARP synthesizer doing all the melodies. On this version, vocals replace all synthesizer tracks. The vocal style is a little more harsher and more `wail oriented' than previous works of mine. You would be right in assuming that there is a Diamanda Galas feel to a lot of it. Screeching, microtonalities, it's all there. The extremely high HIGH vocals had to be run through a pitchshifter as well. Despite hitting (personally) the highest note ever on one of my own recordings (Bb) there was a need to pitch up the notes that are closer to the hearing range of a bat.

Diamanda Galas: Composer, singer, Lucifer's answer to Nana Moskouri
Recommended Recording: Plague Mass

I didn't want to use synthesizer sounds for the main melodies in favour of the voice. One reason was because I like to use my voice while I still have it. The other reason is based on the act of summoning. Through out history and hollywood film, rituals' main sonic output is the voice. It's our raw humanity that is the conductor to the nether reaches of our psyche and dimensions. It takes effort, it takes dedication and it sure as shit is an act of vulnerability being a foil for true inner strength. Regardless of who or what is being summoned in said film, I felt the voice needed to be present.
Though I'm no expert of necromancy, sorcery, divinity or anything metaphysical, I would assume that the use of organic materials to expel precision energy would be more well-received by an apparition/god than the plinky plink of a Korg Triton.

The chants

Chants were multitracked alone and then run through a ringer of processors and such that would end up mutilating the sound. A little bit of Latin is peppered through out the track. A lot of the quick syllabic sounds are the chant tracks being severly modified.
 

Other stuff

One instrument I've been itching to use is the Mellotron M400 (link) it's strings, flutes, and choirs have added so much character to albums by the Moody Blues to Radiohead. The mellotron is probably the earliest interactive sampler (the Fairlight was the first digital one.) Before the days of akai samplers and other boop boop beep beep devices that loop lovers use, you had to use tape reels. Mellotron was fashioned with anywhere from 1 to 12 tape reels in the machine. You had a choir tape, string tape, flute tape, etc. And you would curse the day when any of those tapes broke.

Part of the Mellotron's charm is its durability. Notice that it makes a respectable replacement for a garden gnome

Reality check: A real physical mellotron to rent is very hard to come by. To buy one would have meant spending over 7000 USD. Since I'm not a hipster or have a hard on for perfect authenticity, I am NOT going to part with that much money for any musical device. Thankfully, technology has progressed enough that some innovative fellows sampled this analog device and could use its sounds on a modern synth or computer, which I ended up doing. Fuck the purists. The following math equation sums it up: $7000 + free downloadable mp3 = Lunacy/How a record company operates.

One instrument that becomes a dominant player in this version is the Bulgarian dulcimer. The microtonal ascension at the title screen is that instrument. I'm a big fan of the Italian group Goblin who did the soundtrack to the film Susperia. I wanted to capture that vibe for a few moments. Besides, any instrument that can be bought for 6 bucks off of Ebay and can sound unique and brilliant deserves the track time.
 

Drums

The hardest part to perform. Reason being is that the original Tabla track is off time and heavily improvised; so the syncopations are never-ending. I was tempted to go with the `have a sweet groove and loop it' route, but that would've been too easy and would have defeated the attention and incidentalism of all the previous parts. It was a bitch to score out every single staggering beat and off time hit then do it `in time.' Ugh.
Swapped out the tabla for deep taiko drums that shake the speakers, threw the taiko drum tracks through an amplifier, recorded it back into the system to give the drums a bit more bite.
I'm going to stop here as this has metamorphisized into one of those gear-fag pages I used to see in guitar magazines as a kid.
In the final installment: `Why,' the `copyright/artistic expression thingy' as well as the bizarre synchronicity of the artwork and closing arguments from the prosecution.

While frenetically re-orchestrating the synthesizers (when I mean frenetic, we're talking like the hyperactivity of a speedball in a stripper who sees a man with a wallet full of singles) I found the actual movie Lucifer Rising. It is a silent art house film that relies on a perpetual soundtrack to enhance the colours of its characters and scenery. Some characters that are represented are Isis, Osiris, Lilith, and of course Lucifer. Like Page's music, it's ever reoccuring theme for me is `invocation.' Others more well versed in the symbology and imagery Anger used would probably have a more concise answer; an answer that probably wouldn't have enticed me to undertake this project. Hence why I love personal interpretation over anything else.
According to some film buffs, `Lucifer Rising' is ahead of its time in the way it was edited. Some of the edits are akin to the MTV A.D.D lightning-fast edits we'd grow accustom to in the coming decades. In some places it does show its age. Then again, so does everything after a while.
The version of the film (28 mins) I have I believe was completed in 1981. There are other versions of course. The one Jimmy worked on was about 25 mins long and was apparently screened at some point in the 70's. Apparently Jimmy's work was acceptable at one point to be shown publicly. Then they had that big old falling out that deteriorated into that classic `He said/She said/Well I'm going to curse you. Take that rich rock star' scenario.
The Anger Curse

Page is a recipient of said curse. Conveniently I misplaced the article (google Kenneth Anger Curse, I'm sure it will pop up) where Anger describes the curse, but I'll paraphrase: Apparently Jimmy and his partner at the time (mid 70's) were living the good life, very isolated from other people. Anger took Jimmy's demeanor to be somewhat rude and pompous. So Anger cursed Jimmy with something that is akin to the Midas touch. The goal was to make Jimmy even feel more isolated than before yet continue to accrue wealth.
History tells us that curses aren't as effective as heroin, which Jimmy got himself into after 1975. Heroin contributed to the deterioration of his playing but gave us the awesome Evil-fest known as the Led Zeppelin 1977 tour. Or for you Lord of the Rings fans, if Jimmy was Gandalf the Grey this is where Jimmy transforms into the wicked Saruman the White. (White suit and occasional SS uniform)
[/fantasy nerd]
Recommended Bootlegs for new intiates:
Listen to This Eddie - June 21st 1977 - For energy and power. This is one of the famous Mike Millard recordings. Great audience tape and my introduction to Zeppelin's height of power and decadence. RIP Mike.
Sgt Page Badgeholders Club Band - June 23, 1977 - Easily Page's best playing of the tour and an appearance by a very medicated Keith Moon jams with the band.
The Destroyer - April 27, 1977. (For sound quality and Plant really enjoys himself at this show)
Presence Server: The Authority on Zeppelin Bootlegs

Back to the story. Jimmy sums up his relationship with Kenneth as something to the effect of giving Anger access to some expensive editing machines to speed up the editing process, the soundtrack was completed, and then Anger went crazy and started leaving notes all around (the curse.)

Contrasts

Bobby's soundtrack has peaks, valleys, moments of rest and playfulness which gives the film a lot of colour; even psychedelic. It makes sense since Bobby was a member of the psychedelic band Love back in 1967. (Forgot to mention that and they were most excellent.)Page's music is unrelenting, repetitive and ever slowly evolving. The characters seem to get "grounded" a bit more by this music.
There was some guesswork as to how Jimmy's 23 minutes will match up to the 28 minute film. In cases like this, I use instinct over intellect. I cut up the music to sync with parts of the movie I felt it should be with and filled in the other blanks myself. I had not the time to sift through the Crowley's `Book of the Law' and create a musical metaphor to accent some of the double meanings. (There were some lines that were co-opted from other sources to create maximum transcendance but they weren't the result of hours and hours of pondering)
Sometimes meddling with the past requires a bit of style and ferocity. And it's also in the spirit of disinformation which seems to be the omnipresent theme with this project.
Tune in tomorrow as I stop dickering around and get to the actual recording, take listeners calls and recommend some great home tandoori chicken recipes.

As reluctant as I am to post any type of blog, I thought it would be a nice change of pace to actually share some of my experiences with you regarding the Lucifer Rising recording. Which you can download HERE
This blog segment will run until Friday. After that, I go do whatever a Christopher does. I hear this weekend is the Death and Resurrection Show. I may go catch the matinee.
Whilst sitting restless through the twilight of yet another mundane Ontario winter, I was fretting what I should do after `Smoke and Origination.' Since touring that kind of music would only serve to kill me infinitely faster than the usual stress and air toxins, I needed to go back into the studio. Dick McWhiskey's Hockey and Hoagie Tavern (a smoke free establishment!!) will have to rely on Emergenza bands to fill their Thursday nights instead of yours truly. Surely the scene weeps.

So the question remained: Should I go right back and finish the acoustic EP? Work on some classical stuff? Sing on a shit reality tv show?

Make a terrible video to support `S&O?' Develop a well deserved drug habit? Buy a new mountain bike?

Fellow Canadian who tried to live the dream on TV. Yep, still an imbecile. 

Hard decisions to make as a musician in this mercurial field of diminishing returns and atrophied skill sets.
 

The Back Story

I searched for a few years (on and off) for the elusive Jimmy Page Lucifer Rising Soundtrack. It was a sort of personal unholy grail as an Amateur Led Zeppelin Bootleg Enthusiast. The tales that were spun about it and its composer could surely fill volumes of `rock evil' that Jack Black will inevitably plunder for his films.
The initial search was quite frustrating: All the bootlegs I found and that were forwarded to me by colleagues were the same music, but it couldn't possibly be Jimmy's work.

A) The music was way too psychedelic.
B) The guitar playing didn't have the Pagey style.
C) The instruments described by Page in interviews regarding what he did were not in this soundtrack. I heard no tabla, the ye olde Magick Bow on guitar, tibetan chants or the use of the ARP synthesizer
Eventually what I discovered is that most copies floating around with the Page name is actually the work of Bobby Beausoleil; his version of Lucifer Rising was used for the final edit of the film. Since most bootlegging companies are usually enterprising diseased rats, they would append Bobby's soundtrack to various Zeppelin bootlegs and outtakes to make a quick buck.
 

Bobby Beausoliel

Bobby is an interesting character and deserves a sidebar in this recollection: He was a member of the Charles Manson family and Bobby did go to jail for a murder. I have read countless versions as to why he went to jail including the murder of a drug dealer who used lethal strychnine in product Bobby bought. There's several sordid gossipy tales about Bobby's early time with Kenneth Anger. I haven't the patience to research the fact from the fiction. No matter what is fact or fiction, I'm sure either one will prove to be equally fascinating.

Bobby's score of Lucifer Rising was composed and performed entirely in prison with other cell mates. There would be delays with the soundtrack due to cell mates being transferred to other facilities and maybe, just maybe, because it was...I don't know....prison?

I would loathe to think one morning waking up all amped to cut a Mellotron track and getting inconvenienced by a shank to the neck thanks to a Hispanic member of the White United Front (WUF) who thought I looked a tad `Jewey.'

I salute Bobby and the adversity one must face having a multi-track studio in prison and a cute bum. As much as I make light of the situation surrounding his creation of the soundtrack, I respect his ability to pull off what he did in prison.You can find more information on Bobby Beausoleil, his work, his marvelous adventures with Chuck and Kenneth on the internet somewhere.

While doing research on Lucifer Rising and making sure no one else had a stab at this soundtrack, Bobby's soundtrack was part of an ACID contest project where fledgling music people would recreate portions of the sountrack. So others have honored his work in the past through various channels.
 

Discovery and First Impression

On a lark, the dead one I'm sitting on, in February 07 I got the bug again to try to track down the ever elusive Page version. Several sites had his version. They key word is `had.' Looks like they got taken down over time. After several torrents, file sharing, secret codes written on rest stop walls and dealing with men with pork pie hats and questionable moral fiber,  I finally found Page's soundtrack. Before I go on with my impressions of what I heard, I'll give what my preconception as to what I thought it would sound like:
I thought it would be like the intro to Zep's `In The Evening' but a complete Satan-fest filled with backward messages and hidden chants that if uttered in real life would bring forth a raven haired stripper with 70's bush and engorged breasts that shot out a mixture of blood of stillborns and heroin all the while sucking the life force out of you leaving you a dessicated carcass a la Eddie; like many writers seemed to describe it over the years in a roundabout way. Oh, and red glowing eyes.

What I heard was somewhat akin to what I described above.

The extensive use of the tambura/tempura and ARP synthesizer were unlike anything I have heard in Page's body of work. It's very erratic and jarring the way the melody lines come in and out of the drone. But there is a definite melodic motif you hear over and over through out the piece. Without seeing the movie Lucifer Rising, the music allowed me to imagine basically everything mentioned in the last paragraph. The shakey tabla performance courtesy of the magic fingers Pagemeister has a certain endearing yet sinister quality to it. The sampling of Tibetan Chants was a very innovative and bold move at the time. (1973 - long before new agers were using it as a `healing' quality to their compositions) Overall one of the creepiest pieces of music I have ever heard. Heavily in part due to the history surrounding it and its composer.

How the public even has a copy of Lucifer Rising is alledgedly due to an enterprising member of the OTO who managed to get an early screen copy of the Lucifer Rising film with Page's music synced up. It was extracted and has been dubiously sold and bootlegged since the 80's.

Jimmy Page Lucifer Rising Album as released by Boleskine House Records. It's on blue vinyl, contains 23 minutes of music and was sold for $666 (rumour)

I have to use the word `alledgedly' a lot when it comes down to `Lucifer Rising.' The consensus reality and legend of it are so mashed up. But that's half of its charm. To spread disinformation is merely part of the process.

Stay tuned for another exciting installment of questionable grammar tomorrow.

Canadian solo artist Christopher recorded a 27 minute re-interpretation of Jimmy Page's notorious `Lucifer Rising' soundtrack which is available as a free MP3 download HERE and download the artwork HERE

Page's 23 minute soundtrack was scrapped from the same-titled Kenneth Anger occult-themed film and has never been officially released.
"The film and music is shrouded in mystery, mishaps, a curse; and excess. They were ripe for re-interpretation and the invocative nature of the music and film resonated with me."

"The soundtrack Page created was ahead of its time. The unsettling tibetan chants and the even tempered tambura that carries the whole soundtrack were used in a way that would be only looked into several years later by other composers. It's a shame that the ideas Page employed were not committed to the final edit of the film. It truly does live up to its name."
The re-recording is a tribute to a great piece of truly `underground' and `unsettling' music. (The Page soundtrack is usually found on various Led Zeppelin Bootlegs and recently was a feature in UK's Classic Rock Magazine)

"Out of respect to Kenneth Anger, Jimmy Page, and the lunacy of modern copyright laws, this piece is available free and not synced up to the film. Someone more enterprising than I can sync it up starting at the 38 second mark."