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Rating: A cover in intense ivory-colored rough cardboard: on it, an ink illustration... a pansy with a skull inside its corolla, suspended in the air between two lit torches... below, a winged hourglass resting on the drapery of an altar... in the background, dead trees.... all around the architecture of a small temple.
This is “Imperium”, an album by Current 93 of David Tibet, released in 1989 and an indisputable manifesto of a stylistic shift, as well as the definition of a new musical genre that with the subsequent “Svastikas for Noddy” will become a sure thing. Apocalyptic Folk, they called it. A balanced mix of acoustic sonorities, chant-like voices, and electro-industrial incursions proposed in the most classic song form: the so-called ballad. Among the influences cited by Tibet for his advanced project are writers like Lautremont and Blake; and then traditional folk and liturgical music. All that in a more radical and experimental dimension was found in albums like “Nature Unveiled” and “Dogs Blood Rising”, in “Imperium” becomes rarefied to metaphysical and mystical levels, leaving aside exorcistic and pseudo-demonic provocations to find a linear, almost intimate direction, minimizing the sound environment and bringing to the forefront the atmospheres woven by David Tibet's sad and biblical litanies.
Some die when they are in the womb
Some on the ground where they are born
Some die just as they learn to crawl
And some as they learn to walk
Some die old and some die young
Some in the very prime of life
All people pass in turn
Just like the fall of ripened fruit
As all ripe fruit
Always falls and rots
So all who are born
Are always by their deaths destroyed
These are the verses already printed on the album package and also read in one of the tracks. Sufficient to synthesize the contents and sensations of this work, which slowly drags the listener into a foggy limbo of tearful and unescapable emotions, casting a disenchanted look at the fate of the individual and the grotesque paradoxes of his life. The first part, titled "Imperium" and divided into four simply numbered parts, is a melancholic and tragic excursus, mild in rhythm, intensely atmospheric, played on guitar strings, voice, and arcane wails and cries of a child, deformed and extended. A suite with biblical but also kabbalistic scents, inspiring an immersion into the depths of the cover illustration, darkening the ivory of the cardboard and drawing absurd clouds on a horizon of Dantean beginnings.
“Imperium” requires concentration and relaxation. Everything passes through the understanding of the cantilevered texts by Tibet and the overlapping of timbral planes. Musically, there seems to be very little, but one must abandon every preconception and think that this is not music intended for entertainment, nor for dancing. In the second part, the supernatural and prophetic tone intensifies, reading between the lines of almost inexplicable moments the possible interpretations of the titles.
The tracks are
1. Be
2. Locust
3. Or
4. Alone
What else to say?
Current 93 remains, despite everything, one of the most original and interesting projects of the last twenty years. In “Imperium” we find what previous works had pushed to extremes to gain attention and what subsequent albums have partly rehashed, still emphasizing the stylistic minimalism of apocalyptic folk. Tibet has long fluctuated between taking himself seriously and declaring the substantial irony of his ideas and his mystical approach to certain themes. But if the irony is traceable in some of his works, titles like "Imperium" leave no doubt about the truthfulness of the inspiration. The skull in the flower's corolla grins marbly, drawing sap from the passage of time and glimmers among the flames of the torches, illuminating the mists of our beliefs and the instability of our certainties.
In the unspeakable sadness of the dirge, the dream everyone has disperses under the wing beat of the only tangible truth.
As all ripe fruit falls and rots, all those who are born are then destroyed by their own deaths.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Imperium I ()
the Lord is my shepherd
i shall not want
he leadeth me into green pastures
the Lord is my shepherd
the Lord is my shepherd
shall i see you again?
imperium
imperium
imperium
one generation passes away
and another generation cometh in
but this earth abideth forever
the sun also rises
and the sun goeth down
and hastens to his place
way low
all the rivers run into the sea
yet the sea is never full
and to the place from hence the rivers come
thither they return again
all things are full of labour
man can not utter it
the eye is not satisfied with seeing
nor the eye filled with hearing
imperium
imperium
imperium
the thing that has been it is that which shall be
and that which is done is that which shall be done
and there is no new thing under the sun
is there any new thing whereof it may be said
see this is new it hadn't been already
of all time which lasts before us
there is no remembrance of former things
neither shall there be any remembrance of things
that which is crooked cannot be made straight
that which is wanted cannot be numbered
to every thing there is a season
and a time to every purpose
under the heavens
a time to be born and a time to die
a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted
a time to kill and a time to heal
a time to break down and a time to build up
a time to weep and a time to laugh
a time to mourn and a time to dance
a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing
a time to get and a time to lose
a time to keep and a time to cast away
a time to weed and a time to sow
a time to keep silence and a time to speak
a time to love and a time to hate
a time of war and a time of peace
imperium
06 Locust ()
what is all this love for
if we have to go out in the dark
lalalalalala
what joy we had
in the locust summer
what fires we lit
in the locust years
black hundreds
black thousands
lalalalalala
what joy we had
in the locust summers
what fires we lit
in the locust years
black hundreds
black thousands
rivers that run
rippled with red
ravaged and raped
with our roar roar roaring
lalalalalala
what joy we had
in the locust summer
what fire we lit
in the locust years
for only the strong survive
all of the weak are trampled under
all of the weak are trampled under
lalalalalala
this is only here in this place
and with these parting tears pour of the flesh
a freaking and falling
a crying and calling
foreign words crawling rivers
beaches moment's ebbing
broken watches
launch cathar
mama in my room
you left me burning
you left me burning
you left me burning
lalalalalala
animals melting servants screaming
crouched in corners coughing crying
renting scalding masts of walls
chanting scalding baby dying
and life force ebbing
lalalalalala
what joy we had
in the locust summers
what fires we lit
in the locust years
bloody tower of hysteria
a bloody vase of rape
he calls the living
he calls the dying
he breaks the thunder
and then it seemed as if
the whole world was burning
for only the strong survive
all of the week get trampled under
lalalalalala
what joy we had
in the locust summers
what fires we lit
in the locust years
black hundreds
black thousands
rivers that run run rippled with red
ravaged and raped
with our roar roar roaring
what screaming joy
in the locust years
nick my life away
lick my life away
lalalalalala
what joy we had
in the locust summers
what fires we lit
in the locust years
08 Alone ()
whilst i thought i was climbing
i found myself descending
having lost my way let me go up
having lost my way let me go down
i have no other work to do
it would have been better
no to be the mother
it is sorrowful
when a son goes away
let alone
and when he dies
i watched quietly
when the grave was being dug
knowing that he won't come back
and i shall not be here
for much longer
even if i become
like a king or like the wind
never
never will death
stay away
but when he called me from above
neither voice nor word to say yes
we just quietly say yes to him
it is a debt
which must be paid
here is your flesh
take it from me
it seems to me
that you can't destroy it
having spent the day with pain
am i going to spend the night with pain?
this living to eat
is so tiring for me
i am feeling cold inside
let me go on seeking fire
even death is better
than this useless life
the mast of a ship
a nakedness
the leader of whores
sheds the female breast
he tramples down
the vast furnace
Godlike and piercing
binding and bitter
and cleaving asunder
bones bound together
and paleness breaking
and rending
abiding in a place
tending into nothingness
dampness tending onto corruption
corruption
corruption
corruption
and merchants in trembling
dragged down into horror
terrible and whirling
the dust in the palm
sublime circumcision
solitude and desolation
a goatherd unto lost
all destruction
grinding thin powder
withering and fading
the reaping-hook of dullness
earth thrown up
all flesh turn
the mountains are cast out
lions trembling with fury
thy braking in my barrenness
the destroyer of days
the silent lion
we know him fury
the death of flesh
he moves with a creeping motion
they destroy by the sky flame
of their smoky breath
the painbringers
they shriek with a
long
drawn
cry
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Other reviews
By Cervovolante
Imperium, a foray into the realm of shadows, reveals itself as a darkly enigmatic masterpiece within the vast discography of Current 93.
Each track deserves to be described in detail... creating an atmosphere that goes beyond mere listening.
