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Larkfall

~ Phil Legard

Larkfall

Category Archives: Hawthonn

Lockdown Update

21 Sunday Jun 2020

Posted by larkfall in Announcements, Hawthonn

≈ 1 Comment

It seems like life has been busier than usual since the lockdown started: a few weeks manically creating video content for the courses I teach, supporting students in a wide range of situations, and – of course – marking, childcare, and going on loooong sanity-saving circular walks, have taken up a bulk of the time. However, there have been a few creative moments and a few snatches of PhD study, and even attendance at an online conference. Once I’m a little further down the PhD path I’ll write something about it here, I’m sure!

Hide and seek with a squirrel during one such long walk.

However, it’s been remiss of me not to make an announcement here about An Excellent Booke of the Arte of Magicke, which I wrote about a long time ago elsewhere on this blog. This book has had a pretty long, tortuous history, and I am very grateful to Al Cummins for his interest in the material I shared with him years back, and his collaboration and encouragement in bringing the project from a modest 100 pages, to the 368 page tome we now have. Of course, Scarlet Imprint have also been amazing, and I have nothing but praise for their vision for the book’s presentation, as well as the professional and thorough editing they gave to the work. It’s really been incredible to see this come together – especially the beautiful fine edition, as well as the high quality of the facsimile text (- and it is something of a rarity to publications with full facsimiles of British Library manuscripts of this nature). Anyway, go here if you are interested in either the hardback or the paperback versions, which are still available! Here’s also a little peek at the fine edition (72 exemplars, now sold out):

Continue reading →

Meadow Mediumship

06 Monday Apr 2020

Posted by larkfall in Arcana, Hawthonn

≈ 2 Comments

Here’s an electronic version of a short article that Layla and I wrote about our ‘Corpse Way’ project, which we’re slowly working on. It’ll be interesting to see how the COVID-19 pandemic affects the proposed developments on the site – although more immediately, the lockdown makes it difficult for us to visit the location we are interested in, since it’s ever-so-slightly further than is comfortable to walk with a small child in tow! This article was originally published in Alkahest Press’ Folkwitch zine (issue 1).

MEADOW MEDIUMSHIP:
WAKING, WALKING, AND DREAMING THE CORPSEWAY

Phil & Layla Legard (Hawthonn)

I. Walking the Old Corpse Way

Standing on Otley Road, one of the main routes out of North Leeds, you would not assume that you were standing at the threshold of a liminal place. The Lawnswood Arms – a chain pub, complete with Wacky Warehouse, dominates one side of the road. However, cutting through the hedgerow on the opposite side, you will discover an ancient stone stile, and beyond it a well-worn footpath, cutting across a gently sloping field. The path bends as it crosses a small beck, marked by another stile, after which the terrain levels out, passing by old oaks and ashes as it points the way to the ancient church beyond. The contrast is so profound that the noise from the busy road seems to vanish, as you fall under the spell of the Corpse Way.

The church, St. John the Baptist, was built in 1150. Although established as a place of worship, its fabric is a veritable stone grimoire of grotesque corbels and beakheads. Like all ancient churches, it is haunted by pagan spectres: the Romantically-inclined former-rector Reverend Henry Trail Simpson claimed that a carving of the goddess Verbeia was once to be found within the vestry, while a more modern 19th century window celebrates Tubal Cain, patron of both metal-workers and magical artificers. In the 17th century the church benefactor was Thomas Kirke, antiquarian and polymath, now buried beneath the chancel floor, whose ghost was been the topic of a poetic dialogue composed shortly after his death in 1706.

St. John the Baptist connects to the parish of Adel via footpath 17, ‘the Corpse Way’: the ancient processional way along which many inhabitants of the surrounding area made their final journey to the churchyard. To stand at the edge of the field, surveying the path, ones thoughts turn to the many dismal marches which must have been made along this path – how many of those interred in the churchyard beyond made this their final journey? Footprints have long been a component of folk magic, as in, for example, cursing by piercing a footprint with a coffin nail. We may consider how many mourners have left their imprint on this path: the very soil itself here is saturated with the spectral resonance of their processions – a worthy source of materia magica.

With the exception of a small pumping station erected at the western end, the fields surrounding the corpse way have largely remained unchanged within living memory. Within the enclosure, the ancient ditches of a Roman road cutting from north to south were long ago eroded by the plough, while the old tithes of the 19th century maps have now been subsumed into the whole, their walls dismantled and grown over with crops. Of the small building on the west side of the field, which once housed a community stable and – on the floor above – the church Sunday school, strewn rocks remain to maintain its outline. Such had been the slow state of progress – with centuries of history visible as a palimpsest for those who looked closely. However, in 2016 the housing developers of Barratt David Wilson Homes turned their eye to the land. Despite an application to develop 53 houses being rejected in 2017, BDWH returned with a subsequent application in 2018 (No. 18/04343), which is still under consideration, despite the developer having doubled the number of houses they intend to put on the land. The plan also involves tarmacking the Corpse Way. Residents have made it clear that this development will do nothing to alleviate the strain on quality, affordable housing in Leeds, and will also further destroy the historic environment.

The western section of the Corpse Way is now bound on both sides by steel barriers, and the fields on either side of the beck are fallow. You can almost sense the landscape in mourning. Recently, we have been walking the Corpse Way, documenting it, dreaming it, attempting one last desperate act of enchantment: to either raise an army of ghostly mourners to turn back the bulldozers, or else to leave some document as a requiem for what we have lost. Continue reading →

Materia Magica Nova: Towards a Critical Magic

12 Thursday Mar 2020

Posted by larkfall in Arcana, Hawthonn

≈ 1 Comment

The following is a transcript of a talk delivered on behalf of Hawthonn at the Horse Hospital, 30 May 2019. It was part of Strange Attractor’s Towards a Progressive Magick event with Amy Hale, which culminated in a performance by Hawthonn. Thank you to Mark Pilkington for arranging the evening, and to all who attended. The transcript presented below is a heavily edited version of a longer piece, which I hope to see published in time.

MATERIA MAGICA NOVA:
TOWARDS A CRITICAL MAGICK (BREVIS)

HAWTHONN

A talk delivered at Strange Attractor presents:
Towards a Progressive Magick,
30 May 2019 at The Horse Hospital, London.

I. The Genius of the Crossroads

In a recent paper on the ethnography of esotericism, Susannah Crockford and Egil Asprem observed that: “The valorisation of individualism in new age spirituality suggests the influence of neoliberal ideology. Emphasising self-reliance is a way of naturalising a political economic project —removing the social safety nets of the welfare state. ‘Self-help’ and ‘self-care’ are not neutral discourse; they encourage acceptance of particular political and economic projects through the sacralisation of individuality and by attributing responsibility solely to the self. Examining contemporary esotericism requires a serious engagement with the ways that esotericism is not only a marginalised victim of history, but itself plays a role in legitimising dominant ideologies (e.g. neoliberalism) and reifying global power asymmetries.” (2018: 18-19)

It was reading this passage in particular that seemed to sum up many of our feelings about the relationship between the esoteric and the contemporary political landscape. It made us particularly consider how the ‘sacred’ – by which we mean that which is traditionally beheld as transcendent, untainted, ideal or otherwise partitioned from the mundane: the province of illumined magi and ‘aristocrats of the soul’ – has been used to enforce a variety of dominant ideological and political positions, from neoliberalism and ultra-libertarianism, to notions of racial purity and gender essentialism, and the enabling and proliferation of fascist ideals. We became particularly interested in how we could create forms of practice which subvert these implications of the esoteric worldview. Although we would not declare theism and tradition as irrevocably tainted by fascism, the idea of exploring ritual through an anti-spiritualistic, anti-essentialist position, intrigued us.

Continue reading →

Listen to the Voice of Fire – 15-16 March 2019

27 Wednesday Feb 2019

Posted by larkfall in Announcements, Hawthonn

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Layla and I are pleased to have been invited to play the two-night Listen to the Voice of Fire festival, taking place in Aberystwyth between 15th and 16th of March. We’re particularly looking forward to this because it features sets from the elusive Johann Wlight (trading as itdreamedtome) and Alphane Moon (alias Our Glassie Azoth) – I’ll wax lyrical about those two below, but let me also say that we’re also looking forward to reuniting with our friends Bell Lungs (a very fine lathe cut 7″now available at that link) and Sharron Kraus, both of whom attended the 2017 Listen to the Voice of Fire symposium, which I have written about elsewhere. My old friends Ashtray Navigations are also on the bill, too, along with Kitchen Cynics and Laura Netz.

The flyer is below, and you can get tickets via Eventbrite here:

Both days
Friday the 15th only
Saturday the 16th only

We’ll also be joining Sharron again at Bishop’s House in Sheffield on the 11th of May – flyer below, tickets available here.

Continue reading →

Goodbye 2018

31 Monday Dec 2018

Posted by larkfall in Hawthonn

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Musically, 2018 has been a high-point for Layla and I, with the release of Red Goddess (of this men shall know nothing) in March, to which we must give our profound thanks to Ben Goldberg and Katie von Schleicher at Ba Da Bing! Records, and to also Ben Chasny for originally introducing us. We’re so pleased with all the positive reception that the album has got, and its inclusion in a variety of end-of-year lists – of which we’d particularly like to thank The Quietus for placing us at #18!

As mentioned earlier, returning to playing live has been a revelation – it’s been nice to play a gig every few weeks – although we’ve not got further south than Birmingham… YET. Advance notice that we will be playing Manchester Folk Horror Festival on the 2nd of Feb, and the National Library of Wales as part of Listen to the Voice of Fire on 15-16 March. Continue reading →

Howling and Harrowing in the North

28 Saturday Jul 2018

Posted by larkfall in Almias, Announcements, Hawthonn

≈ 1 Comment

It’s been a lot of fun playing gigs with Layla since our album, Red Goddess (of this men shall know nothing) was released back in March. Thank you to everyone who invited us to play and all those who said very kind things to us after shows. Thanks also to Ben Goldberg at Ba Da Bing! for the gentle push in this direction. I should also mention that WE FINALLY HAVE A WEBSITE!

Hawthonn at Tor Fest (July 21, Hebden Bridge Trades Club). Photo: Andy Jarvis.

Continue reading →

Capturing the Red Goddess

12 Monday Mar 2018

Posted by larkfall in Announcements, Hawthonn

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Although we finished recording Red Goddess (of this men shall know nothing) in December 2016, the process of getting the album released was beset by a variety of delays which, ultimately, made the end result a lot better. One delay was getting the best possible lathe cut and pressing, rejecting a number of test presses along the way. In this respect, Paul Gold at Salt Mastering did brilliantly – the final pressing sounds excellent: no noise, wide dynamic range, great clarity – one couldn’t ask for more… Apparently Ba Da Bing! had an office full of interns listening to the test presses with notepads in their hands, eagerly listening out for any pops or hisses…

The other thing that took an inordinately long time was coming up with the cover art…

 

Continue reading →

Manifestations: Red Goddess and Hexadic III

27 Tuesday Feb 2018

Posted by larkfall in Announcements, Arcana, Hawthonn

≈ 1 Comment

Hawthonn is the real deal. Equally adept at transcribing crow calls
into musical scales as they are at creating horizon melting
atmospheres, Red Goddess raises the bar for musicians interested in
composing straight from the creative imagination. For fans of Jocelyn
Godwin, John Dee and Folk Horror as much as the darker spectrum of
British music, this is a record of staggering breadth.

– Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance)

I am pleased to say that we can finally announce the new Hawthonn album, Red Goddess (of this men shall know nothing), which will be released on 23rd of March on Ba Da Bing! Records. We premiered ‘Eden’, the first single, on The Quietus last week – you can read more about the track there, or listen below.

Pre-orders, and more info on the album, can be found here! For those in the UK/EU, Layla and I will handle the postage in order to cut out the prohibitive transatlantic shipping fees. If you are interested in ordering a copy, email us at hawthonnband@gmail.com. Prices are £20 LP and £10 CD, plus P&P (LP: £4.50 UK/£7.20 EU; CD: £2.50 UK/£4.50 EU). You can also order direct from us via Bandcamp!

The LP also comes in a burlap-textured sleeve (- like the first pressing of Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures! -) and has an insert with a short essay thereon. Norman Records, Piccadilly Records and many others will be also carrying the album!

Continue reading →

Three Witches and a Celestial Wain

20 Friday Oct 2017

Posted by larkfall in Announcements, Hawthonn

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Since posting the 22-minute Dolente…Dolore back in July, this blog has been rather quiet. Of course – much has been going on behind the scenes: I’m pleased to say that 2018 is looking quite exciting – there will be a new Hawthonn album at the start of the year (vinyl, CD and digital: pre-orders should hopefully be announced in a few weeks!), and I have a solo track on a brilliant compilation album that should be released at around the same time.

Furthermore, I’m finishing off a book manuscript for one of my favourite occult publishers. I’m also doing plenty of academic work: a paper on Coil, Killing Joke and Kenneth Grant for Cambridge University Press’ Popular Music Journal (manuscript due in 2018, but not published til 2019!) AND working on my PhD thesis on esoteric discourse and musical creativity! Oh, and I also wrote a short piece for the spring 2018 issue of the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic’s Enquiring Eye magazine, the first issue of which was excellent.  Continue reading →

Sustain//Decay

25 Sunday Jun 2017

Posted by larkfall in Announcements, Hawthonn

≈ 1 Comment

I am pleased to say that I have an article published in Void Front Press’ new collection Sustain//Decay. Edited by Owen Coggins (Open University) and James Harris, this 289-page collection brings together writings on drone music and mysticism by a diverse range of authors, amongst them Kristina Wolfe, Kim Cascone, Eyvind Kang, J.-P. Caron and Drone Box representing perhaps the speculative and luminescent side of drone mysticism, while Coggins, Harris, Absentology (Mark Horvath & Adam Lovasz), Steven Shakespeare, Joseph Norman and others explore the heavier, doomier side: rounding off the collection with an interview with Sunn O)))’s Atilla Csihar.

My piece is titled Inner-Sense and Experience: Drone Music, Esotericism and the Hieroeidetic Field, and looks at the role of the esoteric imagination the production of drone music. It develops Arthur Verluis’ concept of the hieroeidetic, which can be described as the imaginative space that exists between artist/audience and the art object: Continue reading →

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  • 2020 Roundup – and a New Album…?
  • Lockdown Update
  • Meadow Mediumship
  • Materia Magica Nova: Towards a Critical Magic
  • Listen to the Voice of Fire – 15-16 March 2019

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