#haunted forest uk

[runawayandhide]

[moonmausoleum]

The Endless Hauntings of Epping Forest in England

Epping Forest is an ancient forest filled with history and haunting. The big area it takes up houses countless ghosts, legends and paranormal mystery as well as being the dumping ground for murder victims as well as a cozy Sunday picnic spot. 

Epping Forest is an ancient forest filled with history and haunting. The big area it takes up houses countless ghosts, legends and paranormal mystery as well as being the dumping ground for murder victims as well as a cozy Sunday picnic spot.  Epping Forest, a sprawling expanse in Essex, England, holds within its ancient boughs a tapestry woven with threads of history, crime, and whispers of the…

[heatherweavingdesigns]

Haunted Forest Scene Print 🎃🧡👻

[varunrajkalse]

Cannock Chase: UK’s Most Mysterious Forest Area Explained

[ghostcatcherire]

Paranormal Adventures at ParaMeet South 2024

Dive into the supernatural world with my latest blog post on Parameet South 2024! From haunted items to spine-tingling talks, last weekend's paranormal convention in Wiltshire had it all.

Last weekend myself and my husband embarked on an exciting adventure into the realms of the paranormal at ParaMeet South 2024. Held at the historic Leigh Park Hotel in Wiltshire, this weekend event delivered a fascinating lineup of talks, encounters, and esoteric discoveries Myself on the left (Ghost Catcher Isles), my husband (centre), and Emma Heard on the right (Weird Wiltshire) with the…

[faeriecinna]

FaerieCinna's Writerblr Intro::

Hi, I'm Sav! 23, They/Them, living in the UK. I've been writing literally for as long as I can remember and decided it was finally time to share my shit on the internet.

If I'm not writing I'm working at LUSH full time, delving into a DnD campaign or baking!

Please don't be afraid to hop in my DMs or Asks because the whole point of me jumping back onto this hellsite was to make some writing pals because apparently that's an impossible feat irl.

Now for the good stuff~

WIPs::

Project.Ink

In a world torn by ancient conflict between the humans and Fae, alliances shift when the humans join forces with the mages. Amidst this uneasy camaraderie, young Fae like Rowan Kelly vanish - memories erased, appearance glamoured, and placed under human 'protection.' Unaware of her true identity, Rowan is haunted by dreams of a mysterious church in the forest. As she embarks on a journey to uncover the truth, she stumbles upon the entryway to her forgotten Fae realm, awakening a dangerous curiosity that threatens to unravel the delicate balance between the two worlds.

Her presence triggers suspicion among the elves, leading to her capture by The Inquisitor, once her lover but now a stranger due to the cruel enchantment. As Rowan grapples with resurfacing memories, the elves see only an unstable human in their midst. The Inquisitor, merciless and accusatory, soon faces the revelation of the girl's true identity. Amidst the conflict, love and betrayal mingle in the perilous quest to break the enchantment that binds Rowan to a false reality.

Project.Seraph

In the war ravaged kingdom of Infernelle, where shadows dance with secrets, Teo leads a group of travelling thieves who seek sanctuary within the city walls. Their ticket to safety? Capture a live angel as a pet for the ruthless monarch, Queen Reinette.

Rumours lead them on a futile chase and the elusive Seraph, Nevaeh, becomes their prize, shot out of the sky. Teo, adept in manipulation, promises safety to the angel, concealing a darker agenda. As alliances teeter on the edge of betrayal, and lies weave a web around the unsuspecting angel, she becomes an unwitting pawn in a dangerous game.

In a world where destinies intertwine with treacherous threads, Teo struggles with the weight of his deceit, haunted by the unspoken. As he grows unexpectedly fond of the celestial captive, guilt festers beneath his callous exterior. Whispers of the queen's malevolent plans for the angel spark a rebellion within the thief, turning a dubious bargain into a daring coup.

Plotting in progress.......

Project.Oath (Dark fantasy, human doctor x creature patient)

Project.Claw (Gay werewolf murder novel)

You can also find me on.......

(TBA)

[elodieunderglass]

Apart from that haunted forest post, do you have an Abergavenny connection? I had a job there very briefly. Lived in Pontypool for a bit. Not from the uk though.

(In reference to me slowly losing my mind over how many people think the Forest of Dean is in Abergavenny) https://www.tumblr.com/elodieunderglass/752086908799205376/every-so-often-i-visit-this-post-again-and-take-a

Monmouthshire is just a nice accessible area to camp in! Technically our connections are all in north wales but it’s so much harder to get to.

I actually slightly hate Abergavenny, a place less than an hour from Bristol, because we stopped for food there once, asked specifically if a meal was gluten-free, and the people agreed it would be, and sounded very knowledgeable about it, and then enthusiastically served the celiac in the party an actual plate of bulgur wheat. And it cost £16. To poison a guest and then charge that much sets me against a place. But this is admittedly unfair of me.

(Meanwhile, Anglesey, an island off the coast of north Wales, has for some reason one of the loveliest creperies in the world, Skye’s, where for £11 they will cook you a beautiful gluten-free galette. I am being unfair here but GUYS.)

It also occupies a place in my mind similar to Tobermory and Tipperary, it seems like it would be a good name for a set of siblings in an adventure novel

[lionheartapothecaryx]

I believe in incorporating the plants that live and grow around you into your spiritual practice and common Lilac is prevalent in my neighborhood. During spring it’s incredibly fragrant and I love to harvest the wood and blossoms to make spiritual oils and more. I believe in it comes in a variety of different colors, but I’ll be focusing on its purple and white aspects.

Common Lilac

Gender: Feminine & Masculine

Planet: Venus & Mars

Element: Water & Air

Zodiac: Gemini

Metaphysical powers: Spring, renewal, growth, exorcism, banishing, protection, playfulness, good fortune & misfortune, flirtation, romance, attraction, cognition, memory, wisdom, divination, illusions, pleasure

Lilac wood is commonly used to enhance memory, concentration and more due to its air like properties. This wood is excellent for wands and is also said to be a great offering to forest spirits.

Allegedly, according to several sources the sprigs are used in Russia to imbue children with luck and wisdom. In the UK, in a small localized part of England it was believed to be bad luck to bring white lilacs into the house, but finding one with five petals was considered lucky. The purple and red varieties were less feared but were excluded from house decor as bringers of misfortune.

Since the flowers only bloom for a short period, just a couple of weeks depending on where you live, you only get a brief period of time to harvest, the fragrant blossoms. They typically appear between Beltane & Litha, but often can start budding in late spring in April. This is why they are also associated with spring, renewal, growth and perseverance since they also have the ability to push and penetrate through harsh an heavy winter energies. They’re great for initiating and facilitating energetic breakthroughs and new growth.

In these fairly modern times, they are used for banishing negative energy, ghosts, ghouls and other assorted haunts, specifically the purple variety. They are also considered a romantic sort of flower, that inspires flirtation, playfulness, summer flings/love and short attractions. It may not bring you a marriage proposal but it does bring a fun, playful energy that’s good to incorporate in glamours and love work & it can even defend you from the evil eye.

Could you see yourself incorporating Lilacs into your spiritual practice ?

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Photographer Mik Dogherty was named UK Landscape Photographer of the Year for his haunting photo, After the Fire, which was taken in the New Forest National Park.

[wanderingnork]

Horror Movies: Something Old, Something New

Five double features, each matchup featuring a similar theme, plot, or style--but separated by at least twenty years.

Matango (1963, 1h 30m) and Gaia (2021, 1h 30m): Matango is the story of a group of boaters shipwrecked on a strange island infested with bizarre mushrooms. Based on a 1907 short story called The Voice In The Night (read it on archive.org here) and directed by Ishirō Honda, one of the directors and writers of the original Godzilla, it's spine-tingling tale. Gaia takes place in a South African forest, where a pair of forestry service employees discover that the forest is alive in a whole different way than they thought. Both stories deal with fungus, changing human bodies, and ecological disaster. You may want to avoid mushrooms and blue cheese for a bit after these.

The Red Shoes (1948, 2h 15m) and The Red Shoes (2005, 1h 45m): Both of these stories take their title and overall themes from the same Hans Christian Andersen story. You can read the story here. Separated by nearly sixty years and multiple continents--since the 1948 film was made in England and the 2005 film was made in South Korea--they're well worth comparing. Two different times and cultures tackle the same story, and come out with stories that are fully distinct yet strikingly similar.

Ghostwatch (1992, 1h 30m) and Late Night With the Devil (2024, 1h 30m): On Halloween night in 1992, on live TV, a BBC documentary crew enters a haunted house to witness a haunting, only for everything to go horribly wrong--or at least that's the premise of Ghostwatch. The BBC created its mockumentary using its established TV personalities and other added elements of realism, resulting in a War of the Worlds type of national panic. It's never been run on any UK TV channel again. Late Night With the Devil takes a similar spin, although it doesn't present itself as happening today: it's a documentary of events occurring on live TV in 1977. Despite that, watch the plot beats. See if you can spot Ghostwatch. I was able to predict almost the exact plot of the film once I realized what was going on (although it didn't detract from my enjoyment at all).

The Thing (1982, 1h 50m) and 30 Days of Night (2007, 1h 50m): Two different takes on "stranded in an icy polar wasteland," one taking place in Antarctica and the other in Alaska. In the first, the monstrous chaos comes from a shapeshifting alien, while in the second, it's vampires. However, as different as its monsters are, 30 Days of Night pays plenty of homage to The Thing. From helicopter sabotage to prevent escape to a striking shot that evokes the theatrical poster of The Thing, 30 Days of Night shows where it came from. TW for dog death in both movies.

Jason and the Argonauts (1963, 1h 45m) and Bonestorm (short film from VHS: Viral 2014, anthology runtime 1h 20m): Okay, so Jason and the Argonauts isn't exactly horror. It's a retelling of the myth of the same name, with Jason and his crew of heroes sailing to find the Golden Fleece. As much as it is heroic fantasy, it's also full of monsters--stop-motion hydras, harpies, and more created by the legendary Ray Harryhausen. The grand finale is a battle against a group of animated skeletons, which you can watch here. Fifty years later, the makers of Bonestorm revisited the same idea, as a pair of skateboarders battle cultists-turned-skeletons on a trip to Mexico.

Food for thought: Whether or not the more recent filmmakers were aware of the older movies is uncertain, but what can we as viewers draw from these strikingly similar works? Do the old-school effects hold up next to their modern counterparts? In the Matango/Gaia and Red Shoes double features, different cultures are also in play. What's the impact of that on the stories? What does it say about horror that we keep going back to revisit the same themes and stories?

(Previous Recommendations)

[nevesmose]

When I was a kid, there was a hill overlooking our little town with a mysterious concrete structure at the top. To get there you had to go over the old canal, through the abandoned quarry filled with unidentifiable rusted-out equipment scattered around, and then past the creepy broken-down barn where some comedy genius had written "INSERT DICK HERE" next to a suspiciously-positioned hole in the wall.

The whole place was forested over thickly enough to muffle most sounds, and every so often you'd tread hollowly on discarded shotgun cartridges from farmers and/or farmers' mums sneaking out to shoot rabbits at night.

It was also haunted by the ghost of a drunk horseman, but being drunk we decided his actual ability to inflict harm on us would be fairly limited.

In any case, having avoided tetanus, gunshot wounds and catastrophic dick chafing, you'd reach a small sunlit clearing right at the top of the hill. The views were truly spectacular - to the north, fields. To the east, fields. To the south, fields. To the west, fields. The benefits of a rural childhood.

Right in the middle of the clearing was a kind of rectangular metal hatchway set low into the ground. Looking at it you could tell it had been opened up and filled in with concrete at some stage, and needless to say our little minds ran rampant trying to guess what was down there. For about fifteen minutes anyway, and then we'd wander off and smack the shit out of each other with tree branches - we were only kids after all.

The main theory, settled on with all the gravitas and judiciousness we could muster, was that it was some kind of Cold War era nuclear bunker. Not that we really knew much of what that meant, all being members of the first post-Soviet generation who didn't have to grow up with ideas like the four-minute warning or Protect & Survive knocking about inside our heads.

Somebody remembered seeing War Games on Channel 4 one weekend afternoon so we based our mental image on that and conjured up a miniature Scottish version of NORAD sitting empty under our feet, all big maps and flashing lights drowned forever in grey concrete.

And then we grew up a bit and thought, nahh, there's no way it was a bunker. It was a radio tower platform or a power substation or something, right?

But it was a bunker though. I looked it up years later and it was a two-person Royal Observer Corps fallout monitoring station to be used for keeping track of the devastation of our closest city, about 20 miles away. The entirety of the UK is hoaching with these things and I can guarantee you if you grew up anywhere in Britain you were much, much closer to them than you might expect.

Not just close to the bunkers but to the people who would have crewed them in the event of armageddon. That's the thing about the ROC, as I've found out since - it was a voluntary service operated by people living nearby.

So who, I wonder, were the unsung unknown uncalled-upon heroes who'd be there when the end came? Who in my sleepy little village with one school, one church and one main street would have had to leave their families to their fate and spend their next, and probably last, two weeks of life in that tiny concrete cell eating strictly rationed food, breathing strictly filtered air, and working out just how many kilotons had been expended on our little corner of the world?

I have my suspicions, but it's not the kind of thing you can just ask your old neighbour out of nowhere. Would they even have gone if they had to? I wouldn't blame them for a second if they chose to stay home instead. I imagine it was something they all had to decide for themselves and no one, least of all the happy beneficiaries of a better world than the one they lived in, has any right to judge.

I feel as though I'm dragging myself to a Meaningful Conclusion here. Oh boy. The past is always closer than you might think, I suppose. Just around the corner, just out of reach, but always there wherever we happen to be.

This post was mainly motivated by reading the excellent Attack Warning Red: How Britain Prepared for Nuclear War by Julie McDowall, who also does the Atomic Hobo podcast which is well worth a listen if you have any interest in this kind of thing. Don't have nightmares.

[moonmausoleum]

Ghost of Nan Tuck Haunting the English Countryside

The Ghost of Nan Tuck is the haunted legend about an accused witch from England still haunting the woods; she, according to legend, was killed by the villagers chasing her down.

The Ghost of Nan Tuck is the haunted legend about an accused witch from England still haunting the woods; she, according to legend, was killed by the villagers chasing her down. Now she is haunting the place she was killed on. The parish of Buxted in southeast England looks quaint and peaceful enough today if you don’t know its bloody history. The rural parish is green with farmland and…

[lost-in-derry]

Science side of tumblr, how do UK forests maintain their ecosystems without large predators (bears, cougars, wolves, coyotes, etc)? Do you guys just have deer everywhere? This question has haunted me since childhood.

[thewarmestplacetohide]

hi! i love your blog :D. this might be a weird one but do you have any recommendations for possession or demon movies that DON'T deal with Christianity or where Christianity isn't the solution? thanks!

thank you ❤️!!

Suspiria (1977; Italy): occult/giallo; the students of a dance academy begin to die horribly; no specific religion

The Evil Dead (1981; USA): occult/horror comedy; a group of college kids discover an occult tome while vacationing in a cabin; no specific religion

Hellraiser (1987; UK): occult/supernatural horror; a puzzle box that summons interdimensional sadistmasochists falls into nefarious hands; no specific religion

Evil Dead II (1987; USA): occult/horror comedy; a young man is beset by demons while staying in the cabin of an occult researcher; no specific religion

Army of Darkness (1992; USA): occult/horror comedy; after Evil Dead II, Ash finds himself fighting deadites in the Middle Ages; Christianity is there but not the solution

Noroi: The Curse (2005; Japan): occult/found footage; a paranormal investigator tries to tie together a series of bizarre events; Shinto

Evil Dead (2013; USA): occult/slasher/reboot; a group of friends run afoul of demons while trying to help their friend get sober; no specific religion

Jug Face (2013; USA): occult/cosmic horror; a young woman tries to evade fate in a village that worships a bloody thirsty entity; fictional cult

The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014; USA): occult/found footage; a documentary crew follows a woman dealing with dementia (warning: there is a racially insensitive aspect regarding Native American beliefs)

Baskin (2015; Turkey): occult/surrealist; a police squad stumble upon a horrifying ritual; Islam

Satan's Slaves (2017; Indonesia): occult; after dying of a strange illness, a woman returns for her children; Islam

The Ritual (2017; UK): occult; a group of friends get lost in an eerie Norwegian forest; fictional Nordic cult

May the Devil Take You (2018; Indonesia): occult; an estranged daughter seeks an explanation for her father's strange illness; religion not specified

8: A South African Horror Story (2019; South Africa): occult; a financially struggling family contends with sins of the past; South African folk religion

The Vigil (2019; USA): occult; a young man struggling with his faith sits vigil for a recently deceased man; Judaism

The Night House (2020; USA): occult/supernatural horror; a woman fears her home is haunted after her husband's suicide; fictional occult beliefs

Nevanji (2021; Zimbabwe): occult; a family turns to traditional magic to save their son; unspecified Zimbabwean religion

The Old Ways (2020; USA): occult; a reporter returns to her home in Mexico and is accused of being possessed; traditional Nahua faith

The Offering (2023; USA): occult; a man returns to his father's funeral home to try to repair their relationship; Judaism

Evil Dead Rise (2023; USA); occult; a boy accidentally awakens an ancient evil that plagued his family; Christianity is explicitly stated to NOT be the solution

When Evil Lurks (2023; Argentina): occult/supernatural horror; two brothers try to outrun evil after encountering a "rotten," someone spiritually gestating a demon; God is declared dead

[jgthirlwell]

2022 Year In Review

This year once again I invited some friends and colleagues to reflect on 2022

JG Thirlwell

Composer Foetus Xordox Manorexia Steroid Maximus Venture Bros Archer www.foetus.org

2022 was a marathon year. I took on too much work, but somehow got through it. It challenged me. I played some excellent shows in Woodstock, Los Angeles, Orlando and NYC. Reconnected with Soft Cell at the Beacon. Reconnected with Sarah Lipstate. Wrote a ton of new music for Archer and a Venture Bros movie. Taught a class on film scoring at the New School. I still woke up 5am in a panic on too many occasions. And I saw some great concerts.It was difficult to whittle down this list but here are a lot of albums I enjoyed in 2022, in no particular order.

Tyondai Braxton Telekinesis (Nonesuch) Zeal & Ardor Zeal & Ardor (MVKA) Papangu Holoceno (Bandcamp) Extra Life Secular Works Vol 2 (Bandcamp) Carl Stone Wat Dong Moon Lek (Unseen Worlds) / Gall Tones (Unseen Worlds) / We Jazz Reworks Vol 2 (We Jazz Records) Louis Cole Quality Over Opinion (Brainfeeder) Ben Frost 1899 OST (Invada Records) Loraine James Building Something Beautiful For Me (Phantom Limb) Persher Man With The Magic Soap (Thrill Jockey) Anna Meredith Bumps Per Minute (Moshi Moshi) Sault Air (Forever Living Originals) The Smile A Light For Attracting Attention (XL) Shamblemaths Shamblemaths 2 (Apollon Prog) Julia Wolfe Oxygen (Cantelope) Heiner Schmitz’s Symprophonicum Sins & Blessings (Big Band Records) Burial Antidawn EP / Streetlands EP (Hyperdub) Gotho Mindbowling (Controcanti Produzioni) Oliver Coates The Stranger OST Gilla Band Most Normal (Rough Trade Records Ltd) Blanck Mass Ted K OST (Sacred Bones) Arcade Fire WE (Interscope) Yeah Yeah Yeahs Cool It Down (Secretly) Catarine Barbieri Spirit Exit (light-years) Felicia Atkinson Image Language (Shelter Press) Netherlands Kali Corvette (Three One G) Kemper Norton estrenyon (Zona Watusa) Elysian Fields Once Beautiful Twice Removed (Ojet) Simon Hanes Hurricane Salad Two Fingers Red Bass DJ Mix 22 (NoMark) Backxwash His Happiness Shall Come…(Ugly Hag) Bob Vylan The Price of Life (Ghost Theater) John Elmquist’s Hard Art Groop Stars and Bells / Zero Rest Mass / Trip Up reissues (Bandcamp) Dan Deacon Hustle OST (Netflix Music) Bent Knee Frosting (TTTH) Boris Heavy Rocks 2022 (Relapse) Wet Leg Wet Leg (Domino) Author and Punisher Kruller (Relapse)

Honorable mentions Hudson Mohawke Cry Sugar / Rival Consoles Now is / Haunted Horses The Worst Has Finally Happened / Sirom The Liquified Throne of Simplicity (Tak:Til)/ Meshuggah Immutable / Ani Klang Ani Klang / Pimpon Pozdrawiam (Pointless Geometry)

Shows

The Smile at Kings Theater Julia Wolfe Steel Hammer Carnegie Hall The Protomen LPR Tristan Perich St Thomas ChurchSparks Town Hall Anna Meredith Elsewhere Lingua Ignota LPR Royal Blood Terminal 5 Kraftwerk Radio City Hiro Kone Pioneer Works RATM / RTJ MSG Matmos LPR Rammstein MetLife Stadium Yeah Yeah Yeahs Forest Hills Stadium Melvins Irving Plaza Roxy Music MSG Sean Lennon Stone Elysian Fields The Owl The Comet Is Coming Bowery Ballroom Child Abuse TV Eye Fennesz Pioneer Works Helm Elsewhere

Film / TV

The Stranger All Quiet In The Western Front Dont Worry Darling Moonage Daydream The Velvet Underground Elvis Men Northman Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent White Lotus

Books

I read a ton of memoirs this year. Standouts were

Kid Congo Powers Some New Kind Of Kick Danny Sugerman Wonderland Ave

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Kemper Norton

LISTENING

My favourite album of the year was the dayglo psychedelic joy of Panda Bear/ Sonic Boom’s Reset , with honourable mentions for the amazing Aethiopes by billy woods and Alison Cotton’s beautiful The Portrait You Painted of Me. Also, must mention the massive , varied and crucial Rental Yields compilations on Front and Follow /Gated Canal Community in aid of homeless charities in the UK.

GIGS

Didn’t get out much this year but live events I loved this year here in Brighton, UK included the blasted joy of deafkids at The Hope, the final gig of the mighty Slum of Legs at The Green Door Store, and playing alongside Alexander Tucker’s Microcorps and Opal X at The Wire’s 40th anniversary shows at The Rosehill as part of the reanimated Outer Church.

In terms of radio, as well as Elizabeth Alker’s essential breakfast and Unclassified shows on Radio 3 there were loads of great shows on the fantastic Repeater Radio ( many previously on the mighty Neon Hospice) including Afternoon Delight by Ix Tab and the best of Eastern Europe showcased on Slav to the Rhythm by Catherine and Iris.

READING

Apart from the works of nonconformist Cornish poet Jack Clemo and American novelist Pete Dexter ( Deadwood and Paris, Trout ), new discoveries were thin on the ground this year. I read and reread a lot of old favourites ( Ray Bradbury, Cormac McCarthy, Pat Barker , Elmore Leonard ) and finally fell in love with Jane Austen.

WATCHING

My film and TV viewing in 2022 was largely informed / enforced by my 5 year old daughter, and the essential texts we rewatched repeatedly were the lively and proactive Gaby’s Dollhouse, multi-species global explorers the Octonauts , surreal UK gem Sarah and Duck and of course, the inspirational Aussie masterpiece Bluey. I did manage to catch a few films either new or new to me in 2022…

Wake in Fright ( 1971) : another Australian key text ( although less adorable than Bluey ). The horrors of closed environments, toxic masculinity and continuous drinking.

Enys Men (2022) : Cornish filmmaker Mark Jenkin’s spooky and minimalistic follow-up to his incredible Bait (2019) , a wonderful drama of local economic realities and identities. Would love to score one of his films but unfortunately he does an excellent job of this himself.

Stalker (1979) : As good as everyone said it would be.

EATING

Chorizo with honey Chinese black fungus

DRINKING

Everything by Burning Sky brewery ( Sussex, UK)

CREATING

I managed to churn out two tape releases in 2022 in between all the watching, listening, eating, drinking etc.

Estrenyon was released on tape and download with the Barcelona label zonawatusa and was inspired by historical UFO sightings throughout Cornwall from 1888 to 2021. Rife is the story of a Sussex Spring day and was released via Woodford Halse, who have released loads of great electronic and folky music by the likes of Xylitol and Sairie. On top of that , our first volume of download-only pay-what-you-like winter tunes Montol Melodies is available on our bandcamp until the traditional English old ‘ twelfth night ‘ ( January 12 2023).

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Lee Ranaldo

2022 LIST

I’m terrible at lists like this, and usually don’t keep track towards such a year-end summary. Pardon the self-focus, this is my year-in-review accounting, mostly just remembering to myself.

August in Vienna Leah and I spent the month of August in Vienna, creating a public artwork, sound+image, called Fermata. I discovered the world of small-body, near century-old, German + Austrian guitars. I wrote the main melodic material one one of these tiny, wonderful instruments,. At one point we had 3 of them in the apartment down in the MuseumQuartier. A whole new world of sound to explore. Side trips to Berlin and Prague. (https://tonspur.at/soundworks/lee-ranaldo-leah-singer/?lang=en) Exhibitions in Berlin and Eupen, Chile Media Arts Biennial, Covid Flowers online Exhibitions of my Black Noise record print editions in Berlin, Lost Highway road drawings in Belgium, and watercolor covid-flowers online. In Chile Leah and I created an outdoor sound/art work, Do You Read Me?, in a field of trees surrounding an observatory above Santiago. Sounds were generated from signals collected from deep space by another observatory in the Atacama desert. A sound displacement work.

Medicine Singers in Brasilia, Montreal, NYC Had fruitful wanderings this year with Yonatan Gat, working with indigineous players from the USA, Brasil and Canada. Recording sessions in Montreal at fabulous Hotel2Tango studio, and in a splendid house set on the edge of the city in Brasilia, one of my favorite places. Happy to have been invited along for this most interesting ride.

Touring resumes Mostly in Europe, mostly quite wonderful. After 2 years at home it felt good to stand up in front of audiences again. Lots of solo acoustic shows playing In Virus Times and singing songs, but also interesting collaborations with Yuri Landman; My Cat Is An Alien, Jean-Marc Montera and Sophie Gonthier, and a special ‘Velvets Suite’ with French legend Pascal Comelade in Banyoles, Spain. Also the beginnings of a new collaboration with Chicago guitarist Michael Vallera, in a great new space in NYC for experimental music, 411 Kent (aka Shift). Leah and I premiered the new version of our Contre Jour performance with suspended guitar and films, in A Coruna, Spain and at the Three-Lobed Fest in Durham, North Carolina – which was an amazing three days of music. Also a short NorthEast tour with Jeff Parker in May.

London/Paris/Leah/ Catpower My touring year ended with a month split between Europe and the UK. A friend-lent apartment in Paris as base, with shows and lectures in Nantes, and Brittany. Five shows in the UK, the most I’ve played in some time there, including a free-ranging set with the Pop Group’s Mark Stewart and an eclectic band. Wild night! Leah flew over to celebrate her birthday, with CatPower at Royal Albert Hall (first time there for us both) recreating Bob Dylan’s legendary show there – both acoustic and electric sets – from 1966. What a great night, and our time together, in London, Paris and Brittany, was splendid.

Hurricane Transcriptions This year I played solo keyboard shows for the first time ever – the solo-for-Fender-Rhodes performance of my Hurricane Sandy Transcriptions, first at Karma Gallery in NYC, accompanied by films from LA Artist Mungo Thomson, and also at a Xenakis celebration in Vienna and at the opening of my exhibition of Lost Highway drawings, ‘The Road Is Like The River, Constantly Changing Yet Ever The Same’ – at IKOB Museum in Eupen, Belgium. (ikob.be)

Circuit des Yeux at Green-Wood Cemetery I think my favorite gig of the year was Circuit des Yeux in Green-Wood Cemetery on a rainy night in June. The weather threatened the show all evening, which made this incredible performance – just Haley and Whitney Johnson (Matchess). Just a magical, powerful night.

Godard’s King Lear In late August I committed to introduce Jean-Luc Godard’s King Lear, which I’d never seen, at TriBeCa’s Roxy Cinema, which has been doing terrific programs organized by Illyse Singer. I love Godard’s films, they are an important touchstone for me, and I took this as an opportunity to discover both the film and Shakespeare’s play; my Shakespeare knowledge is terrible, so I boned up on the play. Four days before the screening, the great master died, which cast the whole night in a new light. The film has been described by Richard Brody of the NY’er as ‘one of the best films of all time’ – wow. Burgess Meredith, Molly Ringwald, Norman Mailer, Julie Delpy, Leos Carax, and Godard himself center-stage and the plugged/unplugged oracle Professor Pluggy. What a film. As usual with a Godard film: what a sound mix!. See it in 35mm.

Broken Circle / Spiral Hill I have had a long fascination with the work of Robert Smithson, since discovering the book of his writings in the 70s. In the early 80s on the first few SY tours, I ‘coaxed’ the band into visiting one of his 3 still existing artworks – Broken Circle/Spiral Hill – in the countryside of northern Holland. Back then it was like a treasure hunt trying to find it, in the dark, late on the way to Club Vera in Groningen. In 2020 I visited it for a third time w friend Carlos, in the week before the world shut down. It had been totally restored and ready for it’s moment – just at it’s 50-year mark. In 2022 the site-an old, long-unused quarry – was opened to the public for the first time in ages, across 8 weekends. This year I narrated a podcast for the Holt/Smithson Foundation and the Netherland’s Land Art Contemporary, about Smithson and the work, which went live in November. (brokencircle.nl)

Birdsong Project I worked on this project, as both producer and performer, to raise money to benefit the Audobon Society for the preservation of avian habitats. Over 200 musicians contributed to this 20-LP set, as well as writers, poets and artists. Uplifting and surprising. (https://www.audubon.org/birdsong-project)

James Jackson Toth In the early 2000s I produced an album – James and the Quiet – with Mr. Wooden Wand, who’s music I love. This year a group of friends organized a birthday tribute to James, with 33 of us recording versions of songs from his vast catalog. I recorded ‘Wired to the Sky’, a favorite from the album we made together, recorded in our Viennese apartment in August, which closes this Birthday Blues collection. (https://aquariumdrunkard.com/category/jamesjackson-toth/)

Some Music/Art/Books etc:

Lou Reed – Words + Music, 1971 RCA Demos David Bowie – Divine Symmetry Catherine Christer Hennix – Selected Early Keyboard Works (https://blankformseditions.bandcamp.com/album/selected-early-keyboard-works) Plus Instruments, Februari-April ’81 (first record I was ever on) on Domani Records, NYC. In/Out/In, Sonic Youth. So cool to see this release welcomed so warmly! Cecilia Vicuña, Tate Modern Turbine Hall Venus of Willendorf, Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna Matisse: The Red Studio, Museum of Modern Art, NYC Claude Monet – Joan Mitchell, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris Marco Fusinato, Desastres, Venice Biennale Family Affair, a 20-minute short film included in the Criterion Collection edition of Josh & Benny Safdie’s 2009 Daddy Longlegs, outlining our two families intertwined involvement in the making of the film. The most glorious home movie ever. The Double Life of Bob Dylan: A Restless, Hungry Feeling, Clinton Heylin. First of a 2-part bio of the (other) Bard, making first use of all the new material out from Tulsa’s Bob Dylan Center archive. Loved: Olivier Assayas’ Irma Vep mini series. He’d used SY’s ‘Tunic’ in his original 1995 film, and we became friends and occasional collaborators. The new limited series mines the story anew, meta-mixing in his 1995 film and Louis Feuillade’s 1915 original, Les Vampires. The most contemporary piece of ‘television’ I’ve seen in ages, just wonderful, with fantastic cast including a spot-on stand-in portrayal by Vincent Macaigne as the director, Alicia Vikander as Irma Vep, and Lars Eidinger as Gottfried. Also Devon Ross, Carrie Brownstein, many other great performances. Loved it. Still watching: Westworld, Handmaid’s Tale. Hal Willner Memorial, St. Anne’s, April. Miss Hal all the time…

---LR, Winnipeg, December 2022

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Brian Chase

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Brian chose to write about one album that impacted him in 2022

This write-up is in no way meant to be a formal review - I don’t deem myself qualified for that task here - rather, this is meant to share personal enthusiasm and bring an album to light - like, "Have you heard this, it's really really amazing and inspiring and why isn't there more talking about it, and…" As a musician working within a greater community, I am acutely aware of the creative drive to continually uncover new modes, methodologies, practices etc. of expressing our chosen art form - each performance and each album serving as an instance of discovery and offering new perspectives on old conundrums. Whether the genre is rock, jazz, noise, free-improvisation, modern classical etc. the relationship of discourse and dialogue is still the same. At the forefront of this dialogue is John Zorn, as he has been for decades, and a major contribution to the conversation is the 2022 album Incerto - Existentialism, Psychoanalysis, and the Uncertainty Principle. Here, Zorn is the composer and the performing ensemble consists of some of Zorn's tightest in recent years: Brian Marsella on piano, Julian Lage on guitar, Jorge Roeder on bass and Ches Smith on drums. As Zorn says in the liner notes, "Incerto is about possibilities, probabilities, inevitabilities and improbabilities." Formal logic for musical structure is considerably expanded with these compositions and never before have I heard such new forms for improvisation. In these pieces, unexpected juxtapositions and superimpositions abound, as foremost examples of its many distinct features. The syntax of this music is beyond the scope of any previous way that I've conceived of music existing. Not only are harmonic and rhythmic conventions regularly reconstructed - often replaced with adjacent compliments and aggressive contradictions - but entire paradigms of improvisatory behavior are game as well. Shifts in genre/mood/tempo/texture/harmonic character/melodic personality place the improvisor in varying contexts - often in a short amount of time - and each context requires its own set of responses. The whole scope of musical history+trends+possibilities takes on a dynamic relational co-existence, in ways that I've never previously heard or thought possible - like when angular atonal lead lines enter on top of a serene ostinato, or impressionistic chords alternate between stillness and motion, or genre styles and idiomatic references collide, or gravelly density and noise build tension culminating into a placid release. Plus, so much of the composed material is really just so cool. Paramount to it all is the music’s immense depth of feeling. The moods on this album are evocative, romantic and ecstatic as much as they are revolutionary, kaleidoscopic and mystifying. As the music winds through its structural twists and turns, the key that holds it all together is sincerity of spirit - the performance of this music, as well as listening to it, is a literal experience. And within each singular track is the remarkable performance of the individual musicians themselves - each a respective master at the craft. Additionally, the album as a collective whole, being comprised of eleven very different tracks, functions as a macro-structure in itself which expands on the themes present in each individual track. So many new modes of music making are presented here - integrating them into current music making will take a while as more people discover its brilliance and begin to absorb the concepts and ideas it conveys. It is uniquely Zorn and there for us musicians to process and in turn produce that which is uniquely ours. Incerto is a gem in the conversation - we can listen and run with it how we like - but we have to hear it first.

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David T. Little

composer www.davidtlittle.com

MUSIC (new, revisited, & in rotation)

Vile Creature – Glory! Glory! Apathy Took Helm! Burning Witch – Crippled Lucifer tryphème – Aluminia Louis Cole – Quality Over Opinion KANGA – You and I Will Never Die DELANILA – Overloaded Amyl & the Sniffers – Comfort To Me Kae Tempest – Let Them Eat Chaos Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer – Josquin, the Undead: Laments, Deplorations & Dances of Death Run The Jewels – 1, 2, 3, 4 The Cure – Disintegration, Wish, Show, Pornography Tenderheart Bitches – High Kicks George Walker – Piano Sonatas (Steven Beck) Rammstein – Herzeleid, Mutter, Sehnsucht, Untitled (in heavy rotation after the MetLife Stadium show) Living Colour – Vivid Utah Phillips – We Have Fed You All For A Thousand Years Tom Morello – Hold The Line (track, feat. grandson) ACRONYM – Oddities & Trifles: the Very Peculiar Instrumental Music of Giovanni Valentini Late Stravinsky (various) Son Lux – Everything Everywhere All At Once (ost) Harrison Birtwistle – The Moth Requiem Christopher Tin – The Lost Birds Karim Sulayman, Apollo’s Fire – Songs of Orpheus Hermann Nitsch – Symphony No. 9 “The Egyptian” Jay Wadley – Swan Song (ost) Herem – Pulsa diNura Danny Elfman – Big Mess / Bigger. Messier. (Deluxe.) Scott Walker – The Drift

FILMS & SERIES (new & rewatched) Hellraiser (Clive Barker) The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman) Tetsuo: The Iron Man (Shin'ya Tsukamoto) Private Life (Tamara Jenkins) Double Take (Johan Grimonprez) After Life (Ricky Gervais) One Big Bag (Every Ocean Hughes) The Village Detective (Bill Morrison) Polia & Blastema (E. Elias Merhige) Sibyl (William Kentridge)

The Copper Queen (Crystal Manich) Wishes (Amy Jenkins) The Once and Future Smash (Sophia Cacciola & Michael J. Epstein) End Zone 2 (August Kane) All Quiet on the Western Front (Edward Berger) Everything Everywhere All At Once (Daniels) Russian Doll (multiple directors) Piggy (short) (Carlota Pereda) The Mitchells vs. The Machines (Michael Rianda & Jeff Rowe) WHAT DID JACK DO? (David Lynch) The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion) Pig (Michael Sarnoski) The Green Knight (David Lowery) The Northman (Robert Eggers) Muriel’s Wedding (P.J. Hogan) BoJack Horseman (multiple directors) Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick)

BOOKS (some) Body Horror - Anne Elizabeth Moore Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf a ghost in the throat - Doireann Ní Ghríofa Cleanness – Garth Greenwell A Saint from Texas – Edmund White Out Loud – Mark Morris The Gastronomical Me – M.F.K. Fisher Agamemnon – Aeschylus (trans. Robert Fagles)

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Jonnine

HTRK

2022 good vibes - Hackedepicciotto tour photos such #couplegoals, kicking off the HTRK tour in Atlanta was exhilarating! Big hangs with my overseas buds Nathan Corbin and Yasmina Dexter, writing new songs with Nigel and keeping THE dream alive, my puppy Pali growing up into mumma’s good boy, instagram follows @the.holistic.psychologist (self healing)  @cracked.bolos (cakes), DJ Sundae, Amir Shoat, ‘Crush’ by Richard Siken (borrow from Nigel) writing bonkers dreams down again, Jonathan Richmond lyrics, tik tok #stayathomegirlfriend, jamming with Brother May in London and playing cafe OTO, second season Euphoria, White Lotus, Heartbreak High, rewatching Curb, Julia Fox’s eye makeup tutorial, films The Weekend and 45 Years by director Andrew Haigh, Charlotte Rampling interviews, fam long drives with Conrad and Pali finding songs for NTS <3 <3 Conrad got me into the Kinks!

Some music  i liked Actress — Dummy Corporation (Ninja Tune)  Autumn Fair - Autumn Fair  DALE CORNISH — Traditional Music of South London (The Death Of Rave)  Delphine Dora — A Stream Of Consciousness II (for piano solo) Coby Sey — Conduit (AD 93)  CS + Kreme — Orange (The Trilogy Tapes)  Harry Howard  - Slight Pavilions  Various / Kashual Plastik — Field of Progress Jonathan Richman - Jonathan Goes Country  Julia Reidy - World in World  Kitchen Cynics — Strange Acrobats Liz Durette - A Christmas Gift To You  Malvern Brume — Body Traffic (MAL)  Taylor E. Burch — The Best of Taylor E. Burch (Downwards)  The Incredible String Band — Wee Tam and the Big Huge  The Kinks - The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society  Thomas Bush — Preludes Warm Currency — Returns (Horn Of Plenty) 

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Lawrence English

(Room 40 Records)

This year was the first time I had travelled internationally since 2019. The thing I realised I've truly missed is seeing people. The opportunity to share ideas, to be curious with others and to just be in the world was, well, magical. I think if anything the past few years has reminded me (us?) not to take things for granted…especially each other. This year was also the first time I returned to making solo electronic works. It had been about six years since I had completed Cruel Optimism and, if I am honest, I wasn’t sure if I still had an appetite for making solo electronic works. Approach however proved, to me at least, I can still derive great pleasure from working alone. Unexpectedly, I found the whole process of the album very satisfying, like it was new all over again, not something I always feel.

There’s been a tonne of great input into the system this year. Ergo Proxy totally got me thinking. I was late to the party, but it was a party I am glad I did make it to. Puce Mary made some tapes back in April, both of them were totally ace, filled with an acute sense of heaviness. I very much enjoyed Boy Harsher’s work this year too, outside my usual orbit in some ways, but they are really onto something of late. I caught up with my old and dear friend Kate Crawford, and had a chance to read over he excellent Atlas Of AI book, she is a tower of radiance. Annea Lockwood’s, work occupied a great deal of my thoughts this year, realising her Piano Transplants all at once was quite simply a delight. Adam Curtis’s TraumaZone left an indelible mark in more ways than one. I returned to Vancouver to photograph the crows that started off my homage to Masahisa Fukase, perhaps that tract of work is done? Oh and thanks to a dinner with Atsuo from Boris, and the encouragement of my small humans, we all started down the pathway of the epic saga of Gundam too. I missed that when I was younger, so it’s a long road to catch up on….but I started.

Oh and on a purely personal note I was able to commission a shikishi from Yoshihisa Tagami. Seriously, my 12 year old self was reborn when it arrived. The world is so much bigger, and smaller, than that little human could ever have imagined!

Love to you all and here’s hoping 2023 is full of curious surprises and wonder.

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John Tottenham

author

A LISTLESS LIST

Best Books:   Woodcutters Concrete Extinction| Wittgenstein’s Nephew Old Masters 

Thomas Bernhard

A Father and his Fate More Women than Men Manservant and Maidservant A Family and a Fortune  -  Ivy Compton Burnett   Hawkwind: Days of the Underground  -  Joe Banks

Best Songs:   Eunice Collins  –  At the Hotel Gloria Barnes  -  Old Before My Time Sonia Ross  -  Every Now and Then Rozetta Johnson  -  A Woman��s Way Debbie Taylor  -  I Don’t Wanna Leave You Denise LaSalle  -  Trapped by a Thing Called Love Barbara Stant  -  Unsatisfied Woman Ann Alford  -  If It Ain’t One Thing Big Martha  -  Your Magic Touch Helene Smith  -  Sure Thing     Best Shows By Octogenarians And Nonagenarians:

Ramblin’ Jack Elliott – Zebulon, LA  / Bob Dylan  -  Pantages, LA / Marshall Allen (Arkestra)  -  Zebulon, LA / Swamp Dogg  -  Teragram, LA / Doug Kershaw  -  Zebulon,  LA / Sonny Green  -  Barnyard & La Louisianne, LA / Tommy McClain  -  Stowaway, LA

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Brian Carpenter

Composer / Ghost Train Orchestra

My favorite recordings of 2022, in no particular order…also the most frequently played albums on my long-running radio show Free Association on WZBC in Boston. As I'm writing this I'm reminded that a lot of great records came out of bands from South London this year, across genres. 

The Comet is Coming - CODE Caroline - caroline Dry Cleaning - Stumpwork William Orbit - The Painter Akusmi - Fleeting Future

Electric Youth, David Sylvian, et al - A Tribute to Ryuichi Sakamoto - To the Moon and Back Portico Quartet - Next Stop The Smile - A Light for Attracting Attention Zola Jesus - Into the Wild Mary Lattimore and Paul Sukeena - West Kensington Lucrecia Dalt - Ay! Bjork - Fossora Tindersticks - Stars at Noon Original Soundtrack Kamikaze Palm Tree - The Hit Bitchin Bajas - Bajascillators Bill Callahan - YTILAER Thurston Moore - Screen Time Bill Orcutt - Music for Four Guitars Horse Lords - Comradely Objects Curha - Curha III

Sharon Van Etten - We've Been Going About This All Wrong Aldous Harding - Warm Chris Weyes Blood - Hearts Aglow Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You Oneida - Success Brandon Seabrook - In the Swarm Jacob Garchik - Assembly Oren Ambarchi - Shebang The Lord and Petra Haden - Devotional Roedelius & Tim Story - 4 Hands Brian Eno - Foreverandevernomore Steve Reich - Runner Moor Mother - Jazz Codes Makaya McCraven  - Dream Another Sun Ra Arkestra - Living Sky Danger Mouse and Black Thought - Identical Deaths A Far Cry - The Blue Hour Nils Frahm - Music for Animals Mary Halvorson - Amaryllis Kronos Quartet, Van-Anh Vanessa Vo, Rinde Eckert - My Lai Attacca Quartet - Caroline Shaw: Evergreen

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DJ Food

Music: Clocolan - Empathy Alpha LP (Redpan) Brian Eno - The Lighthouse (Sonos HD) King Gizzard &The Lizard Wizard - Omnium Gatherum LP (Flightless) Twilight Sequence - Trees in General: and the Larch 12" (Castles In Space) WTCHCRFT - Drugs Here 12" (Balkan Vinyl) Ghost Power - Ghost Power LP (Duophonic Super 45s) Dexorcist - Night Watch 12" (Yellow Machines) The Advisory Circle - Full Circle LP (Ghost Box) Fenella - The Metallic Index (Fire Records) S'Express & Daddy Squad - Music 4 The Mind (DL)

Podcasts: The Bureau of Lost Culture We Buy Records Oh God, What Now?

Gigs / Events: The Orb play U.F.Orb @ The Fox & Firkin, London Staying in a restored Futuro House, Somerset Fogfest @ Iklectik, London Funki Porcini's Lasarium @ Iklectik, London The Trunk Groovy Record Fayre @ Mildmay Club, London

Books / Comics: 99 Balls Pond Road - Jill Drower (Scrudge Books) Radio Spaceman - Mike Mignola & Greg Hinkle (Dark Horse) A-Z of Record Shop Bags - Jonny Trunk (Fuel) Mud Sharks - Dave Barbarossa Good Pop, Bad Pop - Jarvis Cocker (Vintage) House Music - Andy Votel (The Modernist) Defying Gravity - Jordan Mooney w. Cathi Unsworth 69 Exhibition Road - Dorothy Max Prior (Strange Attractor) Judge Dredd - Mike McMahon (Apex Edition) It's Lonely At The Centre Of The Universe - Zoe Thorogood (Image Comics) The Black Locomotive - Rian Hughes (Picador)

Films: Get Back (Disney+) Who Killed The KLF? (Chris Atkins) In The Court of the Crimson King (Toby Aimes)

[tansu-bomb]

In a way I am very glad for however Cho Yeong’s memories got erased. Coz it would be way too painful for her to continue living with the knowledge that she plunged her sword through the love of her life…the one person in the entire world she loved to death, the one person she gave everything up for, the one person she wanted to protect, the one person for whom she wished to defy fate & live happily with.

It could be that her painful, haunting memory (of Uk lying dead on the forest floor and her covered in his blood) prevented her from healing sooner.

She’s lost all innocence at a far too young age. It would be great to watch her without memories…to watch how she would’ve grown up (without death/tragedy/revenge) atleast for a few episodes.

If I were Uk, I would rather she continue to live without the painful memories…even if it meant she wouldn’t recognize him / their past connection.

I want nothing but happiness for Cho Yeong.