Cthulhu has risen...

...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.

A Yule greeting from Mr. Larsen

Of the Wand and the Moon have released two small slabs on vinyl to coincide with the season's festivities. Lord Bassington-Bassington couldn't resist these, of course, and they are somewhere in Europe, in the huge mess the postal system becomes before the holidays.

So what better way to wish the readers of the Chronicles a merry Yule, Christmas (or whatever way your personal path makes you celebrate the season) than to share a song from OFTWATM's "It's Like Dying On Christmas Day" with our readers. We hope to see you in the new year, when His Lordship will hopefully be tempted out of his semi-hibernation underneath several thick blankets, so that this blog can be updated more often.

Mr. B says it like it is

It arrived this morning; Mr. B Gentleman Rhymer’s new long-playing compact disc I Say! To say that this release has been eagerly awaited by Lord Bassington-Bassington is a bit of an understatement; its arrival is like, well, like Christmas. Which, of course, it is, judging from the calendar.

Sadly, all is not tea and roses in the land of chap-hop. The time of the release of I Say! finds our hero in a precarious situation, as he is embroiled in the first chap-hop ”dissing match”, being challenged by MC Elemental to some sort of spat. Well, we’re sure our mild-mannered hero prefers the sort of spats one wears to protect one’s shoes.



Lord Bassington-Bassington has not yet had the time to get his teeth properly into I Say! yet, but it sounds extremely promising, to say the least. So here, to celebrate the new album, is Mr. B's lament to the problems of getting good help, something Lord Bassington-Bassington knows all about (just look at the sub-standard job His Lordship’s secretary does with this blog).

Wormwood for bookworms

While there’s a lot of exciting things happening in the world of small press publishing, it’s not an everyday occurence that an exciting publisher sees the light of day in the neighbourhood of Bassington Manor. But this is precisely what has happened with the recent launch of Malört Förlag (Wormwood Publishing), who, according to their own mission statement, are dedicated to "texts about the fantastic, the numinous and the aberrant”. Well, Lord Bassington-Bassington likes weird fiction, and he likes wormwood, so all portents point to Malört Förlag becoming one of His Lordship's favourite publishers.



As Malört publishes books in Swedish, this limits their readership to Scandinavians. However, their first release is a two-CD compilation intended as a companion to their forthcoming translation of The Devil in Love which is originally French, and seems to be available in several other languages as well.



And you need not be a linguist to enjoy the record, which includes contributions from artists ranging from Jarboe and Gavin Friday to Shinjuku Thief and Stone Breath, with a special mention for Rikke Lundgreen, one of Lord Bassington-Bassington's favourites on the contemporary Norwegian art scene.

His Lordship would like to congratulate these illustrious Swedes with their first release, and looks forward to following Malört Förlag in the future.

The dreamer is asleep forever

(We bring this old post back from the vaults to mourn the passing of Peter Christopherson. The picture was stolen from here, please forgive us).



Lord Bassington-Bassington likes the music of Coil. He also likes it when Coil is re-interpreted, visually or musically.

So this intriguing version of one of his favourite Coil songs,
performed by Peter Christopherson, Othon Mataragas, David Tibet and Ernesto Tomasini, could not fail to make an impression.

Ku ku cuckoo!

Cuckoo clocks are cool. That's what Lord Bassington-Bassington has always felt, anyway. And because of that, he is extremely enthusiastic about the current cuckoo clock revival.

Young artist Stefan Strumbel leads the field when it comes to the fusion of Germanic folk art (grown-up talk for "kitsch") and high art (grown-up talk for "pretentious"), and while he produces some stunning works, one is usure about whether one would want them on one's wall. Not to mention whether one could ever afford them...




So for something that's more moderate both in price and execution, one can do worse than turn to Italian company Diamantini & Domeniconi, who produce cuckoos where Germanic tradition meets Italian design in a mix that is stunningly European.





These clocks are available in two versions, the most elaborate (and thus most tempting) version having a working cuckoo. In order to not deprive the owner of sleep, it has a light sensor to make the bird inside take the night along with the owners, but this raised a number of questions. How would a light sensor handle the Norwegian seasons? Wouldn't the cocky cuckoo just refuse to accept that it's nighttime during the white nights of July, for instance? The clinching argument, though, was presented by Lady Mju. Lady Mju. being a feline sort of type, pointed out that she wouldn't get much done if she had to sit under the clock all day stalking the birdie inside. So the choice was clear: Some things had to be sacrificed.



Lord Bassington-Bassington thinks the clock works quite well on the wall here at Bassington Manor. (The white roses are obviously a small tribute to a band His Lordship quite enjoys).

So what else can one do than join those founders of neofolk, Death in June, in singing "Ku ku cuckoo, baby!"

November playlist

We had a small gathering at the Café Grössenwahn this past Saturday. This event, entitled "The November Men (and Ladies)" was without any concert or big brouhaha, just a bunch of nice people, food and drink. All in all, a perfect way to unwind after a hectic first year of Café Grössenwahn.

And as we're wont to do here at the Chronicles whenever we've been out and about, we'll post the playlist from the night. So here it is.

Sol Invictus: "The Bad Luck Bird"Rome: "Chanson des Gestes"
Anthony and the Johnsons: "Salt Silver Oxygen"
Sub Luna: "A Distance Between"
Thomas Nöla et son Orchestre: "The Rose-Tinted Monocle"
Fräkmündt: "Wuotisheer"
Sturmpercht: "Der Tanz des Tatzelwurms"
In Slaughter Natives "Ashes of Angels"
Dernière Volonté: "Immortel"
Spiritual Front: "Darkroom Friendship"
Ronny: "Blue Cabaret"
Paul Giovanni: "Willow's Song"
Gyron V: "The Boat of the Moon"