Gist of Liber Aarni LXXI

:: M:.W:.’S WORDS ::

Hello perplexing pithecoids,

It has taken us this long to send out a new Liber Aarni issue, for we have been feeling so down and disappointed when against most odds, the world apparently did not start in late 2012 e.v.
Apologies for the convenience! But now we may be almost back to “normal”, so let us keep the babble to a minimum and celebrate by these glad tidings:

1) New Aarni song ‘Path of Return‘ released on SoundCloud for thee to marvel at! It has been an experiment for us, mainly production-wise, as well as a sort  of holiday from the work on ‘Lovecraftian‘. Make of this disjointed occultnik hymn what thou wilt…as usual and if needed the song lyrics can be found in the appropriate section of the Aarni website.

2) Also, for those of you not following us on FB and/or Twitter for some obscure reason it may come as news that late last year M:.W:. guest contributed the vocals for the song ‘Paralysis‘  by Dullko. Charming!

3) Work now continues fully on ‘Lovecraftian‘ for the stars might be right to actually achieve something.

Not the faintest about a release date yet. We are mysterious that way fnord.

We like a certain class of tramps, so thou wilt find a warm welcome from,
Magister Warjomaa

IN:
-new Triptykon album
-grimoires

OUT:
-shitty new apocalyptic movies
-trends

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Gist of Liber Aarni LXIX

From Liber Aarni LXIX:

:: M.W.’S WORDS ::

Delicious patients,

1) New (sort of) Aarni album out now on Bandcamp! “Deliria – Odds and Ends and Beginnings 2000-2012” contains 32 tracks, some of which have hitherto been only unofficially released, and the rest never before released anywhere…it features 5 (or 6) full songs as well as loads of shorter tracks consisting of studio outtakes, recorded riff ideas (most of which remain unused to date in Aarni releases), demo takes and a few jam session snippets. These have been included as baffling curiosities and pervy sneak peeks into the Aarni songwriting process.
They will possibly give bittersweet eargasms to those individuals inordinately interested in the band and lo-fi sound in general…such people will no doubt also enjoy the fact that when Aarni in the throes of inspiration captured these snippets on a recording device, only a single take was ever made. So all those tasty playing mistakes and candylike out-of-tune notes can frequently be savoured by the drooling listener! Obviously not very mixed or mastered.

Thou canst download the full(er) songs individually if thou wilt, but the short tracks only come with a complete album purchase – as do a couple of bonus items: an old Aarni flyer and a fortunately never used “promo photo” of MW from 2000 e.v.

Perhaps interestingly most of the riff/melody idea tracks, both the ones used and unused in released Aarni material, date from the year of Their Lord 2000. Thou canst listen and find out which of them made it years later to the two Aarni demos, the Split CD with Umbra Nihil, ‘Bathos‘, ‘Tohcoth‘ and ‘Omnimantia‘ EP. Some of the remaining ideas will perhaps be used in the future while others will certainly not be.

Anyway, these recorded musical gems represent a rarity, as usually Aarni band members prefer to conserve the fruits of their creativity by the old-fashioned way i.e. writing the stuff down on notation paper.
Each entry in the albums tracklist also features some words in the way of commentary and background information about the track in question.

2) We have likewise made the remastered Double Demo available at Bandcamp for thy artistic experience.

3) In Aarni webshite related tidings: thou canst read two recent reviews of the Aarni/PiM split there. Ta to the music journos involved!

4) We also got signed to the “record label” Any And All Records.

5) Probably the best way to access the most recent Aarni-related news and various incoherent outcries is by our Facebook page. Its RSS feed is http://www.facebook.com/feeds/page.php?id=18955562953&format=rss20

We recently put a poll on the FB page as well as for thy interactive cravings, asking for thy favourite track on the Split. Consider the poll as research for the direction thou thinkest Aarni should concentrate on style-wise in the future. The results may or may not influence our output, but at least thou tried! It’s the thought that counts fnord.

Beast Retards,
Magister Warjomaa

IN:
-new Rush album
-Munchkin Cthulhu

OUT:
-long delivery times for stuff
-powdered wigs

Recent ramblings

From the 68. issue of the charming Aarni newsletter:
:: M.W.’S WORDS ::

Darling posthumans,

A few short remarks for thy ADHD sensibilities:

1) Aarni currently works on two albums (plus a top secret project) – ‘Lovecraftian‘ and another, still untitled release…the main reason for this being that we grew bored with concentrating on just the HPL theme, and so needed to balance it with more varied muzack. The irritating thing with theme albums appears to be that the idea sounds great in theory, but in practice it can prove to be annoyingly labourious when it comes to actual songwriting. So, Aarni works on two releases and switches between them when the relevant mood/inspiration possesses us. We suspect that this other album can be seen as a follow-up to Bathos, in the sense of containing varied songs in different styles. Not unlike Bathos some of those tracks will also probably be more immediately accessible than the others…

2) Not surprisingly, since its release in April the Aarni/PiM Split CD has turned out to be a smash hit…so get thy copy from us! Still a plethora left in the benighted Doominvalley vaults.

3) In Aarni webshite related tidings: two recent interviews added and the FAQ page & recommended reading list updated.

4) The song ‘Land Beyond the Night’ off the Split album was recently featured on episode 120 of the Occult Of Personality podcast. Thanks go to the magus Greg!

—————-

Finally the mandatory ads – thou art what thou buyest:

A plethora of bewildering Aarni t-shirt designs and divers other merch available from the Reverbnation store.

Yogsothery – Gate I: Chaosmogonic Rituals Of Fear available from us for 10 € (includes planetwide shipping via Air Mail). The standard CD jewel case comes in an unearthly cardboard slipcase for thy edification & delight. Features an outlandish 20-page full colour booklet with liner notes and lyrics just to make thee feel special & loved. Order thine while our copies last!

A handful of autographed Rising Of Yog-Sothoth: Tribute to Thergothon double CD’s still available from us for a measly 8 euros inside the EU; 10 euros for the rest of this bizarre excuse for a planet. Costs include shipping via Flying Polyps. As an added tr00 d00m feature the double album comes in an ultra rare standard CD jewel case.

Shouldst thou feel the urge, Omnimantia EP, the Double Demo and the Aarni/Umbra Nihil split album can still be purchased as CDR’s via the Aarni webshite. As a bonus we can on demand even throw in one or more unreleased Aarni hit/miss songs.

A better idea yet would probably be to get the newly remixed and/or mastered Bathos and Omnimantia with extra goodies from Bandcamp. If thou wilt, thou canst fully listen to them prior to paying the ludicrously low price.

Shoggoth on,
Magister Warjomaa

IN:
-early Genesis albums
-Storm Corrosion

OUT:
-boring time signatures
-shitty recent movies

Split CD out on April 1st 2012 e.v.

Bad photo of the Split

From the most recent official newsletter issue LIBER LXVII AARNI vel Apparitio Scindi:

:: M.W.’S WORDS ::

Dear pithecoids,

1) The release of the Aarni/Persistence in Mourning Split album draws nigh: the official date has been set as the 1st of April 2012 in the Gregorian Reckoning! In other words and to repeat, the release of the Split album takes place on April Fools’ Day this year of their Lord.
We, the authors of the album, decided that the date in question would be most auspicious for our purposes, mainly due to certain astro- and scatological factors, whereof it has been deemed unlawful to speak.

An arcane tome destined for inclusion in the Index Expurgatorius could be written about the uncanny graphical artwork of the album, yet suffice it to say that Mr Alessandro Falca, a veritable Renaissance visual universal genius; a blue-blooded atavistic descendant of the Glory that once was Rome; a sovereign Porphyrogene of the Pictorial Arts, has himself delved profoundly into Alchemical imagery and Nature’s sublime processes, whereby he has completed that most dear Opus; transmuting his hard-won wisdom into the eye-fondling extravaganza thou canst witness gracing the earthly shell of the CD. Forsooth the V.I.T.R.I.O.L. formula completed to the utter dismay & delight of the Crowned Heads of Europe and the rest of the Globe!

Yet, if it be thy will, thou canst preorder the CD from us via the usual methods, especially those of you who physically exist (however tentatively) inside or near the Europa Fort. Dwellers in the Colonies should direct their inquiries to the New World-based Witch Sermon Productions.

In any event, entities (pre)ordering this meistershysterwerk from Aarni can do so for a mere nice and round 11 euros inside the Europa Fort, or for 13 euros for those fortunate enough to be situated without. As apparent by these ridiculously low prices, the April Fools’ Joke must be on us…but hey, what’s a dime to a millionaire?

We have a limited stock available, but they are all special Japanese import versions; moreover each copy features a stylish Obi, as well as 10 extra tracks for a sum total of ten on the CD! You see, the pressings of the album outside of Japan consist of a blank compact disc, for neither Aarni nor PiM had the heart to feature our original planned songs after all. They were shit. So luckily for you, this Japanese version has the ten extra tracks, all of extremely high musical quality and each a veritable masterpiece, worth the album’s low price in and of itself!

On a special note, one of the album copies features a rare glitch made by the CD pressing factory: the tray card is set upside down, making the copy an ultra rare collector’s item and sure to fetch a high price on the free market! Whosoever receives this rarity can congratulate hirself on being very, very special indeed and Mummy and Daddy (or Wolfman and Daddy, as the case may very well be) love thee so very, very much! So better place thy order post and fast, as thou mayest just get lucky…

2) Of Aarni’s songs on the Split:
First off, we have ’49 Angeli Boni’, which gives thee a nice exercise in basic numerology. In this case the number seven. As thou canst deduce from its title, the song concerns the De Heptarchia Mystica of Dr John Dee and the lyrics consist of the list of “49 good angels”, whose names all begin with the letter ‘b’. For an insight into this matter, study the Tongue Angelickall a.k.a. Enochian. Interestingly enough, many important words in English also begin with this letter, for example ‘booze’, ‘butt’, ‘bud’, ‘boobs’, ‘bubonic’, ‘bathos’, ‘Babalon’, ‘Bob’ and ‘blather’.
Musically this song repeats the same pattern of seven power chords for seven verses, and has the danceable (especially if thou art epileptic) time signature of 7/4. Despite its brevity, not necessarily a radio-friendly song…maybe an aquired taste to fully enjoy. But as the old Aarnian adage goes: live and learn, die and teach.

The second track is ‘Emuu’, a “kalevala” folky instrumental. The Finnish title seems hard to translate into inferior languages, but could be rendered as “the genitor spirit/god of a species”. In this case the species is Man, alluded to by the swan calls present in the song. See Fenno-Ugric mythology on the role of waterfowl in the creation of the world and all that resembles it.

The third track ‘Land Beyond the Night’ may come across as needlessly mainstream, but is highly autobiographical in nature, detailing a typical day on the Astral plane for Yours Truly. The lyrics also contain a number of references to more or less classical songs by influential bands. Genius Albert Frankenstein once again guest stars on the vocals.

The mostly Swedish-language ‘Lemminkäinens Tempel’ serves as the fourth song and deals with the palaver of Ior Bock, the late great lunatic of pot’s creation and scion of pre-Atlantean heritage. The track’s musical content has been intended to reflect this, in a somewhat Black Sabbath fashion.

The fifth and final Aarni song, ‘Goetia’, deals with…well, a true Inept of the Ars Magica calling up Goetic spirits – all in God’s name, of course. The Latin lyrics present a dialogue/battle of wits and willpower between the two parties. Guess who wins?
Musically speaking, this song has “dissonance” or wossname, groovy riffs and not-so-groovy ones. The schizoid doominess should make for a charming transition into PiM’s half of the album.

We have not the clearance to speak of PiM’s material, but in short it could be described as being atmospheric in their special idiom…distorted guitars, slow pace, Theremin, bottom-heaviness and general goodness (not to be taken in a metaphysical sense).

Lyrics (and English translations for the same) for Aarni’s songs can be found on our webshite, as usual.

Wood & Wind

Haista huiluIn the above photograph thou canst see the woodwind instruments actually used on Aarni’s recordings. Doomintroll took the picture in the Doominvalley Zero-G holodeck, where the band members like to store some of their very first material possessions.

In the center we have M.·.W.·.‘s silver-plated Buffet Crampon 225 flute, which he acquired circa 1985 e.v. and has extensively played on songs since the beginning of Aarni’s recorded history uncountable æons ago.

  Underneath it floats a wooden Inca ritual flute, pilfered by Comte de Saint Germain from Machu Picchu during his (extremely) brief stay as a guest in 1523 e.v. So far this challenging-to-play instrument has been featured solely on the folky track ‘Emuu’ from the Aarni / Persistence in Mourning split CD. We chose to use the flute not because of any thematical connections to the New World, but because its similarity in sound to the traditional Finnish “shepherd’s flute”.

The two recorders in the photograph date from the late 1970’s and thou canst hear their maddening sound on ‘Lovecraft Knew’, where M.·.W.·. plays both of them simultaneously akimbo-style, not unlike the αὐλός of Ancient Greece.

Finally we have an Irish tin whistle (actually bought from a certain witch-haunted township in New England) on the left, which likely will be played on the Celtic-themed song ‘Yule Horror’ off ‘Lovecraftian’…

Tell me, have you seen the Yellow Stain?

Pictured here we have Magister Warjomaa‘s second-in-command guitar, a Schecter C-7 Hellraiser. He slapped upon it a Kult of Hamstur sticker in order to more easily distinguish the instrument from the circa 1547 others in the Doominvalley Studio vaults. Also because M.·.W.·. just so happens to worship The Unsqueekable One every now and then, whenever he feels up to it…

Thou canst eventually hear the maddening, Erich Zannian report of this blasphemous instrument on Aarni’s third LP effort Lovecraftian.

From Aarni’s newsletter no. 66

:: M.W.’S WORDS ::

Darling outlandish outpatient,

1) In case thou noticed it not, there has been another (un)fortunate hiatus since the last newsletter issue…too busy working/playing on the Aarni & Persistence In Mourning split album – which much to everyone’s relief now finally appears to be completed!

The delay of this fine release amounts to, what, two years? Completely Aarni’s fault I must confess, as PiM’s half and also the artwork was finished long since. Nostra maxima culpa! Apologies to all concerned – obsession sometimes seems to lead one to infuriating inadvertent inaction…

CD release through Witch Sermon hopefully during the spring of 3178 AM, known to the unenlightened as 2012 era vulgaris. Probably at some point also available from Bandcamp in several HQ audio formats including hi-res album artwork.

The Aarni/PiM Split clocks just under 58 minutes featuring ten tracks, five from each band. I plan to do a breakdown of Aarni’s half in a future newsletter issue once the release draws nigh.

In a nutshell: our tracks vary from each other quite a bit, presenting almost the whole gamut of Aarni’s “styles”. Thou canst find the melodic folky stuff as well as matters metalloid, doomy, Xothian (yet deliciously not Cthulhoid), irritating/pleasing, catchy, boring/interesting. The same can be said about the vocal styles used. One might even glimpse a shallowly buried common theme amidst all the variation – not even a cadavre exquis.

2) Speaking of art, the glorious & unnervingly lifelike images and such for the Split album appear courtesy of the brilliantly talented Alessandro Falca from Conte di San Pietro. On that website thou canst sneak preview some artwork for Lovecraftian (as well as other projects) seeing that this amazing Italian Renaissance gentleman also holds the illustrative responsibilities for Aarni’s upcoming third LP album. Lovecraftian

3) Yes, we have presently returned to work and play on Lovecraftian…adding flourishes while removing others, feverishly fixing and mixing those tracks we deem already complete. Some musick for the more epic songs partially remains to be written; done easily enough. Mayhap this time an Aarni album doesn’t take so long to be finished (it has already been under on/off construction for over two years).
Possibly the main hindrance for the past releases has been a kind of misplaced perfectionism, although this could be somewhat hard to believe for entities familiar with our musick…but yes, we notice graveyards tend to have a high quota of perfectionists and discount bins an equal amount of well-mixed releases. Henceforth Aarni tries to redirect its anal tendencies more, er, fittingly and adopt the elusive attitude of “good enough”.

Otherwise there dwells a Behemoth in the living room and Leviathan in the bedroom. Say what?

Of the bathroom it is not lawful to speak.

In any case it currently sounds like Aarni will be moving towards a more extreme musickal style. More heaviness, guitars, atmosphere, peculiar vocals, perhaps further minimalism, disharmony, exotic time and key signatures if (un)needed, less percussion of the conventional drum set variety, a sort of return to the early stuff and things of that nature and ilk. To put it briefly, again for the first time Aarni goes more Pnakotic.

Whether this will already be evident on Lovecraftian remains to be seen…

4) A certain band member, who shall not long remain anonymous, has taken it upon itself to write the occasional blog post to Rant King here – much to the chagrin of the rest of the band. Among the hysterical offal and largely destructive outbursts to come thou canst discover official Aarni-related tidings too, but on the whole it cannot be over-emphasised that this blog does not comply with Aarni party policy. Or maybe some of it does…or in fact most of it.

But peruse it at thy own risk as it might give a perplexing and even baffling view of Aarni. Sometimes the Sanity Loss can be as high as D20 and at others even lower.

Finally the mandatory ads – thou art what thou buyest:

A plethora of bewildering Aarni t-shirt designs and divers other merch available from the Reverbnation store.

Yogsothery – Gate I: Chaosmogonic Rituals Of Fear available from us for 10 € (includes planetwide shipping via Air Mail). The standard CD jewel case comes in an unearthly cardboard slipcase for thy edification & delight. Features an outlandish 20-page full colour booklet with liner notes and lyrics just to make thee feel special & loved. Order thine while our copies last!

A handful of autographed Rising Of Yog-Sothoth: Tribute to Thergothon double CD’s still available from us for a measly 8 euros inside the EU; 10 euros for the rest of this bizarre excuse for a planet. Costs include shipping via Flying Polyps. As an added tr00 d00m feature the double album comes in an ultra rare standard CD jewel case.

Shouldst thou feel the urge, Omnimantia EP, the Double Demo and the Aarni/Umbra Nihil split album can still be purchased as CDR’s via the Aarni webshite. As a bonus we can on demand even throw in one or more unreleased Aarni hit/miss songs.

A better idea yet would probably be to get the newly remixed and/or mastered Bathos and Omnimantia with extra goodies from Bandcamp. If thou wilt, thou canst fully listen to them prior to paying the ludicrously low price.

Let’s live the New Year 2012 EV like it is our last,
Magister Warjomaa

IN:
-Elder Sign game
-[insert thy favourite compulsion]

OUT:
-poo
-revolting pithecoids
——–
Iä Hastur,
Aarni

‘Lulu’: a historical achievement in music

I lost most of my interest in Metallica with the release of their Black Album. In my supersane wisdom and intelligence I saw that they had reached the point of musical no return. Now, after a string of forgettable releases, the band briefly intrigues me once again. If only philosophically.

I have encountered many bad albums in my life, many of them during the time I was working as a music reviewer at the turn of the millenium. I was forced to listen to a number of lousy (and some excellent as well) records in rapid succession. Never again…

A few of the criteria whereby I consider a particular album “bad”:

  1. Blatant and excessive copying of the sound, arrangements, songwriting style etc. of a well-known artist. During my (mercifully short) stint as a reviewer I ran across e.g. numerous second-rate Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, Candlemass, Theatre Of Tragedy and Opeth clones.
  2. Uninspired songwriting relying on mannerisms and genre clichés.
  3. Artist stuck in their trademark formula. For example the recent few albums by Iron Maiden, Amorphis, Megadeth, Opeth (pre-Heritage) and every Slayer release.
  4. Artist straying too far from their strengths, into musical styles and genres clearly unsuitable for them. Example: Paradise Lost going Depeche Mode.

Despite these failings, all of the albums I have heard and consider “bad” still feature at least mediocre musicianship and execution. Clearly some time has also been spent by the artists on planning and writing the recordings.

Apparently not so with Lulu, the puzzling collaboration between Lou Reed and Metallica. This album seems very interesting to me, as I think it is the only unlistenably SHIT album I have ever heard. Not only does the songwriting sound extremely uninspired, but also the whole musical execution. The basic problem: the styles of the two artists don’t fit together at all. With different backing music this Lou Reed project could have been merely bad or possibly even OK. But on this album, it seems to me as though no preproduction or even rehearsing took place before hitting record. Really peculiar and inexcusable.

I think the end result is far beyond bad and not in a good way…as formerly I tended to see the quality of music forming an axis, with “good/bad” at one extreme and “mediocre” on the other. So “mediocre” was the negative end in my personal little diagram. I won’t call it a table, as that position has already been taken…

With the existence of Lulu I have to rethink that model, maybe forming it into a non-Euclidean triangle or wossname. Or perhaps I’ll find something worthwhile to do.

Anyway, thanks go to Metallica for detonating my unifying theory on the quality of music and also for making Tohcoth seem much better.