Being a record of the ruminations, ramblings and obsessions of a Hound of the noblest breed (or so His Lordship claims, anyway). The focus being on dark music and culture, style, spirituality and - naturally – Basset Hounds.
Welcome to the chronicles of Lord Bassington-Bassington, coming to you from Little Storping in the Swuff – a quaint place located somewhere between England’s Lake District and the outskirts of the Norwegian capital.
This is intended as a log of His explorations of music, books, films and so on. I, your humble chronicler, is merely His Lordship’s secretary.
For more information on Lord Bassington-Bassington, please confer this blog’s opening post. Contacts can be directed to neofolk@zog.no.
As New York's Cult of Youth is one of Lord Bassington-Bassington's favourite neofolk bands, his lordship couldn't resist sharing this televised performance with the readers of the Chronicles.
It's an understatement to say that his lordship is looking forward to their new album, scheduled to be out later this month.
When Frank Zappa famously asked the question "Does humour belong in music?", Lord Bassington-Bassington assumed that it was rhetorical – as there can only be one sane answer to Mr. Zappa's question. But it's important to remember that humour does have its dangers.
Much as Lord Bassington-Bassington enjoys what people like the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain and Mr. B the Gentleman Rhymer are doing with the ukulele, he does have a certain fear that it can cause the instrument itself to become some sort of joke. Much like what has happened with the pan pipes or digeridoo (the pan pipes of the backpacker generation).
Luckily, there is always the native-born Hawaiian singer Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. A few bars of Mr. Kamakawiwo'ole’s music, and one is readily reminded of what a truly beautiful instrument the ukulele can be.
Lord Bassington-Bassington also recommends a gander at the lyrics to this song.
If just for a day our king and queen would visit all these islands and saw everything How would they 'bout the changing of our land Could you just imagine if they were around and saw highways on their sacred grounds
cry for the gods, cry for the people cry for the lands that were taken away and in it you'll find Hawaii
This is, quite possibly, what Forseti would sound like if Andreas Ritter were born in Hawaii. Though the lyrics remind more of Fire&Ice.
It's not just Bassington Manor that is in urgent need of a makeover, these Chronicles also need a bit of redesign. This poses a bit of a problem for Lord Bassington-Bassington.
As a Hound with a highly limited understanding of modern inventions such as venetian blinds, ziplocks or blog platforms, Lord Bassington-Bassington isn’t exactly a prime candidate for web design. And as regular readers of this blog should know, getting good help is so hard these days, so His Lordship's humble secretary isn't much to rely on in this area, either.
Thankfully, there are people who are both kind and competent on whom His Lordship can rely. One of them is His Lordship’s dear friend and inspiration, the gentleman behind the Dodo Declaration and a bit of a blogmeister.
Another is the wonderfully talented illustrator Tini Malitius (also known as A Little German) who has produced these charming sketches, which perfectly capture His Lordship's character. His Lordship is at a loss for words to express his gratitude for these, but mutters something along the lines of "ahrooooo!"
So there we have it, dear readers. The only excuses for not redesigning the blog immediately will have to be put down to Lord Bassington-Bassington’s inherent slothfulness and, of course, the shocking and shameful fact that Lord Bassington-Bassington has to – shudder – work for a living. But yet again, the wonderful Miss Malitius, creative as ever, comes to the rescue with this constructive suggestion as to how His Lordship's impecunious situation can be corrected.
It's hard to furnish a mansion in a manner that is properly lordly on a pauper's salary. Still, Lord Bassington-Bassington does the best he can in the currently ongoing project of overhauling Bassington Manor. And now that the Manor has finally got a cuckoo clock, His Lordship decided that this touch of neofolk might as well be carried on to other parts of the house. Two small examples are shown below.
These runic designs were created years ago by Don Bota and have finally found a place on a wall.
And naturally, Lord Bassington-Bassington feels that an absinthe bar is an indispensable part of any non-modern household.
To say that Norwegian neofolk is rare is a bit of an understatement. There's a healthy freak-folk scene (not to be confused with health freaks, who are much less interesting to listen to). On this front, Phaedra’s debut album is a recent shining example.
But something that can be classed as neofolk? Very little.
One exception, of course, is Gyron V, from whom we're still waiting for a debut on Sweden's legendary Cold Meat Industry label (Gyron V's Traditionalist EP is so limited that it's probably useless to hunt for it).
But then there's the slightly enigmatic Weh. We here at the Chronicles have no clue about this project or the gentleman behind it, though we vaguely remember trying to contact him a number of years ago. In the meantime, a double compact disc has been released, but Weh remains as mysterious as ever.
Weh frontman Erik Evju does not play concerts or release many records, but both from the music and the company Mr. Evju keeps (Weh participated on a tribute album in honour of the departed frontman of metal band Windir) we would guess that, like many of the newer neofolk musicians, he has a background in metal music. But as Lord Bassington-Bassington himself occasionally enjoys shaking his head so that his ears flap against his nose, would be the last to hold a bit of headbanging against someone.
Weh's double compact disc, entitled Origins, contains a number of small gems. Lord Bassington-Bassington particularily likes the wonderfully (national) romantic “Heathen Ground.”
But then, tunes about runes tend to get His Lordship interested. And the wonderfully gloomy "The Bells are Ringing Doom" is also a very well-crafted track.
While hunting for some new winter boots, Lord Bassington-Bassington came across these pictures on a website selling finer footwear, and felt the need to share them with the readers of the Chronicles. Not just because the boots are rather fine, but because the man who wears them might very well be the most stylish person in the world.
While overalls is not a natural first choice of attire for the well-dressed gentleman, Mr. Brown overrules all normal rules of dress. For not only does Mr. Brown sport immaculately polished boots, he flies a Spitfire for a living. A Polish Spitfire.
As the pictures from this news story shows, Mr. Brown even has a taste for stylish neckwear.
Overall it is, it seems, impossible to be more dashing than Mr. Brown. Unless, of course, one is John Steed. Or is equipped with the natural elegance of a Basset hound.
While it's probably unrealistic to try to get a job in the same field as Mr. Brown, these pictures does remind Lord Bassington-Bassington that there are some very nice Spitfire cufflinks on offer. Perhaps it's time to invest in a pair.
...and so has the new year. And we here at Bassington Manor have finally succeeded in luring His Lordship from underneath the blankets where he's been hiding for the last month or so, snarling and snapping at anyone trying to rouse him from his semi-hibernation.
In other words, The Lord Bassington-Bassington Chronicles can commence publication again.
So what better way to greet the new year than with a picture of the finished version of Miss Jeanne Sophie Aas’ stained-glass Cthulhu? Isn’t it absolutely, mind-shatteringly beautiful?
Incidentally, Miss Aas is having her first exhibition this February, details can be found on the event's Facebook page. His Lordship kindly - yet forcefully, like a hungry Basset hound - suggests that you attend.
It will be a busy winter for us here at Bassington Manor. There's Café Grössenwahns to arrange, the first one featuring none other than Mr. Salvatori of Italian supremos Spiritual Front, a new Lovecraftian film festival to be held, not to mention that The Bassington-Bassington Chronicles will hold a small celebration with none other than Mr. B, Gentleman Rhymer making his first live appearance in Norway, and between all this there's full-time jobs to attend to and a collection of weird stories to be written. And there is about a million other projects to be managed.
A belated happy new year to you all, and thank you for your patience.
