(Pagan) Music Mondays: Monica Richards and The Moon and The Nightspirit

July 11, 2011 By Jason Pitzl-Waters 10 Comments

Welcome to (Pagan) Music Mondays, a new semi-regular feature here at The Wild Hunt! As many of you may know, I’m a lover of music, and have spent many years exploring albums and artists that appeal to the Pagan spirit. I’d like to expose you to new releases by Pagan artists, and also to bands that explore lyrical themes relevant to our worldviews. This week I’d like to look at Monica Richard’s new EP “The Strange Familiar” and “Mohalepte,” the new album by The Moon and the Nightspirit.

Just about everyone who’s traveled the overlaps between modern Paganism and the Goth subculture have heard of Monica Richards, and it would be fair to say that a large number of those individuals are fans of her work. One half of the classic darkwave duo Faith and The Muse, a band which won over many Pagan hearts with deep lyrical explorations of myth and mysticism, they tackled everything from Celtic mythology to songs from “The Wicker Man.” In 2007 Monica Richards began her own solo musical project. Entitled “InfraWarrior,” it went even deeper into themes like pantheism, Gaia, myth cycles, women as goddesses, and as warriors. It’s a triumph of an album, and quickly became one of my favorites, so I was very excited when I heard that Monica Richards would be releasing a new album, “Naiades,” scheduled for this Fall. To whet our appetites for the new album, she has created a teaser EP, “The Strange Familiar,” featuring four new songs and a dance remix of a song from her previous solo album.

This new EP showcases a sonic shift from her first solo outing. This is partly due to the participation of Steven James and Marzia Rangel from the art-rock/deathrock band Christ vs. Warhol, and partly due to a hinted-at dramatic life shift. That’s not to say there isn’t plenty of myth and spiritual exploration to be found here, “The Mighty” is a seven-minute dramatic piece that implores the listener to “believe in me, and I’ll take you with me.” In addition, we get a beautiful impromptu live voice and violin piece recorded in a cave with former Changelings violinist Paul Mercer. Fans of Richards’ work with Faith and The Muse should be in pleasingly familiar territory here, while those accustomed to the more tribal sound of her first solo album should find plenty to enjoy as well.

“The Strange Familiar” admirably does the job of whetting the listener’s appetite for the new album, while existing as a satisfying short work that stands on its own. You can order “The Strange Familiar” from Monica Richard’s website, or you can purchase a digital download from Amazon or CD Baby. You may also want to check out some live footage from her recent solo performance at the 2011 Wave Gotik Treffen festival in Germany.

Another band who performed at Wave Gotik Treffen this year was the Hungarian Pagan band The Moon and The Nightspirit. Their new album, “Mohalepte,” is yet another strong entry from Agnes Toth and Mihaly Szabo, who have carved out a place for themselves in Europe’s Pagan-folk scene, joining increasingly well-known names like Faun and Omnia. Since 2005′s “Of Dreams Forgotten and Fables Untold” the band have delved ever deeper into their own language and culture, inviting listeners into “the moss-grown heart of the forest, into the emerald world of ageless, sylvan realms.” They’ve dubbed their evolving sound as “ethereal sylvan music,” an aesthetic you can hear on songs like the title track:

Their latest album also marks the band striking out on their own, amicably leaving longtime label Equilibrium Music. “Mohalepte” can, for now, only be ordered directly from the band’s website. Though you can easily download their first three albums: “Of Dreams Forgotten and Fables Untold”,  “Regõ Rejtem”, and “Osforras” from places like Amazon. The Moon and the Nightspirit is a band filled with a magical, rustic energy, as evidenced by their live performances, part of a strong Pagan musical culture in Europe that has been nurtured by a vibrant festival scene. It makes me envious of what could be here in our own festival culture. There are hints of it in events like Faerieworlds, but we’re a long way from being able to support a Castlefest, let alone several similar happenings. Still, I’m optimistic, and while I can’t afford to experience the European Pagan folk scene first-hand, I can experience excellent albums like “Mohalepte.”

That’s it for this week’s (Pagan) Music Mondays! I hope you enjoyed it. I haven’t quite decided what I’ll cover next week, but I’m sure it’ll satisfy your Pagan music longings.

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(Pagan) Music Mondays: Atrium Animae and Seventh Harmonic

July 4, 2011 By Jason Pitzl-Waters 12 Comments

Welcome to (Pagan) Music Mondays, a new semi-regular feature here at The Wild Hunt! As many of you may know, I’m a lover of music, and have spent many years exploring albums and artists that appeal to the Pagan spirit. I’d like to expose you to new releases by Pagan artists, and also to bands that explore lyrical themes relevant to our worldviews. This week I’d like to look at two recently released albums that honor the musical legacy of Dead Can Dance: “Dies Irae” by Atrium Animae and “Garden of Dilmun” by Seventh Harmonic.

The pervasive and enduring influence of Dead Can Dance can’t be overstated. Formed in 1981, the duo of Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry created a body of work that has literally shaped genres and created a musical touchstone that is still inspiring new bands to form. Outside of their ardent fanbase, few may recognize how important Dead Can Dance are, or how deep their influence has been. In the United States, Lisa Gerrard is probably more famous as the genesis of “exotic-sounding, ululating female singers” found in so many epic films these days than anything else. Yet their sound, which has ranged from stark minimalist post-punk to vibrant world fusion, has launched a thousand bands. They are the Velvet Underground of Neoclassical Darkwave. This year two bands, Atrium Animae and Seventh Harmonic, have released new albums that spring from their influence and legacy.

The Italian band Atrium Animae was formed in 2007, their name is “considered as a symbolic representation of the passage from physical world toward an immaterial world.” The heavenly soprano of Alessia Cicala, a member of the band Chirleison, partnered with the compositions of Massimiliano Picconi, together create music on their debut “Dies Irae” that is stately in its atmosphere, a sacred enveloping that is almost funerial in outlook. Or as the band’s promotional material puts it: “A symbolic voyage in a silent wasteland made of treachery, defeat and spiritual hunger. A world where the locked embrace of loss and despair are represented through a reinterpretation of passages taken from religious and pagan texts.”

While Atrium Animae is a new band, Seventh Harmonic formed back in 1999. But seeing how it has been eight years since their last full-length release, “Promise of Sacrifice,” and now features a new lead vocalist, Ann-Mari Thim of Arcana, you could convincingly argue that this is a new start for the project that  composer Caroline Jago helped co-found. “Garden of Dilmun” shares a lot of sonic territory with Atrium  Animae, and its hard to not compare the powerful sopranos of Thim and Cicala, but Seventh Harmonic has a different agenda and explores different themes (“the muses, the wheel of the year, and the seasons of the heart”) which help gives the work its own agenda. Of special note is how Jago weaves in a variety of drum sounds, from martial to tribal, in order to give each track a distinctive texture.

Both “Dies Irae” and “Garden of Dilmun” should please any Dead Can Dance fan, taking inspiration from the duo’s body of work, while each make that sound their own. Atrium Animae and Seventh Harmonic  join bands like Rajna, Íon, Ataraxia, and Hexperos in navigating the rich sonic territory first pioneered by Perry and Gerrard. Atrium Animae’s “Dies Irae” can be downloaded from Amazon or iTunes or CD can be ordered from Projekt Records. “Garden of Dilmun” is also available for download at Amazon and iTunes, or a CD can be ordered from Out of Line in Europe or IsoTank in the Untied States.

With all this talk of legacy and influence, I think it should be noted that both of the component parts of Dead Can Dance, Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard, released albums in 2010, with more on the way. In addition, according the Brendan Perry, 2012 will see a new album and tour from the band, their first album of new material since 1996′s “Spiritchaser.”

“I have been talking with Lisa Gerrard this past week with regard to recording a new DCD album this coming winter. We hope to complete the album by the summer of 2012 and then embark on an extensive two month world tour in late 2012. I will be posting updates from time to time with regard to our progress……. and remember….. you heard it here first and yes it is official!”

So if all goes well we’ll be talking about a new Dead Can Dance album this time next year! It should be interesting to see what direction they go in next, and how their new material will ripple outward to the many who’ve taken inspiration from Dead Can Dance’s albums.

That’s it for this week’s (Pagan) Music Mondays! I hope you enjoyed it. Next week I’ll be discussing new material by Monica Richards and Hungary’s The Moon and The Nightspirit.

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(Pagan) Music Mondays: Faun and The Machine in The Garden

June 27, 2011 By Jason Pitzl-Waters 13 Comments

Welcome to (Pagan) Music Mondays, a new semi-regular feature here at The Wild Hunt! As many of you may know, I’m a lover of music, and have spent many years exploring albums and artists that appeal to the Pagan spirit. I’d like to expose you to new releases by Pagan artists, and also to bands that explore lyrical themes relevant to our worldviews. This week for our inaugural edition I’d like to look at two albums that were released this past Friday: Faun’s “Eden” and “Before and After the Storm” by The Machine in The Garden.

German Pagan folk act Faun’s new full-length “Eden,” is the follow-up to 2009’s “Buch der Balladen.” Unlike that album of largely sedate, well, ballads, “Eden” follows more in the footsteps of 2007’s “Totem” or 2005’s “Renaissance,” the album that helped introduce them to the United States. For those of us in the states who were lucky enough to catch them live at Faerieworlds in 2009 and 2010, you’ll find much of the energy and charm in this new work that won over so many new fans.

“Eden” features guest performances from the Mediaeval Baebes and Adam Hurst, among others. They also honor their recent experiences with the Faerieworlds crew by including contributions from storyteller Mark Lewis and illustrator Brian Froud. If you’re a fan of bands like Omnia, Woodland, or Daemonia Nymphe, you’ll probably enjoy this as well. Plenty of rollicking Pagan-inflected folk music to cheer your inner Green Man (or Woman). The album can be purchased digitally from Amazon.com, or a physical copy of the CD can be ordered directly from the band.

The second album I’d like to highlight is from American Darkwave duo The Machine in the Garden. While not a Pagan band, the new album “Before and After the Storm,” their first in six years, uses myth and mysticism as a lyrical anchor throughout the album. “I looked to mythology and mysticism when I was writing the lyrics for these songs. I wanted to think about other cultures and their origin stories as a mirror of returning to many of our musical roots with this work” says singer/lyricist Summer Bowman. Songs like: “Cimmerian,” “In the Vanir,” or “Power and Prophesy” drip with allusions to an ancient folkloric past while marrying them to their dark modern sound.

The opening track, “Cimmerian,” excerpted in a promo video below, is a stunning anthemic tone-poem prayer driven by insistent drums and the layered post-punk guitar work of Roger Fracé. A song that perfectly sets the stage for what’s to come.

“Before and After the Storm,” was well worth the wait, and is available digitally from Bandcamp, CD Baby, and iTunes. A limited edition CD version will be available via mail order from the band’s website.

That’s our first edition of (Pagan) Music Mondays! I hope you enjoyed it. Next week I’ll be discussing the musical legacy of Dead Can Dance and covering new releases from Atrium Animae and Seventh Harmonic.

Filed Under: Paganism Tagged With: , , , 13 Comments