The Hermetic Library Anthology Album - Magick, Music and Ritual 8

The Hermetic Library Anthology Album

Magick, Music and Ritual 8

Summer 2013 / Album

Released Aug 7, 2013

For full artist profiles and more, please head to Magick, Music and Ritual 8 at the Hermetic Library site.

The eighth issue from the Hermetic Library Anthology Project is being released on Lughnasadh in Summer 2013, at 15° Leo. This is the penultimate album in the second full year of releases, planned for all four quarters in 2013. Magic, Music and Ritual 8 brings together 9 tracks, from new and returning artists, with another hour of music in this ongoing series.

The artwork and design of this issue was created by Mustafa al-Laylah. This is the third of a full series of covers which will span the entire year. The cover design of this issue is the lower left quadrant from the full set of covers this year which can be combined to make a larger image, a collectable poster that combines the elements of all four seasons. The lower left quadrant, in this case, being related to a position on the wheel of the year and the typical correspondences between this time of year, this Summer season, and various things associated such as magical weapon, element, zodiac, cherub and so on. Mustafa has done a great job in combining various correspondences into a compelling and interesting image for this cover, and we can all look forward to seeing the whole image revealed through the rest of the year.

Please join the Hermetic Library in promoting these artists who have contributed their work to this benefit anthology album project. Please also spread the word about these anthology albums to people you think may be interested in the work of artists who combine magick, music and ritual.

Release Notes

The Hermetic Library at Hermetic.com has an overall vision of Archiving, Engaging and Encouraging the living Esoteric Tradition. I started the benefit anthology project to help promote newer works in the Esoteric Tradition to the audience of the Hermetic Library and beyond. The anthology project also further raises awareness about the corpus and culture of magick and ritual.

This is the Summer 2013 anthology album project, the penultimate in the second full year, and the eighth in the ongoing series. The artwork and design of this album continue the advent calendar reveal of what will be a unified poster made from the four quarterly covers. The chance to work on this project with all the anthology artists has continued to be a fantastic experience, for which I am extremely grateful.

There’s an interesting pattern in the tracks on this issue because there are quite a number of pronounced breaks and transitions. It is almost as if the music on this anthology is trying to stretch and divide into more music, a kind of cellular level growth and expansion. There is also for me a meditative, hypnotic quality to the playlist this time. It seems, perhaps, as if this album is a kind of dreamy sleeper that awakens from having fallen into slumber in a field on a warm Summer day to find that some miraculous metamorphosis is actively taking place, a strange and uncertain transformation that is still happening and the final form not quite chosen …

I encourage you to check out the Hermetic Library at Hermetic.com, if you aren’t already familiar with it, as that’s the reason this project exists and may also offer inspiration to you. The site was started in 1996 and has ever since consistently been an extremely popular resource for students and researchers interested in the Esoteric Tradition. You may also wish to check out other posts at the Hermetic Library blog and the Twitter and Facebook reflections to see how the library engages people in a living Esoteric Tradition.

— John Griogair Bell

Production by John Griogair Bell

Artwork and Design by Mustafa al-Laylah

All songs used with permission. All rights reserved.