Tag Archives: kenneth anger

Lost Lucifer Rising soundtrack by Jimmy Page revisited, remixed and released today

Lost Lucifer Rising soundtrack by Jimmy Page revisited, remixed and released today, and available now, via the Jimmy Page website at “LUCIFER RISING AND OTHER SOUND TRACKS“. Prices are pretty high, starting at £20 (that’s over US $30) for the standard edition, a £30 deluxe edition limited to 418 copies, and going all the way up to a signed and deluxe edition, limited to 93 copies, at £195. However, it may be too late to get either of the deluxe editions until they start being scalped at unconscionable markup later.

 

 

“Today, the Spring Equinox 2012, the title music for Lucifer Rising and Other Sound Tracks will have its premiere and release.

The title music, along with other musical pieces recorded at my home studio in the early Seventies, have been revisited, remixed and released for the first time.

This is a musical diary of avant-garde compositions and experiments, one of which was to appear on the film Lucifer Rising.

The collection has been exhumed and is now ready for public release. This will be available exclusively on the website.

There will be a standard release on heavyweight vinyl.

In addition there will be a special run of 418 numbered copies. The first 93 copies will be signed and numbered.

There are liner notes and commentary to each track. The tracks are:

Side One
1) Lucifer Rising – Main Track

Side Two
1) Incubus
2) Damask
3) Unharmonics
4) Damask – Ambient
5) Lucifer Rising – Percussive Return” — Jimmy Page [via]

 

There’s a couple of articles lately about a new release of Jimmy Page’s lost soundtrack for Kenneth Anger’s Lucifer Rising at DETAILS OF JIMMY PAGE’S NEW ALBUM UNEARTHED and Jimmy Page’s early-1970s soundtrack recording ‘Lucifer Rising’ to be released on March 20

 

“A lost soundtrack recording from the early 1970s by Jimmy Page has been ‘revisited and remixed,’ according to the legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist — and will finally see release on Tuesday, March 20.

‘I was really nervous because the opening sequence is a dawning sequence which brings comparisons to the film 2001, A Space Odyssey to mind,’ Page said, in an interview during the ongoing sessions for the original soundtrack recording. ‘The film was shot in Egypt and I wanted to create a timelessness so by using a synthesizer I tried to change the actual sounds of every instrument so you couldn’t say immediately ‘that’s a drum or guitar.’ I was juggling around the sounds to lose a recognizable identity as such. In 2001, a Space Odyssey there was fantastic music done with voices. I wanted to attempt to do that with Zeppelin in the beginning.'”

“Page’s rough drafts — which took on something of a legendary status over the years, and were included on countless bootlegs, notably Solo Performances — have now been fleshed out, and will be available exclusively through JimmyPage.com.” [via]

 

“Yesterday we reported on Jimmy Page’s new album Lucifer Rising and Other Sound Tracks, which will be released on March 20 via his website. Today, we have discovered a 2006 interview with the Led Zepplin guitarist that goes into detail about his unreleased score of the 1972 film that forms the bulk of the new album.” [via, 2006 interview]

 

Kenneth Anger is pulled out of a hat in an article about the cliche “the magic of the movies”

Kenneth Anger is pulled out of a hat in an article about the cliché “the magic of the movies” at “Hugo and the magic of film trickery” by J Hoberman at The Guardian. Aleister Crowley is tangentially mentioned in connection with Anger.

“Many film-makers, including Orson Welles and the avant-gardists Maya Deren, Harry Smith, Stan Brakhage, and Kenneth Anger, identified their practice with magic — albeit in varying ways. Welles had extensive experience as a stage magician and made his last feature, the faux documentary F is For Fake precisely about cinematic sleight of hand; Deren was a serious student of Haitian vodoo; Smith considered his cut and paste animations a form of alchemy; Brakhage referred to “trick” as the medium’s fundamental rule; and Anger was a disciple of Aleister Crowley, who considered making a film akin to casting a spell. (Walt Disney would have agreed.)”

“Movies don’t necessarily record reality but they always construct it. That’s what makes them magical.”

Technicolor Skull

 

“Technicolor Skull’s self-titled recorded debut, a one-sided, bloodred 180 gram 12″ vinyl LP limited to 666 copies. A multimedia collaboration featuring Kenneth Anger on Theremin and Los Angeles artist Brian Butler on guitar and electronic instruments. Technicolor Skull is a magick ritual of light and sound in the context of a live performance. The project premiered at Donaufestival in Austria, in April 2008, and has subsequently toured throughout Europe, performing at the National Museum of Art, Copenhagen, and the Serralves Museum, Portugal, and recently at the Hiro Ballroom, New York, for the Anthology Film Archives benefit.” [via]

Occultural Film Series: Magick in Cinema at Northwest Film Forum on Thursday, April 5th at 7pm in Seattle, WA

You may be interested in “Occultural Film Series: Magick in Cinema” [also] which is going to be at Northwest Film Forum on Thursday, April 5th at 7pm in Seattle, WA. This appears to be the inaugural event for what is hoped to be an ongoing series, so even if you can’t make this one, consider keeping an eye out for future events.

“Thursday, Apr 05 at 07:00PM
Artist, writer and filmmaker Brian Butler presents a program that explores the occult as depicted in avant garde and experimental film. Magick has been defined by Aleister Crowley as “the science and art of causing change to occur inconformity with the will.” The short film is a perfect medium for modern occult ritual—utilizing sound light and color to alter the consciousness of the viewer. This program includes pioneers in the field of occult film as well as newer works by Brian Butler.

Program includes:
Death Posture (Brian Butler, 2011, 3 min)
The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda (Ira Cohen, 1968, 20 min)
No. 17: Mirror Animations (Harry Smith, 1979, 8 min)
Wormwood Star (Curtis Harrington, 1956, 15 min)
Brush of Baphomet (Kenneth Anger, 2009, 7 min)
Night of Pan (Brian Butler, 2009, 7 min)
Union of Opposites (Brian Butler, 2012, 10 min)” [via]

“Established 2012 the Occultural Film Series features the esoteric and the occult in cinema. Embracing historical and contemporary examples in film and video of esoteric currents in moving pictures.

Co-hosted by the Northwest Film Forum and the Esoteric Book Conference.

Coordinators: Tobi Nussbaum and William Kiesel” [via]

 

Of course, the quoted definition of “magick” by Aleister Crowley can be found in “Definition and Theorems of Magick” from Magick in Theory and Practice:

“Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.”

Thelema page 2

Thelema page2
Thelema page2, originally uploaded by stereotopffer.

 

This is a rather striking image, in high contrast black and white, from a 6 page story that was done for a publication called Fanzine Enfermo.

“This is a page of the thelema comic i’ve just finished for my pals of Fanzine Enfermo. As i told you previously it’s inspired on the works of Kenneth Anger and Aleister Crowley. I’m not a believer in these things, but find fascinating the feelings that some works of Anger make feel, and want to put them on paper as he had put them in screen.”

Don’t know what the other pages look like, but I’m certainly curious and interested. I’ve been looking online for more information to share about Fanzine Enfermo, but haven’t located a link specifically about it; though there are lots of interesting illustrations to be found searching on that term.

The black and white style reminds me a great deal of the style of The Marvel: A Biography of Jack Parsons by Richard Carbonneau with art by Robin Simon Ng; which was published by Cellar Door.

 

The Hermetic Library visual pool is a visual scavenger hunt for images of a living Western Esoteric Tradition.

Images of your ritual or ritual space, images of sigils or tools, showing off your own library or special volume from the restricted stacks, sacred spaces and places, esoteric artefacts and installations, inspired paintings and people – these and much more are part of the culture and practice of magick.

Dr. Kenneth Anger I

Dr. KENNETH ANGER I
Dr. KENNETH ANGER I, originally uploaded by Mark Berry.

 

“‘Don’t disobey me. Do as I say and don’t talk back!’ waspishly screamed the author, artist and filmmaker, waving his fist and practically foaming at the mouth. This was not really an interview; this was more like a strange brief encounter with Kenneth Anger. ‘I can be charming,’ he explained staring straight into my eyes, ‘but I’m not going to be!’ This is a man whose volatile temperament is renowned and recently due to a rare medical condition hadn’t slept for six months. I had been warned though…'”

— Mark Berry in Bizarre Magazine

 

I’ve recently added a stub for Kenneth Anger to the Hermeneuticon Wiki and now added a link to this image there.

 

The Hermetic Library visual pool is a visual scavenger hunt for images of a living Western Esoteric Tradition.

Images of your ritual or ritual space, images of sigils or tools, showing off your own library or special volume from the restricted stacks, sacred spaces and places, esoteric artefacts and installations, inspired paintings and people – these and much more are part of the culture and practice of magick.

Images and Oracles exhibition at LAXART Annex through Jun 18th

Brian Butler, who worked with Kenneth Anger, has a new solo exhibition, a film and art installation, at the LAXART Annex, in Los Angeles, California, through Jun 18th.

“Part of “Images and Oracles,” Butler’s first solo exhibition, “The Dove and the Serpent” is a meditation on alchemy; the title references the Hermetic principle “as above, so below.” Filmed at a castle in Normandy, France, with some friends he rounded up during Paris fashion week last fall, including Dash Snow’s sister Caroline and the cinematographer Edouard Plongeon, whose family provided the locale, the two-and-a-half minute piece is beautiful, hypnotic and vaguely sinister. Shadowy figures shape-shift and meld with the elements, occult symbols flash and fade, and there is some covetable fashion on display, including a Masonic robe and an ivory silk gown by the London designer Qasimi.

The film screens on a loop in the gallery, projected between four cubes covered in alchemical symbols and standing on pillars. “People often think of a goat’s head or these pagan ideas, but these are cubes,” Butler says. “I felt like it was an interesting way to blend these arcane teachings with a modernist setting.” He compares the forms, two black and two white, to “machines or maps of the astral world,” adding that they can “get rather complex, like a Rubik’s Cube. Once you turn it, it can be difficult to get back to where you were.” [via]