Johannes Høie's black hearts

Norwegian artist Johannes Høie has, despite being quite young, an impressive production. His masterful drawing technique deals with themes that resonate deeply with Lord Bassington-Bassington. As they will with anyone with the slightest interest in subcultures such as Goth, Industrial or Neofolk. Not to mention people with the slightest interest in the Lovecraftian.



Yesterday, His Lordship was lucky enough to attend the opening of Mr. Høie’s new exhibition at Galleri Maria Veie in the centre of Oslo. The evening not only provided intense artistic experiences, and a crowd of lively humans, but also a performance by Gyron V, a band Lord Bassington-Bassington is very fond of (and will write more about later.)



The opening also celebrated the release of the artist’s new book Black Hearts Dawning, a pocket-size art book that provides the perfect introduction to Høie’s strange world.

His Lordship recommends that you go see the exhibition, if you are in the vicinity of Oslo. And that you buy the book, wherever you are. This artist should be supported.

(All pictures are stolen from Mr. Høie’s website, with kind permission of the artist.)

On the Street... Or rather, at the Cellar, part II

On the Street... Or rather, at the Cellar

Lord Bassington-Bassington’s project of ripping off The Sartorialist continues. Last time, His Lordship reflected on the ear trends of the Norwegian capital. This time, The Bassington-Bassington Chronicles casts its gaze upon what some fine humans were wearing when the club The Heretical Cellar celebrated its 6th year, 6th month, 6th day anniversary. While all these humans’ ears fail to keep up with current ear trends , of course, by their unconventional choice of clothing they helped brighten – or perhaps darken – the evening.

Thank you for coming. You're the reason this club exists.

Canadian human-canine communication

Monty Python once asked: Whither Canada?

Today, more people should ask the same question, as Canada is on the forefront of cross-species communication, as this sign clearly indicates.



Lord Bassington-Bassington has just embarked on some heavy research into the Canadian Basset community.

Go Canada!

Die Weisse Rose debuts – finally

Die Weisse Rose's debut album has been a long time coming, and its arrival at Bassington Manor has been held up by delay after delay. But now it is finally here, in glorious green vinyl (it's also available digitally for you modern people out there).



It might be seen as sneaky of Lord Bassington-Bassington to just use Die Weisse Rose's own press release to describe this remarkable record. However, as His Lordship's paws contributed a little bit to the writing job, it's only fair that he can use it for his own blog, don't you think?

Die Weisse Rose
A Martyrium of White Roses
Cold Meat Industry

It might seem strange that a band without a single release to its name has played concerts and festivals all over Europe. But anyone who has ever experienced Die Weisse Rose on stage knows why.

More than concerts, Die Weisse Rose’s performances are elaborate rituals, caleidoscopic (or even psychedelic) experiences. Elements such as uniforms, burning torches, snippets of old schlägers, segments from documentary films and philosophical proclamations are wowen together by orgies of live drums and electronic sounds.

Die Weisse strives towards what Wagner called ”Gesamtkunstwerke” – total works of art. When most other bands talk about Gesamtkunstwerke, it sounds pretentious. When Die Weisse Rose do it, it makes sense.

Die Weisse Rose also like to think of their songs as “audiodocumentaries”. Again, such a seemingly pretentious term makes sense, as Die Weisse Rose’s art is just as indebted to the History Channel as to Throbbing Gristle.

To bolster Die Weisse Rose’s lineup (which really consists only of the band’s mastermind, Thomas Bøjden) over the years the unit has recruited collaborators to its ranks that makes DWR smack of an Industrial supergroup. From Marco Deplano (Foresta di Ferro), Gerhard (Allerseelen), Kim Larsen (Of the Wand and the Moon) to name but a few.

In return, Thomas Bøjden has returned the favour and played with a who’s who of of the Industrial and Neofolk underground, from well-established outfits like Rome, Blood Axis and Foresta Di Ferro to up-and-coming Austrian neofolk band Klammheim.

Now, Die Weisse Rose are for the first time available on record. If you fear that we have another ”martial” clone band on our hands, prepare to be pleasantly surprised. The music is painstakingly crafted and orchestrated to perfection to include electronic elements, field recordings and real instruments, and its creative merits really stand out in an underground culture where bands of far lesser talents than Die Weisse Rose would release three albums in the time Die Weisse Rose have patiently worked on theirs.

Ronny: Androgynous goddess

These days, the New Romantic wave of the early 1980s is usually associated with groups such as Culture Club and Duran Duran – rather gaudy, uninteresting pop groups.

However, there was a darker underside to the New Romantic era that not only was far more interesting and stylish, but has also aged much better.

Ronny was French fashion model who moved to London to be a part of the music scene there. It is difficult to find information about her, and she was in no way a prolific artist. However, she produced one 12” single, produced by Visage frontman Steve Strange, which is one of Lord Bassington-Bassington’s most treasured slabs of vinyl.

The song on this video, “Blue Cabaret” is taken from this 12”, and represents not only Ronny at her best, but what a New Romantic singer could be: A Marlene Dietrich with Kraftwerk as a backing group.

A dear friend of Lord Bassington Bassington, one of few Norwegians whose taste in headwear can stand up to that of Ronny (he wears a fez), once perfectly described “Blue Cabaret”: “If I had cruised down the Autobahn in a Porsche, and this song was playing on the car stereo, I would have thought it was the Porsche itself singing.”

Out of hibernation... soon

Lord Bassington-Bassington has been very busy this summer, and has his paws full with a project with a deadline that is fast approaching. However, His Lordship promises to devote more time to the Chronicles once this deadline has passed.

In the meantime, Lord Bassington-Bassington would like to deny the rumours that he is, inspired by the success of Lady Gaga, recording an electronic dance album under the name Lord Baba. These rumours are not true.

And by the way, here is a picture from His Lordship's visit to some relatives this Sunday.