The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #116157 Message #2542949
Posted By: Stu
19-Jan-09 - 07:18 AM
Thread Name: Pagan Songs
Subject: RE: Pagan Songs
On a more poppy note, The Waterboys exhibited some pagan tendencies on Dream Harder, with The Glastonbury Song and The Return of Pan always striking me as being paganish in approach. Of course this isn't unknown in pop and rock music; Stairway to Heaven includes some pagan imagery and other Zep songs doff their cap towards pagan/folkloric influences.
Jethro Tull also seem to skirt the dark green heart of paganism sometimes, and songs like Jack in the Green, Songs from the Wood and the mighty Heavy Horses all seem to be include pagan themes.
The Quiet Village clip was superb, and the mention of Sigur Ros put one or two other artists in mind you might want to check out of you like expansive and more leftfield music.
Tod Dockstader's Aerial #1 and #2 albums are a particular favourite and the compositions are based around the ethereal and quite spooky noises he picks up on his short wave radio. If short-wave spookery get's you going then check out The Conet Project for some decidedly unsettling listening.
Chris Watson is a freelance sound recordist who works extensively for the BBC and has produced a remarkable album of his field recordings called Steeping into the Dark which features the sounds of storm systems over Inverness-shire, a rookery in Northumberland and the sound of a river in the Maasai Mara at dawn. Stephen Vitiello works in a similar vein but uses a variety of novel techniques to create his music but by far my favourite is his recording created in the World Trade Centre using microphones affixed to the windows and structure of the building, and it is an incredible listening experience.
Whilst not pagan, I've mentioned The Ghost Orchid before on Mudcat, but these recordings of EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena, or recordings of dead people) are certainly worth a listen late at night in the dark and the album can now be downloaded from iTunes.
Then there's the Wicker Man soundtrack (original rather than the execrable Nick Cave version) . . .