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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
O SACRED SELF, O GATE OF THE SOFT MYSTERY..., December 14, 2001
This is the third album recorded by the Incredible String Band, recorded in late 1967 and released in early 1968, at the height of the psychedelic movement in popular music. Combining instruments and melodies from the far corners of the earth with lyrics unequalled in their day (and rarely since) reflecting on eveything from humankind to the natural world, from love to violence, from ancient mysticism to modern realities, the ISB made music like no one else. It spoke -- and still speaks -- to the heart, the soul, the mind and the body.The album begins with a trio of Robin Williamson compositions, extremely varied in their presentation, but all tied together by myth. 'Koeeoaddi there' mixes images from Williamson's childhood, including imaginings, songs and games shared with his playmates, with memories of adult neighbors and even a group of soldiers who camped nearby. These variegated visions are pulled together by the chant that becomes the refrain: 'Earth, water, fire and air met together in a garden fair -- put in a basket bound with skin. If you answer this riddle, you'll never begin'. The following song sounds almost like something out of Gilbert & Sullivan (complete with a responsive chorus and much humor), with a jarring difference -- its subject is the minotaur of ancient myth. There's a brutal play on word sounds at the end of one bridge: '...his habits are predictable, agressively reliable, poor bull'. The third track, 'Witch's hat', is quite simply one of Williamson's most beautiful songs. The visions his words invoke are dark and crystalline, fog-shrouded shapes moving in the woods -- the stuff that scares the hell out of kids and grown-ups alike, but beautiful at the same time. The album's longest composition, Mike Heron's 'A very cellular song' follows. It's a tour-de-force, encompassing several styles of music and themes -- including a West Indian funeral song. His subject is nothing less than the beauty and nature of life itself, told from the level of a single cell. This has been singled out by many reviewers as not only the high point of this album, but of the band's career as well -- and to be sure, from this period onward, it remains one of their most adventurous, popular pieces. Heron's 'Mercy I cry city' is next -- a simple man's troubled view of the confusion we call 'civilization'. Humor and innocence play large roles in these lyrics, as in several of Mike's songs over the years (check out 'Cousin Caterpillar' on their WEE TAM/THE BIG HUGE). Another trio of Robin's songs follow. The first of these, 'Waltz of the new moon', incorporates spiritual images from China, India and the Nordic countries of Europe into a swirling tapestry. Dolly Collins' harp and harpsichord arrangements of this song are especially beautiful. This piece flows effortlessly, seamlessly (and appropriately) into the next tune, 'The water song', another of Williamson's most moving pieces, an ode to the beauty, energy and sacredness of water itself. "Three is a green crown' follows, a beautiful but separate companion to his later work 'Creation' (on CHANGING HORSES), with many mystical references to the process by which the earth was formed, and life appeared and progressed. This is a very hopeful song (I believe), encouraging us to learn all we can about the earth and each other -- through knowledge and understanding will come peace: '...the book of life is open to us, there'll be no secrets between us'. Mike Heron's 'Swift as the wind' is next, in which a child's nightmare visions are scoffed at by his parent -- but the child senses how real they are, and the fear and dread he feels are very real to him. 'Nightfall', a Williamson composition concerning the power of the night and of sleep itself, end the album very fittingly: 'O sleep come to me, you who are night's daughter, and I'll give you my eyes for the colors that rise as time's echoes reflect on your water'. The mood of this album is a little darker than some of their other effots, but I certainly don't see it as dismal or depressing or doom-laden. Our days on this earth are made up of dark as well as light -- and there is knowledge and power in both. The more we know, the more we open our minds and hearts to the night and its mysteries, the less we need to fear them -- as in the mysteries of life itself. 'Nightfall -- o river of sight flow through me, washing thoughts of the day on your waters away...for the morrow that dawns never knew me'.
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~ Incredible String Band
~ Incredible String Band
~ Incredible String Band
~ Incredible String Band
~ Incredible String Band
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