Carl Abrahamsson's Blog, page 17
August 2, 2023
I’m back on Rendering Unconscious
I’m on the Rendering Unconscious podcast again, talking specifically about the music I’ve made, the people I’ve collaborated with musically, and dealing with a vast musical archive.
#whitestains #cottonferox #highbrowlowlife #vanessasinclair #carlabrahamsson
July 31, 2023
This Podcast Is a ritual
I’m on the delightful This Podcast Is A Ritual podcast with Devin ”The Wizard” Person. An hour of solid conversation: no foreplay, no frills, no noise – just Chaos, Order and Occulture.
#devinperson #thispodcastisaritual #occulture #carlabrahamsson
A beautiful vintage poster
A treat from the vaults:
https://psychictvwhitestains.bandcamp.com/album/at-stockholm
The original promotional poster for the spoken word classic album AT STOCKHOLM by Psychic TV & White Stains (1990). Size A3 (297 x 420 mm), 120 g art paper stock, very suitable for framing. VERY few left. If you buy this poster, you can also download the album for free.
#psychictv #whitestains #genesisporridge #paulaporridge #topy #thomastibert #carlabrahamsson
Two more albums, old and new
Two more albums have just been released as a result of our archival digging process. The first one is:
Cotton Ferox: Dark Sexorcism (HILO-067)
https://cottonferox.bandcamp.com/album/dark-sexorcism
In 2007, Swedish duo Cotton Ferox (Carl Abrahamsson & Thomas Tibert) created a soundtrack for Abrahamsson’s photographic exhibition ”Olika Människor”. It consisted of the singles of their previous project, White Stains, played backwards, meshed with a brand new dark ambient ocean of sounds, including voices from the interviews with the people in the exhibition. A synaptic overload/meltdown/chaos in which the past truly met the future within the walls of damp space Drags Kraftstation in Norrköping, Sweden. It is an exorcism of the past and an invocation or creation of the future. Hence a violent yet fertile ”sexorcism” that leads up to the very point of your pressing PLAY today.
A MEGA GOLEM OFFICIAL: Another Cosmic Gemstone for our prismatic end-times!
https://cottonferox.bandcamp.com/album/a-mega-golem-official
Originally recorded for Vicki Bennett / People Like Us’ ”Radio Boredcast”, this album constitutes the first transmission from Carl Abrahamsson’s MEGA GOLEM project. Giving life to an intangible, invisible, inaudible artwork or magical being by investing works of art into its ”body,” Thomas Tibert & Carl Abrahamsson here focus on its procreative extremities. Spoken word-etherialism subjugated to and in electronic vistas of pleasurable desperation in an inimitable manner, this album is pure Cotton Ferox in all aspects and angles. Music and magic are sometimes irrevocably merged, and this MEGA GOLEM OFFICIAL is one such opulent occurrence: a fleeting moment in the timeless flow of space.
July 29, 2023
Four new/old albums on Highbrow Lowlife
The massive re-issue project c/o Highbrow Lowlife has now truly begun to vibrate. Recently there was the lovely CD of White Stains’ “Singleminded Dualisms” and now there have just been four amazing albums re/released. Let’s go through them one by one…
SPIRAL ASSEMBLY LINES: A brand new Cotton Ferox album? Well, it’s a comp of all our singles and EPs, and you will love it.
https://cottonferox.bandcamp.com/album/spiral-assembly-lines
”Spiral Assembly Lines” collects singles and EPs from Swedish electronica/spoken word duo Cotton Ferox (2000-2018). These were released in the early to mid-2010s, and show the versatile dynamism of members Carl Abrahamsson and Thomas Tibert. Roaming from dark electronica, over spoken word dreaminess, to structured pop compositions, these tracks reflect the open-minded attitudes as well as the sublime production values of Cotton Ferox. The four final tracks of this release feature the vocal talent of Elisabeth Punzi (ex Whipped Cream) and were originally released under the project name ”The Mushroom Clouds.”
This classic spoken word album was recorded in Stockholm in 1989, as Genesis and Paula P-Orridge (Psychic TV) were on a mini tour of Scandinavia. White Stains (Carl Abrahamsson & Thomas Tibert) prepared musical backgrounds that were also used by the P-Orridges on this tour. In Stockholm, the material was properly recorded and mixed together at the band’s ”Reality Studio.” Originally released on CD by Psychick Release in 1990, the result has been hailed as a magical spoken word masterpiece, in which Genesis P-Orridge’s poetry and eloquent delivery professionally peaked. Enmeshed in the sensuous, psychedelic sounds of White Stains, and in Paula P-Orridge’s trippy samples, Genesis’ gentle and magical voice journeys from desperate depths to heavenly heights. ”At Stockholm” is a quintessential gem of a collaboration that has inspired countless similar projects in which ambient music nurtures evocative and powerful human words, and vice versa.
https://psychictvwhitestains.bandcamp.com/album/at-stockholm
The second album from Swedish spoken word experimentalists Cotton Ferox (2000-2018) was also the second collaboration for composers Abrahamsson & Tibert with Genesis P-Orridge (Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, Thee Majesty). WORDSHIP was recorded in Stockholm in 2002 and originally released on CD on the Voiceprint label in 2004. Carrying on in the tradition from the first collaboration, AT STOCKHOLM (1990), with psychedelic ambient soundscapes and seductive poetry, reflections, and magical teaching, this psycho-naughty team presents inspirations and incentives for an inner quest that will hopefully never end.
h ttps://theemajestycottonferox.bandcamp.com/album/wordship
The first album from Swedish spoken word experimentalists Cotton Ferox (2000-2018). Creative composers Carl Abrahamsson and Thomas Tibert joined forces already in the Swedish project White Stains (1987-present day), and often worked together with other prominent artists. This debut album includes the vocal talents of Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Michael Moynihan and Krister Linder, in sounds and structures ranging from electronic pop to dark soundscapes, weaving a web of seduction to host the powerful poetry of this spectral Swedish duo. Recorded at the legendary studio Konst & Ramar in Stockholm in the early 2000s, it was mixed and produced by Thomas Tibert & Carl Abrahamsson, and originally released on the band’s KOOKS label in 2002.
July 7, 2023
A new video lecture. Actually, two.
The weekend is here! Let’s enjoy two TOPY lectures!
Carl Abrahamsson talks about Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth (TOPY). A presentation of two lectures, the first one being ”The deconstruction of a map of an unknown territory.” This was originally the introduction for Thee Psychick Bible from 2009, and it has also been published in Abrahamsson’s book Reasonances from 2014. The other one is called ”Abstraction made concrete – The occultural methods and mutations of Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth”, and this has been published in Abrahamsson’s book Occulture – The Unseen Forces that Drive Culture Forward from 2018. Both these talks touch upon the system and philosophy of the unique magical order and cultural network that was TOPY (approx 1981-1991). Sex magic, networking, talismanic art, experimental culture, psychedelics and much more were woven together in a powerfully re-enchanting potion for a disillusioned generation. Carl Abrahamsson gives the backstory and talks about his own involvement with this very unique magical organization.
#TOPY #theetempleovpsychickyouth #genesisporridge #genesisbreyerporridge #psychictv #ptv #occulture #carlabrahamsson
July 2, 2023
Fenris Wolf 1-10: one great howl!
OK, folks, by public demand… A special package with all the first ten issues of The Fenris Wolf in hardbound editions (”Volume One”).
https://store.trapart.net/details/00196
Eight hardbound books signed by editor/publisher Carl Abrahamsson. The first ten sold packages also get a commemorative print of a collage made especially for this group release by Abrahamsson (archival quality photo print in size A4 (297 x 420 mm), 300gs, numbered and signed). For more information about the contents, please see each book on the Trapart web site. This is a great and unique opportunity for serious collectors as well as public and private libraries to secure Volume One of this well-renowned occultural and magico-anthropological journal.
The original collage (”The Buddha of Magic”) is available for sale in the ART/EDITIONS – UNIQUE WORKS section (size A3 (297 x 420 mm) mixed media)
https://store.trapart.net/details/00195
Approx 2500 pages in total, 6 x 9”, eight hardbound books.
#thefenriswolf #occulture #carlabrahamsson
June 29, 2023
Temporarily Eternal + Ltd Ed print!
To celebrate the arrival of the lovely hardbound edition of my photo book ”Genesis P-Orridge: Temporarily Eternal – Photographs 1986-2018” there is now a bundle with a limited edition print of a photo I took in New York in 2016 (some of you may recognize it as the cover image of the DVD release of CHANGE ITSELF). Archival quality photographic paper (300gs, size A4 210 x 297 mm) and limited to 23 copies.
https://store.trapart.net/details/00169
#genesisporridge #genesisbreyerporridge #topy #trapartbooks #temporarilyeternal #carlabrahamsson
June 28, 2023
The Trapart Bookstore
Welcome to the Trapart Bookstore! We carry all of the available Trapart Books and Editions. Plus Highbrow Lowlife musical releases, assorted videos, rarities, first editions, original artwork and much more. You can pay with cash, Swish, and all major credit cards. Located in Vimmerby, the cultural capital of Sweden, and open by appointment only. Looking forward to seeing you soon. Welcome!
#trapartbooks #vanessasinclair #carlabrahamsson
June 22, 2023
The new White Stains CD is great
As you know by now, the Polish label Zoharum just released a great White Stains CD: ”Singleminded Dualisms”. I am so very happy about this release. First, because it’s the first of many coming new/old releases from the Carl/White Stains/Cotton Ferox HQ. And secondly because it looks and sounds so damn good. Kudos to everyone at Zoharum for making this happen.
https://alchembria.pl/en/music-cd-vinyl-mc/5748-white-stains-singleminded-dualisms-1988-1989-cd.html
The CD contains all our vinyl singles plus one track for the ”Swedish Exotica” compilation LP I put together in 1988 in collaboration with the divine record store PET SOUNDS in Stockholm (that saved many a wayward teen from drifting into mainstream culture, and successfully bridged the divide – against all odds! – between edgy and arty industrial music and ridiculous britpop/”capuccino socialism” culture à la Paul Weller).
Listening to all these tracks of course takes me back to a wonderfully pleasant nostalgia. Where there’s a will there’s a way, and who needs to tune the guitars anyway? Crowleyan Compensations, Emotional Emulations, King of the Hill-isms when it came to the amp volume controls, and a whole lot of big-eared wonder when listening to rehearsal tapes and these old studio recordings. We did it all and that was that and so mote it be.
One funny thing that didn’t dawn on me until much later… Someone recommended a studio and we drifted into it to record the ”Express Your Desire” single in early 1989. I liked the studio guy a lot, Thomas Skogsberg, and his Sunlight Studio had everything we needed to pack our psych-rock punch. I only had to give minimal advice to Skogsberg in regard to our production values, but I could definitely sense he wanted it to sound differently. Later on I was told that he had produced a lot of Swedish ”metal” music in that studio, and I was so happy we had come out of the studio despite this with some tracks we could be proud of. A metal-free manifestation straight from the metal cave; that’s a pretty magical feat! It also reminds me of how important it is for young bands not to be pulled into the grip of producers who might not understand what their music is about. Sticking to one’s own vision is so important!
On the “Singleminded Dualisms”-CD you will find the first rock’n’roll line-up, an experimental mid-point with WS co-founder Jan Ekman, and then the first more structured steps with musical greats Peter Bergstrandh (ex-Lustans Lakejer) and Thomas Tibert, who both helped me shape musical ideas and visions over the years to come.
Enjoy this excellent release on a loud volume, and marvel at the youthful zest and Nietzschean attempts at overcoming the caring about that you can’t *really* play an instrument. Be proud and creative, make a record, take it to Pet Sounds… everything will work out just fine!
On an end note I have to inform you that there’s some Belgian a-hole who’s taken the name White Stains and now pollutes and confuses our audience. That’s why it’s extra important that CDs like this come out and show that we were indeed not only first out but that we are also still going very strong; 1987 to PRESENT DAY. Later in 2023 there will be releases of not only archival and unreleased White Stains material, but also completely NEW material. We have never left. And perhaps we never will? OV POWER!
PS. The main photo displays all the goodies you get in the deluxe edition box set: CD, box, bag for the box, reproductions of all the original record covers, and some groovy White Stains stickers. Order this one here:
htt ps://alchembria.pl/en/music-cd-vinyl-mc/5749-white-stains-singleminded-dualisms-1988-1989-wooden-boxset-cd.html
#zoharum #singlemindeddualisms #whitestains #cottonferox #peterbergstrandh #thomastibert #carlabrahamsson
