Review: Hermetic Brotherhood Of Lux-Or - Ethnographies Vol. III

The tail end of last year saw a fantastic release by Hermetic Brotherhood Of Lux-Or - 'Anacalypsis' was a tour de force of ritual music and arcane atmospheres that both thrilled and chilled. They are back with a double CD offering and the third in their ongoing 'Ethnographies' series. The title for this series is no misnomer - an ethnography is an indepth, anthropological study of people and culture from one who has immersed themselves into that particular culture...and these albums are like those very studies, an aural document of the ritual and magick of some un-named society, they are "sound documents of ritual improvisations recorded by our collective between 2007 and 2009". Although ostensibly a double CD, it is split into 2 albums: 'Psychic Culture of Light' and 'Psychiatric Cult of Darkness' and the result is two distinctly different passages of music - one a masterpiece of organic percussion, chanting, wailing voices and off-kilter brass and the other more heavily based on electronica and post-industrialism. It is being released via the collective's own Transponic label, whose "... work is created through this technique of automatic composition inspired by the theater of Artaud's cruelty and which we call crude sound theater."



It should be noted at this point that there are no track titles so I'm going to title them by their chronological ordering, however, don't get caught up with tracks and titles - each album is best thought of as continuous tracts of music. 'Psychic Culture of Light' opens simply with some tribal drums beating out a tattoo but it isn't long before things get more complex and more interesting. The drums fade into the background to be replaced by blasts of discordant brass, plaintive wailings of the clarinet and stabs of strings. If this all sounds a bit abstract, it's not...all the elements meld into a whole that invokes the primitive customs of a fledgling society and this is added to by the atavistic snatches of vocals. The second track picks up on the same theme and runs with it. The clarinet again adding a melancholic vibe to the tribalistic percussion. It doesn't sound as 'harsh' as the first track, relying instead on atmosphere rather than instrumentation....the vocals are fainter and everything has a rounder sound. Track 3 is a lesson in fright...the treated vocals sound like the disembodied voice of some antediluvian deity...the echo and the muffled effect genuinely sounds otherwordly. These vocals are accompanied by sharp stabs of brass and electronica. The effect is one of stifling claustrophobia and ancient horror. It segues neatly into track 4 in which the same vocal effects are used but they sound less ritualistic and more mournful. As a piece it has a stillness...a tranquility broken by the skronk of brass instruments and the plucking of strings. Track 5 opens with more chanting vocals that are almost overwhelmed by the strings that act as a rhythm section. It is the nearest thus far to a traditional 'song' structure, but that is not what this band are about. The vocals have a post-punk feel about them that fit well with the feedback laden flashes of guitar that flit in an out of proceedings. It all flows nicely into the next passage which takes a eastern motif and twists it into something more dark and foreboding. The drums beat and there is a lilting melody that runs underneath everything but,as ever, they are subsumed by abstract electronica flourishes and brass that almost verges on the free jazz. The vocals sound as though they come from the pits of hell itself...it's all very disconcerting but quite thrilling at the same time. The next track opens with kosmische washes of synth; cosmic and blissful, before more discordant blasts of brass and drones envelope everything. The vocals are again dread laden and full of the arcane promise of evil being done. Track 8 comes as a surprise, opening with guitar and a regular rhythm before we are treated to a barrage of tribal drums, like some malevolent gamelan orchestra and it isn't long before the vocals and brass enter the fray. The drums and chants combine beautifully to create a building tension, a feeling that something has to give soon - the vocals become frantic and crazed while the tempo of the drums increases until each beat threatens to blur into the next until everything settles into something far more sedate with another eastern based melody complete with ethnic drums. This CD is is rounded off with another drum filled tract with vocals that sound like a shamanic nightclub singer, battling it out with the raft of tribal percussion.



'Psychiatric Cult of Darkness' has a different feel to it, with less emphasis on the tribal and more on the ritual. It opens with a short piece that is driven by strings that resonate darkly, but this is followed by a track dominated by a sombre voice that intones some arcane ritual underscored by some thudding drums, strings and some electronica that mimics the chanting vocals. It all comes to a frenzied climax of drums, manic vocals and the squealing of electronics. This segues into a track that takes the same building blocks but raises the intensity and the histrionics. The drums are tribal but in a more 'modern' ritualistic manner, especially when combined with the clever instrumentation. It is a track that is full to the gunwales with musical mysticism and enigmatic flourishes. The next track is pure post-industrial with percussion that verges on the martial and vocals that reverberate around the speakers. This is the type of thing that Throbbing Gristle et al were building up to...it is regimented, structured and yet gloriously abstract in some of the musical curlicues...great stuff! This flows into a piece that takes the dada electronics of Cabaret Voltaire and transposes it into a more ritualistic setting - the dissonent brass and percussion sits above vocals that are treated and vaguely muffled but unambiguously pained. This vocal approach is continued in the next passage which acts as an amalgam of the previous two pieces - imagine the aforementioned Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire 'jamming' together. It is a dense piece that threatens to almost suffocate the listener, but, if you do as I did which is just surrender to the dark morass of vocals and electronica, then it becomes almost beautiful! The vocals initially take the backstage for the next piece, surrendering the foreground to stuttering electronica but then they come back with vengeance, sounding almost cathartic in their angst and anger, like someone undergoing therapy with Janov. In the blink of an eye these same vocals relax and calm and border on 'sing-song' whilst still maintaining an aura of the arcane and the forbidden. The background electronics are jittery and there is a drone that is introduced that is heavy as fuck and just as evil, but as the way with this album, it disappears as quickly as it arrived. It all builds to a harsh crescendo that threatens to undo the very fabric of time before it all reverts to as before - pained vocals seemingly speaking in tongues, dark electronics and a deep drone composed of a drawn out, deep chant. This album is closed with another passage that could have been recorded in the late 70s/early 80s, at that time when the field of outre, industrial electronica was rich and fertile..it is positively nostalgic. The ritualistic angle is still there, and the vocal strands are pitted against one another, each trying to out do the others in their vehemence and passion.

As I stated earlier, these albums are best treated as single, album length improvisations. It is in this form that they work best, forming intense, immersive tracts of improvised music. Each album has a distinct personality - 'Psychic Culture of Light' is the more atavistic, primal piece, full of organic sounds and indigenous instrumentation, while 'Psychiatric Cult of Darkness' is more based in the here and now, moving the ritualistic from the past to the present in the form of electronic trickery and post-industrial regimented structures. I must say at this juncture that this is not for the faint-hearted...there are no lilting love songs or pastoral hymns....but if anyone is willing to put preconceptions and beliefs to one side, both CDs are immersive and deeply satisfying. Hermetic Brotherhood Of Lux-Or are a band immersed in the arcane and the ritual but this is all portrayed with one eye on the anthropological and not on a gimmicky occult basis and it is this that imbues the music with an intelligence and a thoughtfulness that shines through. This is an impressive album, not least that it is all improvised but also because of its ethos and its honesty. It will be up for pre-order very soon via their Bandcamp page here but can be pre-ordered now via the email address on the Transponic site here ( trasponsonic@hotmail.com ).