English Heretic - Wyrd Tales (2006)

«With twisting and fateful reports reflected in an obsidian mirror, woven by the very hands of the Norns, Wyrd Tales recounts the actual waking nightmares experienced by the staff of English Heretic as they conduct their uncanny investigations. Comprising over two years of research, field visits and pathworkings, Wyrd Tales also surveys the geography of creative inspiration, extrapolating outrageous and vertical asymptotes for future imaginative discourse. Indeed, Wyrd Tales is intended both as an exciting escape from the tyranny of fact and as a practical ordnance survey of our country’s psychohistorical contours.»

This package blurs the tenuous boundaries between art and magick: with a 92-page A5 format booklet and a 70 minute CD, it documents English Heretic’s research into the magick of sound or the sound of magick. The book contains a series of essays and stories which explain (or further mystify!) the process by which the tracks on the CD were created. The CD itself is a blending of neo-folk and ritual instruments with field recordings and electronically processed sound. Drawing inspiration from local folk tales, medieval and recent history, the magick of A. O. Spare, supernatural fiction, and the consumption of hallucinogens – it takes us on a journey through the more “wyrd” realms of occultism. Some of the tracks are pure sound-experimentation – layering processed sounds on top of field recordings, others are ordinary (although it seems wrong to use the word “ordinary” in this case) songs; there is also a “pathworking”, where a sonic-collage is accompanied by a narrator guiding the listener through a series of ritual visualisations. Over the years, there were quite a lot of works attempting to blend occultism with various forms of (electro)acoustics, but when you hear it done as well as it’s done here, the ghosts really come alive.


Liner Notes:

1. Season Of The Witches' Glove - Developed from an improvisation by the Lychgate Seers, recorded on 25th July 2004, in the churchyard of St. Mary's at Mistley, Essex - the hometown of Matthew Hopkins.
2. Pan Satyros - Ambience recorded at The Goat Tavern, Mayfair, on the eve of Lupercalia MMVI. Words - unknown couple at The Goat Tavern. Samples - constructed using an AOSSIC Radio while meditating on the Spare painting "Pan Satyros".
3. The Digitalis Experience (Side 1) - An extract from a collaborative LP between Witchcraft Research Association and Dr. Alan Champagne.
4. Theme From The Abraxas Inheritance - Music recorded on location at Mistley Pond, Essex and in the studio. Poem inspired by Frazer's Golden Bough, performed by David, Hannah and Andy Sharp. Legend has it Hopkins' ghost haunts Mistley pond, on sabbath eves.
5. The Menabilly Pathworking - Pathworking constructed by Dr. Alan Champagne. Ambience recorded at Menabilly, Barton, Cornwall. Arrangement by English Heretic Field Group.
6. Oh Whistle And I'll Come To You - Recorded on location at Felixstowe Beach 8/12/2005 at the site of Walton Priory and at The Church of St. Paul and Peter's at Walton.
7. The Vampires Are Coming/Minion Of The Outer Ones - Constructed with an AOSSIC Radio using Spare's "The Vampires Are Coming" and "Minion Of The Outer Ones".