Carl Abrahamsson

Karkowski caught on film!

April 9, 2014

On a chilly spring day in 1990, I made a film together with Zbigniew Karkowski in Gothenburg, where he was living at the time. I could only afford one roll of 16 mm film so that’s what I used. Four minutes of fun! I had completely forgotten this film until Zbigniew died late last year. Then it dawned upon me that somewhere in my dusty archive was a silent time capsule. Eventually I found it, had it transferred and then added some of his music. Again, I’m very happy to be a documaniac. Time flies and some people fly away too soon. The documentation lasts slightly longer.

Interview in Tidningen Kulturen

March 12, 2014

A recent interview in the Swedish online magazine Tidningen Kulturen, posted on March 3rd, 2014. The interviewing was done by Guido Zeccola: “Carl Abrahamsson är fotograf, musiker, filmare, författare, skribent och förläggare. Han har varit medarbetare på Tidningen Kulturen som skribent och under en period även som musikredaktör. Carl har aldrig varit någon kulturellt förutsägbar eller lydig person. Han agerar ofta mot det kulturella etablissemanget och går sin egen väg. Detta gör han när han skriver böcker som t ex Olika Människor (konstnärsintervjuer, utgiven på Hström text och kultur) eller gör musik med Genesis P-Orridge, White Stains och Cotton Ferox. Och mycket annat. Vi kommer att tala om det lite senare under intervjun. Aktuell just nu är utställningen Imprisoned Sentences som är kopplad till Carls roman vid namn Mother, Have A Safe Trip. Utställningen består av 12 sidor från boken som förstorats och ramats in samt ett antal fotografier som varit inspirationer för honom...

LECTURE TIME: PLEASURE DOME 2012

February 19, 2014

In July of 2012, I was invited to hold a lecture at Scarlet Imprint’s Pleasure Dome symposium/festival. The event, held in Brighton, was wonderful and packed with interesting things and people. I talked about art and occultism, fact vs fiction and the search for new terminologies. Ha! What else is new? The text was later published in The Fenris Wolf issue no 6 as “Go Forth And Let Your Brainhalves Procreate”, which is still available from Edda Publishing. Here’s a clip of the thing in its entirety…

That’s Sexploitation? To a degree, yes!

February 16, 2014

Something Weird Video has been the main supplier of fine cinematic sleaze for many decades now. Sadly, founder and main dynamo Mike Vraney died in January but the business continues as before, thanks to Vraney’s family and friends. That’s good news. One of the final projects Vraney was involved in is a documentary called That’s Sexploitation. A very fitting title, because that really is what it is: a swirling cavalcade of clips to illustrate the history of sexploitation cinema. Intercut with narration by Frank “Basket Case” Henenlotter and interview sequences with sleaze producer par excellence David F. Friedman (1923-2011, “the mighty monarch of exploitation”). Given this quite simple structure, you quickly understand that the film is not really a definitive documentary in any way. Actually it’s more like an extended Something Weird-trailer (not unlike the opening section of all Something Weird releases), with...