A Few Pagan Music Notes

Jason Pitzl-Waters —  December 29, 2009 — 3 Comments

I’ve got some Pagan music news tidbits I thought I’d share, starting with a new album by UK Pagan folk-rock band The Dolmen (MySpace page). The album, “The Crabchurch Conspiracy”, deals with the battles of 1645 in Weymouth during the English Civil War, and features narration by historian Professor Ronald Hutton (author of “Triumph of the Moon”).

“Prof Hutton said: “This is a spectacular subject for a musical album, and one rarely treated in that form. “The Dolmen make the result work really well, alternating bulletins of real history with electric folk, from high-energy dance to lament, which the band has always played to perfection. “I felt both entertained and moved. “It seemed at times as though a real voice was being given to the dead.” The CD is released following efforts to breathe fresh life into the old town hall, where some of the battle took place.”

The lyrics for the album were written by historian Mark Vine, who authored a book on the subject. You can download the spoken forward by Ronald Hutton, here. There are also several music samples on that page as well. You can order the CD from their web site through PayPal.

Turning from England to my former home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, we find a profile of a new band called Cackle that are bringing a unique brand of self-described “pagan pop punk” to local stages.

“If you attend a live show, you might get asked to pull a tarot card from the deck, followed by a personal reading. You might notice a litany of lit candles twinkling about. You might even witness one of the members casting a circle of salt around the stage area to “keep all the good within and all the bad without,” says drummer Renee Bebeau. “We have to get the sacred space ready for rocking.” If you’re thinking it sounds like a witch’s coven, you’re not too far off base. These pagan performance elements aren’t random, they’re completely by design for a band that defines its genre as “pagan pop punk.” And while Cackle isn’t exactly chipper bubble gum pop, the music is far from the soundtrack to a dark, God-less existence.”

You can see a live video of their song “Nancy Reagan Was a Pagan” at their Facebook fan-page, their debut album is due out on New Year’s Eve. Details on how to pick up or download that album are no doubt forthcoming.

Netherlands Pagan goth-rock band The Dreamside released a new album on December 4th entitled “Lunar Nature”, available now from CD Baby, or for pre-order from Amazon.

“The music of “Lunar Nature” can be described as atmospherical gothic rock with a good mixture of heavy guitars, electronical elements and a proper shot of alternative rock. All this interwoven with Kemi Vita’s remarkable voice and her unique way to express emotions in very personal lyrics. “Lunar Nature” continues were the predecessor “Spin Moon Magic” ended. The album is full of diversity and therefore once more a typical output from The Dreamside.”

This is their first full-length of original material since 2005′s “Spin Moon Magic”, so fans of the band take note!

In a final quick music-related note, Pagan music scholar Alfred Surenyan is fielding a survey about Pagan music for a talk and eventual book on the subject.

“I am currently working on a paper on the Sustainability of Music in Paganism. This project is part of my work in Pagan Music that I have been doing for the past five years. I will be presenting this paper at the Pagan Conference in Claremont at the end of January 2010, and perhaps part of a future book on Pagan Music. In order to understand more on Pagan Music it is the community that would have answers and input. For this reason I reach out and ask members of the Pagan Community for some answers. I have put together a small survey of 10 questions, mostly short answers. If you have some time would you be able to take my survey on Pagan Music. It will not take more than ten minuates of your time and the answers will help me further my research on the ever evolving and growing of the music of our community. The link to the questions is just below this paragraph.”

The link to the survey can be found, here. I encourage all of my Pagan-music loving readers to fill it out.

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Jason Pitzl-Waters

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  • http://executivepagan.wordpress.com Erik

    The Dolmen album sounds fascinating; those interested in it might also like Charlie Roadman's Athens v. Sparta, which albumized (if that's a word!) Thucydides' "Peloponnesian War" to excellent effect.

  • cringe

    Personally have found 90% of pagan music (the non ritual kind) to be hokey in the extreme and like Amy Grant with pentacles. In fact, the odd pagan gig I have been to with such pop-folk orientated music only demonstrates that paganism has a living sub rosa Evangelical style tradition – with arms held high swaying as they sing on mass to the Goddess (and sometimes God). The only bit missing are the Hallelujahs.

    In Christian pop music the acceptance of a tune can sometimes be measured by what is referred to as the "Jesus per minute counts" – my subjective observation indicates the trend is similar with a high "pagan god/dess, mythological beastie or reference to sabbat count".

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/TeNosce TeNosce

    ************* MODERATOR, THIS ONE HAS MORE LINKS THAT WORK********************

    My journey into Pagan music parallels my journey into the Craft.

    Back when I was a Captain in the Air Force during the first Gulf War (we all thought it would be the end of days), there was an air of the coming apocalypse. I was on leave studying crop circles in Britain when a girlfriend gave me a Jon Anderson CD (as a matter of fact it was the first CD I ever owned).

    "Loved by the Sun" ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40eZABP5eJs ) and other New Age tracks blew me away because here was this famous guy singing about the stuff that was intoxicating me. It would be many years before I came across that feeling again, let alone Pagan music worth listening to, but it wasn't for a lack of looking.

    In the early 1990s there was a rumor that Rockstar Kip Winger was into Wicca. Somehow this legitimized my newfound faith, and we all sat around (there were only, like, 5 Wiccans back then) listening to the song "In the Heart of the Young," reading secret messages to Wiccans in the lyrics. I've never been able to confirm the truth of this, and I suspect that we were seeing the Virgin Mary in our bagels, but those were magical times.

    Then a friend gave me a used-up cassette tape of some Wiccan chick singing sappy gospel songs to the goddess. I think it was a lady by the name of Gypsy Enchantress or something. Does anyone here remember that song "Beautiful to me?" or that weird song about the halcyon days to come where war would be against the law because we all worshiped the Goddess? Looking back, that stuff was pretty awful, but it was all that we had.

    After that I found Libana's chant CD, which of course was to become part of Wiccan canon, "We all come from Goddess, and to her we shall return," etc. Still the great pagan bands didn't exist, and all there was were the occasional drumming circle tape, or whatever gods-awful music I could purchase at Ren Faires.

    I discovered Clannad in Glastobury, and for many years only that and Enya CDs would sustain me.

    Then a miracle happened. I discovered GOTH music at a nightclub called "The Sub Club" which was basically a whole in a wall Velvet Underground bondage/rave scene in Honolulu. In Dead Can Dance I found the spiritual multiculturalism I was looking for with reverent drum beats and chants to Sumerian Goddesses. I discovered Loreena McKennitt which launched me into a 20 year love affair with the Celtic Harp (I now play). Finally, black metal answered a lot of my need for connection to my Germanic past, including bands like Amon Amarth who sang gloriously about burning monks alive in their chapels in Scotland.

    Ah such fine music there never was!

    Listening to Live365.com has since been a boon to me and my growing Pagan music collection. I have discovered countless Pagan Bands that prove that our music has finally arrived with blatantly Pagan and occult themes.

    If you haven't heard Qntal ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TnV-Kj_32Y ), Faun, Omnia, Rhea's Obsession ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naElnwYzjr8 ), you really must give them a listen. Finally if you have never heard of Within Temptation, and wish to explore how far Pagan music has come, you simply must visit youtube and watch their 'Mother Earth' video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reGlno9aUpw ) I have seen them live and they brought that magic to the stage.

    Now I go each year to Eugene, OREGON to the FAERIEWORLDS (http://www.faerieworlds.com) festival where many of these bands perform live. I am excited to see where Pagan music goes from here.

    Thanks for reading.