Saturday, December 31, 2011

Yuriy Borisovich Norshteyn (Ю́рий Бори́сович Норште́йн)


Yuriy Borisovich Norshteyn  (Russian: Ю́рий Бори́сович Норште́йн), or Yuri Norstein (born September 15, 1941) is an award-winning Soviet and Russian animator best known for his animated shorts, Hedgehog in the Fog and Tale of Tales. Since 1981 he has been working on a feature film called The Overcoat, based on the short story by Nikolai Gogol of the same name.


Yuriy Norshteyn was born to a Jewish family in the village of Andreyevka, Penza Oblast, during his parents' World War II evacuation. He grew up in the Maryina Roshcha suburb of Moscow. After studying at an art school, Norshteyn initially found work at a furniture factory. Then he finished a two-year animation course and found employment at studio Soyuzmultfilm in 1961. The first film that he participated in as an animator was Who Said "Meow"? (1962).
After working as an animation artist in some fifty films, Norshteyn got the chance to direct his own. In 1968 he debuted with 25th October, the First Day, sharing directorial credit with Arkadiy Tyurin. The film used the artwork of 1920s-era Soviet artists Nathan Altman and Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin.
The next film in which he had a major role was The Battle of Kerzhenets (1971), a co-production with Russian animation director Ivan Ivanov-Vano under whose direction Norshteyn had earlier worked on 1969's Times of the Year.
Throughout the 1970s Norshteyn continued to work as an animator in many films (a more complete list can be found at IMDB), and also directed several. As the decade progressed his animation style became ever more sophisticated, looking less like flat cut-outs and more like smoothly-moving paintings or sophisticated pencil sketches.
Norshteyn uses a special technique in his animation, involving multiple glass planes to give his animation a three-dimensional look. The camera is placed at the top looking down on a series of glass planes about a meter deep (one every 25–30 cm). The individual glass planes can move horizontally as well as toward and away from the camera (to give the effect of a character moving closer or further away).
For many years he has collaborated with his wife, the artist Franchesca Yarbusova, and the cinematographer Aleksandr Zhukovskiy.
Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, Norshteyn's animations were showered with both state and international awards. Then, in a bitter twist of irony, he was fired from Soyuzmultfilm in 1985 for working too slowly on his latest film, a (presumably) feature-length adaptation of Gogol's Overcoat. By that time he had been working on it with his usual small team of three people for two years and had finished ten minutes.
In April 1993, Norshteyn and three other leading animators (Fyodor Khitruk, Andrey Khrzhanovsky, and Edward Nazarov) founded the Animation School and Studio (SHAR Studio) in Russia. The Russian Cinema Committee is among the share-holders of the studio.
To this day, Norshteyn is still working on The Overcoat—his ardent perfectionism has earned him the nickname "The Golden Snail". The project has met numerous financial troubles and false starts, but Norshteyn has said that it currently has reliable funding from several sources, both from within and outside of Russia. At least 25 minutes have been completed to date. A couple of short, low-resolution clips have been made available to the public:  and . The first 20 minutes of the film have also toured among various exhibits of Norshteyn's work in Russian museums. The full film is expected to be 65 minutes long.
Norshteyn wrote an essay for a book by Giannalberto Bendazzi about the pinscreen animator Alexandre Alexeïeff titled Alexeieff — Itinerary of a Master.
In 2005, he released a Russian-language book titled Snow on the Grass. Fragments of a Book. Lectures about the Art of Animation, featuring a number of lectures that he gave about the art of animation. That same year, he was invited as "guest animator" to work on Kihachiro Kawamoto's puppet-animated feature film, The Book of the Dead.
On August 10, 2008, the full version of the book Snow on the Grass was released (the "incomplete" 2005 book was 248-pages). The book, which was printed in the Czech Republic and funded by Sberbank, consists of two tomes, 620 pages and 1700 color illustrations. The studio stopped working on The Overcoat for nearly a year while Norshteyn worked to release the book.

 

 Filmography

  • 25th October, the First Day (25-е — первый день, 1968), in collaboration with Arkadiy Tyurin.
  • The Battle of Kerzhenets (Сеча при Керженце, 1971), in collaboration with Ivan Ivanov-Vano.
  • The Fox and the Hare (Лиса и заяц, 1973).
  • The Heron and the Crane (Цапля и журавль, 1974).
  • Hedgehog in the Fog (Ёжик в тумане, 1975).
  • Tale of Tales (Сказка сказок, 1979).
  • Participated in Winter Days (冬の日, 2003).
  • The Overcoat (Шинель, still in production)

 Awards and praise

  • 1971—Karlovy Vary International Film Festival: The Battle of Kerzhenets named Best Animated Film
  • 1972—Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films: Grand Prize for The Battle of Kerzhenets (shared with Ivan Ivanov-Vano)
  • 1972—Tbilissi: The Battle of Kerzhenets named Best Animated Film
  • 1972—Bombay Film Festival: "Diplom" for The Battle of Kerzhenets
  • 1975—Annecy International Animated Film Festival: Special Jury Prize for Heron and Crane
  • 1975—New York (U.S.): First Prize for Heron and Crane
  • 1976—Frunze All-Union Film Festival: Hedgehog in the Fog "best animated film"
  • 1976—Teheran Children's and Youth Film Festival: Hedgehog in the Fog "best animated film"
  • 1977—Odense (Denmark): Grand Prize for Heron and Crane
  • 1979—USSR State Prize for Tale of Tales (awarded just prior to its release to Norshteyn, Yarbusova, and Zhukovsky)
  • 1980—Lille (France) International Festival of Films Jury Grand Prize for Tale of Tales
  • 1980—Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films: Grand Prize for Tale of Tales
  • 1980—Ottawa International Animation Festival (Canada): Best Film Longer Than Three Minutes Award for Tale of Tales
  • 1984—Los Angeles Olympic Arts Festival: Tale of Tales voted by large international jury to be the greatest animated film of all time
  • 1991—Annie Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Art of Animation
  • 1995—Russian Independent Triumph Award (acknowledging 'the highest achievements in art and literature')
  • 1996—People's Artist of Russia
  • 1996—1st Open Russian Festival of Animated Film, Breakthrough Prize for Russian Sugar (commercial)
  • 2002—Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films: Tale of Tales again voted by large international jury to be the greatest animated film of all time
  • 2004—Japanese Order of the Rising Sun
Hayao Miyazaki considers Yuriy Norshteyn "a great artist" and cited Hedgehog in the Fog as one of his favourite animated films.
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download some Yuri's animations here
download Skazka Skazok (Tale of Tales) here
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Monday, November 28, 2011

Machinarium (pc game + OST)


Machinarium is a puzzle point-and-click adventure game developed by Amanita Design. It was released on October 16, 2009 for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, on September 8, 2011 for iPad 2 on App Store (iOS) and on November 21, 2011 for BlackBerry PlayBook. Demos were made available on September 30, 2009. It was also being scheduled for a future release for the Nintendo Wii's WiiWare service, but as of November 2011, it has been cancelled due to WiiWare's 40MB limit. In March 2011, Amanita Design announced that Machinarium will be headed to PlayStation 3's PSN. Amanita Design are also preparing a port for Android.

The goal of Machinarium is to solve a series of puzzles and brain teasers. The puzzles are linked together by an overworld consisting of a traditional "point and click" adventure story. The overworld's most radical departure is that only objects within the player character's reach can be clicked on.
Machinarium is notable in that it contains no dialogue, spoken or written, and apart from a few tutorial prompts on the first screen, is devoid of understandable language entirely. The game instead uses a system of animated thought bubbles. Easter egg back story scenes in the same format can only be revealed by idling in certain areas.
The game employs a two-tier hint system. Once per level, the player can receive a hint, which becomes increasingly vague as the game progresses. Machinarium also comes with a walkthrough, that can be accessed at any time by playing a minigame. As with dialogue, the walkthrough is not in written or spoken form, but instead a series of sketches describing the puzzle at hand and its solution. However, the walkthrough only reveals what must be done in that area, and not how that puzzle relates to the game chronology.
 Machinarium opens with an overview of the eponymous city as a disposal flier launches from its highest tower. The player character, a robot called Josef (named after Josef Čapek, the creator of the word "robot" and brother to Karel Čapek) is dumped on a scrapheap, where he re-assembles himself and sets off for the city. Entering the city, he discovers a plot by the Black Cap Brotherhood, his three thuggish antagonists, to blow up the city's tower. Unfortunately, he is himself discovered and locked up. After breaking out of prison, Josef aids the citizens of the city, as he discovers the mischief which the Brotherhood has been working. Shortly after flooding the bad guys' room (leaving them helpless), Josef locates his girlfriend, who has been locked up and forced to cook. Unable to free her, he works his way to the top of the tower. He foils the Black Cap Brotherhood's plot by disarming the bomb taped to the tower. After preventing destruction, Josef climbs to the top of the tower where he finds the room where the story began. A huge-headed robot sits in the middle of the room, incapacitated and gibbering. Josef recalls how the three of them lived happily until the Black Cap Brotherhood zapped this friend, leaving him disabled, and kidnapped the girl. When a garbage sucker arrived to dispose of the Black cap thug, it gets Josef instead. After this revelation, Josef restores his friend to sanity, dumps the Brotherhood down a drain, and frees his girlfriend. The two of them climb back to the tower, wave goodbye to their friend, and fly off into the sunset. In the final closing scene, their vehicle suffers a collision and falls, and they are seen being carried away separately by two fliers.

System requirements
OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7 / Mac OS X v10.4 / Linux
CPU: 1.8 GHz
RAM: 1 GB
HD: 380 MB
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download the game here
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download the soundtrack here

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Igor Wakhévitch (full discography)


Igor Wakhévitch (born May 12, 1948, Provence, France), son of the art director Georges Wakhévitch, is an avant-garde French composer who released a series of studio albums in the 1970s and composed the music for the Salvador Dalí opera Être Dieu. He was a contemporary of similar avant-garde electronic composers, such as Pierre Henry, who was also born and based in Paris.
Although Wakhévitch is a relatively unknown composer, he gained a small cult following in the late 1990s after praise circulated by Nurse with Wound (on the list of influences in their first album, from 1979), Michael Gira of Swans and a review of one of his studio albums by Dominique Leone for a feature entitled "It Was the Strangest Record I Had Ever Heard" on Pitchfork Media.
From the age of eight, Wakhévitch learned to play piano under the tutelage of Louise Clavius-Marius and Lucette Descaves. Between the ages of 12 to 17, he studied at the Conservatoire de Paris. During this time, he was auditioned by Herbert von Karajan for a concert at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and in 1965 he won the Jury's First Prize for Piano by a unanimous vote. In 1967, studying under Olivier Messiaen, Wakhévitch won the first prize in Musical Analysis. In 1968, he worked for the GRM in the Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française, under the direction of Pierre Schaeffer.
Wakhévitch was a part of the 1960s atmosphere of musical integration and boundary crossing. He was friends with Maurice Béjart, who encouraged him to compose for contemporary dance companies, and studied with Pierre Schaeffer; while his second album, Doctor Faust, was dedicated to his friends Robert Wyatt and Mike Ratledge of rock group The Soft Machine. At the beginning of the 1970s, Wakhevitch became friends and studied with minimalist musician Terry Riley, producing Riley's soundtrack album Happy Ending in 1972. Through Riley, Wakhevitch discovered the ragas of Pandit Pran Nath.
In 1974, Salvador Dalí asked him to compose music to accompany his 'opera-poem in six parts' entitled "To Be God". The album was recorded in the Studios of EMI in Boulogne, performed by various speakers and singers, an orchestra, and a rock band which featured the actors Raymond Gérôme, Delphine Seyrig, Catherine Allegret, Alain Cuny and Didier Haudepin; and musicians Michel Ripoche on violin, Didier Batard on bass and François Auger on drums. Wakhevitch visited India in 1973, and moved to Auroville in South India in 1980. In 1991, he met the Dalai Lama in the Théâtre Renault-Barrault in Paris at a performance by the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts.
In 1998, the 6-CD box set Donc was released on Fractal Records to mark Wakhevitch's 50th birthday. It incorporated his first six albums: Logos (1970), Docteur Faust (1971), Hathor (1973), Les Fous d'Or (1975), Nagual (1977), and Let's Start (1979). Only Être Dieu (1974) was omitted, as it received its own 3-CD box set in 1992.

Discography

  • Logos (Rituel Sonore) (1970)
  • Docteur Faust (1971)
  • Hathor (Lithurgie Du Souffle Pour La Résurrection Des Morts) (1973)
  • Être Dieu (1974)
  • Les Fous d'Or (1975)
  • Nagual (Les Ailes De La Perception) (1977)
  • Let's Start (1979)
  • Ahata Anahata (2006)
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Logos (Rituel Sonore) (1970)


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Docteur Faust (1971)

 download
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Hathor (Lithurgie du Souffle Pour la Résurrection des Morts) (1973)

 download
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Les Fous D’Or (1975)

download
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Nagual (Les Ailes de la Perception) (1977)

 download
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Let’s Start (1979)

 download
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 Igor Wakhevitch Salvador Dali - Etre dieu (1974)

 download
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Ahata Anahata (2006)

 Alain Daniélou ‘Ahata Anahata (excerpt)’, 2006, played by Igor Wakhevitch on the Sémantic Daniélou keyboard, a synthesizer created by French musicologist and Indologist Daniélou (1907-1994).

download

I found Ahata Anahata  in a collection Continuumix #5 – Palais Des Hautes Herbes containing also other music projects and field recordings worth listening to..
to see the track list go here

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Limbo (video game)

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Limbo (stylized as LIMBO) is a puzzle-platform video game and the premiere title of independent Danish game developer Playdead. The game was released in July 2010 as a platform exclusive title on Xbox Live Arcade, and was later re-released as part of a retail game pack along with Trials HD and 'Splosion Man in April 2011. Ports of the game to the PlayStation Network and Microsoft Windows via Steam were created by Playdead, released after the year-long Xbox 360 exclusivity period was completed. A Mac OS X version is scheduled for release in December 2011. Limbo is a 2D sidescroller, incorporating a physics system that governs environmental objects and the player character. The player guides an unnamed boy through dangerous environments and traps as the boy searches for his sister. The developer built the game's puzzles expecting the player to fail before finding the correct solution. Playdead called the style of play "trial and death", and used visually gruesome imagery for the boy's deaths to steer the player from unworkable solutions.
The game is presented primarily in monochromatic black-and-white tones, using lighting, film grain effects and minimal ambient sounds to create an eerie atmosphere often associated with the horror genre. Journalists praised the dark presentation, describing the work as comparable to film noir and German Expressionism. Based on its aesthetics, reviewers classified Limbo as an example of "video game as art".
Limbo received positive reviews, but its minimal story polarized critics; some critics found the open-ended work to have deeper meaning that tied well with the game's mechanics, while others believed the lack of significant plot and abrupt ending detracted from the game. A common point of criticism from reviewers was that the high cost of the game relative to its short length might deter players from purchasing the title, but some reviews proposed that Limbo had an ideal length. The title was the third-highest selling game on the Xbox Live Arcade service in 2010, generating around $7.5 million in revenue. The title won several awards from industry groups after its release, and was named as one of the top games for 2010 by several publications.
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The primary character in Limbo is a nameless boy who awakens in the middle of a forest on the "edge of hell" (the game's title is taken from the Latin limbus, meaning "edge").While seeking his missing sister, he encounters only a few human characters, who either attack him, or run away. At one point during his journey, he encounters a female character, who abruptly vanishes before he can reach her.The forest eventually gives way to a crumbling city environment.On completion of the final puzzle, the boy is thrown through a pane of glass and back into the forest. He walks a short distance until he again encounters a girl, who, upon his approach, stands up, startled. At this point, the game abruptly ends.
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download the pc version here
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Sunday, October 16, 2011

Butoh


Butoh (舞踏 Butō?) is the collective name for a diverse range of activities, techniques and motivations for dance, performance, or movement inspired by the Ankoku-Butoh (暗黒舞踏 ankoku butō?) movement. It typically involves playful and grotesque imagery, taboo topics, extreme or absurd environments, and is traditionally performed in white body makeup with slow hyper-controlled motion, with or without an audience. There is no set style, and it may be purely conceptual with no movement at all. Its origins have been attributed to Japanese dance legends Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno.

About butoh dance

First I would like to speak about what kind of training one should pursue, because dance is "a realization of one's dream through the body", one must first know one's body very well. When I say 'the body', I mean a total body that includes all levels – the bio-skeletal body, the spirit, and intuition.

Dance is not movement in itself, but it is greatly related with movement. Therefore, one must know the functions of movements. I often compare the body with a building. The function of the body, like the ones of the building, has

  1. 'strength'
  2. 'flexibility' and on top of them rests
  3. 'balance'

If these three work well together, it becomes movement, and the movement can have a relationship with dance.

Before entering the dance training, we train the body which is the valuable instrument of dance. This training is for flexibility and core strength – using stretching – and power and balance training. These exercises have a single aim – by training the lower-body (the base of our body), we prepare the body so that the upper body can relax.

Now about the dance training. In order to let the body function entirely, I made about five fundamental dances. These are truly fundamental movements that one can encounter in daily life. For example, to walk, to rise up (to stand), to crouch, to roll on the floor, and to turn. These are the first lessons. If one cannot perform well these fundamentals, the shortcomings show during the dance.

Next, let us think of requirements for the movement to become dance. Movement alone does not become dance – the requirement for the dance is that one feeds such things as one's own dreams, memories, and desires into the movement. For this reason, sometimes, not to move (to be in stillness) becomes also dance. I am speaking ahead of myself, but let us say that dance is "a work of making the mental imagination into a concrete picture through the body". We must be able to draw various pictures with our bodies.

The lessons in order to achieve this might be, for example, to dance a story-like subject (for instance, to dance an old pregnant salmon climbing against the rapid), or to dance a sensory subject (to dance the 'sensation of peeling off'), or to dance a material (texture) not limited by movement or form (to dance 'fragrance', to dance 'stagnation'), or to dance an intuition that is impossible to dance to (to dance 'a prostitute named ruin' or 'to fish silence' etc.)

Lastly, it is necessary to to do a training of improvisation. In order to free one's mind and body, improvisation is an absolutely necessary training. However, improvisation is not about doing whatever you want to do, like it is generally understood. Improvisation is a work of precisely choosing actions from moment to moment by preparing as many sensory and perceptive antennae as possible. In a sense, if our antennae grows more numerous as a result of training, an action that might happen by chance comes nearer to necessity (nature).

Now, finally, I would like to speak about two very important points.

1. Firstly, unlike dancers of traditional or classical dance, we are in a sense amateurs. By 'in a sense' means, if we judge from the view point of defined aesthetic models and technical levels. A "professional" dancer will immediately drop out of the framework of these models and levels if he/she misses one day of training – so they cannot dare to miss the training.

Of course, for us also, lessons are valuable – however, because there are no defined measures and levels, in this sense we can stay amateurs. However, if one thinks that one can then dance very easily, it is the contrary. It is incredibly difficult. The reason why it is difficult is because the reason to dance does not exist in technique and levels, but it exists within one's self.

It may be difficult to understand, but I would like to replace the word "self" by the word "concreteness". For example, even if one follows the procedure that we learned somewhere, if it is not something extremely high level, it is not one's own, and one will not win against a high level professional. Also, it is possible to dance to music, but if the rhythm of the dance is not properly good enough, it cannot pass as a performance.

As I just gave the examples, if the learned dance procedure or dancing to music is not crystalized technically, it is only a borrowed dance – it is to say that it is not concrete. Then, what could one do? One is to find within oneself something concrete, something that will not be questioned in terms of technique (victory, defeat, or merits by competition do not exist in our dance) and dance it richly or desperately. This is the meaning to dance or, in other words, to dance one's body. If you are not convinced by this, please verify it by dancing.

2. Now, secondly, there are some people who say that they dance to heal themselves. At the beginning, this is allowable, but if one does it to the end, it is a problem. The reason is, our dance cannot be done alone. It always requires someone looking on, a witness. To put it simply, it is a performance (exchange with audience), and if I may use my favourite words, one needs a resolution to be on show. It means that half is for healing oneself, and the other half for healing and giving joy – and if fortunate, to touch the hearts of – others. If one forgets this, the dance becomes a selfish act that is only to satisfy oneself.

A dance of the content as I described above is not easy to appeal socially to become famous or to make a lot of money. This is because society likes to create frameworks and models, and to create superiority within that framework. Society puts a price on the dance as a commodity.

Therefore, ones who aspire to our kind of dance must have a great resolution and courage to not care at all about not being famous or to be outside of the assessments and competitions.


Invitation to Butoh

Butoh is a form of contemporary dance created in the late 1950's by 土方巽 Tatsumi Hijikata. It is contemporary in the very precise sense of the term, reflecting as it does the necessities and demands of the times.

Butoh charged through Japan's avant-garde scene, fueled by the tremendous power of several dancers, first and foremost Tatsumi Hijikata with his ankoku but

oh. The 1980s saw butoh dancers (including myself) developing and expanding their work not only in Japan but also in Europe, the United States and, indeed, all over the world.

What has made butoh so significant is that not only has it opposed the rigidly prescribed forms often found in both traditional and modern dance but it has also demanded a philosophical uprooting which categorically refutes all modes of ready-made 'culture'. (Here, 'culture' includes not just the performing arts of dance, theatre, mime, music, etc.

but also literature and other categories.) This opposition of prescribed and ready-made culture is sustained not by the the body as a functional object as demanded by society but the body as a living and

changing sculpture fashioned by life itself. We refer to this latter

body as 'nikutai', and it is a body that resounds with the desire for individual life, one which encompasses individual history and experience.

Almost ten years since the death of Tatsumi Hijikata, butoh has entered a new era in Japan and elsewhere. This new era has seen the rise of dancers who, w

hile having been influenced both directly and indirectly by Hijikata's supremely perfected method of butoh, have nevertheless been developing their own individual work and attitudes. For instance, while ankoku butoh can be said to have possessed a very precise method and philosophy handed down from master to apprentice (perhaps it could be called 'inherited' butoh), I regard present-day butoh as a 'tendency' that depends not o

nly on Hijikata's

philosophical legacy but also on the development of new and diverse modes of expression.

The 'tendency' that I speak of involves extracting the pure life which is dormant in our bodies. The result is not butoh as a genre but as the essential element for all expression. In this sense, there is a strong possibility that butoh is ubiquitous, existing not necessarily in every dance that calls itself butoh but in certain other types of dance not bearing th

e butoh label. Indeed, it is an unfortunate fact that certain dancers have been mistakenly banished from the butoh lattice on grounds of not meeting superficial and seemingly random criteria. At this point I should mention that my use of the concept 'pure life' does not indicate beauty, health, homogeneity, etc. Rather, it indicates the entire spectrum of life – not just polar concepts such as beautiful and ugly, good and bad, bright and da

rk and so on.

As ankoku butoh lies outside my realm, I have nothing to teach about butoh as a method. Rather, I specialise in work which is dynamic and changing; it focuses on how to pinpoint and extract life itself from the body. So what is one to do when on

e has nothing to teach? It may come as a surprise when I say that butoh could well be dormant in your own body. My work is to discover ways to extract that butoh, that life. I should point out that, although bu

toh may be dormant in everyone, it may not be attainable to everyone. Whether or not you can dance butoh depends on whether or not your body encompasses

desire, regret, pleasure and interest in living along with life's experiences and memories. Bodily habits are also a kind of memory.

In addition, as long as butoh is a kind of expression, we must have the ability and responsibility to 'edit' those inner elements. I have no interest in those who se

e butoh as a kind of exotic spectacle of strange movements and bizarre gestures and who want to 'learn' it by some sort of rote process. Butoh is an ineffable kind of behavior produced by the body itself, possessing neither name nor form.

Ignoring what is already in the body and concerning oneself with some exterior facet of the body is tantamount to exploiting the body as a tool of expression. Th

is is far from the spirit of butoh. I am primarily interested in ordinary people, the people who can share in the pleasure and pain of living. I find only marginal interest in butoh fanatics who covet butoh as an oddity and the dance 'experts' whose pride hangs on the thread of conventional technique.

– February 2, 1995


Butoh Blanc (White Butoh)

My White Butoh is not intended as an antithesis to 'ankoku butoh' (black butoh or the dance of darkness) of Tatsumi Hijikata, the founder of butoh. Rather, by using the word 'white' I stress the philosophical advocacy of ankoku butoh: a butoh dancer must completely expose the 'darkness of his own existence.' In this interpretation, I amplify it and assert that such exposure should be so complete that it comes under the 'white sun', meaning a perfectly clear and cloudless light.

Almost all modern dances in Western countries, or worldwide, are 'created' with the basic method of first clarifying a concept and then collecting and arranging dancers' external movements and forms to realize that concept. In contrast, one of butoh's largest characteristics is to produce – or more accurately, 'give birth to' – dances by guilding and drawing out the 'dance' already immanent in the dancer's body (this 'dance' may

be referred to as 'original experience'; the word 'inner landscape' is often used in the butoh world). As a result, some butoh dances do not involve specific or phenom

enological forms and movements as their basic element.

Butoh dancers have always referred to the body with that immanent 'original lan

dscape' ('dance') as 'nikutai', to be distinguished from the physical body, or flesh, as a biological entity. To realize 'nikutai', a butoh dancer must recognize and

amass personal experiences, memories and bodily habits; and since butoh is an art of expression, he must also have the ability to 'montage' those personal elements.

Difficulties butoh dancers are often faced with are related to the difficulties of realizing 'nikutai'. Difficulties, or sometimes misunderstandings, on the par

t of butoh audiences, on the other hand, lie in their common sense, with which they seek to see 'nikutai' with the immanent 'inner landscape' only as a visible object, or as specific and phenomenological forms and movements. White Butoh's thrust, however, is to go to the very bottom of the essence of butoh which is prior to forms and movements; namely, to pursue the realities of life. It goes without saying that it is not an easy task.

– September 1989 / La Maison du Butoh Blanc

Masaki Iwana

Considered one of the most acclaimed Butoh performers in Japan today — Masaki Iwana is a rarity in that he still maintains the original Butoh spirit, having begun his dancecareer outside the “butoh genealogy” in 1975. Until 1982 he presented 150 experimental performances in which he stood straight, completely naked and perfectly still.Since then, in Europe as well as Japan, Iwana has presented his performances and workshops continuously – and has created works built on his sharpened aesthetic in more than 100 cities and 40 countries around the world.Iwana represents the institute for the research of Butoh – La Maison du Butoh Blanc, based in southern Normandy in France.In 2008 he produced and created the theatrical film Vermilion Souls, and has recently completed his second feature A Summer Family.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

POPOL VUH (the band)

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Popol Vuh was a German electronic avantgarde band, in the mainstream-media so called Krautrock, founded by pianist and keyboardist Florian Fricke in 1970 together with Holger Trülzsch (percussion) and Frank Fiedler (electronics). Other important members during the next two decades included Djong Yun, Conni Veit, Daniel Fichelscher, Klaus Wiese and Robert Eliscu. band took its name from the Popol Vuh, a manuscript containing the mythology of the Post-Classic Quiché Maya people of highland Guatemala and south east Mexico.
The first album, Affenstunde, released in 1970, can be regarded as one of the earliest ambient music, space music or New Age music works, featuring the then new sounds of the Moog synthesizer together with ethnic percussion. This continued for only one more album, In den Gärten Pharaos, before Fricke largely abandoned electronic instruments in favour of piano-led compositions from 1972's Hosianna Mantra forward. This album also marked the start of exploring overtly religious themes rather than a more generally spiritual feeling within the music. The group evolved to include all kinds of instruments: wind and strings, electric and acoustic alike, combined to convey a mystical aura that made their music spiritual and introspective. Popul Vuh influenced many other bands from Europe with their uniquely soft but elaborate instrumentations, that took inspiration from Tibet, Africa, and pre-Columbian America. They created dream-like soundscapes along with psychedelic walls of sound, and are regarded as precursors of contemporary world music, as well of new age music and ambient music. The band contributed soundtracks to the films of Werner Herzog, including Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Nosferatu, Fitzcarraldo, Cobra Verde, Heart of Glass and The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, in which Fricke appeared. Florian Fricke died in Munich on December 29, 2001, and the group disbanded.

In October 2003 Klaus Schulze wrote:

"Florian was and remains an important forerunner of contemporary ethnic and religious music. He chose electronic music and his big Moog to free himself from the restraints of traditional music, but soon discovered that he didn't get a lot out of it and opted for the acoustic path instead. Here, he went on to create a new world, which Werner Herzog loves so much, transforming the thought patterns of electronic music into the language of acoustic ethno music.

Discography

Florian Fricke solo albums

  • Die Erde und ich sind Eins (1983) – limited private pressing
  • Florian Fricke Plays Mozart (1992) – featuring Fricke on piano playing Mozart compositions

Compilations

Note: there are two distinct issues of the compilation Best of Popol Vuh - Werner Herzog. These are distinct from The Best Soundtracks from Werner Herzog Films, though the selections of tracks overlap.

  • Perlenklänge: The Best Of Popol Vuh (1976) – Ohr / Pilz / Kosmische Musik compilation
  • Tantric Songs (1981) – featuring tracks from Die Nacht der Seele and Brüder des Schattens - Söhne des Lichts
  • Fitzcarraldo (1982) – soundtrack featuring four previously released Popol Vuh compositions besides opera and traditional music
  • In the Gardens of Pharao / Aguirre (1983)
  • Gesang der Gesänge (1988)
  • Best of Popol Vuh - Werner Herzog (1989 with 14 tracks; reissued 1993 with only 10 tracks)
  • Florian Fricke (1991) – featuring tracks from Herz aus Glas (retitled) and Brüder des Schattens - Söhne des Lichts
  • The Best Soundtracks from Werner Herzog Films (1991, 8 tracks)
  • Sing, for Song Drives Away the Wolves (1993) – remix album
  • Movie Music (1994) - 3 CD set: Aguirre, Herz aus Glas, Nosferatu
  • Nicht Hoch Im Himmel (1998)
  • Future Sound Experience (2002) – remix album recorded in 1993 (according to its booklet) and released after Florian Fricke's death
  • 70's Progressive (2006) – SPV compilation
  • On the Way to Himalaya (2006) - 3 CD set: Brüder des Schattens - Söhne des Lichts, Spirit of Peace, Die Nacht der Seele
  • The Werner Herzog Soundtracks Box set (2011)
  • Yoga (1976) - recorded by Florian Fricke with Indian musicians
download torrent with THE FuLL DiscogrAphy of "POPOL VUH"
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Friday, June 17, 2011

Καρλ Μαρξ: Η 18η Μπρυμαίρ του Λουδοβίκου Βοναπάρτη

"Οι αστικές επαναστάσεις, σαν τις επαναστάσεις του δέκατου όγδοου αιώνα, ορμούν γρήγορα από επιτυχία σε επιτυχία, τα δραματικά τους αποτελέσματα ξεπερνούν το ένα το άλλο, άνθρωποι και πράγματα φαίνονται σαν σε φωτιές διαμαντιών. Η έκσταση είναι το πνεύμα κάθε ημέρας. Μα η ζωή τους είναι μικρή. Σε λίγο φτάνουν κι όλας στο ανώτατο σημείο τους και μια μακρυά αποχαύνωση κυριεύει ύστερα την κοινωνία πριν μάθει να αφομειώνει νηφάλια τα αποτελέσματα της ορμητικής και θυελλώδικης εποχής της.

Αντίθετα οι προλεταριακές επαναστάσεις, όπως οι επαναστάσεις του δέκατου ένατου αιώνα, κάνουν αδιάκοπη κριτική στον ίδιο τον εαυτό τους, διακόπτουν κάθε στιγμή την πορεία τους, γυρίζουν πάλι σε εκείνο που φαίνεται πως έχει πραγματοποιηθεί για να το ξαναρχίσουν από την αρχή, χλευάζουν με ωμή ακρίβεια τις ασυνέπειες, τις αδυναμίες και τις ελεεινότητες που παρουσιάζουν οι πρώτες δοκιμές τους, φαίνονται πως ξαπλώνουν κάτω τον αντίπαλό τους μόνο για να αντλήσει καινούργιες δυνάμεις από τη γη και να σηκωθεί μπροστά τους πιο γιγάντιος, οπισθοχωρούν ολοένα μπροστά στην απροσδιόριστη απεραντοσύνη των ίδιων των σκοπών τους, ώσπου να δημιουργηθούν οι όροι που κάνουν αδύνατο κάθε πισωγύρισμα και οι ίδιες οι περιστάσεις φωνάζουν: Ιδού η Ρόδος, ιδού και το πήδημα".

Κ. Μάρξ. 18η Μπρυμέρ

διαβάστε το βιβλίο εδώ

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Stieg Larsson

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Karl Stig-Erland Larsson /kɑɭ sti:g 'ɛɭɑnd 'lɑʂʊn/ (15 August 1954 – 9 November 2004), who wrote professionally as Stieg Larsson, was a Swedish journalist and writer, born in Skelleftehamn outside Skellefteå. He is best known for writing the "Millennium series" of crime novels, which was published posthumously. Larsson lived and worked much of his life in Stockholm.
Larsson's first name originally was Stig which is the standard spelling. In his early twenties, he changed it to avoid confusion with his friend Stig Larsson, who would go on to become a well-known author well before Stieg did. At the time, they were amateur photographers and it was in this capacity that they wished to prevent any misunderstanding; neither had yet published a book. Stieg Larsson, in later years, would tell the story that the two men had tossed a coin to decide who was to change his name, but this is disputed by Stig Larsson. The pronunciation is the same regardless of spelling.
Larsson was initially a political activist for the Kommunistiska Arbetareförbundet (Communist Workers League), a photographer, and one of Sweden's leading science fiction fans. In politics he was the editor of the Swedish Trotskyist journal Fjärde internationalen, journal of the Swedish section of the Fourth International. He also wrote regularly for the weekly Internationalen. Larsson spent part of 1977 in Eritrea, training a squad of female Eritrean People's Liberation Front guerrillas in the use of grenade launchers. He was forced to abandon that work due to having contracted a kidney disease. Upon his return to Sweden, he worked as a graphic designer at the largest Swedish news agency, Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå (TT) between 1977 and 1999.Larsson's political convictions, as well as his journalistic experiences, led him to found the Swedish Expo Foundation, similar to the British Searchlight Foundation, established to "counteract the growth of the extreme right and the white power-culture in schools and among young people." He also became the editor of the foundation's magazine, Expo, in 1995. When he was not at his day job, he worked on independent research of right-wing extremism in Sweden. In 1991, his research resulted in his first book Extremhögern (Right-wing extremism). Larsson quickly became instrumental in documenting and exposing Swedish extreme right and racist organizations; he was an influential debater and lecturer on the subject, reportedly living for years under death threats from his political enemies. The political party Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna) was a major subject of his research..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stieg_Larsson
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http://www.stieglarsson.com/the-movies MOVIES BASED ON HIS NOVELS
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1826654/ DIE STIEG LARSSON STORY
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1132620/ THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO download torrent
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1216487/ THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE download torrent
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1343097/ THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST download direct movie link
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http://www.stieglarsson.com/Books

THE MILLENIUM TRILOGY

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

download

THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE

download

THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST

download
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Friday, May 6, 2011

The Shock Doctrine

http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine
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The book

E-BOOK
Naomi Klein - The Shock Doctrine Metropolitan Books | 576 pages | ISBN: 0805079831 | Edition - 2007 | PDF | 8,5 MB

download the book
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The movie

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1078294/

6 you tube links (με υπότιτλους στα Ελληνικά)
part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4
part 5
part 6

or

download the whole movie here

Σκατά στο πνεύμα (Αντονέν Αρτώ)

Μετά τον ρομαντισμό,
ο συμβολισμός,
ο ντανταϊσμός,
ο σουρεαλισμός,
ο λετρισμός
και ο μαρξισμός,

δηλαδή εκατό “σχολές” πολιτικής, φιλοσοφικής και λογοτεχνικής ανατροπής, υπάρχει μια λέξη, ένα πράγμα, που έμεινε όρθιο, μια αξία που έμεινε αναλλοίωτη, που διατήρησε σε πείσμα όλων την υπεροχή της, είναι η λέξη και το πράγμα πνεύμα,
η αξία που προσδίδεται στο πνεύμα,
η αξία του πράγματος πνεύμα,
λες και θ’ αρκούσε να προφέρουμε την μαγνητική αυτή λέξη,
λες και θ’ αρκούσε να την αφήσουμε να ξεπηδήσει στη γωνιά μιας σελίδας, για να έχουν ειπωθεί όλα.
Σαν να εννοείτο, πράγματι,
και σαν αρχή και σαν ουσία, ότι το πνεύμα είναι η έμφυτη έννοια, η αξία υπόδειγμα,
η λέξη κορυφή,
που από το σημείο αυτό και πέρα, ο παλιός αταβιστικός αυτοματισμός του ζώου που ονομάζεται άνθρωπος θα έπαυε να κλυδωνίζεται.
Γιατί το φορείο θα ήταν καλά στερεωμένο στη θέση του.
Παντού ήταν αναμφισβήτητο, μετά από, δεν ξέρω κι εγώ πόσα, χρόνια Καββαλισμού, ερμητισμού, μυσταγωγίας, πλατωνισμού και ψυχουργίας,
ότι το σώμα είναι τέκνο του πνεύματος, του οποίου φαίνεται να είναι η διόγκωση,
το σύμφυρμα ή ο μαγικός σωρός
και πως δεν μπορούμε να αντιληφθούμε σώμα που να μην είναι, στο τέλος της φυσικής πορείας, η κατάληξη μιας σκοτεινής σύζευξης του πνεύματος με την ίδια του τη δύναμη, το όριο μιας διαδρομής επιλεγμένης απ’ το ίδιο το πνεύμα κατά την πορεία του,
σαν να μην μπορούσε να υπάρχει σώμα, εάν δεν υπήρχε κάπου το πνεύμα,
σαν η κατάσταση που αποκαλείται σώμα, το πράγμα που ονομάζουμε σώμα, να ήταν ουσία και φύσει κατώτερο από την κατάσταση πνεύμα και να πήγαζε απ’ αυτήν.
Σαν το σώμα να ήταν η άμαξα και το πνεύμα, το άλογο, που οδηγείται από ένα άλλο πνεύμα που ονομάζεται αμαξάς.
Σαν το σώμα να είναι οι εργάτες του εργοστασίου και το πνεύμα, το αφεντικό, το οποίο έχει επινοήσει το αλυσσόδεμα των εργατών στη διαδικασία παραγωγής.
Σαν το σώμα να ήταν το κορμί όλων των στρατιωτών που σκοτώνονται υπό τις διαταγές αυτού του μεγάλου πνεύματος, του Στρατηγού, που τους στέλνει να σφαγιασθούν.
Σαν να ήταν αυτονόητο για τη ζωή ότι το σώμα είναι αυτή η βρωμερή ουσία μέσα στην οποία το πνεύμα κάνει το ποδόλουτρό του, όπως ένας καπουτσίνος ξεπλένει τις μπότες του μέσα στο λουτρό αίματος του πολέμου.
Και το σώμα δεν έχει παρά να το βουλώσει.
Θα ήθελα να δω το σώμα ενός πνεύματος να οργανώνει τα μελλοντικά του κοιμητήρια.
Αλλά πιο πριν, θα ήθελα να μιλήσω για τους εφιάλτες.
Αστεία ανακολουθία, δεν είναι;
Να περνάς έτσι ξαφνικά και κτηνώδικα από το πνεύμα στους εφιάλτες.
Οι εφιάλτες προέρχονται απ’ τους παληανθρώπους, απ’ όλους τους αρνητές του σώματος,
απ’ όλους τους πλήρεις πνεύματος, που ασκούν μαγεία για να ζήσουν και που δεν έχουν βιώσει παρά μόνο πνεύμα, δηλαδή τη μαγεία.
Χωρίς τους υποστηρικτές της καθαρότητας του πνεύματος,
του καθαρού πνεύματος σαν αρχή των πραγμάτων και του Θεού ως καθαρού πνεύματος,
δεν θα υπήρχαν εφιάλτες.
Και όλοι βέβαια, από τότε που υπάρχει η γη, έχουν να παραπονεθούν για έναν εφιάλτη, να του προσάψουν, μόλις ξυπνήσουν, ότι τους βασάνισε τη νύχτα, χωρίς όμως να δώσουν μεγαλύτερη σημασία,
χωρίς να δώσουν προσοχή στην σοβαρότητα του γεγονότος.
Δεν γνωρίζουν ότι ο εφιάλτης είναι η είσοδος του παραλογισμού από το κενό,
η αναρχία μέσα στην κανονική λογική του μυαλού τους,
το δηλητήριο που ρίχνεται στην ευμάρεια, μια παρέμβαση από κάτω προς τα πάνω, ότι είναι η σταγόνα του μίσους κάποιου άλλου, που κυλάει στη βραδυνή αναπνοή τους, η ενστάλαξη μιας νύμφης του πνεύματος, ένα δάκρυ καθαρού πνεύματος που αθόρυβα εισήχθη στο σώμα τους, από κάθε τι που είναι αδυναμία, απουσία, κενό, μίσος, αρρώστεια ή επιθυμία.
Ο εφιάλτης λοιπόν, για την πλειοψηφία των κοιμωμένων στη γη δεν είναι παρά μια ωραία ιστορία που διηγούνται μόλις πεταχτούν απ’ το κρεβάτι.
Κάτι σαν διήγημα του Έντγκαρ Πόε, του Ερμάν Μελβίλ, του Χόφμαν, του Λαμότ Φουκέ, του Ναθαναέλ Χώθορν, του Λιούις ή του Καμίσο,
των οποίων το όνειρό τους παρέχει το υλικό για την απεικόνιση τάχα της ζωής,
αλλά δεν υποψιάζονται,
δεν αντιλαμβάνονται,
πως κάποιοι άνθρωποι ψάχνουν μεθοδικά, μέσα στο όνειρο, τον τρόπο για να σταματήσουν τη ζωή, να αποκτήσουν αυτοί οι ίδιοι ζωή, εις βάρος της στρεβλωμένης αγωνίας του κοιμώμενου που αυτοί έχουν κυριεύσει.
Με ποιο τρόπο;
Επωφελούμενοι απ’ τον ύπνο του ανθρώπου,
από την χαλάρωση που προσφέρει ο ύπνος στον άνθρωπο, για να ξεριζώσουν από τη φυσιολογική ροή του μοριακού τρόπου ύπαρξης ενός ανθρώπου, μια μικρή φέτα ζωής, ένα μικρό αιμάτινο δίκτυο ατόμων που θα τους χρησιμεύσει για να θρέψουν τη δική τους ζωή.
Ένας εφιάλτης δεν είναι ποτέ τυχαίο συμβάν, αλλά συμφορά ολόδική μας, ξαμολημένη από μια πουτάνα, από το στόμα ενός βαμπίρ που μας βρίσκει πολύ πλούσιους σε ζωή και που δημιουργεί, με ορισμένες σταλαγματιές αλληλεπιδράσεων μέσα στις σκέψεις μας,
καταστροφικά κενά στις διαδρομές των αναπνοών του κοιμώμενου σώματός μας το οποίο νομίζει ότι έχει γλιτώσει από τις έγνοιες.
Είναι οι άνθρωποι λοιπόν που δημιουργούν αυτούς τους εφιάλτες, αλλά αυτοί οι άνθρωποι είναι πνεύματα που θέλησαν να παραμείνουν� στο πνεύμα χωρίς να προχωρήσουν πιο μακριά στη ζωή.
Και τι είναι το πνεύμα;
Το πνεύμα πραγματικά.
Εννοώ πέρα από τη Φιλοσοφία.
Και γιατί το σώμα να προέρχεται από το πνεύμα και όχι το πνεύμα από το σώμα;
Γιατί το πνεύμα να περιέχει τις αξίες και το σώμα να θεωρείται απλώς η άθλια κατοικία τους, η υλική τους ενσάρκωση;
Λες και υπήρξε ποτέ κάποιο μυστήριο που ονομάζεται ενσάρκωση.
Ποια σχέση υπάρχει ανάμεσα στο σώμα και το πνεύμα;
Αν σκεφτούμε καλά, καμία.
Γιατί το σώμα ξέρουμε τι είναι, αλλά το πνεύμα,
ποιος είπε πως ήταν η αρχή εκείνου απ’ όπου ξεπηδά ό,τι υπάρχει στη ζωή;
Είναι το πνεύμα που έχει τα δεδομένα.
Μέσα σ’ αυτό είναι που βλέπουμε τις ιδέες, τα μητρικά αυτά μαστάρια απ’ τα οποία τρέφεται ο,τιδήποτε έχει ενέργεια.
Αλλά, μας την σπας, Πλάτωνα. Και σεις, Σωκράτη, Επίκτητε, Επίκουρε, Καντ, ακόμα κι εσύ Καρτέσιε.
Γιατί μπορούμε εύκολα ν’ αντιστρέψουμε το πρόβλημα και να πούμε πως το πνεύμα δε θα είχε υπάρξει, ούτε οι αξίες και τα δεδομένα του, αν το σώμα, που τις διέδωσε, δε βρισκόταν εκεί, τη στιγμή που το πνεύμα, πάντα βρισκόμενο σε ακινησία, αρεσκόταν απλώς να τις κοιτάζει, περιμένοντας να τις σοδομίσει απ’ την πρώτη στιγμή.
Αφού χωρίς την αρχή του σοδομισμού, δεν θα απέμενε πλέον στο πνεύμα παρά να αδειάσει εξίσου τη γη και το μεγάλο κενό των πλανητών, το οποίο ο Πλάτωνας, αυτός ο θλιβερός ημιμαθής, νόμισε κάποια μέρα ότι ήταν επιπλωμένο με ιδέες, που κανείς ποτέ δεν συνάντησε.
Γιατί το πνεύμα είναι μια πομφόλυγα, μια απάτη.
Ένα είδος στοιχειωμένου καπνού που δε ζει παρά μόνο απ’ ό,τι απομυζά από το σώμα, για να κάνει με κόπο μια κίνηση και όχι μια σκέψη ή μια υπόθεση.
Γιατί τι είναι αυτές οι σκέψεις, οι υποθέσεις, οι αξίες και οι ιδιότητες;
Έννοιες χωρίς ζωή που υλοποιούνται μόνο όταν το σώμα τις αποβάλει, δημιουργώντας μια μεγάλη εφίδρωση για να τις αναγκάσει να το εγκαταλείψουν.
Γιατί το σώμα δεν έχει ποτέ ανάγκη να του προσδιορίσουμε τι έκανε.
Χωρίς τις καθημερινές λειτουργίες του σώματος, δεν θα γεννιόταν ποτέ καμιά σκέψη και δεν είναι από το σώμα που γεννιέται, αλλά ενάντιά του, με την ευκαιρία μιας κίνησης δικής του, της οποίας η σκέψη, δηλαδή η σκιά, θέλησε να ζήσει από μόνη της, υπό την επήρεια των λεγόμενων πνευμάτων.
Αυτών των εξόριστων αερικών που ήθελαν να αποκτήσουν υπόσταση χωρίς όμως να κοπιάσουν για να την κερδίσουν.
Όταν κάποιος δεν έχει σώμα και είναι ένα τίποτα, όταν δεν έχει ακόμα αναπνεύσει, απαιτείται φοβερή θέληση για να καταφέρει να κατασκευάσει ένα τέτοιο σώμα και να κατακτήσει μ’ αυτό τη δυνατότητα να αναπνέει καθολικά.
Και αυτό δεν είναι θέμα σκέψης, αλλά μιας τρομερής φρίκης την οποία πρέπει να υπερπηδήσει.
Σ’ αυτό το σημείο είναι που ψόφησε ο μεγάλος αγύρτης,
ο απατεώνας,
ο μέγας γαμημένος από την πλημμύρα των καθαρών ουσιών,
που ως αρχή και ουσία και χωρίς σώμα για να τους αντισταθεί, δεν είναι παρά η τρύπα του αιώνιου περάσματος κάθε σκέψης ή υπόθεσης για ύπαρξη,
ο Θεός,
πνεύμα καθαρό, σκιά και δυνητικότητα.
Πολύ δειλά για να επιχειρήσουν να αποκτήσουν σώμα, τα πνεύματα, πτητικά αέρια, πιο ελαφριά και από κάθε επεξεργασμένο σώμα,
περιφέρονται στο στερέωμα ή στο κενό και η απουσία ζωής, το κενό τους, η απέραντη νωθρότητά τους τα περιορίζει στο πνεύμα.
Βλέποντας το σώμα του ανθρώπου να υπερτερεί, κατέληξαν να φαντάζονται ότι το ξεπέρασαν.
Για να μη περιφρονηθούν και απωθηθούν από τον άνθρωπο,
προσπάθησαν να προσδώσουν σ’ αυτό το κενό που αποκαλούμε πνευματική κατάσταση, στον ευνουχισμό του σώματός τους, αρσενικού ή θηλυκού, στην αδυναμία τους να αναγνωρίσουν ο,τιδήποτε έχει ζωή
και ενέργεια, ένα είδος επικίνδυνης σεμνότητας που στηρίχτηκε στην πιο βρωμερή μαγεία.
Το πνεύμα δεν υπήρξε ποτέ τίποτα άλλο από το παράσιτο του ανθρώπου, το σαράκι που άξιζε στο σώμα του, από τη στιγμή που δεν είναι τίποτα περισσότερο από ένα ζωύφιο που δε θέλει να αναγνωρίσει την αξία της ζωής του.
Αλλά πώς ξεπετάχτηκε μια μέρα μέσα από τα αποκρουστικά αυτά βδελύγματα ο Θεός;
Αυτό η Ιστορία δεν το απεκάλυψε ποτέ.

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Και λέω, ΣΚΑΤΑ ΣΤΟ ΠΝΕΥΜΑ.
Γνωρίζω καλά, από ποιες οργιώδεις περιπτύξεις των νυφών κατέληξε το πνεύμα να υπερισχύσει του σώματος, το οποίο ήταν προγενέστερο.
Γνωρίζω καλά ότι αυτό που αποκαλούμε πνεύμα δεν είναι παρά ένας πολτός χωρίς ύπαρξη, που απαξίωσε να σαρκωθεί και, για να αποκτήσει σώμα και να εξασφαλίσει την τροφή του, στηρίχθηκε πάνω σ’ αυτό που θα έχαναν τα εν ζωή σώματα,
στηρίχθηκε πάνω στα σώματα που θα αφαίμασσε.
Το σώμα που εργάζεται δεν έχει χρόνο να σκεφθεί και να παράξει, καθώς λένε, ιδέες.
Οι ιδέες είναι απλώς το κενό του σώματος.
Αλληλεπιδράσεις απουσίας και έλλειψης ανάμεσα σε δυο κινήσεις καταυγάζουσας πραγματικότητας, που το σώμα με την παρουσία του δεν έπαψε να επιβάλλει.
Δεν είναι μόνο ότι η ύλη ενεργοποιήθηκε πριν τη σκέψη,
είναι κυρίως ότι δεν ενεργοποιήθηκε,
δεν κατευθύνθηκε ποτέ προς το μέρος όπου η ψυχική αντίληψη σκιρτά, στο μέρος όπου εκδηλώθηκε η ζωή, διαλεκτική ή συλλογιστική, στο μέρος όπου η κουλτούρα κατόρθωσε να ξεκινήσει.
Είναι ότι το σώμα υπήρχε ανέκαθεν,
το σώμα, και ότι ο τρόπος ζωής και ύπαρξής του δεν είχε ποτέ να κάνει με το πνεύμα ή τη σκέψη, ούτε καν μ’ αυτό που αποκαλούμε ψυχή.
Το σώμα είναι ένα γεγονός που δεν έχει ανάγκη από ιδέες ή ευαισθησίες, αλλά που, απ’ τα βάθη της άραχλης σπηλιάς του, εποπτεύει τη στιγμή που ακόμα και η καρδιά δεν έχει το χρόνο να αισθανθεί ότι υπάρχει.
Πράγμα που σημαίνει ότι, όταν βλέπω τον Κλωντέλ [Πωλ Κλωντέλ (1868 - 1955): Γάλλος ποιητής και θεατρικός συγγραφέας, επηρεασμένος από τον χριστιανισμό.] να ζητά τη βοήθεια των πνευμάτων των αρχών του αιώνα, μπορώ ακόμα να επιτρέψω στον εαυτό μου να γελάσει, αλλά όταν βλέπω στον Καρλ Μαρξ ή στον Λένιν την λέξη πνεύμα, σαν την ίδια και απαράλλαχτη παλιά αξία, όταν βλέπω την επίκληση της αιώνιας αυτής οντότητας σαν σημείο αναφοράς των πραγμάτων
λέω στον εαυτό μου ότι υπάρχει λέρα και παρτούζα και πως ο Θεός έγλειψε τον κώλο του Λένιν
και πως πάντα έτσι γινόταν
και πως δεν αξίζει να συνεχίσω,
δεν πειράζει,
είναι μόνο
ένας γαμημένος λογαριασμός
που πρέπει να τακτοποιηθεί.

Antonin Artaud

μετάφραση: αλέξανδρος ζήτα

δημοσιεύτηκε απ’ τις εκδόσεις discordia

Friday, April 1, 2011

CURRENT93



















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Current 93 is an eclectic British experimental music group, working since the early 1980s in folk-based musical forms. The band was founded in by David Tibet (né David Michael Bunting, renamed 'Tibet' by Genesis P-Orridge sometime prior to forming the group)

Tibet has been the only constant in the group, though Steven Stapleton (of Nurse with Wound) has appeared on nearly every Current 93 release. Cashmore has also been a constant contributor since Thunder Perfect Mind. Douglas P. of Death In June has played on well over a dozen Current 93 releases, and Steve Ignorant of Crass (using the name Stephen Intelligent), Boyd Rice, runologist Freya Aswynn [1], Nick Cave, Björk, Andrew W.K., Will Oldham, Ben Chasny, Rose McDowall,[2] Tiny Tim, Tony Wakeford of Sol Invictus, Marc Almond, John Balance of Coil and Ian Read of Fire + Ice have also lent their talents over the years. Tibet is fond of the works of American writer Thomas Ligotti, and invited him to collaborate with Current 93. Current 93 have released some twenty albums, and many singles, as well as having been a guest on many of the above listed artists' records, and others' such as Nature and Organisation and The Hafler Trio. Much of Current 93's early work was similar to late 1970s and early 1980s industrial music: abrasive tape loops, droning synthesizer noises and Tibet's distorted, excoriating vocals. This early work became influential with the goth scene. Later works found Tibet mostly casting off such trappings in favor of a more organic sound, labeled by some as "apocalyptic folk" music, occasionally featuring his sinister nursery rhyme-influenced singing and primarily acoustic folk-styled music. Tibet's lyrics have been fairly consistent, regardless of delivery: The earlier recordings reflect his preoccupation with death, Christ, mysticism, Aleister Crowley (Tibet borrowed the term "93 Current" from Crowley - the 93 Current [2] being the current of Thelema or Agape), Tibetan Buddhism, Gnosticism, runes, swastikas, Noddy, The Wicker Man, and a variety of occult notions. The later to present-day period of Current 93's recordings increasingly reflect Tibet's interest in Christian mysticism. Tibet has stated that he now identifies as a Christian. influences include Lautreamont's Les Chants de Maldoror, the Bible, The Poetic Eddas, Francis Parker Yockey's Imperium, Hildegard von Bingen, John Dee, Heptarchia Mystica, The Thunder, Perfect Mind, William Blake, Louis Wain, writer Thomas Ligotti, occult British author Arthur Machen (originator of the title "The Inmost Light"), M.R. James's various ghost stories, The Cloud of Unknowing, Count Eric Stenbock, and Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker.[4] Musical influences include religious chants, traditional folk music, The Tam Lin ballad, The Incredible String Band, Sand, Comus, Blue Öyster Cult, Black Sabbath, Love, Shirley Collins, some progressive bands such as Yes, King Crimson, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and the British composer Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji.
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DISCOGRAPHY
Year Title Format and special notes
1983 Mi-Mort cassette split with Nurse With Wound
1984 LAShTAL 12"
1984 Nature Unveiled LP (reissued on CD,1992)
1984 No Hiding from the Blackbird 7" split w/ Nurse With Wound
1984 Dogs Blood Rising LP (reissued on CD, 1988 and 1995)
1985 Live at Bar Maldoror LP (reissued on CD 1990 and 1994)
1985 Nightmare Culture EP split with Sickness of Snakes (Coil/Boyd Rice)
1986 In Menstrual Night LP (reissued on CD, 1994)
1986 NL Centrum-Amsterdam live cassette split w/ Nurse With Wound
1987 Happy Birthday 12"
1987 Dawn LP (reissued on CD, 1994)
1987 Imperium LP (reissued on CD, 2001)
1987 Crowleymass (with HÖH) 12"/CDS (reissued in 1997)
1988 Christ and the Pale Queens Mighty in Sorrow 2xLP (reissued on CD, 1994)
1988 The Red Face of God 12" (reissued on CD with above, 1994)
1988 Swastikas for Noddy LP (reissued on CD as Swastikas for Goddy, 1993)
1988 Faith's Favourites 12" split with Nurse With Wound
1988 Earth Covers Earth LP (reissued on CD, 1992) (limited LP reissue, 2005)
1989 Rome/Hourglass for Diana/Fields of Rape 7" (live)
1989 She Is Dead and All Fall Down limited edition 7"
1989 Crooked Crosses for the Nodding God CD
1990 Looney Runes LP, CD 1992
1990 1888 split EP with Death In June
1990 Horse LP, part of a box set/split with Sol Invictus and Nurse With Wound (reissued on CD as Horsey with extra/reworked tracks, 1997)
1991 Island (with HÖH) LP/CD
1991 As the World Disappears (live) CD
1992 Thunder Perfect Mind 2xLP/CD (reissued, 1994)
1992 Current 93/Death In June/Sol Invictus (live) Recorded in Frankfurt, Germany, 1991. Originally a bootleg called Day of Dawn, officially reissued on CD.
1993 Emblems: The Menstrual Years LP, issued as 2xCD retrospective
1993 Hitler as Kalki CD
1994 Of Ruine or Some Blazing Starre LP/CD
1994 Lucifer Over London EP/CD
1994 The Fire of the Mind CD
1994 Tamlin 12"/CDS
1995 Where The Long Shadows Fall (Beforetheinmostlight) 12"/CDS
1996 All The Pretty Little Horses: The Inmost Light LP/CD
1996 The Starres Are Marching Sadly Home (Theinmostlightthirdandfinal) 12"/CDS
1996 Untitled, a.k.a. Seven Seals CD-EP with Tiny Tim, Nurse with Wound and Nature and Organization
1997 In a Foreign Town, in a Foreign Land limited CD, accompanied Thomas Ligotti book of same name
1998 Soft Black Stars LP/CD, (reissued on CD in 2005)
1999 Calling for Vanished Faces 2xCD retrospective
1999 An Introduction to Suffering Current 93/Michael Cashmore/Christoph Heemann LP/CD
1999 Misery Farm CDS
1999 All Dolled Up Like Christ 2x Live CD
2000 I Have a Special Plan for This World 12"/CD, Thomas Ligotti prose poem read by Tibet, treated by Current 93
2000 Sleep Has His House LP/CD
2000 Faust LP/CD
2001 The Great in the Small LP/CD
2001 Cats Drunk on Copper CD (Live at the Union Chapel, London, May 3, 1997)
2001 Bright Yellow Moon 2x12"/CD Current 93/Nurse with Wound
2001 Purtle CD Split w/ Nurse with Wound
2001 This Degenerate Little Town CD with Thomas Ligotti
2002 The Seahorse Rears to Oblivion 12"/CD
2002 Music for the Horse Hospital 2xCD Current 93/Nurse with Wound
2003 A Little Menstrual Night Music CD containing remixes of tracks from In Menstrual Night
2003 Calling For Vanished Faces/Virgin Mary 7" split with Antony and the Johnsons; UK PanDurtro 008
2003 Live at St. Olave's CD EP split with Antony and the Johnsons; UK PanDurtro 007
2004 Halo CD
2004 SixSixSix: SickSickSick CD compilation of Tamlin, Lucifer over London, Misery Farm, and two pieces from Looney Runes
2005 How I Devoured Apocalypse Balloon 2xCD (Live at St. George The Martyr Anglican Church, Toronto, June 18–19, 2004)
2005 ⲛⲧⲛⲁⲩ ⲛϩⲱⲧⲡ ⲙⲡⲣⲏ ⲁϩⲉⲛⲉϫⲏⲩ ⲉⲩⲕⲏⲙ ⲟⲩⲉⲙ ⲧⲡⲉ CDS (promo for Black Ships Ate the Sky; the Coptic title reads "At Sunset Black Ships Ate The Sky")
2005 Judas as Black Moth (Hallucinatory Patripassianist Song) 2xCD "best of"/introduction to C93's works
2005 How He Loved The Moon (Moonsongs For Jhonn Balance) 2xCD/2xLP (ltd. 1200)/2xLP+7" (ltd. 200), a remixed version of In Menstrual Night
2005 Hypnagogue/Hypnagogue II CD
2006 Black Ships Ate the Sky CD / 2xLP
2006 Inerrant Rays of Infallible Sun (Blackship Shrinebuilder) Split 10" with Om
2006 Black Ships Eat the Sky CD - Alternate mixes
2007 The Inmost Light 3xCD/2xLP reissue of Where The Long Shadows Fall, All the Pretty Little Horses, and The Starres Are Marching Sadly Home
2007 Birdsong in The Empire Live CD (ltd. 1200) Recorded in Toronto, Canada, 2005
2008 Black Ships Heat the Dancefloor Blue 12" single/DualDisc, remixes by JG Thirlwell and Matmos
2008 Birth Canal Blues CD EP April 2008
2009 Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain CD/LP
2010 Baalstorm, Sing Omega (December 1971) CD/LP
2010 Haunted Waves, Moving Graves Limited-edition CD (999 copies) and 12" picture disc (666 copies). Both editions have different track listings.
2011 HoneySuckle Æons To be released 24 March 2011

FOR THE DISCOGRAPHY 'TILL 2005
press here to download the torrent
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