TL009. invocations of unknown entities - Sage Pbbbt

This album comes out of my exploration of an improvisation practice influenced by extreme metal as well as various different shamanic music traditions that have a much more fluid sense of rhythm. I wanted to explore a music that felt like a waterfall or fast-flowing stream or busy freeway—a chaotic, overwhelming sound, but with a constant sense of flux and flow.

I also took particular inspiration from left-hand path spiritual traditions and the driving forces of black metal—the desire to explore extremes, the investigation of transgression and the antinomianist stance. I’m interested in inhabiting these spaces as a queer, trans woman, given that some expressions of these stances can read like the hedonism of the privileged at the expense of those who have less privilege precisely because of normative and authoritarian systems antinomianist positions nominally critique.

In the last few years, I’ve moved away from “results-oriented magick” that “asserts its Will on the world” to a more open-ended, creative and collaborative ritual practice. My possession ritual feels more like inviting a friend in and collaborating than demanding things of some entity. And I’ve done some invocations of forces I felt present that I could not name and did not know. Which felt like a mix of existentialism, Buddhist Chöd ritual, cultivating compassion for all sentient beings, and a kind of Dada anti-magick. Ritual without intent! Magick without results! An open-ended, ongoing exploration of (magickal) consciousness. This has also led me to explore queering the boundaries between explicit magickal work and musick. Because no boundaries exist. Which sometimes feels liberating and sometimes feels terrifying and sometimes feels hilarious.

Thanks to: Bethan, Alice Hui-Sheng Chang, Eduardo Cossio, Aviva Endean, Jameson Feakes, Furchick, Nat Grant, Lloyd Honeybrook, Cat Hope, Lenny Jacobs, Zoe Kilbourn, Linda Martin, Mika, Josten Myburgh, Dan O’Connor, Shoshana Rosenberg, Michael Terren, Tone List, Tura New Music and the Perth exploratory music community.
    
And also: Baphomet, Choronzon, Eris, the Great Serpent, the Spirit of Plastic, Unknown Entity, Washing Machine and all of the Black Gods of the White Goods.

This release was made possible by Tone List's commissioning project for women in experimental music, fully supported by Tura New Music.

Recorded on Noongar land (Perth, Western Australia), with much respect to the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation, the traditional custodians of this land on which I live."

Limited ed. 100 two-disc CD-Rs in a card gatefold sleeve, released November 20, 2017. Ultra-limited edition 3D-printed, laser-cut and laser-numbered box containing the the two-disc CD-R, a bonus CD-R, bean-to-bar 99% dark chocolate by Gabriel Chocolate, unactivated sigil of unknown intent, and more.

Sage Pbbbt (b. 1978) is a Perth-based vocalist and multi-instrumentalist. Her singing practice takes inspiration from Tuvan and Mongolian overtone singing, Inuit throat singing, sound poetry and an ongoing exploration of extra-normal vocal technique. She also takes influence from industrial musick, trance, and drone; insight meditation practice, urban/industrial shamanism and chaos magick; feminist, queer and trans praxis; and Discordianism.

Music and artwork by Sage Pbbbt.
Recording and mixing by Dan O'Connor.
Mastering by Josten Myburgh.
3D printing and laser-cutting by Jean-Michel Maujean at the Perth Artifactory.

Photo by Josh Wells Photography.