Psychobabble and More

There's a rare Xenis Emputae Travelling Band performance on the 17th of December at the John Hansard Gallery, Southampton. I've gathered a four voice magical choir to a performance based around vowels. Initially the concept was to work along the lines of Peter Michael Hamel and Prima Materia's 'vowel improvisations' and overtone singing, but things have loosened up since then. Whatever may happen, we're all looking forward to the event, which also includes Mel O'Dubhslaine (Ashtray Navigations), Ignacio Agrimbau, Hossein Hadisi and Glyphs. Full info on the Bang the Bore site here. If you're on the BtB site be sure to also check out Stephen Grasso's lengthy piece of psychogeographic voodoo Smoke and Mirrors, and Seth Cooke's essay The Glossolinguist.



Much coming up in 2012 - among the things to look out for early on:

• Re-release of Stella and Astrophel on the Reverb Worship label.
• A chapbook: The Mirror of Elicona.
• 5,000 word poetry article: Black Venus & Wise Hermes.

Finally - a couple of months back I was very happy to receive a complementary copy of Andy Roberts' Albion Dreaming: A Social History of LSD, which is a fascinating account of around 50 years of LSD in the British Isles. Andy also sent me his collection of Forteana and miscellaneous writings Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal. I previously knew of him for his beGlad fanzine, which made up a lot what was published in the brilliant Incredible String Band Companion.  I'll write more about this alongside my take on the Past Present Future Space Time festival of psychedelic utopia that happened at Wysing Art Centre toward the end of summer. Meanwhile, R.D. Laing is one of the important figures in Roberts' story - here's his anti-psychiatry documentary Asylum and the portrait  Did You Used to be R.D. Laing?.