Archive of Issue Five

An index of contents will be added shortly and an option to download a .pdf file of the full issue in due course.

Contents of Issue 5:

Arcana of Fortune (part one) by Alison J Rockbrand

Blood Simple - Menstration and Magick by Charlotte Rodgers

The Key of Tarot Dynamics by Charles Papapetrou

93 Invocation 93 by Frater 13231

It's AL Greek to MH by A

Enochian Magick Revisited (part one) by S J Westcott


Plus: Great New Art, Book and Magazine Reviews, Letters.

SAMPLE ARTICLE

Bell, Book and Piano by Raphael Noir

The evening of the 10th April found me during one of my regular abyssal drifts at the Vortex Jazz Club in Stoke Newington, East London, for the first ever performance of The Book of the Law, Liber AL vel Legis - A Musical Setting - by Steve Tromans. Stoke Newington has long been a hot­bed of innovation and may be more familiar to our readers due to its associations with the Stoke Newington Sorcerers who many consider to have been the immediate precursors of the lOT. The SNS later became entwined with the first stirrings of the Punk movement.

The Vortex Jazz Club, a legendary venue back in new premises, in Gillett Street, is situated on the corner of Gillett Square one of the Mayor's '100 open spaces' campaign, which will see the car park immediately outside the Vortex transformed into a landscaped town square that will become the focus for Dalston's growing arts scene, as well as being the area's very own 'town square'. A much needed transformation for an area that is perhaps more well known for its Crack dealers than for its arts and music scene.

In his work Tromans used the key numbers mentioned in each chapter of Liber AL to generate the notes and rhythms used in this setting.
" ... for example, 11 in both chapters one and two, 718 in chapter three, 50+6, 5/60 and 50x6 for Nuit in chapter one, as well as the much discussed 4 6 3 8 A B K 2 4 A LG M 0 R 3 Y X 24 89 R PST 0 V A L that appears in the second chapter. For example, 50x6=300 ('I am Nuit, and my word is six and fifty' - AL 1:24. 'Divide, add, multiply, and understand.' - AL 1:25). This number, when represented in Hertz (vibrations per second) is approximately equal to D above Middle C in Equal Temperament (293.66Hz) on the piano. The circle (300Hz) has been squared (approxi­mated to 293.66Hz) due to the restrictions of Equal Temperament (' .. this circle squared in its failure is a key also.' AL 111:47)." - Tromans.

Similar processes were applied to the other numbers of the Book, leading ultimately to a scale for each of the three chapters. One unique to each chapter that allows the performer to move backwards and forwards along the scale, but only one step at a time, giving the scale a circular nature. He also notes that the scale for the second chapter, the Hadit scale, is a mirror of that for the first chapter, th eNuit scale ('I Hadit, am the compliment of Nu, my bride.' - AL 11:2)

The Ra-Hoor-Khut scale for the third chapter being based on the word Abrahadabra ('Abrahadabra; the reward of Ra-Hoor-Khut.' - AL 111:1), with each note of the scale correspon­ding to a letter of that word (Troman chose to make the final four-note group, that is the final 'abra' a mirror of the first four-note group). This makes an 11-note scale. Indeed, Tromans goes on to note, all three scales are comprised of 11 notes ('My number is 11, as all their numbers who are of us.' - AL 1 :60; 'Thus eleven, as my bride is eleven.'­AL 11:16), made from four base notes ('I am in a secret fourfold word, . .' AL 111:49). Tromans also goes on to note how he has found improvising to these scales alongside the electronic score (which was electronically computer-generated using the recording of the Book as read by Steven Ashe (available from Vondel Park Audio Cds) to be a two way process.

The composition was prepared in two versions. The shorter concert version of an hour in length was performed at the Vortex. The line up consisted of Steve Tromans, piano; Miles Levin, drums/percussion; and Mike Hurley, Narration.

In the event this truly unique musical treatment of Liber AL proved to be one of the most powerful and invocative readings of the Book that I have been privileged to experience. The three performers (piano, percussion, narrator), along with the electronic score - which served as an aural backdrop to the actual live performance - did fuse alchemically the one to the others, first rising, then falling, the piano at times barely audible above the percussion and narration, yet still distinct, discernable in the periphery, whispering in-between the beats of the drums and the words of Aiwass, resonating over and over ... bells and symbols .. rising once more the piano ascended Tromans' hands a sensuous ecstasy of touch as Mike Hurley conveyed the true power and depth of Liber AI with his spoken word, at times barely audible over the power and ecstasy of the Levins' percussion .. Hurleys' spoken word at times guttural and barbarous; the parts combining to weave a spell that stirred this 'soul of God and beast'.