Carl Abrahamsson

Swans: Progress makes perfect

June 6, 2014

A new Swans album is always a great and welcome thing. Michael Gira’s creative mind is relentlessly productive, with new twists and turns, ideas and developments around every musical corner. How he finds the time and energy in between seemingly endless tours and ultra-cathartic performances is a mystery. To Be Kind, the most recent offering, is a very different album compared to the previous two: The Seer and My father will guide me up a rope to the sky. It contains a wider range of musical styles but still grabs hold of you instantly. It’s an over-used term, I know, but this album really is… Magical. Hypnotic. Although unmistakably Swansy, To be kind is a major step forward stylistically. References are stacked in a dynamic rainbow and made coherent through Swans’ highly energetic aural filter. How this translates into a live situation I look forward to seeing and hearing. Anyone who’s ever been to a Swans concert knows the intensity...

Summing up Here To Go 2014

June 6, 2014

As a part of the Trondheim Meta.Morf biennale, the Here To Go symposium strives to formulate art’s relationship to esotericism. That this has traditionally been an “underground” phenomenon is not surprising. Alternative frames of mind and thought processes have seldom been welcomed in the greater scheme of commodified art “worlds” and markets. If that is changing on any substantial levels or not we have yet to see. But it’s clear to see that during the past five years, there has indeed been an influx and increased attention in terms of esoteric themes in contemporary art. The first Here To Go symposium took place in 2012 and just recently version 2 was manifested. It was, for me as co-curator, a joyous event. Not only because everything went well and everyone was happy about it but because it had become elevated to a higher level of resonance and quality. This very much thanks to main curator Martin Palmer and Espen Gangvik from...

Here to go 2014 coming up

May 25, 2014

Beginning on Friday the 30th of May, the Here To Go symposium returns with a packed program. As a part of the larger Meta.Morf art biennale in Trondheim, Here To Go distinguishes itself by focusing on occultural strains and manifestations in contemporary culture. Here To Go takes place at Dokkhuset, Dokkparken 4 in Trondheim. More information about the event can be found here! Friday the 30th of May means an evening of performances at the beautiful Dokkehuset venue in central Trondheim. American rhythmagician Z’EV, Vicki Bennett’s People Like Us, Scarlet Imprint’s Alkistis Dimech and then Angela Edwards flanked by Cotton Ferox… That’s quite a mouthful for one evening. Cotton Ferox will do their best to augment Ms Edwards’ Pomba Gira invocation live on stage, and in this sense it will be a very different kind of “concert”. For me (and I’m sure the other half of Cotton Ferox, Thomas Tibert, feels the same way), it’s an honor to...

Here to go 2014 participants

May 24, 2014

LECTURES AND SPEAKERS AT THE HERE TO GO 2014 SYMPOSIUM: CARL ABRAHAMSSON Paul Bowles: Expat magic American writer and composer Paul Bowles (1910-1999) spent most of his life outside of the US. In his writings are many traces of a desire to leave not only geographical imprints behind but also specifically Western behavioral patterns. By exposing himself to “exotic” environments, he opened up new and creative dimensions within himself. Carl Abrahamsson is a Swedish writer, photographer, musician, filmmaker and publisher. He’s been studying the relationship between culture and esotericism since the mid 1980s and has written extensively on the subject(s). Carl is co-curator of the Here To Go symposium. VICKI BENNETT «We Edit Life» Since 1991 British artist Vicki Bennett has been working across the field of audio-visual collage, and is recognised as an influential and pioneering figure in the still growing area of sampling, appropriation and cutting up of found footage...