First release

So Lord Bassington-Bassington's life revolves (hah!) around records these days. Here is Café Grössenwahn Grammophon's first release, just arrived from the printers.

More information to follow, stay tuned!

The (re)birth of a Record Label

"Café Grössenwahn" – "Café Megalomania". Such was the nickname of several cafés in Central Europe at the end of the 1800s. Here they would sit, the demagogues, dreamers and drunkards who would leave their mark on the coming century.

These cafés in turn gave name to a music club in Oslo, Norway, where a select invitation-only door policy, strict dresscode and artists such as Tony Wakeford, Spiritual Front, Solblot and The Green Man created a suitably megalomanic atmosphere. The absinthe fountain helped a bit too...

Which leads us to Café Grössenwahn Grammophon, created as a living monument – or perhaps a folly – to the club we loved. We aim to bring together some of our favourite artists both in music and the pictorial arts.

Our first release will be an extended play record entitled "Ghostly Whistlings". It is a tribute to the greatest ghost story writer of all, Montague Rhodes James. Four bands: Sol Invictus, Solblot, Sonne Hagal and Of the Wand and the Moon each deliver their interpretation of an M.R. James story set in their own country.

Cover art is by Swedish artist Fredrik Söderberg, and sleeve design is by Trine og Kim Design Studio. A small peek at the work can be seen above (Trine og Kim also created the Café Grössenwahn "absinthe grail" logo).

The record will be a strictly limited (250 copies) 10 inch record in art-edition gatefold cover.

More information will be forthcoming soon. A web page is being (re)built and a release event is planned for late January. In the meanwhile, feel free to follow the proceedings on Facebook.

Invictible

One of His Lorship's little hobbies is to write press releases for his friends' bands. So His Lordship felt honoured to be asked by one of his favourite neofolk outfits, namely Sol Invictus, to produce a short promotional text.

So why not print the result in the Chronicles as well?

After finding his musical feet in the legendary punk band Crisis and the (in)famous Death in June, Tony Wakeford has been releasing records under the name of Sol Invictus since 1987. His list of collaborators reads like a who’s who of the musical underground – Steven Stapleton (Nurse With Wound), David Tibet (Current 93), Matt Howden (Sieben) and Kris Force (Amber Asylum) – but Sol Invictus is an underground institution in itself. Sol’s music is a place where punk collides with chamber music, and industrial noises chitchat with folk tunes. Recurring lyrical themes deal with disillusion and doubt, ideals and cynicism, often drawing on Wakeford’s own life experiences.

Lord Bassington-Bassington, Little Storping-in-the-Swuff, Febrary 2012

His Lordship is also working on a longer biography of Sol Invictus. Oh, and it seems that this blog post has coincided with the launch of Mr. wakeford's own blog.

Photos of Mr. Wakeford at Café Grössenwahn by Superfritz.

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"

Playlist, Café Grössenwahn II

Once more, we here at the Chronicles have helped out by playing some records at Norway's neofolk club, Café Grössenwahn. Here is the playlist.

Ostara: ”Victory Surrender”
Der Blutharsch: ”Untitled” (#5 from When did Wonderland end?)
Solblot: ”En dag”
Death in June: ”Flieger”
Giddle & Boyd: ”Contact”
Klammheim: ”Nix wies wor”
Sturmpercht: ”Wildschütz Jennerwein”
Blood Axis: "The dream"
Perrecy: ”Panik”
Dernière Volonté: ”Si”
TriORE: ”Let us meet in the trenches”
Forresta di Ferro: ”Sogni di Piombo”
Ianva: ”La ballata dell’ardito”
Sol Invictus: ”The bad luck bird”
Rome: ”Secret sons of Europe”
Current 93: ”With flowers in the garden of fires”
Fire & Ice: ”Gilded by the Sun”

Café Grössenwahn - Summer on Summerisle

Well, there's been another Café Grössenwahn. This time with an intriguing performance by Italian band The Green Man.

Despite a somewhat excessive intake of Weissbier and absinthe, we, the Chronicles' reporters on the spot, managed to stay on our feet. And we thought we'd share the following snapshots with you.

The next Café will feature a performance by one of the founding fathers of neofolk, Mr. Tony Wakeford, Esq. We can hardly wait.

Café Grössenwahn - opening night

And suddenly it had happened. Oslo, and Norway, had its first neofolk club – Café Grössenwahn.

As is usual with an opening night, most natural laws were replaced by Murphy’s law. It’s hard to work a volcanic eruption into your plans, and we are eternally grateful to Solblot for stepping in at the last minute to replace Duo Noir.

Solblot gave an electric performance in front of about 70 immaculately attired members of the Norwegian Society for Megalomania (which also contains Austrian, Swedish, Danish, French and Polish members), and Lord Bassington-Bassington seems to recall spontaneous outbreaks of folk dancing fuelled by absinthe and Weissbier. An inauguration ritual and performed by a merry assortment of practicising magicians and burlesque models (and set to music specially composed by ambient masters K100) also added a touch of the extraordinary to the evening.

We're also very proud of our logo, created by dynamic design duo Trine og Kim.

All things considered, we dare call it a success. And we’re already looking forward to the sequel on June 12th, which will be a tribute to neofolk film The Wicker Man featuring Italian band The Green Man.

Here are some pictures from the opening night. Thanks to Lady Mju for providing them. If some of the pictures are a bit blurry, we suspect it has something to do with the fact that this club night quite possibly set some Norwegian record for the sale of absinthe - at least on this side of the 1890s.