HoneySuckle Æons

Personnel: David Tibet Eliot Bates Baby Dee Andrew Liles Lisa Pizzighella Armen Ra Sleeve Notes: To the memory of two beloved friends: Peter Christopherson and Sebastian Horsley. You are HoneySuckle and SunFlower both. All music by Current 93 as Eliot Bates (oud, bendir and erbane), Baby Dee (piano, church organ, voice), Andrew Liles (electronics), Lisa Pizzighella (kalimba), Armen Ra (theremin) and David Tibet (vocals). Armen Ra appears courtesy of Bowl and Fork Records. Mixed and produced by Andrew Liles and David Tibet. All lyrics by David Tibet. All artwork by David Tibet from the Hallucinatory Dream Prayer : Dreams of the Crucifixion with Christ and Two Thieves Ascending. Thank you to Jonathan Ó Cearnaigh for the Biblical Hebrew. Design and layout by David Tibet and Paul Jackson. Published by Domino Music. In the photograph of me I am standing in front of the original ceramic triptych made by Michael Clifton for Shirley and Dolly Collins' evergreen and evertrue masterpiece Anthems In Eden. Only the central panel was finally used in their album artwork. This is the first thing I see every morning when I wake up in my bed. I write this after speaking to Bill Fay. So this is a perfect place, a perfect space, to say: God bless Shirley Collins and Bill Fay. They have been with me throughout many darknesses, and their love and friendship means more to me than I can ever say. Thank you. The photographers' credits are as follows: Armen Ra by Tim Palen; Baby Dee by Christina de Vos; David Tibet by Lauren Winton; Andrew Liles by Giulio Di Mauro; Eliot Bates by Ladi Dell'aira; Lisa Pizzighella by Luca Ottoboni. profound thanks from the heart of the wood to James Blackshaw, Ossian Brown, Michael Cashmore, Geoff-Cox Dorée, Melon Liles, Mark Logan, eM and eL, Giulio Di Mauro, Lisa Emma Pizzighella and Steffi Thiel with awe for all. And thank you, with very much love, to: Marc Almond, Kiril Ass, Andrei Bakhmin, Devendra Banhart, Chiara Barzini, William Basinski, Heike Behlmer, David Bianchi, Nick Blinko, Ane Boud'hors, Henry Boxer, William Breeze, Dylan Burns, Chris Campion, Nick and Susie Cave, Giorgio Cebrero, Jessica Chappell, Ben Chasny, Shirley Collins, John Contreras, Daniela Corcio, Kat Cormie, Anna, Caro and Seth Cox-Dorée, Enrico Croci, Jenny Cromwell, Andria Degens, Sarah Dietrich, Steven Emmel, Nick Evans, Eva and Michel Faber, Bill Fay, Simon Finn, Grace Fisher, Sven-Erik Fuzz-Kristiansen, Antony Hegarty, Nidge Ince, Eri Isaka, Father Kosma, Michael Lawrence, Hugo Lundhaug, John Marchant, Othon Matragas, Franziska Naether, Kserina Nefedova, Alex Neilson, José Pacheco, Fabrizio Palumbo, Davide Pepe, Steve Pittis, Massimo Pupillo, Fabio Quaranta, Tom Rapp, Keith Richmond, Sebastian Richter, Gary Robertson, Valeria Rusconi, Ray Russell, Bobbie Seagroatt, Steven Stapleton, Matt Sweeney, Stephen Thrower, Gabriele Toso, Simona Dalla Valle, Luca Valtorta, Andrew W.K. Yuen Kim Wah, Tod Wiodicka, Keith Wood, Youth and Elena Zichon. Happy Birthday to me amen, David Tibet, Hastings and Rome, March 5 2011.

Here, the theremin is the most pronounced instrument, the voice the most cogent tool, and though Tibet's imagery remains as powerful as ever, without the emphasis that he normally calls upon sonics to deliver Honeysuckle Æons feels more like a solo spoken word album, its soul being a succession of scarcely accompanied vocal passages, almost poetic, almost spoken word -- and almost too much to take in one sitting.