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Xenis Emputae Travelling Band biography, Xenis Emputae Travelling Band discography
Also a new Neon Death Slittes release!Silver Apples and Throbbing Gristle.Taurobolium on the 20th of March.Heretic box office if you're interested.Lelant, Barden Fell, Ilkley Moor and Leeds.Assassins and The Neon Death Slittes.Inspired by the folklore and atmosphere of various locations in the English countryside, XETB plays a blend of ambient electronics and psychedlic folk.You can help by expanding it.All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.All images by Phil Legard
Phil Legard is the man behind Xenis Emputae Travelling Band, a project dedicated to capturing the mystical and folkloric side of landscapes in music.We asked him some questions to shed light on the concepts behind what he does.Can you tell us how things began with Xenis Emputae Travelling Band?Did you have any musical projects before that time?Faintly Blowing were really important to me.Some other recent favorites of mine have be Furekaaben, Musica Elettronica Viva, Dreamies, Prima Materia, Luciano Cilio, Metgumbnerbone, Wilburn Burchette, Pyramids, Don Cherry, Heron, Guillaume de Machaut, Alfonso el Sabio, George Crumb, Komitas...The Pneumatic Consort mainly concentrates on wind instruments.Do you work with guest musicians for your recordings?An exception was my partner singing the version of "A Lyke Wake Dirge" on New Etheric Muse.How would you define your relation to nature?Well, I suppose my first deep awareness was in 2001, while visiting the prehistoric stones of Cornwall...For example, we get the feeling that Alchemy plays an important thematic role on at least a few releases.Initially the discussions of genius loci and tutelar deities in Agrippa's Occult Philosophy were quite influential on my thought...Both the symbol and the cosmological and numerological discussions within the work are a joy to play with and interpret.In his letter to Maximilian which prefaces the work, Dee discusses the hidden properties of the symbol, saying that "justly may the musician be struck with wonder when here he will perceive inexplicable, celestial harmonies without any movement and sound."Although how the Monad can be related to music is still vague to me.The Pyrognomic Glass has some alchemical influences due to the subject of the tracks (dew) and the things I was reading at the time.It amused me to conceive of a prism that would not only divide the spectrum of visible light, but also somehow bring an invisible, parallel reality into focus...What kind of figures are these?Sword suit of the tarot.Amenadiel and Malgaras, a pair of tutelary 'spirits' in Trithemius' enigmatic work Steganographia.Of course, folk customs and the festivals of some countries regarding dew often span the three categories, but things are slowly coming together.Denmark as discussed in P.Glob's classic The Bog People.Could you tell us another one of your favourites?There are lots of interesting things about the story, such as the instruction that Herla cannot dismount from his horse until the dog he was given 'leaps forward'.Thanks for doing this interview!Misty mountain landscapes, ancient forests, dolmens, rune stones, and primordial burial mounds: those are the images that come to mind while listening to Xenis Emputae Travelling Band.The latest album, A Prism for Annwn, also exudes this atmosphere.Xenis Emputae Travelling Band, a one man project by Phil Legard, makes psychedelic ambient with a streak of folk.It's precisely these folk influences, which are represented by the use of flute, string instruments, pipes and pieces of song, that make the music so special.Xenis Emputae Travelling Band therefore gives off a warm feeling, and expresses an organic nature mysticism, rather than a cold, empty darkness, as is often the case with other (dark) ambient artists.Another special element is that all songs are linked to locations in the countryside.Prism for Annwn goes well with the older Xenis Emputae Travelling Band material, but also contains new elements.On the one hand, this adds coherence, but it also makes the album less varied, which is a pity.Bet Sant yn Diuant abet Allawr (6:47)
4.Prism for Annwn (6:37)
5.Email List and otherssleep over party!!!?Particular XETB pieces and discs are often related to
concepts from myth and folklore, especially as those connect to natural
patterns and specific places, to the extent that Legard often records in the
field (sometimes literally) to capture the special properties of certain
spaces.Pneumatic Consort, not to mention a brand new compilation
based around the theme of Reynardine, the trickster fox of folk legend.Legard also
scribes a fascinating blog called Tintinnalogia (named after a
17th century tome on the art of bell ringing) that showcases his
musings on topics ranging from alchemy to medieval music to nature magic to
punk rock to dew.Basically, Legard is a kind of postmodern polymath, someone
with a genuinely unique aesthetic and worldview whose work can take root and
hopefully thrive in the fertile cultural soil discussed above.Christmas morning and meeting an army
sergeant and corporal.Unfortunately my mother largely stopped dancing, playing and singing when I was
born, but got back into it during my teens.Shortly
after that I got an acoustic guitar and began recording songs and
improvisations on an old cassette recorder, inspired by Syd Barrett.Can you tell us a little bit about your
musical background?How did you first start making music?UK band Kaleidoscope, Jason Crest, Bulldog Breed, Principal Edwards and so on...FX pedals that I still use to this day, being too
broke to replace them.So, I spent my time making field recordings and improvisations,
getting to know the landscape.Practically all other musical exploits fell by
the wayside.Chocolate
Monk or Digitalis Industries!CDrs in around 1998, initially under the umbrella
of Stella Maris Recordings.Lots
of underground musicians try to surround themselves with the trappings of some
kind of mysticism or spirituality (with, to my ears, varying degrees of
legitimacy), but XETB seems to come from a kind of deeper understanding...These impulses serve to me as useful starting points for
exploring those ideas with music.Many people also have preconceived (and negative) notions about people
who employ such elements overtly.Can you say a little
about those both in terms of the logistics and the ideas behind doing so?The
locations are usually picked because they have some meaning to me.Ilkley Moor, which has one of the most densely
gathered collections of prehistoric rock art in the country, as well as
interesting stone circles and geographic features.The former of
these is a place where Beltane fires are still lit, and is said to have been
created as a consequence of the giant Rombald having a fight with the devil.Gill, where the black dog and fairies are said to have been seen, and so on.All of these are areas that have featured a lot in the music of XETB.The cultural elements of the music
are often associated with obscurities drawn from the arcana of British folklore
and the European magical tradition.However, I believe there is a
constant, fundamental nature present in each place that transcends atmospheric
colourations.Elizabethan and minimalist music around that time, which crossed with the XETB
aesthetic.In your blog you delve into a whole range
of fascinating topics, most of them not directly musical, yet all seemingly
central to your larger concerns.Have you undertaken any formal studies
in those areas?My interest in
esotericism lies in the writings stemming from the Neoplatonic revival during
the Renaissance, up to the late 18th century.Hermetic
stream and also folklore and myth to be rich sources of inspiration, opening
mental doors full of striking imagery.They saturate my perception of the world
and have a huge influence on how I approach music and themes with XETB.The relationship between a person
and a physical instrument is much deeper, especially where intuition and
improvisation is concerned.Is that a fair characterization?Perhaps, as has often been said, some trace of ancient belief and practice
remains in the folk rituals of the land.Mediterranean, then travelling across Europe in the Middle Ages (perhaps before), but reaching
its peak in the Renaissance.Marsillio Ficino and John
Dee.Reginald Scot published his famously
sceptical work The Discoverie of Witchcraft.He intended it to expose
the dangerous foolishness of believing in witches, but it was perhaps a mistake
of his to add a chapter containing sundry magical formulae from the books of
two magicians T.Later the magician and his assistant go to the grave of the criminal and
command his spirit to appear in a crystal.Fairie Queen and mythical
romance.It was because the experiment with the fairies summed up a lot of my
aesthetic interests and tied the European magical tradition with English folklore
that I decided to use it as the structure of the first Pneumatic Consort
recordings.Would you say that the music is a primary
focus for you, or do you consider the music more of a vehicle that lets you
explore the deeper ideas?This is one of the reasons that I generally try and keep my
releases around 30 minutes in duration.That said, the process of
actually recording the music is often a springboard for exploring other areas.Southwold I had a
deep mental impression of a ship, crewed by the elemental spirits of the air
amongst the clouds.Part of the fascination with this way of working is the
building of a personal mythology that exists in parallel with the received lore
of the local area.Xenis
projects, the Neon Death Slittes and the Pneumatic Consort (and others?The
Pneumatic Consort basically takes a lot of the same ideas as XETB, but
concentrates almost entirely on wind instrumentation (including reed
instruments and voice).PC recording, which concentrated on the ritual
of the fairy queen which I discussed above.Zoltan: Hound of
Dracula and something from Quatermass and the Pit, both memorable
films from my childhood.Zodzor, then, was the genius of urban areas.So, to cut a boring story short, the
Neon Death Slittes formed to play Zodzoric music.Battle
Hymn of the Zodzoric Empire and Psychic Underground.The Rosette of Sirius, The Gamaaea
Hermetic Ensemble, and so on...Are there any other current artists that
you feel a special affinity with, musically or otherwise?Ashtray
Navigations, how did that come about, and how does that work?As
far as I remember I got to know Phil Todd through going to gigs organised by
The Termite Club, in Leeds.Ashtray
Navigations play a few times and had some CDrs of theirs.Alex Neilson and Ben Reynolds.Things work
similarly for recorded music, but obviously with the ability to edit and
overdub.Fred Lane, with Ron
Pate and his Debonaires.Lanterns, two of whom who live up the road for me.Astral
Social Club in Manchester
and it was a really atavistic experience.Lots
of things have come out recently!Good reader, bear this in mind: I've spent several days listening to the first Metal Church, Robert Wyatt's take on "At Last I Am Free" and the Colours Out of Time's "Rock Section."Klonopin staring at a shoe for 4 days and then decided to walk to Baltimore.Tell that to the Cloudland Canyons and Black to Comms of the Earth."Descending Form" and "Sing Holy Song" showcase just how well harmonium and human pipes get down, even outside the world of guys in brown cloaks and mysterious Azns.Fusetron, too, if you're looking something you mightcould get.Mutant Sounds, for the seeking sort.ATFA, for the highest of life and all places nearby.Vinyl On Demand and the Reissu...NEW CREW Shadow Music of Thailand LP...Feb
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