Blood Axis

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Blood Axis
Origin United States
Genres Experimental
Folk
Martial
Neofolk
Neoclassical
Post-industrial
Spoken word
Years active 1989–present
Labels Storm
Members
Michael Moynihan
Robert Ferbrache
Annabel Lee

Blood Axis is an American Neofolk/Post-industrial band consisting of journalist and author Michael Moynihan, music producer Robert Ferbrache and musician and author Annabel Lee.[1]

Contents

[edit] Overview

[edit] Early Blood Axis (1989-1999)

Moynihan formed Blood Axis in 1989 after touring Japan at the request of experimental music pioneer, Boyd Rice. Moynihan had previously founded Coup de Grace, a multimedia project that produced live performances and cassettes and also released booklets of images and texts, the last of which was Friedrich Nietzsche's The Antichrist.[2] The first output from the new appellation were two songs, "Lord of Ages" (employing lyrics from Rudyard Kipling's poem on Mithras [3]) and "Electricity", which appeared on a German music sampler. These tracks were well received in Europe and were followed by two more songs that appeared on the seminal compilation, Im Blutfeuer.[4]

In 1995, Moynihan released the first full length studio LP, The Gospel of Inhumanity with the help of Robert Ferbrache.[5] The album wedded the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and Sergei Prokofiev with modern electronics. Moynihan implemented a recording of Ezra Pound reading from his The Cantos.[6] He also included lyrics from Nietzsche and Longfellow [7] as well as his own to the work. The album begins with a sample from the decisive final sequence of the film The Wicker Man.

After the release of The Gospel of Inhumanity, Blood Axis acquired Moynihan's partner Annabel Lee, previously of Amber Asylum, as a permanent member contributing vocals, violin, viola, accordion and various other instruments. This resulted in a considerably less electronic sound, a larger focus on Germanic polytheism and a more acoustic folk-based approach as well as covers of traditional recordings, particularly from Ireland, and continued use of historical European references. The first appearance of these changes took place in 1997, when Blood Axis played a concert for the tenth anniversary of Cold Meat Industry, a Swedish record label. The band consisted of Michael Moynihan (vocals, bodhrán), Annabelle Lee (melodeon, electric violin) and Robert Ferbrache (guitars, keyboards).[8] The performance was recorded, and later remastered and released as BLOT: Sacrifice in Sweden.

[edit] Contemporary Blood Axis (2000-present)

This period saw Blood Axis playing live shows in Portugal as well as various appearances with In Gowan Ring, whose main member, B'eirth, Blood Axis have appeared with as Witch-Hunt playing largely traditional Irish folk music[citation needed]. Out of this collaboration, they released the album Witch-Hunt: The Rites of Samhain, in 2001. During the same time, they produced a collaborative album with French artist Les Joyaux De La Princesse elaborating on the theme of absinthe appearing on The Gospel of Inhumanity. The album, entitled Absinthe - La Folie Verte, came in deluxe editions relating to the Parisian use of absinthe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This material was largely experimental, neoclassical and post-industrial in sound[citation needed].

In 2005, Blood Axis released a lyrically modified cover of Brian Pearson's The Ride, to a 2005 compilation entitled Looking For Europe[citation needed]. 2005 also saw Blood Axis play the German Flammenzauber festival, showcasing reworked live versions of several previously released songs, an amount of Irish folk songs and the live debut of a few new songs.[9] They also made an unusual appearance in New York City on Easter Sunday (called the "Black Easter" concert) alongside Changes and two other bands, in what was their first, and what Moynihan himself said on stage would likely be their last, performance in the city[citation needed]. April 2006 saw further live activity from Blood Axis, as well as a new medium for the duo's folk-oriented material entitled Knotwork at the Swiss Triumvirat festival.[10]

Beginning in 1998, Moynihan began saying that Blood Axis was at work on a second full-length album, at one time said to be entitled Ultimacy.[11] On 2 January 2009, Blood Axis played in Sintra, Portugal, with members of Portuguese band Sangre Cavallum. Moynihan stated on stage that the new album, now titled Born Again, was to be released the following Easter.[12] Eventually the album got released on the 21st of March 2010.

On June 10, 2011 Blood Axis announced about their forthcoming mini tour in Europe, playing five concerts in Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Finland and Lithuania. The concerts eventually took place the last two weeks of August with final concert in Lithuania's post-folk and alternative music festival Mėnuo Juodaragis (MJR). The line-up was: Michael Moynihan, Annabel Lee, Robert Ferbrache, David E Williams (keyboards), Aaron Garlan (bass), and John Murphy (percussion). The set included new (Born Again, 2010) and old material[citation needed]. The compilation titled Ultimacy was eventually released in september.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

  • The Gospel of Inhumanity, 1996
    CD and 2xLP. Released by Cthulhu/Storm.
    CD rerelease on Elfenblut/Misanthropy/Storm in 1998.
    CD rerelease with deluxe packaging on Tesco Distribution/Storm in 2001.
  • Blót: Sacrifice in Sweden, 1998
    CD and 2x12" LP limited to 600 copies. Released by Cold Meat Industry.
  • Born Again, 2010
    CD released on Storm. STRM12
  • Ultimacy, 2011
    CD compilation of all the singles and compilation tracks. Released on Storm. STRM13

[edit] Collaborations and split releases

[edit] Witch-Hunt: The Rites of Samhain

Witch-Hunt: The Rites of Samhain
Live album by Blood Axis / In Gowan Ring

Witch-Hunt: The Rites of Samhain is a recording of a 1999 live collaboration of Blood Axis and In Gowan Ring, performing as Witch-Hunt. The album was not released on a label. Limited to 100 CDR copies for private distribution, it was sold only at select Blood Axis concerts in Portugal. The album came in a special hand-made fold-out sleeve with leaf.

Track listing:

Witch Hunt recorded live on Samhain, Oct. 31, 1999
  1. Welcoming By Harold McNeill
  2. I Lay Stretched On Your Grave / Morning Dew
  3. Two Magicians
  4. Sea Ritual
  5. Dead Men's Slip-Jig
  6. The Rolling of the Stones
  7. The Black One
Bonus tracks:
  1. The Rolling of the Stones - In Gowan Ring, from the compilation The Pact of the Gods
  2. The March of Brian Boru - Blood Axis, from the compilation 10 Years of Madness
  3. Follow Me Up To Carlow - Blood Axis, previously unreleased

[edit] References

  1. ^ Liner notes of the Ultimacy compilation
  2. ^ An interview by Jan R. Bruun
  3. ^ Kipling, Rudyard. "A Song To Mithras"
  4. ^ Interview from the EsoTerra #5, 1995
  5. ^ the album notes read "The Gospel of inhumanity was [...] entirely performed, recorded and engineered [...] by Michael Jenkins Moynihan and Robert Ferbrache".
  6. ^ Pound, Ezra. "The Cantos"
  7. ^ Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. "The Challenge of Thor"
  8. ^ from the notes of the album Blòt: Sacrifice in Sweden
  9. ^ from the interview for the Heaven Street magazine, Issue 3, spring 2006, available on-line on Heaven Street website.
  10. ^ the flyer of the festival is available on soleilnoir.ch event page
  11. ^ from “Goodmorning Europa!”, an interview with Michael Moynihan made by Occidental Congress during winter 1998/1999
  12. ^ from the Blood Axis archives

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Blood_Axis&oldid=477260968"
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