Quite a while ago I got my hands on Mark Goodall’s book Gathering of the Tribe – Music and Heavy Conscious Creation (Headpress, 2013). I thought I’d read it and write the review without much ado. Boy, was I wong! Actually, I’m still stuck in the book… Help! But this is not because that it’s hard to penetrate or difficult in any way. On the contrary. I’m still stuck because I want to. Goodall’s HEAVY journey through a multitude of various musical styles is simply so brilliant that I want to stay in this deranged stream of wonders and frights forever. What appears at first to be an eclectic guide for record collectors is in actual fact a real mind opener in itself. Not only because of the incredible weirdness Goodall describes, but also because of how he does it (and his friends too). This is a brilliant, illuminating and highly well written book. Try this out for size: Cosmic Sounds, Jazz and the Spirit World, Freaky Folk, The Law of Octaves:...

Taschen just released a massive slipcased tome, a facsimile of a cosmographic piece of history writing from the late 15th century: Chronicle of the World 1493 (Original title: Weltchronik/Liber Chronicarum), and its accompanying study The Book of Chronicles. Is this old tome relevant today? And if so, what makes it relevant? Let’s just put the sheer beauty of the book aside for a while. And let’s focus instead on the grandeur of the ambition that was a part of this specific age in certain sections of society. The renaissance wasn’t just an Italian phenomenon but part of a well-to-do mind frame in Europe in general in the 14th to 16th centuries (approx). It was a (re)definition of where leading Europeans were at. A celebration of human ingenuity and intelligence so far, through art, science and commerce. Also one that wanted to break free from a too intolerant religious doctrine. To be able to see oneself as a contemporary being, one needs to be centered in time as...