Tracklist:
A1 Tabula Rasa
A2 Tonton Macoutes
A3 Emeute
B1 Abu Nidal
B2 Green Is The Colour Of The Prophet
B3 Fatwa (Religious Decree Giving Recourse To Terrorism)
Folklorist Alan Lomax spent his career documenting folk music traditions
from around the world. Now thousands of the songs and interviews he
recorded are available for free online, many for the first time. It's part of what Lomax envisioned for the collection — long before the age of the Internet.
And now for something completely different. Famed Royal Shakespeare Company director Peter Brook helms this multinational production of India's greatest epic myth. A seemingly simple tale of two sets of semidivine brothers vying for the throne spirals out to include wider themes of fate, free will, and the problems of behaving dishonorably to preserve the greater good. The film, adapted from Brook's stage production, uses a presentational style, with the epic's narrator slipping in and out of the action and characters stopping to address the camera. The international cast and simple costuming add to the timeless, dreamlike feel of the story. The Mahabharata does an excellent job of reverently presenting a cherished myth without losing the passion and excitement of the story.
Peter Brook's version of the Mahabharata is theatrical, philosophical, spare, poetic. It is rendered in gentle, nearly monochromatic hues and with often silent backgrounds, interspersed with periods of hauntingly beautiful music. The actors are gifted, if a bit too grand and mythic in their presentation. As in the written versions, the characters motives are seen to be, in turns, grounded and human, and unearthly and enlightened.
Such a powerful mix, and such a penetrating vision of life. I highly recommend this film!
A Voodoo devotee from Togo surrenders himself to the spirit of his
personal deity. His eyes roll upward and his pupils disappear, leaving
only the whites. Depending on what direction they eyes roll, observers
can tell which 'loa' (spirit) has possessed him.
Russian-born
American experimental film pioneer and Voudoun practitioner Maya Deren
died in 1961, aged 44, leaving behind a small but highly influential
collection of films and this record.
Excerpted notes from the cover (enclosed):
"The
belief that the proper performance of a sacred formula of symbols or
sounds is the means by which man achieves contact with divine powers is a
basic principle not only of Voudoun, but of every religion. Such
formulae were known as mantras in ancient Sanskrit, and this is still
the term for all such ritual action, whether the chants of the Muslim
muezzin or the saying of the Catholic rosary. The use of mantras is as
ancient and as universal as man's desire to improve his condition and
secure his destiny. It is as prevailing as the proud conviction of each
man that his weaknesses and inadequaceis are, by and large, common to
all men and that, consequently, the power which is sufficiently superior
to sustain and fortify him is one which is superior to man altogether. In times of need a man may seek to enlist such assistance by magic means. (...)
If the songs and drumming achieve the compelling power which I believe
is represented in this album it is because the microphone, lashed to the
center post of the ceremonial peristyle, has captured a record not of
men and women at play, not of their relaxed spontaneities, nor of their
effort to create an art work for other men or for the satisfaction of
any employer. It is a record of labor, of the most serious and vital
effort which a Haitian makes, for he is here laboring for divine reward,
addressing himself not to men but to divinity. They are singing for the
gods. It is a privilege to have overheard and to have recorded it."
-Maya Deren
Voices Of Haiti (recorded by Maya Deren) Elektra EKLP-5 (10-inch mono) 1953 Tracklist: side one:
Five Thousand Spirits is a Project between Stefano Musso (Alio Die),
Raffaele Serra, and Claudio Dondo (Runes Order). Five Thousand Spirits'
first album, A Tapestry For Sorcerers, released in 1995, was a Dark
Ambient album with a cosmic feel more akin to Runes Orders work than
Alio Die or Raffaele Serra's work, after this album, Claudio Dondo quit
the group and it became a project of Musso and Serra. This line-up has
since released five albums, all similar in sound to both artists solo
work, which is oriented towards minimal and ethnic styled ambient. A must have!
Tracklist:
1. From Sea To Sea
2. Enter, So Far From This Sky
3. Alphamantra
4. Onyx
5. Eskdalemuir
6. Lais
7. Haat-Lunis
8. Limahians
Sun God are a side project of Rodney Orpheus (of The Cassandra Complex), also featuring Patricia Nigiani (Aurora Sutra), Marcus Giltjes, and Tippy A-Go-Go. Their sole album released in 1995 featured a mixture of ambient electronics with voudou rhythms and invocations, each song being an invocation of a different spirit. Their live performances are notable for the use of flaming torches, spitting rum, and people becoming possessed both on the stage and in the audience…
The beginning of May 1995 saw the release of the first (and so far only) album by the band Sun God. Sun God was formed by Rodney Orpheus, for the past two decades charismatic leader of the enormously influential Cassandra Complex; assisted by Patricia Nigiani, inspiration behind the band Aurora Sutra and formerly vocalist with successful German hard electronic group Project Pitchfork; and Marcus Giltjes, the percussion force behind many of Europe's best independent bands, such as Girls Under Glass, Sleeping Dogs Wake, and Catastrophe Ballet.
This is not a normal album - the whole record is based completely on Voudou symbols and ideas. The music is unlike anything ever attempted before: an incredible combination of ethnic rhythms, Gothic atmosphere, industrial sampling, and ambient sounds; coupled with the unique voices of two of the most important singers in the European Electro/Gothic scene. Recorded at the legendary Wooden Horse Studios and produced by Rodney Orpheus, the album has a powerful, clear, unique sound that never fails to send shivers up the spine of all who hear it.
The record was the first released on Rodney Orpheus' Original Artists label and was distributed by German distribution company EFA. After being out of print for some years it is now once more being made available via digital distribution from Amazon MP3, eMusic, Rhapsody, and iTunes, among others.
Shortly after the release of the Sun God album Tippy Agogo and Lacasa del Cid replaced Marcus Giltjes in the band, and later joined by m:.x:.d:. ..boards, the band embarked on a series of festival shows in Europe, including the Matzen Festival in Vienna, Austria, the Sauerland festival in Olpe, Germany and the Moonchild Gothic festival in Leipzig, Germany. Their live show was incredibly powerful and exciting, featuring several live drummers and a bizarre ritual atmosphere.
