Sunday 21 January 2018

TRANSIENCE by STEVEN WILSON

I was starting to defrost so I stopped to take my gloves off and there it was: an absolute gem of a CD priced at £5 stared at me from a Sainsbury’s shelf! What more can a music lover wish for? Scots have always been into their quality music so I managed to scoop the very last copy of Steven Wilson’s Transience. I placed it in my shopping trolley alongside organic veggies, tofu, miso and cat litter, feeling content.

The album was released at the end of 2015 by K-Scope (home of Porcupine Tree, Anathema, Katatonia and Ulver, to mention but a few) but wasn’t exactly hailed as a major event. Compilations are deemed more suitable for cheesy pop acts desperate to squeeze a few extra coins out of their gullible fans while…er, they’re doing their weekend shopping down the local supermarket, right? Whatever the prog elites thought of this odd marketing choice, they should have at least felt a warm flush of condescending pride, because the CD - kindly offered as a taster of Wilson’s more ‘accessible’ work - is an utter delight. 


But of course, some of you will say, eyeballs rolling: it’s Steven-bloody-Wilson, the genus behind Porcupine Tree and many other projects! True enough. For those who are not overly familiar with this artist, let me tell you, the man is one of the few true living gods of Music. Having started to experiment with strange sounds from the age of 11 (he’s now 50), he possesses superlative finesse when it comes to crafting flawless arrangements, gorgeous melody structures and matching lyrical content. Come to it, he also possesses an expressively dreamy voice that complements his works to perfection. Amongst the main influences he likes to quote we have Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Jethro Tull, Krautrock, Donna Summer (early trancey electronica) and mavericks such as XTC and The Cardiacs. Add cinema to the equation and you have a wondrous scenario. As he delved heart and soul (never wanted to start a family in order to maintain his commitment to music and art intact - definitely a kindred spirit!) in shaping his prog/psychedelic/avantgarde/ambient/drone projects, becoming one of the most celebrated guitarists and an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, he went on to inspire scores of fellow-musicians, influencing progressive metal bands such as Opeth, Obscura and Leprous. 


As the compilation name suggests, Transience presents the more ethereal, melodic side of Wilson. The album assemblage was curated by the artists himself, therefore it benefits from the perfect song choice and immaculate sequence. The material was chosen entirely from his solo catalogue spanning between 2003 and 2015 (with the exception of “Lazarus”, from the Porcupine Tree album XX: the track was re-recorded for the occasion). In total we have 14 songs whose ‘accessibility’ can be traced mainly in their length (no 15” long epics here, with the exception of the stunning “Drive Home”, which is over 7” long) and in the melodic dreaminess delivering a soothing yet dazzling sensorial experience.


Transience repeatedly hits the spot as far as effortless class and transfixing beauty are concerned. Only “Happiness III”, placed in the second part of the album, hints at a poppy flavour with a ‘happy’ chorus which raises a sudden ripple in the otherwise cohesive flow of the work. In reality here we are introduced to Wilson’s admiration for the shameless eclecticism of artists like The Cardiacs and XTC, who deliberately transfigured the face of pop music with their irony, idiosyncrasy and love of vintage psychedelia. Wilson's wonderful guitar solos, which glide with a shimmering fluidity that touches transcendence, provide superb accents for the prog fan. I also enjoyed the cool saxophone solo in “The Pin Drop”, which immediately brought Leprous and Shining (NO) to mind. Other stand-out tracks are "Postcard", "Significant Other", the darker "Insurgentes" and the gorgeous, powerful and moving "Drive Home", with its unforgettable 2013 video.


There might be a lot of you who own most of Wilson’s works and therefore feel reluctant to invest in a compilation of his ‘accessible’ work. Well, this compilation is well worth owning. It will fill 1 hour and 8” of your time with absolute pleasure, and you will feel refreshed and inspired for it. To those who don’t know Steven’s solo work, but are perhaps more familiar with his other bands, such as Porcupine Tree or Storm Corrosion (the collaboration with Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth), here’s your chance to invest a mere fiver (currently sold on Amazon for just over £5 too) in exchange for some quality, soul-nourishing moments. And for the collector, you might still be able to find the unusual triple-sided vinyl version. In either case, you'll own something ageless that will enhance your life for years to come.







"Harmony Korine", "Significant Other" and "Insurgentes" taken from "Insurgentes" (2008).
"Postcard", "Deform to Form a Star" and "Index" taken drom "Grace For Drowning" (2011).
"The Pin Drop" and "Drive Home" taken from "The Raven That Refused to Sing" (2013).
"Transience", "Happy Returns" and "Hand Cannot Erase" taken from "Hand. Cannot. Erase." (2015).
"Thank You" taken from "Cover Version" compilation (originally recorded and released as a single in 2003).

"Lazarus" backing track recorded on tour in March 2015, final studio overdubs and mix July 2015.

Do catch Steven Wilson on tour across Europe this Spring: https://www.facebook.com/StevenWilsonHQ/app/123966167614127/

Wednesday 17 January 2018

2018: The Journey Continues!

R.I.P. 3rd-Eye Magazine (March 2015-March 2017)


In early 2015 Wyrd's Flight was put on standby while I was working on the launch of my new collaborative online magazine, 3rd-Eye. The latter proved to be an exciting ride, until the paradigms of life suddenly shifted. I found myself lacking time and energy to keep up with the standards both readership and artists deserved. So, with the exception of a few ghostly headlines on Facebook, 3E is now lost forever... Despite the unfaltering generosity of some of my collaborators, I chose to let it go: my Zen heart always relishes a chance to explore the unsettling abysses of impermanence.

My heartfelt thanks go to those who shared the 2 year-long adventure with me: my wonderful and dear friends Geoff Birchenall (excellent co-editor), Paul Verhagen, Niels Vinck and Andreas Schiffmann. To the many, precious fleeting guests, some of whom are also dear friends: Thor Joakimsson, Guido Segers, Gareth Hodgson, Gavin Turner, Susanne Sinmara, Iñaki Campos, Tom Shilders, Nick Magur, Åsa Hagström, Ben Brown, Vanessaah Piti and J.K. Håbu. You gifted passion and time to the project and for that I'll always be grateful. Finally a big thank you to the professionals involved: Jasper Strik for designing the website and Fabban for the magazine logo.

My best 3E memories will inevitably be linked to Roadburn. The Tilburg festival is especially dear to my heart: it provided (and still does!) tons of amazing music and plentiful chances to expand my musical knowledge/life perspectives via close interaction with superb artists and dedicated fans/colleagues, whilst visiting a country I love, The Netherlands.

3rd-Eye was centred around the idea of travel as personal growth. In my and Geoff's mind, 3E was to slowly expand beyond planet-metal and he indeed pushed the envelope several times with his fantastic interviews. As for myself, my most significant non-metal contribution remains the tribute to my life-long hero David Bowie, following his death two years ago. 



Bowie in Japan (1973). The story goes that during one of the dates he took off his colourful Ziggy Stardust space-suit and threw it into the crowd. The fans scrambled to take a piece of the suit as a souvenir, but a few seconds later they realised that David was standing before them in a microscopic pink thong, so they invaded the stage like a horde of possessed meerkats. Unsurprisingly, the stage collapsed, but luckily non-one was hurt. 


Old Roots, New inspiration


In 2017 I took time out from music to dedicate myself to the final editing of my first novel, which is still work in progress due to my ruthless pruning and consequent plot re-shaping processes.
In the meantime, as ever, new ideas and objectives have begun to germinate. 

I have come to fully enjoy how every path I take, each new and disparate interest/passion I feel drawn to, weaves a brilliantly unifying thread. Thoughts and actions might appear to be spinning from and into multiple directions, but in reality (despite the inevitable dark holes and frazzled tears) the tapestry they form is one. A wyrd grid made of multiple interlinking co-ordinates, old and new, continues shaping a rather knobbly and intricate, yet organic and completely natural, human knot: me.

Stroking invisible woven threads as if they were the strings of a guitar, hopping across multiple trajectories as if they were the keys of a piano, I am still jumping on the elastic grid of my inner world as if it were a trampoline into the cosmos.  That's exactly what Wyrd's Flight has always been about: reaching out to catch fragments of reflective light and darkness to compose my own kaleidoscopic image of the universe.  

Individual consciousness (may I remind you that it's an atheist mind with a pagan heart writing) ripples quite uniquely across the unified ocean-like surface of consciousness. It is as if we live afloat a 2D surface, only occasionally peering at the sky above and the underwater haze below. Like the protagonists of my novel, my aim has always been to merge sky and ocean into a whole 4D dream-reality of unabashed mythological nature. Rekindling the small fire of this personal blog is therefore an inevitable necessity, as it serves as melting pot for some of the old & new ingredients I collect during my explorations.

WF was initially created to express my love towards the idiosyncrasies of life, to celebrate what exists beyond the obvious, the mainstream, the norm. It was created to share thoughts, emotions and revelations ignited by seeking out and witnessing wondrous events, be it man-made or natural creations... Well, 2018 will bring life-changing choices for many, including myself, therefore, in alignment with 3rd-Eye's goal, I shall broaden this wee blog's horizon to reach beyond the rituals of metal. Like the characters of my novel would say, let's embrace our dreams and create a parallel dimension where we can make them thrive, no matter what spirit-bashing ugliness goes on around us! 

WF has been and will be one of the threads in my personal parallel dimension, and perhaps a small oasis where some of you can also occasionally fly to, if anything just to scratch your head and say 'What's the madwoman up to now?!'

I have created a slideshow to mark the reopening of this blog (apologies for the format, but this is definitely not a swanky kind of blog: please watch in full screen mode if you can!). It comprises of 35 photographs (13 of which were not shot by me) which suggest some of my past, present and future inspiration. Art, music, passions, laughs and tears, it creates an intensely wyrd life-pattern my soul recognises as quintessentially her own. 

Crazy Love indeed...




MUSIC by Chelsea Wolfe: "Crazy Love" from Abyss
PLEASE WATCH IN FULL SCREEN MODE.
CREDITS: 13 photos used in the above slideshow are not mine. These are: all of Kaiji Moriyama's (photo 13 & 34: portraits by Sedato Ishizuka), the Yab/Yum Tantric Tibentan art, the mural by Vigeland, Date Masamune and Sarutobi Sasuke from the anime Sengoku Basara, the Noh mask (by Toshiro Morita), the b/w samurai, the b/w cloud formation, the Torii gate, David Bowie in space-clown attire. Regretfully, I can only fully credit three of these fabulous photos/images. 






No credits available for the 3 photos used in this post.