Release Date: 13 October 2018
1.The Birds Are Sweetly Singing/2. The Policeman Is Dead/ 3.Bright Dead Star/4.30 Red Houses/5.A Thousand Witches/6.Your Future Cartoon/7.The Postman Is Singing/8. The Bench And The Fetch/9. The Kettle’s On/1o. Fair Weather/11.The Milkmaid Sings
Label: House of Mythology
Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm? or else the story of an album that got inspired by a mysterious ritualistic killing
Let’s start talking about this album by talking about Bella (real name unknown)’s murder. This is a (still) unsolved case but the narrative is that Bella was killed in the early 40s in ways that echoed the killing of witches, despite the fact that the reason behind her death was also 
believed to be Nazi espionage. Even though this story unveiled in the 40s there are many folklore elements assigned to it. Reports talked about the ceremony known as the ‘Hand of Glory’ allegedly having being performed, combined with other rituals that are present on studies regarding the killing of witches. Even though the 1940s was a completely different era than the 1644 to 1647 when witch hunts reached their zenith in England, the apparent brutality and mystery surrounding this case, provided a fertile ground for the development of different theories and assumptions. The site of this was Wych Elm, an area belonging to Wychbury Hill, which is a site loved from pagans and is home to the first example of England’s neoclassical architecture, a purely decorative (and now listed) construction that replicated the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens. If you have come across this story, you might already know that there are many articles, studies, documentaries done about Bella and this mysterious killing and there is also a very distinct sketch that has been produced, of her figure. This sketch has been re-imagined by David Tibet and has ‘haunted’ the whole live performance of the new album of C93 at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire on the day of its release. It is also a key element in the visuals of the physical album, while the occult-related side of the story of Bella’s murder has been channelled in this album in different ways such as, in the lyrics of ‘A Thousand Witches‘ as well as through the alteration of these lyrics at the end of ‘The Postman Is Singing‘
“A thousand witches
In the house in the fields
In your heart
Inside them all is Endor
A thousand witches in Lower Quinton
A thousand witches by Hagley Wood…”(lyrics from: ‘A Thousand Witches’)
I don’t think that Current 93 have ever presented an album live on the day of its release and this is remarkable because the live performance of this album completely changed its perception. While it was challenging to overcome the thrill of listening to a new album for the first time, the way this album was performed, the whole production of this gig, enhanced its emotional and conceptual impact tenfold. It is unfair to say this, but those who missed that gig, have also missed part of the meaning of this album. We hope that a DVD will be released in the future for those who are interested in the deeper meaning of music and lyrics and are following the work of C93.
A mantra and the power of deconstruction
Despite the self explanatory title of this album, its presentation created anything but a doom filled atmosphere. Like the figure of Bella, the phrases ‘The Light is Leaving Us All’ and ‘The Light is Leaving You All’, dissected all the songs and were present throughout this album. Even though I ‘felt’ their ‘weight’ on me through the captivating, magnetizing gaze of David Tibet, I did not leave from this concert with a feeling of inevitability. This album is really a mantra above anything else, it is poetic and raw. It is the repetition of these phrases and the ways in which this was done uniquely in the live performance, that help those open to it, to enter an altered state of consciousness. Having said that, mantras usually rely on repetition for the creation of a hypnotic almost psychedelic atmosphere. The eleven songs of this album disrupt their conceptual continuity several times, by adding in the lyrics, references to the Bible, life in rural England, nature and folklore elements. The alteration of these themes with the main phrase ‘the light is leaving us all‘ is being done in the magickal ways that David Tibet has mastered throughout the years. The vocabulary used in the verses, (i.e. ‘The kettle is on and our work is done…’), the aesthetics of the landscapes that are being described (e.g. Lower Quinton, Hagley Wood) and the landscapes that we saw projected on the screen during the gig, firmly positions this album in England and the everyday expressions and routines, people are talking about around the country.
Starting from the songs’ titles we noticed that many of them, refer to a rural life of the past where a policeman, a postman and a milkmaid are local heroes or anti-heroes (depending on one’s worldview). This album is a story where barns, cows, cattle are present in the lyrics as signifiers and a RED BARN, a RED HILL and a RED CHURCH, are the only words in capital letters within the lyrics and are somehow symbols of imminent danger or self sacrifice…At the same time, the artwork of the album and the visuals that accompanied the gig of C93, were based on the aesthetics and the subversion of the emotional impact of old photographs. We watched photographs of old interiors, being animated with an intention to both deface and re-define them as haunted by the auras of people who are no longer present. We watched old photographs of people, being animated/altered with white paint in their eyes, (maybe a reference to the tradition of Ancient Greeks who placed coins on the eyes of deceased people as payment to Charos (Death) as they crossed the river Styx on their way to Hades) as if they had tears…as if someone was attempting to give an expression to their previous inner selves or a form to their psyches. The paint on the eyes of people in the photographs then ‘bled’ out before all the photographs disappeared and the cutout female form dominated the atmosphere.
“And in the First Book
And in the Last Book
And in All the Books InBetween
And between the books and the words
There is something at war with nothing
There is someone at war with no-one
And everything at war with you…”(lyrics from: ‘30 Red Houses‘)
All the visuals, no matter how obscure or cryptic their meaning and atmosphere might have been, were being transformed through white paint and even smudges, before or after which, they were filled with starry-type of strokes. The emotional effect of this aesthetic language, coupled with the seamless transition between verses with both soothing and ominous meanings , was as powerful as is the impact of deconstructive art. As each plane of colour, sharply ‘interrupts’ those adjacent to it in a constructivist painting, so do all the different subjects that this album presents to us. Because the way that this is being done, follows a kind of circular, swirling pattern a direct consequence of the repetition of certain phrases, its impact is both slow and truly magnetizing!
The Light Is Leaving Us All is an album with a different energy from the ‘explosive’ ‘Aleph at the Hallucinatory Mountain’ and ‘Blackships Ate The Sky’. The use of bells, the screeching vocals and the ferocious way of delivering the lyrics are not part of the vocabulary of this album. If we were to compare it to an older release, then we could trace its origin to ‘Thunder Perfect Mind’, and later to the ‘The Inmost Light’ in terms of sonic aesthetics but more sinister in terms of concepts. We suggest you close your eyes and enjoy this album from start to finish.
“David dedicates this album to St. Ania Goszczyńska, Queen Of The Polka And The Polkas, Queen Of The Cats, Who Knows The Camel’s Sweetest Secrets, as well as mine”
The albums of Current 93 have always been highly symbolic, personal statements and apart from David’s voice, they have relied on the shared aesthetic vision of his collaborators. This album is no exception and this was evident also during the live presentation of it. Ossian Brown and Michael J.York who were both members of Coil among other projects, Andrew Liles , Alasdair Roberts, Thomas Ligotti, Rita Knuistingh-Neven (piano), Aloma Ruiz Boada (violin), Ben Chasny and Reinier Van Houdt (piano) are all spreading their sonic magic dust on the songs and even though all eyes and ears were on David Tibet during the gig, their truly elegant and sometimes raw industrial soundscapes, made all the lyrics come to life and added yet new dimensions to every word. Apart from Rita, Aloma, Ben and Reinier, all the other musicians are long term collaborators of David Tibet. The presence of author Thomas Ligotti in particular was a great surprise, as he has not participated in another C93 album since the release of ‘In A Foreign Town, In A Foreign Land’ in 1997. Andrew Liles co-produced this album with David, while Ossian Brown and Alasdair Roberts are both behind the lovely melodies we listen at the hurdy gurdy. Each musician is playing multiple instruments within this album that also includes the impressive guzheng. Alasdair Roberts is the person behind this massive plucked string instrument (1.6m long), that has been associated with the ancient music tradition of China and has been tuned in a major pentatonic scale! It is truly amazing to find this instrument, especially in this country and we are surprised to see it participate in this album! The use of other instruments that are associated with the folk music traditions of different regions of the world, is also not a new element for Current 93. In this album, we can hear a karimba (a kind of ‘primitive’ early portable piano, associated with traditional African music), an oud (a type of lute associated with the Middle Eastern, North African and Central Asian music traditions), an erbane, a duduk (wind instrument associated with the music tradition of Caucasus and Middle East) and a daf (a large frame drum associated with the music tradition of the Middle East).
The live presentation of this album brough to light the incredible darkness of its subjects and Tibet’s personal engagement with it, in a way that has been considerably different from all of the band’s recent releases. There is a significantly different approach on what concerns the visuals (on the album, during the gig and at the merchandise) this time, created by both David Tibet and Ania Goszszynska. At the credits of this album we found the following phrase: “David dedicates this album to St. Ania Goszczyńska, Queen Of The Polka And The Polkas, Queen Of The Cats, Who Knows The Camel’s Sweetest Secrets, as well as mine.” – a poetic and personal message, that rarely appears in C93’s releases. The images and drawings are dreamy and psychedelic as usual but doomful and with a glow that is in direct contrast to their morbid meaning.
Complete silence dominated the room as Tibet commanded our attention for two hours before the gig concluded with yet another unique live version of ‘Niemandswasser’. After all David Tibet is one of the very few performers who are able to unlock the most well kept secret within one’s soul by uttering a few words in his own captivating way.
8/10
Blaue Rosen 