Welcome to my blog on neofolk, martial and post industrial music. The purpose of this blog is to try and take a scholarly look at these genre, but also combine it with my own musings and observations. I am hoping to take analysis a step further and examine the cultural, artistic and historical contexts the bands in the scene operate from. My hope is to try and legitimize this music from the obscure into something noteworthy.
I have a new article published at Heathen Harvest – a concert report! The other
month, Richard Leviathan of Ostara was in Los Angeles working on his next album
and performance a one man acoustic show. I was there to document the event, and
that is now published here:
However, I want to create an addendum to this concert
report. One of the preceding acts before Richard Leviathan was a local
musician, Caitlin Danenhauer. While I devoted some of the write up to her, I
only got to quote and use some of the responses from her when I was composing
the article. I’d like to publish the other questions and answers I had in
dialog with her to my blog here, so please enjoy this addendum to the Ostara
report with this focus on Danenhauer:
You had mentioned from me you had split from
your prior band and were performing solo right now. Perhaps you can elaborate
on this?
Kybele was my first-ever music
project, and when I was choosing a name I saw her myth as a metaphor for what I
was experiencing inwardly -- the legend that she was abandoned in the woods as
a baby and raised by wild lions was the first of hers that I came across.In the myth she becomes such a powerful
witch that she evolves into an immortal goddess.I find a lot of my own sources of power and inspiration
coming from nature and animals, and for a long time I was exploring my inner
states and creating from the center outward.
With Betty Petty, my new
project, I'm more interested in starting at the surface of things and seeing
how that reflects back at me and the people watching or listening. I'm more
inspired right now by what we can perceive from outward appearances and how
these impressions effect us for better or worse.I think I'll always work on Kybele, but for now I wanted to
take a new direction with my music.I won't actually be performing as Betty Petty solo, ultimately, but as
I've been writing new songs my band is on tour with their other project, The
Cigarette Bums.
Would you like to share
your set list of that performance?
I don't actually remember
everything I played that night, but I would like to share a video I made for
Kybele.I shot it totally by
myself on an iPhone, did all the music except for the bass and some slide
guitar, and edited it, and I feel like it communicates so much about what I was
trying to do with Kybele. YouTube: Kybele "Wheels" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDy6_Mxjx4c
What did you hope to
accomplish with your performance?
It was an unusual show for me
because normally with Kybele I'm pretty committed to connecting with her vibe
-- communion with nature spirits, fortitude, wildness -- but I was also trying
out a lot of new material that was Betty Petty, and that's a whole character
I'm just getting into. It was also the first solo show I've had in a while, so
I was really just trying not to butcher the songs.
I am extremely happy that this year has been one of my most prolific ones in
regards to my writing. I’ve been contributing content to Heathen Harvest (I’ve
had seven reviews and one interview published so far, with many more in the
pipeline), and I’ll soon be working on my next essay for print publication in
an anthology, which may either be on Italian space horror films of the 1960s,
or meteor horror films.
While I am excited for all this writing, it also means my
writing here has been a little more neglected. I’ve been working on some essays
for a long time now, and I’ll confess it’s tough at times. We shall see how I
juggle what I do here, but I’ll definitely keep posting links to my Heathen
Harvest articles here since in the grand scheme of things, it is helping me be
a better scholar and writer about neofolk music.
This entry is on the Changes Ride the Tiger vinyl. After concluding the Changes portion of the
Terra Fria split CD with Andrew King, doing a rather quick essay and review of
this vinyl seemed a proper way to bookend the Changes material. The two tracks
of this vinyl are canonical to the Terra Fria split, so it is the hope that
this document along with the prior essay (which can be found here: http://heiligetod.blogspot.com/2014/09/terra-fria-retrospective-changes.html
) provides the definitive account of these songs. This essay will also shine
more light on the French Autre Que label that released Ride the Tiger. Sincere gratitude goes to both Nicholas Tesluk and
Nathalie of Autre Que for allowing me to interview them for this essay.
Biasness
As with the Terra Fria essay, I will overtly state my
biasness in this essay is due to my long term friendship with Nicholas Tesluk.
I’ll also say this review is coming from the most academic and democratic lens
possible.
Packaging
Ride the Tiger is a
7” picture disc that was released by Autre Que in the Fall of 2013. The A side
displays an original artwork by R. N. Taylor that depicts a tiger inserted
inside a yantra. The B side of the vinyl contains both credits for the record
but also a chronological order of tour dates and locations Changes played at
during their Ride the Tiger tour in 2013.
Changes - Ride the Tiger from my personal collection
Changes Partnership with Autre Que
Though Changes has had a rich past with the Austrian Hau
Ruck! label, who has released a bulk of their albums, Changes also has a great
relationship the French label Autre Que, who not only released the Ride the
Tiger vinyl, but also coordinated the
ambitious Ride the Tiger Tour. Autre Que was born from the ashes of the webzine
Heimdallr and is considered a not-for-profit cultural association per French
law.1
Tesluk reflects on how the partnership between Changes and
Autre Que came to be:
It was truly an interesting evolution.When Changes performed at the Flammenzauber Festival in Heldrungen,
Germany in 2004, a compilation CD was produced of all of the bands that would
be performing.They had also asked
for any material that each of the members may have done outside of their
respective group.Fortunately for
me and my other incarnation with Phase II, Robert Taylor submitted, along with
a side project of his own, tracks from Phase II’s public access radio program
from 1978 to Axel Frank, one of the organizers of Flammenzauber.Thus, two of the early Phase II songs
were used on that compilation.
I received a message from Nathalie
of Autre Que shortly after the CD’s release, inquiring about Phase II and
asking if there was any other material in our published repertoire.This began a life-long friendship
between Nathalie and me, and consequently between Nathalie and Changes.2
Autre Que itself has been around for a few years, having
released Ô Paradis’ El Juengo Negro and
a re-release of Rûna by the legendary
Fire + Ice. These releases have received extremely beautiful treatments under
Autre Que’s own Nathalie’s stewardship, who also coordinates tours of various
bands, such as the Fire + Ice Fractured Europe Tour. The quality behind Autre
Que’s releases and the ability to take on coordinating touring really sets the
label apart from the pack, as is evident in the label’s name proper. Nathalie
elaborates:
Autre Que means
what any reliable dictionary would translate by “other than” or “different
from”. It is also an ancient oral expression from the south of France known
mainly by the elders and used to show one’s emphatic agreement with someone
else’s opinion. Therefore, it happens that I sometimes hear these two words in
the mouth of people who know nothing about my activities. I picked this name
for each and every [one] of these
reasons.3
The beautiful picture discs of Autre Que are a hallmark of quality, but they
are also extremely limited in their production. For instance, Ride the Tiger was limited to 240 copies. Vinyl, as medium of
choice, harkens back to the pre-Autre Que days with Heimdallr:
It is also under the Heimdallr banner that I had my first experience with a
vinyl production through the Europa Aeterna
LP compilation, released in 2006 as a vinyl testimony to the six years of
activity with the webzine.
With hindsight,
they were the necessary and inescapable years of learning in the process that
lead to the last and present actions of Autre Que.4
The roster of Autre Que thus far
includes Changes, Fire + Ice, and Ô Paradis’, and seems as exclusive as their
releases, but Nathalie clarifies this:
It is much easier to do a lot than to do little. Exclusivity is probably a
strong word as Autre Que doesn’t exclude anyone although I certainly don’t
strive to work with the whole scene either or to build up the largest catalogue
possible. Quality is above quantity in my book and I avoid mediocrity like the
plague. The genuine and unique nature of [these] bands and the fact that they
certainly haven’t become a parody of themselves but have improved and
transformed for the better instead is one of the reasons why they feature on
Autre Que.5
Genesis of Ride the Tiger
Much like the Terra Fria split CD, the Ride the Tiger vinyl came about as a unique way to help finance the
Ride the Tiger Tour that Autre Que was coordinating, while at the same time
providing an exclusive release for concert goers. Tesluk elaborates the
practicality of the vinyl:
It was to be a special Autre Que release for Changes and would consequently
be a merchandising highlight and special souvenir or keepsake of the tour,
similar to a one time published program of a theater performance.Surely, it would have also been a great
financial aide, not only for the tour, but to reimburse Autre Que’s
considerable expenses incurred in producing the disc.Even more than the T-Shirt and any of the other items of
merchandise, however, this picture disc truly was a very special item.We sold more at the locations where our
friends/fans were more interested in vinyl than at the places where people
shunned vinyl for CDs, but it is a coveted item and worthy of purchase, even if
never played.6
Tesluk further clarifies the importance of making a vinyl
picture disc:
Our intent was to do a vinyl 7-inch from the start instead of a CD, since we
only had the two songs with which to work as they were very fitting to the
concept of the tour.The original
idea was to make a colored vinyl 7-inch with a picture sleeve.The thought was to use yellow/orange
vinyl with black stripes running through to simulate the tiger of our tour
logo.Then, the idea evolved into
the possibility of a picture disc.I own several 12 inch picture discs and they are very special to me, one
in particular is a picture disc by Sting’s group, The Police, which is cut in
the shape of a policeman’s badge.My thought was that a picture disc would be a very special keepsake
indeed.7
Production of the Vinyl
As with the Terra Fria release, the best laid plans tend to hit snags. The
actual creation of the picture disc ran into a huge critical problem:
Nathalie checked with the fine German company that produces all of Autre
Que’s vinyl and they said they did manufacture picture discs.So I designed the graphics and we were
ready to roll with it.
What the record company didn’t tell
Nathalie was that they, in fact, don’t produce picture discs themselves and
were farming it out to another company in the Czech Republic.This wouldn’t have been a problem, per
se, but due to the chain of communications and processing and shipping delays,
we soon discovered that we would definitely not have the shipment ready for the
start of the Ride the Tiger tour.This devastating news, along with other stress factors at that time was
quite a depressing and disappointing revelation since we were definitely
counting on picture disc sales for the entire tour.
Consequently, we didn’t actually
receive the shipment until we arrived in Austria.We had already performed at the great MJR Festival in
Lithuania, returned to Nice for a few days, traveled to and performed in Genoa,
Italy; Copenhagen, Denmark and did two performances in Germany, all of which
would have been great venues at which to sell the picture discs.If there was one factor that could be
called disappointing for the Ride the Tiger Tour, this was it.8
Ride the Tiger - reverse side
Regardless of the setback, the vinyl saw the light of day
and was available during the tour, with a few copies left over to be sold
online. Though the record pressing proper ran into problems, the design work of
the vinyl was much smoother. Tesluk provides insight into the creative process
of designing the vinyl (along with other Changes works):
As
with most everything I’ve done in life, I’m autodidactic with graphical
software such as Photoshop, Paint, etc.So back in the day of the creation of the Orphan in the Storm album, I quickly
developed my abilities in digital layout while working on the graphics of that
album.I have then done all
of the work on digital text layout and the graphical work of all of our albums
and advertising posters, advertisements and banners ever since.Speaking of which, when the Orphan in the Storm album was
released, as it was our follow-up to the original Fire of Life album which had the
graphics created by Michael Moynihan, he paid me the highest compliment by
saying that my graphic work on the Orphan
album stood as a perfect complement to his work on Fire of Life.
So
basically for the layout of the Ride
the Tiger picture disc, I received the specifications from the pressing
plant and proceeded to fit Robert’s tiger image to the front of the disc.I had
previously taken Robert’s oil painting which was very similar to the final
graphical image and made the edges of the design perfectly symmetrical for the
Ride the Tiger tour use, so that redeveloped image was inserted on the front of
the disc.For the back of the
picture disc, I took only the layer of the outer design of the tiger image and
darkened it so that the typeface would be easily visible on it and then added
the text of all of our tour dates to that.
Nathalie
and I had agreed that it is always very risky to list tour dates as often dates
and venues change after the item has gone to the printer or in this case the
pressing plant, but we were fortunate that there was only one small change. The
date we had listed for us performing at the MJR Festival in Lithuania changed
from August 24, as listed to August 23.But, as I told Nathalie, it wasn’t likely that anybody would use the
picture disc as their reference for any of the concerts of the tour, and as
aforementioned, we didn’t have the disc for the MJR festival anyway.9
The re-mastered version of “Mahabharata of the Soul” that
appears on Ride the Tiger is clearly the
superior of two versions, but both incarnations stand out as seminal Changes
tracks.
Terra Fria version on Youtube
When the Sun Kings Reign Again
“When the Sun Kings Reign Again” is a composition unique
solely to the Ride the Tiger vinyl,
appearing on no other Changes release or compilation.Taylor’s lyrics to “When the Sun Kings Reign Again” can be
found in book two of his Lyrical Ballads chapbook.10
Song from the official Autre Que Youtube channel
As with “Mahabharata of the Soul,” “When the Sun Kings Reign
Again” combines both apocalyptic elements with heroes/legendary figures
elements. The apocalyptic elements are a bit reversed in the song however, as
the lyrics are more optimistic. In this song, the (literal or figurative)
apocalypse has already happened: the arrival of the Kali Yuga, the death of the
West, which dragged the rest of the world with it, or the total takeover of
modernity over traditionalism (take your pick). But the yugas are cyclical and
will restart with the coming of the Satya Yuga, an age ruled by the gods, an in
the case of this song, the Sun Kings, who provide the legendary/heroic
component.
The lyrics of this song are a perfect compliment and
conclusion to “Mahabharata of the Soul,” with Tesluk confirming the sequel
nature of this song. Taylor composed the text while Tesluk composed the music.
Tesluk clarifies this song writing configuration and will make the distinction
more overt on future releases:
So
far in our musical discography, any song that is co-written by Robert and
myself (and in the case of Phase II, between Mark and myself) I am always the
musical composer and each of them has written the lyrics.Starting with the Changes’ Psychonautika album and the Phase II Fleeting Spirits album, I will start
to indicate the lyricist and music composer on all of our co-written songs.11
In regards to the actual musical composition and drawing
inspiration, Tesluk goes into great detail about creating “When the Sun Kings
Reign Again”:
On
“Anthem to Freedom” since the entire song is mine, I could give a synopsis of
the whole creation.With “Sun
Kings” since I just set the lyrics to music, I will mostly tell of my part of
the song.When Robert wrote the
lyrics, they were meant as a sequel to “Mahabharata of the Soul” with
“Mahabharata” being the world’s civilization and culture moving towards the
darkness, and with “Sun Kings” being the return from the maelstrom and the hope
that that triumph entails.
The
lyrics of “Sun Kings” conveyed the jubilance of celebration within me of the
darkness turning to light, new dawn spreading its wings, etc.Thus I wanted it to be set to
celebratory music to capture that feeling.It doesn’t always happen, but when I sat down with the
lyrics and my guitar, the music and chord progressions just flowed out.It’s always a good feeling when it
works that way, because it seems that the song was in my head already, waiting
to burst forth.The first song
that happened with was our iconic and poignant song, “The Saddest Thing,” where
it has been noted that Robert penned the lyrics in a few minutes, and when I
later arrived at his house to rehearse, I vividly remember sitting at the table
with my guitar and immediately composing the music exactly as it has always
been recorded and performed.12
Nathalie also shares sentiments about this track, with it
being her favourite of the two:
“When The Sun Kings
Reign Again” may be my favourite because it was unreleased before and I
perfectly remember the feeling of joy when I played it for the first time. The
guitar melody is absolutely beautiful and the lyrics immediately sounded as a
new Changes anthem to me. This song was certainly an abundant source of energy
and well-being during the months of work that preceded the tour.13
Miscellany: Typeface, Layouts, and the Iconic Changes
Logo
A final curio, a little bit outside the scope of the Ride
the Tiger vinyl, but still of importance, is Tesluk’s role with graphics, being
working with Autre Que on layouts or creating the iconic Changes logo. For
Autre Que, Tesluk had been involved with the layout for Ride the Tiger and Fire + Ice’s Rûna re-release along with other graphical assignments.
Tesluk explains how this particular partnership came to be:
It turned out that when preparing the Fire + Ice vinyl release for Autre
Que, the person with whom Nathalie had worked for the graphics of their
previous releases became unavailable, so Nathalie asked if I could work with
her.I was honored to be asked and
it turned out that Nathalie and I work very well together in the process as we
both seem to have the same vision in everything we undertake.I also worked as a consultant in her Ô
Paradis vinyl release and recently worked with her on all of the advertising
and graphics for the Fire + Ice/Knotwork Fractured Europe Tour.It is a pleasure and refreshing to work
with someone who has a similar strive for perfection.We can each be honest with each other offering suggestions
to change and improve the design we’ve started with, without offending each
other as it is all part of trying to get everything perfectly the way we each
envisioned.14
Fire + Ice - Runa (from my personal collection)
Nathalie compliments Tesluk’s
contributions to Autre Que:
Nicholas is a close and long time friend. To ask him if he would be willing
to get involved in the layout of the vinyls came naturally and our
collaboration started with the Rûna LP. He is intelligent, perfectionist,
skilled and capable to cope with my requirements: all the qualities I look for
in people I work with. It is always a joy and a pleasure for me to work with Nicholas
whatever the project.15
Tesluk’s interest in creating
typography spans back to the 1960s when Changes was in its infancy:
It all started back
in the mid-sixties when Robert and I started teaming up on posters that we
planned to publish.The first one
we did together had Robert’s illustration of a pen and ink portrait of Henry
David Thoreau behind bars for tax evasion and a quote below, faulting his
friend, Emerson, for neutrality in light of the present oppression.That was the first time that I realized
that I had a real knack for shaping and spacing of letters in calligraphic form.Again, autodidactic in calligraphy of
all forms, but I did study a lot about the art in various books.As with everything at which I’m
self-taught, though I don’t have formal education on the subjects, I can’t say
that I learn everything by trial-and-error, since I do usually have several
reference books that I’ve learned from and use when I hit a roadblock.16
Changes logo from their official website
The Changes logo
has been on every Changes album, and can also be found on shirts, merchandise,
promotional material, and so on. Along with the colour purple, it’s an iconic
and important component to the duo. Its genesis needs to be highlighted:
Much of what I’d done previously was based on traditional typestyles, both
serif (like Times or Palatino) or a san-serif (like Arial or Helvetica)
lettering.When Robert and I
decided on the name of the group, Changes, in 1969, I wanted to create a logo
that would depict the feeling of what “Changes” meant.In the original idea, my thought was to
have a caterpillar entering on the left side of the logo and a butterfly
emerging from the right.Unfortunately,
a caterpillar done in line drawing looks a bit too much like an earthworm, so
that part of the idea was abandoned.However, I think, early on we did have a butterfly that Robert had
created emerging from the right side.
Anyway,
part of what I was trying to create with the logo style itself was a
free-formed organic (though I don’t think the word “organic” was used as
ubiquitously as it is today) typestyle.Something that is not quite as obvious with the Changes logo itself, but
since I have inked all of the titles of our albums in what we’ve come to know
as the “Changes Lettering Style”, it becomes more apparent that depending on
the position of letters in the title affects how that letter is formed along
with the adjacent letters, some growing around the letter or some merging with
the letter.As Robert has said, it
would be difficult to put the Changes Typestyle into a fixed reference
alphabet, since there might be six different styles of say the letter “E”
depending on where it falls within a word.
Though
I create all of our album graphics digitally now, I still hand sketch the
Changes style titles on paper, scan them in to the computer and then digitally
fill them in and color them according to the artwork used for the album covers.
Not that it isn’t possible to do
it digitally using a Wacom device, but I just feel more comfortable creating
and sketching the flow of the characters on paper.17
1.Nathalie, email message to Nicholas Diak, February 2015, 22.
2.Nicholas Tesluk, email message to Nicholas Diak, August 2014,
3.
3.Nathalie, email.
4.Ibid.
5.Ibid.
6.Tesluk, email.
7.Ibid.
8.Ibid.
9.Ibid.
10.Robert Taylor,
“When the Sun Kings Reign Again,” in The Lyrical Ballads of R.N. Taylor Book
Two (West Union, WV: The Red Salon, 2014),
46.
The honour to interview Lisa is extremely important to me. Porta Vittoria is one of my favourite bands, so this is an extremely important interview for me. I hope everyone considers reading it here:
