Current 93 :: How He Loved the Moon (Moonsongs for Jhonn Balance) (Beta-Lactam Ring, 2CD/LP)

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(01.03.07) How He Loved the Moon is David Tibet and frequent collaborator Steven Stapleton’s tribute to the late Jhonn Balance of Coil who left us on 13th November 2004. Adorned with artwork and imagery constructed under the guidance of Tibet, the album consists of 2CDs and 4 lengthy tracks remixed from the original In Menstrual Night album by Current 93. While essentially Tibet’s project Current 93 features, as did Coil, an ever-changing cast of characters (including Balance himself in the past), Stapleton is his most frequent and consistent contributor. Tibet has released albums since the 1980’s and maintains the experimental ethic he and his contemporaries such as Coil, Psychic TV, Nurse with Wound and Death in June thrive on.

With How He Loved the Moon, Tibet returns to his instrumental roots, producing dense soundscapes of dark ambience and fluid texture. Drenched in atmosphere and heavy on moody presence, each track slowly unfolds as it plays its course. Heavily processed and obscured voices come in and out of earshot like otherworldly beings trying to communicate from another dimension. The backing could be described contrastingly as desolate and windswept or ritualistic and psychedelic with layers of sound endlessly intertwined and interacting. “Tide 2: The Song of Solomon VI:10” for example features a diverse range of moods and feelings brought expertly to life using tribal rhythms, windswept texture, sampled voices, ethereal vocals and an overwhelming sense of anxiety. Given that this album was created out of a great sense of loss for a friend, the dark mood is understandable but also brings this feeling to the listener. Tibet’s feelings are further exemplified by the inclusion of his words of tribute inside the cover and with the lyrics to the song “Moonbird” which he wrote at the time of Balance’s passing. A collection of otherworldly spirit voices murmur throughout “Tide III: Psalm VIII:3” while dark contemplative textures swirl all around as if troubled, lost or tormented until an air of uneasy ambient desolation descends. “Psalm IV: Psalm LXXII:7” continues the journey but adds a sense of anxious rhythmic urgency and a element of demonic angst to proceedings.

Devoid of the lyrical musings Tibet has added to his more recent releases, How He Loved the Moon can be described in a number of ways; psychedelic, abstract, dark, ethereal, spectral, experimental, disturbing or intense. All of these words are apt to describe various sections of the music spread across this album but trying to describe the moving intensity put into the tracks it contains is difficult such is the, frankly quite unsettling yet captivating, emotive quality it possesses. In short – a truly excellent tribute to a great man.

How He Loved the Moon is out now on Beta-Lactam Ring.

Beta-Lactam Ring

Current 93

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