Our Lady of the Flowers of the Red Night
Sypha Nadon
"Our Lady of the Flowers of the Red Night" is Sypha Nadon's fourth official full-length studio album, following 2008's soundtrack to "The Black Omen."
This album is dedicated to Saint Jean Genet, Saint William S. Burroughs, Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint Rose of Lima, and also to all those who took part in the Stonewall Riots of 1969.
Liner Notes
1. Invocation (4:02)
Sypha Nadon: vocals, piano
William S. Burroughs: words
This song samples the computer game “Thief: The Dark Project.”
“This book is dedicated to the Ancient Ones, to the Lord of Abominations, Humwawa, whose face is a mass of entrails, whose breath is the stench of dung and the perfume of death, Dark Angel of all that is excreted and sours, Lord of Decay, Lord of the Future, who rides on a whispering south wind, to Pazuzu, Lord of fevers and Plagues, Dark Angel of the Four Winds with rotting genitals from which he howls through sharpened teeth over stricken cities, to Kutulu, the Sleeping Serpent who cannot be summoned, to the Akhkharu, who suck the blood of men since they desire to become men, to the Lalussu, who haunt the places of men, to Gelal and Lilit, who invade the beds of men and whose children are born in secret places, , to Addu, raiser of storms who can fill the night sky with brightness, to Malach, Lord of Courage and Bravery, to Zahgurim, whose number is twenty-three and who kills in an unnatural fashion, to Zahrim, a warrior among warriors, to Itzamna, Spirit of Early Mists and Showers, to Ix Chel, the Spider-Web-that-Catches-the-Dew-of-Morning, to Zuhuy Kak, Virgin Fire, to Ah Dziz, the Master of Cold, to Kak U Pacat, who works in fire, to Ix Tab, Goddess of Ropes and Snares, patroness of those who hang themselves, to Schmuun, the Silent One, twin brother of Ix Tab, to Xolotl the Unformed, Lord of rebirth, to Aguchi, Master of Ejaculations, to Osiris and Amen in phallic form, to Hex Chun Chan, the Dangerous One, to Ah Pook, the Destroyer, to the Great Old One and the Star Beast, to Pan, God of Panic, to Hassan I sabbah, Master of the Assassins. To all the scribes and artists and practitioners of magic through whom these spirits have been manifested… NOTHING IS TRUE. EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED.”
-William S. Burroughs, “Cities of the Red Night” (1981)
2. Disko of Shadows (4:31)
Sypha Nadon: main rhythm, organs, synth bass
“The final mystery is always insoluble.”
-Aleister Crowley, “The Book of Lies”
3. Receiving the Logos (4:00)
Sypha Nadon: noise, drones
“Since the universe is actually composed of information, then it can be said that information will save us. This is the saving gnosis which the Gnostics sought. There is no other road to salvation. However, this information- or more precisely the ability to read and understand this information, the universe as information- can only be made available to us by the Holy Spirit. We cannot find it on our own. Thus it is said that we are saved by the grace of God and not by good works, that all salvation belongs to Christ, who, I say, is a physician.”
-Philip K. Dick, “Tractates: Cryptica Scriptura”, from “Valis” (1981)
4. Obsequies for Charlie Newton (4:04)
Sypha Nadon: glockenspiel, tubular bells, music box, timpani, pizzicato strings, choral arrangements
This song samples the film “Shadow of a Doubt.”
“You think you know something, don't you? You think you're the clever little girl who knows something. There's so much you don't know, so much. What do you know, really? You're just an ordinary little girl, living in an ordinary little town. You wake up every morning of your life and you know perfectly well that there's nothing in the world to trouble you. You go through your ordinary little day, and at night you sleep your untroubled ordinary little sleep, filled with peaceful stupid dreams. And I brought you nightmares. Or did I? Or was it a silly, inexpert little lie? You live in a dream. You're a sleepwalker, blind. How do you know what the world is like? Do you know the world is a foul sty? Do you know, if you rip off the fronts of houses, you'd find swine? The world's a hell. What does it matter what happens in it?”
-Alfred Hitchcock, “Shadow of a Doubt”
5. Choronzon Says (5:41)
Sypha Nadon: main rhythm, choral arrangements, drones, feedback
“Two Trees there are, the Tree of Manifestation and the Tree of Non-Manifestation. The former is known by everyone, but the latter is known only by a select few, though eventually, in the end, everyone experiences this latter Tree at the moment of death, when the Self is obliterated by the acid of that demon Choronzon, the King of the Vampires, who is the guardian of the gate of the Abyss (much like Yog-Sothoth). Exploring the Tree of Death is a subtle art unknown to the profane, but the riches it can give have to be experienced to be believed... but the guardians of these riches are very great and terrible. Eden's shadow is littered with the shells and husks of those who tried to learn the dark secrets of the reverse universe and failed. For make no mistake, the back of the Tree is the realm of monsters, and one must become a monster themselves to roam unmolested through the anti-roots one finds there. One must become like a frog or a toad, a spawn of Hecate or a childe of Ezaba, a leaper of the two worlds, if one wishes to explore the Tree of Non-Being and return back to the phenomenal world in one piece, for such a trip is indeed a Black Pilgrimage. Those who would explore these tunnels and risk being exposed to the gnosis of insanity need to know only a small number of things: the sigil of the guardian of the tunnel they wish to access, the proper vibration of their name (which is the hidden password), and knowledge of certain arcane and blasphemous sexual practices.”
-from The Booke of Calthurr, chapter 11: The Black Pilgrimage
6. Midnight in the House of Hurt (7:00)
Sypha Nadon: vocals, organs, drones, bat samples
“I am the hole in things, Bruce, the enemy, the piece that can never fit, there since the beginning.”
-Dr. Simon Hurt
7. Virus B23 (2:42)
Sypha Nadon: background music
This song samples the William S. Burroughs spoken word track “Virus B-23” (off disk 3 of the “Best of William S. Burroughs” box set).
“Ladies and gentlemen of the Board, I am here to give a report on preliminary experiments with Virus B-23... Consider the origins of this virus in the Cities of the Red Night. The red glow that covered the northern sky at night was a form of radiation that gave rise to a plague known as the Red Fever, of which Virus B-23 was found to be the etiological agent. Virus B-23 has been called, among other things, the virus of biological mutation, since this agent occasioned biologic alterations in those affected- fatal in many cases, permanent and hereditary in the survivors, who become carriers of that strain. The original inhabitants of these cities were black, but soon a wide spectrum of albino variations appeared, and this condition was passed on to their descendents by techniques of artificial insemination which were, to say the least, highly developed. In fact, how some of these mutant pregnancies were contracted is unknown to modern science. Immaculate or at least viral conception was pandemic and may have given rise to legends of demon lovers, the succubi and incubi of medieval folklore.”
-William S. Burroughs, “The Cities of the Red Night” (1981)
8. Funeral Music for Konstantin Raudive (5:09)
Sypha Nadon: music, vocals
“Electronic voice phenomena are electronically captured sounds that resemble speech, but are not the result of intentional voice recordings. Common sources include static, stray radio transmissions and background noise. Some people claim these sounds are of paranormal origin. Others claim there are natural explanations such as apophenia (finding significance in insignificant phenomena), auditory pareidolia (interpreting random sounds as voices in their own language), equipment artefacts, and simple hoaxes. Recordings of electronic voice phenomena are often created from background sound by increasing the gain (i.e. sensitvity) of the recording equipment.The term electronic voice phenomena (or phenomenon in the singular) is commonly abbreviated as EVP. According to parapsychologist Konstantin Raudive, who popularized the idea, EVP are typically brief, usually the length of a word or short phrase.”
-extracted from the Wikipedia entry on “Electronic Voice Phenomena.”
9. Interzone (4:58)
Sypha Nadon: percussion, timpani, drones
“In my writing I am acting as a map maker, an explorer of psychic areas . . . a cosmonaut of inner space, and I see no point in exploring areas that have already been thoroughly surveyed.”
-William S. Burroughs
10. Horse Rotorvating (4:15)
Sypha Nadon: tones, horse samples
“On the eve of the Apocalypse the Four Horsemen betray their steeds- slitting open the animal throats- and in doing so release the second great deluge- horse gore- (the air choked with horsehair)- infinite divisible split- an infinity open sewers- the Four then fashion an immense earth-moving device from the collective jawbones- the Horse Rotorvator- with which to plough up the waiting the world- (ROTA turns through 180 degrees to TARO)- wheels replace horses- dark horses run dark horses run deep (we plough the fields and scatter our dead steeds on the land)… and Hell is paved with horseflesh.”
-from the liner notes to Coil’s “Horse Rotorvator” album (1987)
11. The Demiurge Descends Through Oceans of Blood and Chaos… (2:50)
Sypha Nadon: noise, sample manipulation
“The Demiurge, prematurely born,
weans its way downward,
through oceans of blood and chaos,
lion-like mouth mewling in pain,
eyes stitched shut with centipede legs.
It is a blind, childish God
for a blind, childish Earth.
Patron saint of the aborted,
it mourns its separation from the Divine Sophia.
Cast into the sewers of oblivion,
it calls forth, in its birth agonies,
the Great Satanic Hologram we call reality.”
-James Champagne, “Mr. Orwig’s Midnight Monologues”
12. The Interior Castle (8:03)
Sypha Nadon: drones
“I began to think of the soul as if it were a castle made of a single diamond or of very clear crystal, in which there are many rooms, just as in Heaven there are many mansions. Now if we think carefully over this, sisters, the soul of the righteous man is nothing but a paradise, in which, as God tells us, He takes His delight. For what do you think a room will be like which is the delight of a King so mighty, so wise, so pure and so full of all that is good? I can find nothing with which to compare the great beauty of a soul and its great capacity. In fact, however acute our intellects may be, They will no more be able to attain to a comprehension of this than to an understanding of God; for, as He Himself says, He created us in His image and likeness. Now if this is so -- and it is -- there is no point in our fatiguing ourselves by attempting to comprehend the beauty of this castle; for, though it is His creature, and there is therefore as much difference between it and God as between creature and Creator, the very fact that His Majesty says it is made in His image means that we can hardly form any conception of the soul's great dignity and beauty. It is no small pity, and should cause us no little shame, that, through our own fault, we do not understand ourselves, or know who we are. Would it not be a sign of great ignorance, my daughters, if a person were asked who he was, and could not say, and had no idea who his father or his mother was, or from what country he came? Though that is great stupidity, our own is incomparably greater if we make no attempt to discover what we are, and only know that we are living in these bodies, and have a vague idea, because we have heard it and because our Faith tells us so, that we possess souls. As to what good qualities there may be in our souls, or Who dwells within them, or how precious they are -- those are things which we seldom consider and so we trouble little about carefully preserving the soul's beauty. All our interest is centred in the rough setting of the diamond, and in the outer wall of the castle -- that is to say, in these bodies of ours. Let us now imagine that this castle, as I have said, contains many mansions, some above, others below, others at each side; and in the centre and midst of them all is the chiefest mansion where the most secret things pass between God and the soul.”
-Saint Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle”
13. Epilogue (0:19)
Sypha Nadon: vocals
“Once the Buddha smiled;
and by the wondrous radiance of that smile
were countless worlds illuminated.
Then came a voice saying:
'It is not real!
It can not last!'
and the light passed.”
-Buddhist legend
All songs composed by Sypha Nadon.
Produced and mixed by James Champagne.
Recorded at Mauve Zone Studios from November 2008 to June 2009.
Art direction by James Champagne.
Front cover painting: "Saint Rose of Lima" by Carlo Dolci.
Back cover features a photograph of "Goblin," a sculpture by Clark Ashton Smith.