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Alchemical music?

dubpulse

04:07 / 22.08.02

The question popped into my head a while back, juxtaposing listening to Holst's "The Planets", and my preliminary reading into alchemy. Can anyone recommend any pieces of music, composers, bands new or old that specifically deal with alchemical themes?

I suppose a google search is called for, but I thought I'd get the ball rolling on here.

Boy in a Suitcase

19:41 / 24.08.02

Coil: "How to Destroy Angels," "Gold is the Metal," etc.

Also I think Spiritualized is actually very good for this, but through the lens of a drug trip. Their albums pretty perfectly fit Crowley's Isis/Apophis/Osiris sequence, or the Albedo/Nigredo/Rubedo sequence of alchemy. Actually, a lot of concept albums do.

Seth

20:42 / 24.08.02

Try Saul Williams, particularly Coded Language. That piece of music is pretty much the entire ethos of Barbelith in a tune. It rocks on a level that makes the other tunes cower frightened in a corner, and the section where he screams down the gods has to be heard to be believed.

Click here for the lyrics

Colonel Kadmon

22:58 / 28.08.02

"Tales From Topographic Oceans" by YES fits the elemental scheme pretty well, though not alchemy specifically.

at the scarwash

14:18 / 29.08.02

People always tell me Bowie included Crowleyan alchemical references in some of his work (during that phase, at least). "Closer to the Golden Dawn," and all that.

The Natural Way

14:31 / 29.08.02

Yeah, but it was hardly alchemy. Paradigm/namedropping, yes....

at the scarwash

20:02 / 29.08.02

Well, Eno and Bowie did use the I Ching and the Tarot to structure songs. Come up with changes and stuff. How? Your guess is as good as mine. Oh yeah, and there's this, which might make some kind of sense. Maybe not.

dubpulse

21:45 / 30.08.02

thanks all. Coil... of course. Saul Williams I hadn't thought of but I have meant to listen to that album. YES I will also have to check out. Any ideas as far as Classical music? Or just outside the pop/rock/hip hop realm?

Strangely enough, I'd been meaning to read that Bowie/OTO/Golden Dawn article. I came across it about a week ago.

Right.... synchronicity. I'm headed in the right direction then?

Seth

21:57 / 30.08.02

The difficulty in finding links to alchemy in music is the fact that so much of the power of music rests on the non-verbal, the sound and energy of a piece. The intensity of emotion (any emotion) or spirituality is what gives music its kick, and unfortunately alchemy has too many links to esoteric study and psychology to make compelling music in anything other than a purely intellectual sense in most cases. It may just be me, but that doesn't rock my world (unless it's handled extremely well).

There's always that double Dire Straits live album, though

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