Music performance:

Comus (performing First Utterance)

After 35+ years, the Equinox Festival is proud to present, the first UK performance of the reawakened Comus. Comus have decided to make the Equinox Festival the first time in more than 3 decades this highly influential band will perform live in the UK. The inspiration for Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Opeth, and countless others Comus will present their seminal album First Utterance in its entirety. This is a rare and exceptional performance that Equinox is honored to be a part of. Don't miss your chance to experience this outstanding night.

"...provoking images of shrouded figures huddled round a fire deep in the wood, plotting dark revelry and ribald under the ghostly moon. You can smell the cooking meat, the Satyr brewed wine on their breath, the dread of a ritual about to begin. First Utterance mattered because the music was something real and not simple entertainment. Hail to music that may awaken your pagan heart and make that vein on your neck bulge way out. "

<BUY TICKETS NOW>

John Zorn

John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn's recorded output is prolific with hundreds of album credits as a performer, composer, or producer. His work has touched on a wide range of musical genres, often within a single composition, but he is best known for his avant-garde, jazz, improvised and contemporary classical music.

Zorn's explorations into the worlds of magick, alchemy, kaballah and other mystical traditions have astounded listeners for over a decade. His compositions and recorded works include: Zohar (with the Boredom's Yamantaka Eye), Book of Angels Vol I-X, Magick (with the Necronomicon String Quartet), his Masada group, Rituals, At The Mountains Of Madness among many others. In 2006 Zorn received the MacArthur Fellowship and performed two nights of highly acclaimed performances at the London Barbicon.

Threshold House Boys Choir

Peter Christopherson - famed member of Throbbing Gristle and Coil, will present his solo performance under this new and exciting title. Peter's work has been carving a path for the merger of spiritual discovery and creative practice since the inception of TG in the 1970's. This is an astounding addition to the years Equinox Festival. Don't miss your chance to see Threshold House Boys Choir it all is glory!

Aethenor

At the core of Aethenor is a trio of musicians residing in Geneva, Paris and London respectively. Featuring members of Guapo, Sunn O))), Mothlite, Miasma & the Carousel of Headless Horses, Khanate and Shora, their third album "Faking Gold & Murder" is due to be released on Vhf Recordings in January 2009.

Aethenor summon the most somnolent examples of Bernard Parmegiani, Organum, Nurse with Wound, Klaus Schulze, Igor Wakhevitch, Coil, Iancu Dumitrescu and Charlemagne Palestine. Acousmatic drones drift into crackling and bubbling sonic clusters. Lulling piano motifs and lamenting chants shimmer into distant lunar horizons while oscillators spin and drove serenely into unchartered audial regions. Sometimes as calm as a silvery sea, so that every gentle cat's-paw and lapping wave is deafening, sometimes as tempestuous as a fuming lava beach, spitting and popping at the surface. The invocational aspects of Aethenor are of course to be expected when looking at the previous output of its individual members.

T.A.G.C

Adi Newton founder and director of the legendary experimental group T.A.G.C/Clock DVA has evolved these "multi media arts project" over the years further experimenting with frequencies, ambisonics and magikal systems that have been evolving into new levels of sonic and visual realization. Working in co-operation with his multi-media artist wife Jane Radion Newton since 1996 on the further developments of T.A.G.C. This year will see a number of live events, a series of multi media project releases are also planned during 2009 onwards.

Z'EV

Z'EV is an American text-sound artist and mystic who is perhaps best known for his work as a catacoustic (reflected sound-based) percussionist. His work with both text and sound has been influenced by the Middle Eastern mystical system best known as Kabbalah, as well as - but not limited to - African, Afro-Caribbean and Indonesian rhythms, musics and cultures. He has studied Ewe (Ghana) music, Balinese gamelan, and Indian tala. Z'EV does not consider his performances as solos, but rather as the unique inter-reactions between himself and his instruments; the particular physical space of the performance; the particular time and geographic location of the performance; and the energies of the audience.

Dieter Muh

Dieter Muh are a UK experimental duo who have recently collaborated with esoteric writer Lon Milo DuQuette. Members Dave Uden and Steve Cammack have been pushing the boundaries of experimental music and sound art for over a decade.

Pietro Riparbelli/K11 (with: Tele.s.therion)

K 11 is a project of Italian sound/installation artist Pietro Riparbelli that deals with the world of radio signals, trans-communication and other invisible phenomena, to create a dimension where the only sound sources are signals from shortwave radio receivers. When constructing works under the K 11 project, Riparbelli uses only sounds from the atmosphere and from invisible, unknown sources. In this way, Riparbelli creates more esoteric works than his field recording based material as PT-R, and 'Voices From Thelema' (A document of live recordings made inside Aleister Crowley's famed Abbey of Thelema in Cefalu, Italy.) is perhaps the logical conclusion of such an enterprise.

HATI

HATI is an audiovisual project based on sound of acoustic instruments: ethnic, hand-made and find objects. HATI connects a personal interest in modern improvised and acoustic music with ritual and meditation. The band have performed many concerts in Poland, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Northern Ireland and on festivals e.g.: Wroclaw Industrial Festival and Audio Art in Krakow. Nowadays HATI performs as a duo: Rafal X-NAVI Iwanski and Rafal SABON Kolacki, ocasionally with other artists. They are also the organizers of CoCArt Music Festival in Torun, Poland. Live free improvisation performances with (among others): Z'EV (+ studio), PURE, Robert Curgenven, WEREJU, Andrzej Przybielski, Marcelo Aguirre, Raymond Salvatore Harmon (video). www.myspace.com/hatitah

Kinit Her

The members of this trio from Wisconsin draw heavily on the symbols of a vast array of mythical and mystical ideologies. Similarly their music finds its currents in a number of interweaving forms including folk, improvised, psychedelic, metal. Like the evanescent music that accompanies the animated nightmares of the Brothers Quay they make sounds that seem to issue forth from the dark recesses of the subconscious mind. www.myspace.com/kinither

Burial Hex

Burial Hex is a chthonic composition cycle written in preparation for thee final mysteries in the coming twilight of this Kali Yuga; founded in 2004 by Clay Ruby (Davenport/Second Family Band, Jex Thoth, Wormsblood, Zodiacs, Rose Croix, others),.. The arch of the Burial Hex cycle has traveled a far distance in the last five years, crafting epic voyages of electro-animist chamber musics, Burial Hex has experimented with everything from dark motorik electro to psychedelic power electronics to post-mortem new age to astral warrior trance; sometimes shifting between several styles within a single composition; often screaming out lyrics inspired by anything from Renaissance poetry to the hallucinations of William Blake and HP Lovecraft to a personal fountain of improvised crypto-mythic poetry. Burial Hex has released a stunning amount of music on limited edition vinyl, CDs, CDRs and cassettes in the underground scene; both solo and in splits or collaborations with artists such as Sylvester Anfang II, Zola Jesus, Oath, The Mumber Toes, Neutoter Der Plage and Skin Graft; for labels such as Aurora Borealis, SNSE and Cult Cassettes, among others. www.myspace.com/burialhex

James Ferraro

James Ferraro is one half of The Skaters, one half of Lamborghini Crystal and the contemporary underground's favourite alchemist. With a wide variety of styles all representing different dreams of a demonic mind tower spanning from freak flesh bodybuilder atmospheres to ambient modern world/psych. It appears Ferraro draws influence from many different places but best summed up by this quote "I am Flintstones."

Rob Mazurek

Rob Mazurek (born Jersey City, NJ 1965) is a sound/vision abstractivist, cornetist, improviser, composer and multi-media artist with a unique style drawing from many facets of contemporary and non-contemporary sound and vision. A prime mover in the vibrant Chicago sound scene, he is the leader/organizer of the Exploding Star Orchestra, Chicago Underground collective, Mandarin Movie and Sao Paulo Underground. His discography includes recordings on Thrill Jockey, Delmark, Aesthetics, Mego, Family Vineyard, Bottrop-Boy, Submarine records as well as other labels. He has received numerous reviews/features in publications such as: New York Times, The Wire, Rolling Stone, Chicago Tribune, BOMB and others. www.robmazurek.com

Pestrepeller

Pestrepeller are an experimental drone-rock Noise group made up of artist and writer Edwin Pouncey (aka Savage Pencil/Sav X), writer, artist, broadcaster and creator of The Sound Projector magazine Ed Pinsent, artist and designer Harley Richardson, musician Peter Hope-Evans (of Medicine Head fame) and artist, musician and broadcaster Sharon Gal. Their work has been described as, "a gem of free-improvised-found sound collage, enriched with pagan folky vibes and supernatural horror Noise, dedicated to H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith and Austin Osman Spare." To date Pestrepeller have released three full length albums (Rodent And Insect Eliminator, Nug Yar and Isle Of Dark Magick) and share one side of a limited 12" picture disc with Italian interplanetary sound scientists My Cat Is An Alien. Their fourth album (already recorded) remains 'in the can' until they can find a suitable label to release it on the world.

Yan-gant-y-tan

Yan-gant-y-tan are Andy Sharp (English Heretic) - guitar, Leila Badriya - words & percussion, Mark Pilkington (Raagnagrok) - electronics.

Chaos Majik

CM is the solo project of Todd Brooks, founder of Pendu, an organization based in Brooklyn, NY that promotes occultism, adhocism, and eroticism in the arts. Besides his work in CM, he is also a member of Ghost Moth (with free-jazz legend Daniel Carter) and Abuse Report. CM uses handmade, homebuilt oscillators and feedback-loops to produce hi-frequency analogue tones over a droning low-end for the purpose of arousing visceral and ecstatic, psychical states; exploring uses of ritual in sound and sound in ritual.

Arktau Eos

Finland's Arktau Eos create the ritual experience in a live setting like no other group working today. Part contemporary ritual, part shamanistic fervor, they hail from the northernmost extremes of arctic night, describing their present work as "a gnarled old tree telling you of worlds beyond, roots nestled in the constellations above and branches flowering in vaulted tombs below." Utilizing electro-acoustic musical instrumentation and other media, the vision woven together is unsettling, yet ultimately beautiful. Since the inception of Arktau Eos in 2005, their publicly seen side has involved performances in Finland, U.K., and the Russian Federation, three albums (the latest a double-album) and visual documentary.

Barry William Hale's NOKO

NOKO is the performative aspect of Barry William Hale's various lines of esoteric research, involving long standing collaborations, erupting into what is traditionally a fine arts arena. The merging of magical ritual work with contemporary experimental sound and visual forms highly original assemblages in a live multi-media format.

Although the Enochian Magical system has been a prominent focus, other directions include; A Sonic Magical investigations of the Qlipotic genii as well as the upcoming 'Conjuration of Beelzebub'. This project while varied in associated personnel has produced a consistent documented body of work since 93. Equinox festival line up also feat: long time member Scott Barnes (sound realization) and the return of Michael Strum (Visualist).

Raymond Salvatore Harmon

Over the course of the past decade Harmon has developed the theoretical and practical applications for the use of Transcendental Cinema in occult ritual. Utilizing texts such as the Gates of Light (an early work of Hebraic mysticism, kabbalah) and Aleister Crowley's Book of Lies, Harmon's occult based films work as advanced meditative tools for use in occult rituals and the expansion of the conscious mind. raymondharmon.com

<BUY TICKETS NOW>