Current 93
The Light Is Leaving Us All

Entering the universe of Current 93 is a unique experience: the Current is not for everyone: some can't handle them due to David Tibet's excessive voice. Another issue is the overwhelming discography where it's easy to get lost. Of course, there are also economic reasons behind this overproduction, and this has been the case since the beginning of their career. However, we are dealing with a unique artist who has consistently had something to say over time. In crafting the themes of his albums, which are genuine Gnostic rituals infused with Christian culture, Eastern religions, and—at least initially—Crowleyan magic, Tibet has focused on a single idea, obsessively repeated, and simple musical solutions. This was also the case with the early albums Nature Unveiled and Dogs Blood Rising, which were essentially sound collages that ingeniously combined elements of noise and Gregorian chants. Perhaps they were not genius works, but they certainly represented pure craftsmanship. Then, Tibet embraced the purity of folk language: for him, this was almost a spontaneous act, and from that moment, he looked to the past and mythical groups of the '70s like Comus, Amon Duul II, Incredible String Band, and COB, whose lessons were reinterpreted in an apocalyptic light. There are many jewels to remember: I am still attached to Imperium, a work that is still in transition between the first phase and the apocalyptic-folk one: a very dark, sick, and esoteric album that still manages to move me. Certainly important, at least symbolically, is Swastikas For Noddy, while Thunder Perfect Mind and Of Ruine Or Some Blazing Starre are, in their genre, little classics. Also worth remembering is the live As The World Disappears, in my opinion, one of their best works. The Current has always had the merit of continually reinventing itself, as in Aleph At Hallucinatory Mountain, an album characterized by electric sounds and the latest "chamber" I Am The Last Of All The Field That Fell. In short, Current 93 is a real cult, and every new release, whether a masterpiece or merely a decent album, is an experience to be lived intensely. It is the classic band of which you feel the urge to collect all the records!

This new The Light Is Leaving Us All is no exception, a title that might remind one of The Inmost Light, the ambitious trilogy of the Current that paid homage to the great Welsh writer Arthur Machen. Tibet has always been a great enthusiast of supernatural fiction and has also collaborated with the American horror writer Thomas Ligotti. In this album, where we are constantly accompanied by the hypnotic chirping of birds, there is a return to the apocalyptic-folk and psychedelic atmospheres of the beginnings, those of the aforementioned masterpiece Thunder Perfect Mind. We are not on those levels, but for nostalgic followers, it is a return to ancient and esoteric atmospheres. A track like "The Policeman Is Dead" is exemplary, with its dreamy atmospheres—where Tibet's reciting voice is accompanied by a melancholic acoustic guitar—of the Current's poetics. The Light Is Leaving Us All flows like a hypnotic mantra led by the evocative voice of the great guru David Tibet through tracks like the dreamy "Bright Dead Star" and the hieratic "A Thousand Witches." Perhaps, at times, it is a bit soporific, but attention is awakened by the oriental-tinged psychedelia of a track like "The Postman Is Singing," which connects to an album perhaps little known like Horsey. We are facing an album that recycles the past but does so with crystalline class and a feeling that is still alive. The ritual continues.