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Lotus Birth - The Way of All Flesh
Beyond the fringes and boarders is placed the inventive chrysalis of North West England’s Lotus Birth. Beautifully created, sonically engaging, idiosyncratic selection and vision entwine, in the quiet, from this obscure micro label. This is predominantly a tape only label, releasing units from a subterranean network of the obscure. Artists including Serfs, Chora and Nautilus have graced home forged cassettes. Infinite Light hold a permanent abode, releasing frequent solo and collaborative efforts; being the creative mind behind the label itself. Throughout the new millennium Lotus Birth have quietly provided a small service to the underground and 2010 sees the label growing with quiet rhizomes that tease their limbs into new and unexplored creative sources.
Infinite Light started the label circa 2000 and something, helmed in Manchester and now in an undisclosed north-west satellite town, inspired by the semi-mythologised anecdotes of 90's UK tape label folklore, centred on Face Like A Smacked Arse, previously the home of stoke-on-trent hermit Wagstaff, intent on documenting the fruition of Manchester's then-new music.
A heavy session speeding on the information super highway yielded the lotus birth birthing method,
I was inspired by the non-violent, patient act, of non-umbilical severance.
( Previous to this alias the label presided under the moniker Hearing Aid, which quickly run its course. Upon adopting Lotus Birth I decided the name wouldn't appear on any release, with no catalogue numbers, to avoid the pitfalls of a perceived progressive narrative. Each unit being its own entity.)
New Music from new places, new friends, & new ideas. ( e.g. The healthy spirits contained in the work of Sheffield's Singing Knives, & Jon Collin's carpentry tape label Winebox Press.)
Lotus Birth is predominantly, unofficially, state funded, by the UK government's job seeker's allowance, i.e. the dole. It's always a tight rope.
Humanity is high priority, idiosyncrasy, & good times shared in the real are essential. Subtle solo spiritual journeys, group peak experience, & the ecstatic truth, in the flesh and on record.
From the grave, via a spiritualist church séance, for their exemplary output: Kazimir Malevich, Henri Chopin, George Harrison. Alice Coltrane.
From out of the blue: Hare Kirshna bands, Javanese Gamelan orchestras, heavy-hearted buskers raptured by life.
The possibility of coaxing Manchester's only classically trained hindustani singer, Reba Bhaduri, on to a record, would be a joy.
The defunct Axis Mundi was left with seemingly unrealised possibilities.
( Rumour is the pre-war blues jams of Bridget Hayden are fortunately coming forth via a label TBC, keep your ears peeled.)
A intuitive interest in the rediscovery of tools discarded by previous generations, a parents sewing machine and a typewriter, dormant for years, the necessity to realise their innate functions, harnessed for seemingly anachronistic creativity. The cassette being an analogue to the dual sided nature of an LP.
The artwork, artist, illustrator, has often been covered by north Manchester illustrator Fliss Horrocks, the next being her cover for the upcoming Andy Jarvis tape. The bands choice is paramount, upon which I sew a label of their name and add a simple insert with their specified information. The current boxed editions being the way for the foreseeable future, the cloth printed sleeves where discontinued after one too many trespassing trips into Manchester Metropolitan University to utilise their heat press.
Specifically, that our paths have crossed in reality, on a tour in a distant land, underneath my nose, whilst walking through the woods.
The immediate and definite future, 2010:
Andy Jarvis - Astragalas c4?
Infinite Light - Zodiacal Light 2 x c30, & Can See Tomorrow I Smoke A Vulture's Brain Cassingle
Whole Voyald Infinite Light - 'Twice Live' c 4?
Stretching further out, written in impermeable material:
The possibilities of a Cotopaxi release has been teasing for years, rumours are no tape recorder has ever managed to capture their Teutonic humanity.
An Embla Quickbeam into my brain from inside the former Leopard Leg cultus.
A split between Denmark's Shiggajon and Sheffield's Hunter Gracchus of late 2010 live material is a very near and thrilling possibility.
A solo debut by Peace On Earth, former Manchester resident, villaloboss-kraut infused exiled in Paris.
Attempting to prise a solo tape from the Japan-banjo wielding, Vibracathedral sage, Mick Flower.
Two documents from the twin spheres of the Barcelona underground, Arnau Sala and Rafa Romero.
Non-music, in progress:
A series of art books starting with Infinite Light, beginning in the first half of 2010.
From the shifting sands of charity shops:
June Ritchie - Traditional English Ballads from the Southern Mountains LP
Phaorah Sanders - Karma LP
Wagner - Tristan and Isolade CS
Madonna - The First Album CS
From friends:
Flower-Corsano Duo - The Four Aims 2xLP,
Hunter Gracchus -
Harrapian Nights - The Glorius Gongs Of Hainuwele CD
Red Kites / Nawadaha - ( untitled, unreleased music.) CS
Wheyes Bluhd - Liquor Castle / Shattered Mirror CS
Shiggajon - Fire Sange I Gul Og Rod CD
Stella Om Source - Crusader CD
Irma Vep - CS
The right path, the right way, deontological, slow and steady.
-- Peter Taylor (10 February, 2010)
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