Dearest All reading this:
This update covers some of my activities over the last few months. An imminent Coptic Cat update will announce the pre-Christmas publication date of my long-delayed lyric book Under the Rain and Teeth of Gods, also known as Sing Omega, as well as another volume by myself which will be published at the same time. Those who did not order the lyric book when it was first announced and offered for sale several years ago will be able to order it as soon as the update goes out.
Myrninerest: our new booking agents
MYRNINEREST are OverMoon to announce that we have begun working with Qujunktions who are now our exclusive booking agents for everywhere, except for North America. Anyone interested in booking MYRNINEREST should contact Mark Slater at qujunktions@gmail.com. Amen to Æons.
David Tibet: new paintings exhibited in Paris
I am OverMoon to have six of my paintings—four pieces from a new series called TamariskDusk and two pieces from another new series called Pazūzānu—exhibited by John Marchant and his Isis Gallery at the Cutlog Contemporary Art Fair in Paris from 18 to 21 October. Also being exhibited by Isis Gallery is a new work by Martin Erik Andersen. Cutlog is being held at Bourse de Commerce de Paris, 2 rue de Viarmes, 75001 Paris. John Marchant has a small number of free passes for entry to the opening evening between 19.00 and 23.00 on 17 October; email him at john@isisgallery.org to enquire about obtaining one. Isis Gallery is here, but one must scroll down to ISIS GALLERY. For more information on Cutlog, go here.
From left to right: Pazūzānu Cover ClownTown, TamariskDusk II and TamariskDusk V. All © David Tibet 2012
Old Current 93 posters and prints available on Bandcamp
Jessica Marie Chappell and I have been doing more Attic Nights and have found some more C93 T-shirts as well as several tour posters and a few more badges. We’ve posted them for sale here: http://current93.bandcamp.com/. Prices reflect age and rarity. We think this is it, but other bits and pieces may surface.
William Basinski: ‘The Disintegration Loops’ with notes by David Tibet
I was honoured to be asked by my dear friend William Basinski to write some notes for the sumptuous and gorgeous 9LP/5CD/DVD/book reissue of his perfect The Disintegration Loops on the Temporary Residence label. William has also written extensive notes, as has Antony Hegarty. This set has to be seen to be believed. It is staggeringly beautiful.
http://shop.temporaryresidence.com/trr194
David Hall’s ‘Beelzebub and the Beast’ with a reminiscence by David Tibet
My friend David Hall went to Æon in 2007. A scholar, a writer, a student, a master. I originally got to know him when I first moved to London in 1981; he was one of the editors of the legendary Thelemite journal SOTHiS. His masterful study of Crowley and Gurdjieff, Beelzebub and the Beast, has just been published by Starfire Publishing, and I was asked by Michael Staley, who runs the press, to contribute a reminiscence of David. There is a standard edition and a special edition. For a brief synopsis, and to purchase the book, go here. There are more details, including a list of contributors, here.
Tony Clark: ‘Myriorama’ with an appreciation by David Tibet and Geoff Cox
I have loved Tony Clark’s work since being introduced to it some years ago by Geoff Cox and Nick Cave. Tony asked me to write an appreciation of his paintings for Myriorama, a major new monograph recording 28 years of Sections from his Myriorama paintings, published by Murray White Room. The deluxe cloth-bound edition includes over 100 colour plates and also includes texts by Geoff Cox, Robyn McKenzie, Jarrod Rawlins and Murray White. For more information, visit www.murraywhiteroom.com or email@murraywhiteroom.com.
Italian translation of stories by Robert Aickman with introduction by David Tibet
My essay Robert Aickman: An Appreciation, originally published in Volume One of the Durtro Press/Tartarus Press edition of Collected Strange Stories by Robert Aickman has been translated into Italian, and used as the introduction to Sentieri Oscuri, a recent 416-page book of haunting and beautiful stories by Aickman. It can be bought here and here.
Little Annie and Baby Dee play Berlin, 16 October
Two of my UtterHeroines play Berlin on Tuesday 16 October: go Go GO! Facebook page.
Another classic from Teitan Press: Brother XII
One of my favourite presses has just published a wonderful book, Foundation Letters and Teachings, on the self-styled “Messenger of the Masters”, Brother XII (Edward Arthur Wilson). I highly recommend this beautiful and fascinating volume! Below follows their press release.
Foundation Letters and Teachings by Brother XII (Edward Arthur Wilson). With a Foreword by John Oliphant. The Teitan Press, York Beach, Maine, USA: 2012. Hardcover. Octavo (9 x 6 inches, approx. 23.5 x 15.2cm), xxxii + 168 pp. Fine navy blue cloth binding, with gilt titling etc. to the spine, gilt seal to upper board, printed on acid free paper. Black and white photo-portrait. Edition limited to 500 numbered copies. Retail: $39.50.
Foundation Letters and Teachings is the principle published work of Edward Arthur Wilson (1878–1934), the English occultist more widely known as Brother XII. As the self-proclaimed "Messenger of the Masters" and successor to Madame Blavatsky, Wilson founded the Aquarian Foundation, an organization which attracted thousands of followers in the latter part of the 1920s and early 1930s, a number of whom moved to the headquarters of his alternative community on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
Though his rise to prominence was spectacular, Brother XII's fall from grace was equally rapid, and the Aquarian Foundation fell apart amidst a series of sensational court cases featuring charges of financial misconduct and allegations of free love. Despite the breakup of his original colony, Brother XII continued his occult work on a group of nearby islands in the Strait of Georgia, where he and his mistress, a sinister practitioner of ritual magic named Madame Z, subjected his disciples to the most extreme physical hardships, ostensibly for the purpose of furthering their spiritual development. This so-called City of Refuge collapsed in 1932 when a group of disciples revolted against the mistreatment and subsequently brought legal actions against their former leader for the return of the monies they had contributed to him. In the aftermath, Brother XII and his paramour wrecked the settlement and fled with a fortune in gold, leaving a legacy of bitterness and broken dreams, and a legend that endures to this day.
Brother XII was regarded by his adherents as a mystic and a magus, a man with genuine spiritual and occult gifts. In one celebrated incident, he is said to have reduced court proceedings to a shambles when he used his "powers" to paralyze the chief witness against him and to disable the opposing attorney, even toppling a row of spectators in the gallery. A complex, contradictory individual, Brother XII tested his disciples to the limit, though his increasingly irrational behavior led many to believe that he had succumbed to the perils that beset the path of Initiation.
Originally published in 1927, Foundation Letters and Teachings is a collection of Brother XII's writings, including eighteen early letters, seven articles that lay out the fundamentals of his Teachings, and five periodical articles, four of which appeared in The Occult Review in 1926, and generated enormous comment and controversy. Though the book was primarily intended for a Theosophical audience, its contents have a broader reach, and present Brother XII as a legitimate and determined spiritual teacher. This Teitan Press edition of Foundation Letters and Teachings is the first reprint of this rare work and includes the full text of the first edition, corrected and reset, together with a comprehensive Foreword by John Oliphant, Brother XII's biographer and the foremost authority on his life.
Florian-Ayala Fauna: new work
I am a great admirer of Florian-Ayala Fauna’s work and I wanted to share some news on their recent activities. Truly beautiful. Below is a press release from them:
Florian-Ayala Fauna is an artist, musician, and androgyne based in the United States. Their work aims to explore the relationship between light and dark, past and present, humanity and nature, despair and beauty, and other dichotomies often questioned by many. Working with a personal vocabulary of symbols involving nature and wildlife, their use of the representation of animals works as a reflection of humanity’s struggles with primal fear, pain, survival, and as a memento mori of the fragile and temporary nature of existence.
Florian’s most recent album Æther: Musick for Moths is the final album in a trilogy of releases on fragile animals and solace and is an elegy-like piece which tells the narrative of the rise and fall of a newly transformed moth over the course of a single night. Recorded over the span of six-months, the album combines the sounds of insects and other animals, soundscapes, acoustic instruments, and noises relating to the element of ær.
http://florian-ayala-fauna.com/home.html