Durtro news:
24 July 2007
CANCELLED Current 93 September 2007 concert in Florence/Firenze CANCELLED
We are very sorry to say that we have had to CANCEL the 8 September 2007 C93 show which was to have taken place in Florence/Firenze at the Ippodromo Delle Mulina Alle Cascine. We are now working on dates for 2008 to coincide with the release of the forthcoming C93 album.
Dark Entries: Flemish/Dutch language Steven Stapleton intervie, biography and discography and review of the Ghent NWW concert
www.darkentries.be/index.php?nav=interviews&zoekID=95
www.darkentries.be/index.php?nav=concerts&zoekID=68
David Tibet appears live with Larsen in Belgium, 14 September 2007
14/09/2007 @ Happy New Ears Festival voor nieuwe muziek, Kortrijk, Begium
Larsen & friends play ABECEDA (Larsen with Baby Dee, David Tibet, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Julia Kent, Snejanka Mihaylova)
with
Blind Cave Salamander (Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo and Paul Beauchamp with Julia Kent and Marco Milanesio) and Jóhann Jóhannsson
www.happynewears.be
www.myspace.com/happynewears
Release of live Larsen CD/DVD featuring David Tibet
Important Records are releasing a CD/DVD of Larsen's collaboration with Tibet, Baby Dee, Julia Kent and many others. The press release from Important/Larsen follows:
Larsen & Friends ABECEDA (CD+DVD, Important Records, IMPREC 129)
Release date: 7 August 2007
Baby Dee: harp, piano
David Michael Tibet: vocals
Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo: guitar, electric viola
Jóhann Jóhannsson: electric organ, laptop
Julia Kent: cello
Marco "il Bue" Schiavo: drums, glockenspiel
Paolo Dellapiana: electronics, accordion, shruti-box, theremin
Roberto Maria Clemente: guitar
Snejanka Mihaylova: performance
This CD+DVD set captures an extremely special evening for Larsen; one that places them in a perfect visual and musical perspective, revealing more than a little about this enigmatic quartet from Torino, Italy.
For one night only, Larsen assembled their closest musical friends to play to a sold-out crowd at the Teatro Colosseo in Torino. The purpose of the performance was to pay tribute to the work of Czech avant-garde designer, typographer, founder of Devestil, and cultural radical Karel Teige and his Abeceda, a 1926 collaboration with poet Vitoslav Nezva that minimalized text down to its basic components, establishing a poetic dialogue between text and images.
Larsen brings minimalist beauty and melody with a live performance incorporating music, dance, and projections. Joining the group are friends David Tibet (Current 93), Baby Dee (Current 93), Julia Kent (Antony and the Johnsons and long time Larsen collaborator) and Jòhann Jòhannsson (Touch/4AD). The music swells in gentle pulses of softly stated melody, and emotion clings to each note while glistening shimmers of electronics dance quietly in the mix.
The DVD reminds us of what a rich visual experience Abeceda was, and still is. As The Wire so perfectly put it, David Tibet's performance "provides a vital link between the music and the visuals." Thanks to Larsen's definitive discipline and kindred visual & musical collaborators, Abeceda is an event of great subtlety and complexity. It is truly a gift that this performance was so perfectly documented in both an audio and visual format. Where the work of Karel Teige was a tremendous gift for the eyes, Larsen & Friend's Abeceda is a gift for both the eyes and the ears.
"While Larsen themselves sit impassively as their compositions unfurl it's clear that their onstage collaborators are strongly affected by the richly emotional music emerging, with their own contributions seeming to articulate its latent drama and passion. A fascinating and frequently beautiful event."-The Wire.
www.larsen.to.it
www.importantrecords.com
'All Shall Be Well' by Tod Wodicka: a remarkable novel I recommend absolutely
'All Shall Be Well, and All Shall Be Well and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well' by Tod Wodicka.
I was recently sent this novel, and I loved it so much that I wanted to recommend it to everyone.
It is difficult to summarise, as it takes in so many areas--including St. Hildegard of Bingen. But it is funny, tragic, profound and beautiful. People familiar with C93's 'Thunder Perfect Mind' will perhaps recognise the title of the book, which comes from the mediæval mystical Christian treatise by St. Julian of Norwich, 'Revelations of Divine Love'. I have read this book twice in two weeks--please obtain it!
It is out now in paperback in the UK published by Jonathan Cape, as well as in the Netherlands, translated into Dutch, published by Nieuw Amsterdam. It will be published in hardcover in the USA on January 29th, 2008 in the US by Pantheon Books.
Tod Wodicka's MySpace, in the persona of his creation Burt Heckler, the fictional narrator of the novel, is at:
www.myspace.com/burthecker
Some other forms of happiness recently
Thank you to, alphabetically, MARC ALMOND, PETER ATANASOFF, OM, RICKIE LEE JONES and SUNN O))), all of whose beautiful concerts I recently attended in London. I also greatly enjoyed the autobiography of an ex-member of Korn, "Save Me From Myself" by Brian "Head" Korn.
I find myself meeting more people from my past as I get older. Someone I re-encountered recently, thanks to David Cotner, was one of the first friends I made in London, Scarlett Cannon, who was married to Ross Cannon.
Scarlett worked in fashion, but was primarily renowned for running nightclubs and being a London icon. Her face was often on the front of ID magazine, and she appeared in many Culture Club videos, as well as working with Andrew Logan on the Alternative Miss World show.
Ross worked at Produktion Hair in London, with Paul Hurst and Christine Glover. Their salon, which had been named by Scarlett, was a remarkable avant-garde hairdressers in London's Kensington Market, where one could buy Whitehouse records. I credited Produktion with being responsible for the haircuts for C93 on NATURE UNVEILED, though of course there were neither photos of the group nor their hair visible on the album sleeve.
I moved in with Scarlett and Ross to their squat in Earl's Court, where the previous tenant had committed suicide by burning herself alive, after scrawling "DED WOMAN DED WOMAN DED WOMAN DED" on the walls in lipstick. My mattress was over the hole the unfortunate woman had created with the flames of her self-immolation. The flat was haunted.
Forwarding 23 years to last week, I again met Scarlett, as beautiful and fascinating as ever. She is now a highly qualified and highly experienced Reiki practitioner.
We spoke for a long time about what we had done and where we had been and what we had become. She is a remarkable woman, and a profound soul. So I write of her to whoever reads this, and talk to myself of how shared pasts are always shared futures. Her MySpace is
www.myspace.com/houseofheavenlyhealing.
Thank you and peace to all,
David +++
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