Carl Abrahamsson

First Time Hurts the Second Time Too!

December 1, 2013

Today, Highbrow Lowlife re-releases Cotton Ferox’ debut album from 2002, First Time Hurts. After Thomas Tibert and myself had decided in the year 2000 to make some more music after an almost ten year hiatus, this first album became a longed for, eclectic and truly weird record. To balance my own acute logorrhea in this attempt at spoken-wordism, we made sure to include some better and more competent figures: Genesis Breyer P-Orridge on the tracks Snake Hiss and Amenema and Michael Moynihan reading his own translation of one of Ernst Jünger’s early and highly poetic war texts. Not forgetting the finishing pièce de résistance Phantasmoplasm, written together with and sung by our dear friend and musical genius Krister Linder. In all, the album is an ambitious attempt to leave the primitive but still powerful experimentalism of White Stains (1987-1994) and delve into more traditional musical structures. I think we succeeded quite well and I still enjoy listening to this album...

The Magic of Illusion and Vice Versa

November 23, 2013

Magic is not only a cultural sphere consisting of compensatorily inclined individuals with inflated egos wallowing in arcane structures and symbols (I can hear you: “Look who’s talking!”, right?). Let’s call that “Sphere 1”. There is also another cultural sphere based on trickery, illusions and mentalism that goes by the same name: “Sphere 2”. Sometimes they seem to co-exist. The megavolume Magic 1400s-1950s, recently issued by Taschen, touches upon Sphere 2 and its related cultural impact. Amply illustrated, the book is also a mind blowing tour of classic advertising for magic shows and other alluring events. Flyers, posters, photos and reviews are superbly reproduced, and it’s an absolute joy to flip through the 650 pages of this truly heavy volume. It’s in this image material and in the introduction to stage magic that Magic 1400s-1950s earns its merits. Textually, it draws many erroneous conclusions in comparing Sphere 1...

The Hafler Trio book launch in Stockholm

November 18, 2013

On Wednesday the 20th of November, at 7 pm, there will be a The Hafler Trio event at Fylkingen in Stockholm. It’s not a concert but a book launch for the amazing book “”””’ ” (being an exposition and elucidation of an eternal work by The Hafler Trio), published by TRAPART. Andrew McKenzie will be present to sign your copy and he will also give a lecture/talk. The book focuses on Andrew’s highly interesting workshop concept, in which musical creation is integrated in a holistic self development setting. For more information about this, please check out my blog post from October 9th. See you in Stockholm at Fylkingen next Wednesday!

Mother, Have A Safe Trip

November 13, 2013

My first novel, Mother, Have A Safe Trip, has now been out for a month. It’s been very exciting to talk to people about what they think about the book. A mixed bag, but very positive feedback on the whole. I haven’t really sent out review copies yet, but will do so soon. (If you have a blog or write for a magazine, please feel free to get in touch.) I have so far received one great review already though, by Henrik Dahl from UK web site Psychedelic Press. Henrik knows a good book when he sees (and reads) one! “… Abrahamsson clearly belongs to a tradition of western anti-authoritarian authors leaning towards libertarian or anarchist ideas. Whatever one may feel about the overriding sentiments of Abrahamson’s writings, Mother, Have a Safe Trip is a highly entertaining and thought-provoking novel. Chock-full of psychedelia, the book is also a much welcome addition to the far too few fictional works published dealing with psychedelic culture.” The review can...