Current 93 — Hypnagogue 1+2
This re-issue has the added bonus of a re-recorded version of the 22 minute piece for piano and spoken word but this new version features Michael Masley on Cymbalom. To be honest I don’t know what a Cymbalom is but from the sound it seems like it’s some kind of bowed metal stringed instrument.
Tibet has re-recorded his spoken word parts with his delivery on this version perhaps being described as more natural and less melodramatic. Without the playing of Maja Elliot to guide him his prose style is allowed to drift aimlessly at times across the soundscape produced by the cymbalom.
Some have said that Tibet’s text on this release is not up to his usual standard of poetry. I however disagree, the themes of Hypnagogue are a dreamlike mix of melancholic views on modern apocalypse and romantic odes to lost loves. Tibet inserts more contemporary references than usual, but perhaps that is fitting with Hypnagogues central concept of a dream, where everyday elements mix with the more fantastical .
"A cloud falls; a bird shivers and sings, it’s beak stained with night pure gold: the dark is waiting, the darkness is hungry, The deep is angry, and the telephone rings on. A film screen descends, and the silent movies play, Buster Keaton falls and rots, as Big Ben sings and boils"
The original version is second on the CD and unlike the first pressing where the piece was separated into several tracks where on each Maja Elliot plays different themes on her piano, here there is only one index and the piece flows from theme to theme without break. Elliot’s improvised piano playing really is a revelation, matching Tibet’s tempo and the mood of the prose perfectly. It’s hard to pick out any particular moments as it’s better taken as a whole but the sequence at around six minutes where the piano chords ascend and descend with Tibet’s apocalyptic tale of black and white films and lonely towns is particularly effective.
It’s certainly not all doom and gloom, and several parts are quite uplifting. Hypnagogue was on it’s release meant as a prelude to the new Current 93 album. With the release of the recent single At sunset black ships ate the sky it would seem that this style was put on a back burner. That seems a shame to me as Hypnagogue is a deeply moving and inspired work that would have been well served being extended across a whole album.