Scriptures of Illumina (Edward Ka-Spel)

howard s goodman <H.S.Goodman@cs.bham.ac.uk>

1. Illumina

Fades in. Incredibly strange. Tribal rhythm, slowly throbbing. The
whole track sounds like it has been squeezed through a sieve. Haunting
and plaguing: I have been plagued by `If seeing you is loving you, I
think I'll tear out both my eyes' during the last week. A long spoken
section ends with a bizarre declaration that `I am a constant reminder
of the priveledges of being obedient at all times', and then merges into

2. Memoires of Dr Bliss

An absolutely wonderful melodic song, with an oddly mis-spelled title,
in which Edward appears to confess how he assisted in the performance of
curious experiments on live humans. Sounds full of remorse: `Your pain
drifts away ... I should know ... it was me who ran the tests'. There
is a long, but beautifully restrained, instrumental section. The bass
synthesiser sounds like the one in Joy Division's `Decades'. `It makes
a tidy end.'

3. A grain of salt

Short. Cabaret-like, slow, and melancholy. `All the world's a stage
... you failed the first audition.' Three verses ... no more.

4. Homage

A slightly rambling instrumental. Very lush swathes of sound: the sound
of Ka-Spel becoming fashionably ambient. One note repeated every bar
throughout the whole piece. My friend Mike says this one sounds
(unfashionably) like Hawkwind.

5. Gomorrha

Difficult to listen to. Prominent vocals, again telling a story about
something or other. Kind of reminiscent of one of the _Shadow Weaver_
songs like `Stitching time' or `The key to heaven'. Classic Ka-Spel
`eating noises' from the synthesiser at the beginning; dub reggae -like
bass and rhythm for the remainder.

6. Mayday

Extremely difficult to listen to, like _Malachai_. Incomprehensible
distorted exhortations of increasing fervour and obsessiveness from
Ka-Spel. Degenerates into a load of Space Invaders noises, a distant
melody playing in the background, then rambles on for a few minutes
more. Quite disturbing.

7. The never man

Very much like `Memoires of Dr Bliss', a very beautiful melodic song
which gets under one's skin and leads one to sing it in the bath. Like
`Guilty man' or `Ghosts of unborn children', this is mid-nineties
Ka-Spel at his alienated best: `I'm the never man, the man without a
face, without a number'. Also, `No-one knows the numbers that sits
proudly on the front of heaven's door' ... so it's no wonder that he
cannot find the door ... There's a pounding, insistent rhythm
throughout: request this track at your favourite `nite-spot'.

8. Laughing Venus

1'20" of noises over a tribal rhythm, then a very lush, romantic and
spacey song containing the plea `give me life' (again, cf. `Ghosts of
unborn children'). A Victorian merry-go-round passes by.

9. There was a crooked man

Everyone on the ship is merrily dancing the Charleston, when some madman
with a toy guitar -- more Barton than Ka-Spel -- disrupts their fun,
wailing `Play it, play it, play it one more time', hammering
discordantly on the organ and smashing up the floorboards. It's no
wonder the little dog gets distressed ...

10. Illumina 2

Continues the story of the killer-bees started in part one. Spoken, not
sung. A thumping, pedestrian rhythm punctuated by brass fanfares. `The
moon ... they switch it off at night because it isn't square.' Three
minutes in, a jazzy organ ends our disorientation with some nice chords.
Merges into

11. The last door on the left

Six and a half minutes of beautiful, utterly restful ambient music: a
perfect ending for a very fine LP.

Justin Meyer <jmeyer@nermal.santarosa.edu>

Date: Sat, 16 Mar 96 11:29:00 -0800 (PST)

lets see the EK solo lp scriptures of Illumina - a review

actully it is really quite good - one of my favorite edward-kaspel solo
projects I don't have the companion 10" so if whoever out there does have
would let me know what I am missing that would be kind. but I was
listening to this last night on the way home from a nightclub and it
really struck me again what a good album it is in someways it (not
surprisingly) sounds much like the way the dots are going but without the
guitars which I like the album really contains a wide variety of
edwardian styles with one seong having this really odd horn sample
reapeating over and over and othere tracks are nigh dancable I like it
and think it is well worth getting besides it is my only cd with a white
case rather than a black one :)

Sam Geren

I was going to rank on this album pretty hard but I'm sitting here
stoned, listening to A Grain Of Salt on the boombox behind me, and it
sounds pretty damn great. I'm bouncing from cloud to cloud, because
in this song clouds are quite elastic. No, it's more of a floating from
cloud to cloud, needless to say there is some serious cloudage going on
here. Ahh, now it's playing Homage, with its washes of keyboard
programming and overall swishiness. Oh my, Gomorrha is some
hideous electronic techno mutation without the drum machine, and
don't forget the insane carnival record/unintelligable chant break after
the first verse. Of course, in Edwardian style, the song is soon engulfed
in a blur of electronics. Mayday: sometimes I think Ka-spel is just a
little eccentric, but after listening to songs like this I know he's insane.
Laughing Venus: hmmm, very interesting beginning with the tribal
beats with random voices and door slams and whathaveyou, but
then....Wow, I do believe the direction is up, straight to heaven. If
Edward could actually sing I'd think him an angel on this track. "I
will roll through famine fields on giant wheels." Awww Yeah, The
Crooked Man, the song that changed my life. This track embodies
everything insane and utterly gone awry. A toy guitar, simple melody
sung operatic, then out of tune crazy, then crescendo screaming about
virgins. Of course random noises all the way through, so amazingly
random that it's disturbing. Then the most god awful demon spawn
organ chords ever put onto CD. Wow, something is not right with this
man. My favorite songs are usually ones that are particularly
disturbing and this song is probably in my top 5 songs of all time.
Caaaaraaazzy stuff. Illumina 2's cool. So's The Last Door On The Left.
There Was A Crooked Man wore me out and I don't feel like going
through the rest of the songs. Pretty good disc. Just make sure you're in
the right frame of mind.

reviewed by Sam Geren

Rex <richwill@xsite.net>

Three years after Tanith..., Ka-Spel returned with The Scriptures of
Illumina, released on Terminal Kaleidoscope in 1994, the same year as the
Pink Dots' pastoral 9 Lives to Wonder. Oddly enough, this release seems to
be an attempt by Ka-Spel to redefine his solo work, as it sounds nothing
like the contemporaneous LPD record. Instead, the album focuses once again
on mellow, minimal, often dark electronic pieces, over which he recites,
sings, and shrieks a variety of lyrical concerns; his vocals are often
distorted but usually subdued. "Illumina" and "Illumina 2" both lament a
disturbing environment to a constant beat like that of a sped-up heart. "A
Grain of Salt" is pretty, while "The Never Man" wallows in anonymous
isolation. Either the best track or the worst track on the album, "There Was
a Crooked Man" is certainly dynamic and proves once again that Ka-Spel, with
his unbridled ranting, is perfect in the role of a madman. Ka-Spel briefly
returned to Illumina for a 1995 10" record, but has yet to record another
full-length solo album. His last solo pieces mutated into the Pink Dots'
Chemical Playschool Volume 10.

"John H Wilterding" <wilterdi@pilot.msu.edu>

Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 09:48:57 -0500 (EST)

Released in 1995 on their self-designed TEKA label, Scriptures of illumina
represents a more complete departure from the parade of china dolls which had
been appearing periodically for the previous decade. Stylistically more
experimental, and arguably less melodic, the musical styles, as is typical in
many EKS solo outings, cover a broad range of sonic territory. While containing
a number of more direct songs such as Dr. BLISS and the NEVER MAN,the tone and
range of this recording is far darker, chaotic and and anarchic than the
usual EKS serving size. A darkly textured release, SCRIPTURES is heavy on
instrumental passages and reduced vocal deliveries. Thematically, while cryptic
as ever, ideas seem to focus on a paranoia and fear. EKS delivers a number of
memorable lines, my favorite being....IF EVERY DREAMS A GROWING SEED I WILL NOT
SLEEP IN YOUR DIMENSION. Make no mistake, Scriptures contains a wide range of
stylistic material, but is not short on challenging and experimental pieces
like MAYDAY, and surely what might be EKS's most twisted musical
passage...THERE WAS A CROOKED MAN. Set against the background of an out of tune
guitar, sound effects, and sung/spoken words....this will send your average
listener either for cover or to the nearest asylum. Near the end of the
song, CROOKED MAN builds slowly over an ever ascending tonal wash of the synth
and barking dogs grating like fingers on a chalkboard. Lyrically, as always,
the themes and ideas are obscure, hidden, and secret. But illumina has a stream
of consciousness which suggests the visions of an uncertain man in a world
pretending to be certain. In Illumina 2, we find the narrator shout at the
moon... I'D RATHER BE A GREY MAN THAN A GREAT PRETENDER...the narrator leaving
our hero concealed, protected, hidden, staring at the scrambled TV in this
place called illumina. Scriptures ends in what might be EKS most soothing,
calming, and ambient piece... THE LAST DOOR ON THE LEFT rests the mind of the
listener, after a fitfull adventure. Serenity at last. A challenging release,
and a departure of sorts for EKS. For the uninitiated, probably best not to
start here, in this place, called illumina.

john

"Chameleon" <chameleon@owl-online.de>

Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 18:32:27 +0200

The collective listening goes on.......

EKS Scriptures of Illuminia

This is another release picked out by John, that isn´t very easy to talk or
write about...but here I go....

Scriptures was the first release on the TeKa label in the 90´s. The futuristic
cover is not very proffesional made...so we are with this in the Cover-art
discussion as well, I really think this one has no line to the music at
all......and it is one of the worser LPD/EKS covers, I think.

The CD starts with Illuminia, which is more a soundcollage than a song, very
dark and introducing the listener to Ed´s new created dreams, visions and
places. The following Memories of Dr. Blizz has a very good arranged rythmn work
leading through a dark sound that is getting a little bit "Happier" or lighter
to the end. Soundtools are set very nicly and this charming keyboard melodies
give the lighter moments to this one.........the melodies are really smooth.
The very naive sounding Grain Salt reminds me of a keyboard playing syd Barrat.
If anyone knows the Barrat soloreleases he must think the same......unfinished
naive popsongs that have a perfect shame just out of that they aren´t
finish......smoothy moments caught on the recording mashine just as they were
found.
Homage sounds with his keyboards a bit like the early Kraftwerk or Tangerine
Dream songs. Psychedelic Innfuences with the sounddevices all arround and a
catchy melody made this song ready to take you away to other places. Ghomorra
sounds like it is taken out of the early taperecording times of the dots. This
would suit also perfect on one of the CP or Traumstadt tapes. And again a well
work with the samples/sounddevices.
Mayday is an interlude, strange sounding electronic voice from edward.
The Never man is the "Single" of this CD. A very straight song, grat rythmn work
behind the dark keyboards. A charming keyboard melody makes this song easy to
get in my ears. As I said, my favourite of this CD: Laughing venus is great.
leading in a melancholy catchy song. In addition with the "lost" sounding vox of
EKS it runs in a spharic sound.....and set me dreaming again.
Interruppted by this funny intro to crocked man. Again a song like Grain Salt,
very naitive and sounds like unfinished.
Illuminia 2 and last door on the left are leading out of this CD, nice samples
dreamy keyboards and no more commants by me now!

I read a review about this CD as it was released, that sais, this CD is
sometimes like early pink floyd, sometimes like LPD themself, very psychedelic.
And, for bad it is not very well produved.
And I really must saythat this points are all right....it is not the best, not
the worst EKS release, and the production and mastering was really not the
best..........in most parts this CD really sounds unfinished.

greetings 834,

Wolle!
Wenn ich mir was wünschen dürfte,
wünschte ich mir etwas Glücklichsein,
denn wenn ich gar zu glücklich wär´,
hätte ich Heimweh nach dem Traurig sein.
(F.Holländer)
v1.2a s+r>d TW# 4/0/pw+r tG 12? 0 DSotM 9 30 <29dec97>