strange attractor press devizes (35 results)

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Telling the stories of ten areas of London-some of the city's most famous, and infamous neighbourhoods-which have disappeared from the A-Z.London is in a state of constant transformation, layer upon layer built up over centuries of destruction and reconstruction. There is so much change all around us that we scarcely notice it, but among the areas now vanished and forgotten are some of the city's most famous, and infamous, neighbourhoods.Vanished City takes us to ten areas, well-known in their day, which have disappeared from the A-Z. Each chapter tells the stories of places once known to every Londoner, including the most feared neighbourhood in the Western world, London's first Olympic Park, its first port, the original Grub Street, a high society spa resort, an occult square, a landscape of ancient, mythical kings, a notorious slum, and the streets stalked by the first London serial killer.Lost London lies right under our noses, in places we think we know and places we never thought to visit. Vanished Citypeels back the layers to reveal London as it used to be. Telling the stories of ten areas of Londonsome of the city's most famous, and infamous neighbourhoodswhich have disappeared from the A-Z. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Works by the polymathic French author Victor Segalen, including a previously untranslated essay, a novel, and a libretto.Works by the polymathic French author Victor Segalen, including a previously untranslated essay, a novel, and a libretto.Victor Segalen (1878-1919) had one of France's most curious literary careers, applying his imagination to musicology, ethnography, exploration, medicine, synesthetics, Chinese history, and the occult. This collection gathers together his previously untranslated essay "Synesthestics and the Symbolist School" and his novel In A Sound World, a work of fantasy concerning an inventor lost in his own immersive harmonic space. Segalen's medical training (he had a career as a ship's doctor) inspired an interest in the link between the prevailing Symbolism of the time and synesthesia, the condition whereby one sense affects the perception of another.This edition also includes an essay by the musician and cultural historian David Toop that explores the historical context of Segalen's ideas. Also included is Segalen's libretto for Orpheus Rex, a collaboration with the composer Claude Debussy, which he would use as an opportunity for further explorations of his synesthetic concepts. This book makes available all three texts for the first time in English. Works by the polymathic French author Victor Segalen, including a previously untranslated essay, a novel, and a libretto. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. A journey deep into the heart of the trash experience- tales from the underground and exploitation movie scene in America during the 1960s.Trash has always served me well-over the years it has become the outer form and material expression of my dreams- of tomorrow, of life in space, of the blissful alienation from this world that I have always craved.-from InfernoSo begins the first part of this personal inquiry into the world of trash by writer and theorist Ken Hollings. Why do we find ourselves so attracted to the cheap and vulgar, the discarded, the misshapen and the abject? What do we really mean when we say that something is "so bad it's good," and what finally does it say about us? Part personal confession and part historical roadmap of tales from the underground and exploitation movie scene in America during the 1960s, Inferno takes the reader on a journey deep into the heart of the trash experience.With Inferno, Hollings offers a complex and intricate timeline of connections, coincidences, and resonances that have mostly gone unnoticed. He traces the transmission of "the Purple Death," a deadly and exotic virus first depicted in an old episode of a Flash Gordon movie serial, through the films of Jack Smith, Andy Warhol, and Kenneth Anger and into the output of such exploitation pioneers as Ray Dennis Steckler, Hershel Gordon Lewis, and Russ Meyer. Hollings also turns his idiosyncratic gaze upon key aspects of teenage culture during the 1960s, including hot rods, "Rat Fink," surfers, bikers, and beach parties, uncovering a secretive and hidden universe of masks, fake identities, and secret desires. Even Dante would think twice about taking this trip into Hell. A journey deep into the heart of the trash experience: tales from the underground and exploitation movie scene in America during the 1960s. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. A crime and a six-decade cover-up- the death of a fashion designer in the cesspit of vice and violence that was 1950s London.A crime and a six-decade cover-up- the death of a fashion designer in the cesspit of vice and violence that was 1950s London.In 1954, Jean Mary Townsend was strangled with her own scarf and stripped of her underwear but not sexually assaulted. The subsequent police investigation was bungled, leading to a six-decade cover-up, ensuring that this twenty-one-year-old fashion designer was effectively killed twice- first bodily, and then as her significance and her memory were erased. Fred Vermorel's forensic, troubling (and trouble-making) investigation digs deep into Jean Townsend's life and times, and her transgressive bohemian milieu. It disentangles the lies and bluffs that have obscured this puzzling case for over half a century and offers a compelling solution to her murder and the official secrecy surrounding it.More than just a true crime story, Vermorel's investigation deploys Townsend's death as a wild card methodology for probing the 1950s- a cesspit of vice and violence, from coprophiles to bombsite gangs and flick knives in the cinema. Densely illustrated with archival material, Dead Fashion Girl is a heavily researched, darkly curious expose of London's 1950s society that touches on celebrity, royalty, the postwar establishment, and ultimately, tragedy. A crime and a six-decade cover-up: the death of a fashion designer in the cesspit of vice and violence that was 1950s London. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. A chronicle of a lifetime's passion for gig-going, by one of British television's most respected writers."Foreground Music is an absolute gem. Charming, very funny and often achingly melancholy, Graham Duff's memoir is suffused with a genuine passion for live music and its (occasionally eccentric) power.-Mark GatissThe result of a lifetime's passion for gig-going by one of British television's most respected writers, Foreground Music is at once enthusiastically detailed and tremendously illuminating-of both the concert moment and its place in popular culture. It is an engaging memoir of a life lived to the fullest, and a vivid, insightful, and humorous exploration of what music writing might be.Foreground Music describes music performances that range from a Cliff Richard gospel concert, attended by Duff at the age of ten, to the fourteen-year-old Duff's first rock show, where the Jam played so loudly he blacks out, to a Joy Division gig that erupted into a full-scale riot. Duff goes on pub crawls with Mark E. Smith of the Fall, convinces Paul Weller to undertake his first acting role, and attempts to interview Genesis P. Orridge of Throbbing Gristle while tripping on LSD.Foreground Music captures the energy and power of life-changing gigs, while tracing the evolution of forty years of musical movements and subcultures. But more than that, it's an honest, touching, and very funny story of friendship, love, creativity, and mortality, and a testimony to music's ability to inspire and heal. Illustrated with photographs and ephemera from the author's private collection. A chronicle of a lifetime's passion for gig-going, by one of British television's most respected writers. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. A memoir from one of Britain's legendary singers, folklorists, and music historians.A legendary singer, folklorist, and music historian, Shirley Collins has been an integral part of the folk-music revival for more than sixty years. In her new memoir,All in the Downs, Collins tells the story of that lifelong relationship with English folksong-a dedication to artistic integrity that has guided her through the triumphs and tragedies of her life.All in the Downs combines elements of memoir-from her working-class origins in wartime Hastings to the bright lights of the 1950s folk revival in London-alongside reflections on the role traditional music and the English landscape have played in shaping her vision. From formative field recordings made with Alan Lomax in the United States to the "crowning glories" recorded with her sister Dolly on the Sussex Downs, she writes of the obstacles that led to her withdrawal from the spotlight and the redemption of a new artistic flourishing that continues today with her unexpected return to recording in 2016.Through it all, Shirley Collins has been guided and supported by three vital and inseparable loves- traditional English song, the people and landscape of her native Sussex, and an unwavering sense of artistic integrity.All in the Downspays tribute to these passions, and in doing so, illustrates a way of life as old as England, that has all but vanished from this land.Generously illustrated with rare archival material. A memoir from one of Britain's legendary singers, folklorists, and music historians. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. An exhaustive investigation of the case of Gef, a "talking mongoose" or "man-weasel," who appeared to a family living on the Isle of Man."I am the fifth dimension! I am the eighth wonder of the world!"During the mid-1930s, British and overseas newspapers were full of incredible stories about Gef, a "talking mongoose" or "man-weasel" who had allegedly appeared in the home of the Irvings, a farming family in a remote district of the Isle of Man. The creature was said to speak in several languages, to sing, to steal objects from nearby farms, and to eavesdrop on local people.Despite written reports, magazine articles and books, several photographs, fur samples and paw prints, voluminous correspondence, and signed eyewitness statements, there is still no consensus as to what was really happening to the Irving family.Was it a hoax? An extreme case of folie plusieurs? A poltergeist? The possession of an animal by an evil spirit? Now you can read all the evidence and decide for yourself. Seven years' research and interviews, photographs (many previously unseen), interviews with surviving witnesses, visits to the site-all are presented in this book, the first examination of the case for seventy years.In the words of its mischievous, enigmatic subject, "If you knew what I know, you'd know a hell of a lot!" An exhaustive investigation of the case of Gef, a talking mongoose or man-weasel, who appeared to a family living on the Isle of Man. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. The return of the Strange Attractor Journal, offering a characteristically eclectic collection of high weirdness from the margins of culture.The return of the Strange Attractor Journal, offering a characteristically eclectic collection of high weirdness from the margins of culture.After seven years of silence, the acclaimed Strange Attractor Journal returns with a characteristically eclectic collection of high weirdness from the margins of culture. Covering previously uncharted regions of history, anthropology, art, literature, architecture, science, and magic since 2004, each Journal has presented new and unprecedented research into areas that scholarship has all too often ignored.Featuring essays from academics, artists, enthusiasts, and sorcerers, Journal Five explores matters including the folklore of foghorns; the occult origins of the dissident surrealist secret society the Acephale; the pleasures of heathen falconry; the dark cosmological mysteries of Bremen's Haus Atlantis; a provisional taxonomy of animals with human faces; a twentieth-century crucifixion on Hampstead Heath, and an unpublished horror script by David MacGillivray and Ken Hollings.Journal Five sees Strange Attractor continuing in its mission to celebrate unpopular culture.Join us. The return of the Strange Attractor Journal, offering a characteristically eclectic collection of high weirdness from the margins of culture. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. The first anthology on animal music and communication, with contributions from leading scientists, researchers and musicians.Ever since the accidental discovery of whale song in 1967, the idea of complex animal sentience has been gaining strength within the scientific community. A growing number of researchers and academics are exploring the idea that animals enjoy music on a similar level to human beings.Animal Music is the first anthology to present an overview of the current state of this vital debate. Its authors have spoken to the leading scientists, researchers and musicians in the field to uncover hidden meanings and new perspectives. They visit the world's largest library of animal sounds, hack into the mysterious sonic world of shrimps, travel back in time to the point where animal and human songs diverged, and decode the latest neuroscientific findings about animal music and communication.The book includes exclusive interviews with Chris Watson, Jana Winderen, Yannick Dauby, Slavek Kwi and Geoff Sample as well as features on Bernie Krause, David Rothenberg and Olivier Messiaen and many more. Includes specially-compiled 60 minute CD of field recordings from the Gruenrekorder label.01 Tikal Dawn - Andreas Bick, Germany02 hermetica - Daniel Blinkhorn, Australia03 Amazons & Parrots - Rodolphe Alexis, France04 Grand Canal Springs (Excerpt) - Tom Lawrence, Ireland05 seals - Martin Clarke, United Kindom06 BOTO (extract) -ARTIFICIAL MEMORY TRACE, Ireland07 Adelie_penguins (Excerpt) - Craig Vear, United Kindom08 Pilot Whales (Excerpt) - Heike Vester, Norway/Germany09 Brame, septembre 2011 - Marc Namblard, France10 formica aquilonia, sweden - Jez riley French, United Kindom11 Schwebfliegen - Lasse Marc Riek, Germany12 central mongolian high mountain range habitat - Patrick Franke, Germany13 Otus spilocephalus - Yannik Dauby, France14 untitled#292 - Francisco L pez, Spain15 Summer Sunset 01 - Eckhard Kuchenbecker, Germany16 Waldkauz-Balz - Walter Tilgner, Germany17 WHAT BIRDS SING - David Rothenberg, United States of America The first anthology on animal music and communication, with contributions from leading scientists, researchers and musicians. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. A fascinating glimpse into the pagan counterculture, from the "Satanic Panic" to "occulture."A fascinating glimpse into the pagan counterculture, from the "Satanic Panic" to "occulture."Delinquent Elementals- The Very Best of Pagan News collects some of the finest articles, news reports, interviews, and humor that appeared in this singular publication, providing a fascinating glimpse into the pagan counterculture. It charts the historical timeline of the Satanic Panic scandal of the late 1980s, documents previously uncollected information, and provides a wide selection of practical knowledge and insight into occult practice. It reveals how occult practitioners interacted with the wider culture-bringing about what is now termed "occulture"- the intersection of esoteric themes with popular culture, political activism, and the struggle for LGBTQ rights and recognition.Wonderfully unpretentious and absurdly funny, this is the definitive guide to the magazine that redefined the nature of late-twentieth century occultism. A fascinating glimpse into the pagan counterculture, from the Satanic Panic to occulture. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. A biography of a key figure in psychedelic history- the man who turned Timothy Leary on to LSD.Of all the figures associated with the history of LSD there is none more enigmatic than Michael Hollingshead. Appearing as if from nowhere, he turned Timothy Leary on to LSD in 1962, and was influential in Leary's years at Harvard, Millbrook, and beyond. A Zelig-like character, Hollingshead was a key player in London's early LSD scene. In 1965 he went to London to establish a cultural beachhead for Leary's LSD philosophy at the World Psychedelic Centre in Chelsea. Following a spell in prison, where he dosed KGB spy George Blake, he continued to pursue adventures with the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, established a psychedelic commune, created the first electronic I Ching installation, published an underground magazine, and spent time in Nepal, before dying a mysterious death in Bolivia in the 1980s.Psychedelic trickster guru, or conman and charlatan? Exactly who Hollingshead was and what his motives were remain unclear. Some believed he was working for the secret services, others that he was just a Leary wannabe, his aspirations destroyed by his deviant personality and addiction to alcohol and opiates. Divine Rascal is the first reliable biography of one of psychedelia's key figures, without whom the trajectory of LSD in the world would have been radically different. A biography of a key figure in psychedelic history: the man who turned Timothy Leary on to LSD. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. A subtle and sometimes disturbing account of how technology has impacted upon human culture.The Bright Labyrinth is a subtle and sometimes disturbing account of how technology has impacted upon human culture. Offering a theoretical map for the future development of communication design, The Bright Labyrinth draws upon architecture and film, avant-garde art and critical theory, military strategy and machine intelligence to guide the reader through the Digital Regime that has shaped a century of human creativityand thought.Inside The Bright Labyrinth you will encounter Edison's talking dolls, the dream archi- tecture of world fairs and movie sets, Japanese comic books, early super- computers, sex researchers, zombies, assassins, monsters and ghosts.Ken Hollings reveals how our relationship with media and machines is far more dynamic, unstable and stimulating than we have previously allowed ourselves to believe. The Digital Regime throws long shadows over our past; and it is only by looking deeply into these shadows that we can begin to understand the rapid changes taking place allaround us. A subtle and sometimes disturbing account of how technology has impacted upon human culture. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. The first in-depth biographical study of the British surrealist and occultist Ithell Colquhoun.The first in-depth biographical study of the British surrealist and occultist Ithell Colquhoun,This book offers the first in-depth biographical study of the British surrealist and occultist Ithell Colquhoun, situating her art within the magical contexts that shaped her imaginative life and work. After decades of neglect, Colquhoun's unique vision and hermetic life have become an object of great renewed interest, both for artists and for historians of magic.Although her paintings are represented in such major collections as Tate Britain and the National Portrait Gallery, Colquhoun's rejection of both avant-garde and occult orthodoxies resulted in a life of relative obscurity. Her visual and written works have only recently received adequate recognition as a precursor to contemporary experiments in magical autobiography and esoteric feminism.After rejecting the hectic social expectations and magical orthodoxies of London's art and occult scenes, Colquhoun pursued a life of dedicated spiritual and artistic enquiry embodied in her retreat to Cornwall. Genius of the Fern Loved Gully balances engaging biography with art historical erudition and critical insight into the magical systems that underscored her art and writing. The first in-depth biographical study of the British surrealist and occultist Ithell Colquhoun, Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Drawings, personal photographs, documents, and ephemera by underground cartoonist, artist, writer, musician, and amateur magician Savage Pencil.Pulled together from his massive archive of drawings, personal photographs, documents, and ephemera, alongside a new, extensive interview conducted by author and legendary esoteric bibliographer Timothy D'Arch Smith, Rated SavX is an access-all-areas trawl through the life and work of the artist known as Savage Pencil.Underground cartoonist, artist, writer, musician, and amateur magician Savage Pencil has been conjuring up images and making a noise since 1977. Beginning with his "Rock 'N' Roll Zoo" strip for 1970s music paper Sounds to his drawing 'Trip or Squeek" for The Wire magazine, his instantly recognizable, delirious, and demented images have come to define their own form of acerbic graphic critique and satire. Savage Pencil has also designed album covers, T-shirts, posters and other merchandise for bands including Sonic Youth, Big Black, The Fall, Sunn O))), Coil, and Earth, and a host of obscure punk rockers, metal gurus, and noise addicts. As a result, Savage Pencil's drawings have become intrinsically linked with the sonic ideas that were being transmitted on such records as Sonic Youth's Death Valley '69 and Big Black's Headache. Drawings, personal photographs, documents, and ephemera by underground cartoonist, artist, writer, musician, and amateur magician Savage Pencil. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. The fascinating phantasmal worlds in the work of the artist Cathy Ward.The fascinating phantasmal worlds in the work of the artist Cathy Ward.Pulsing and surging with dark energies, Cathy Ward's mesmerising drawings capture a restlessly inquiring spirit through the meticulous rendering of organic forms. Their mystery, emotional depth, and enveloping sensuality recall an occluded art-historical canon of weird psychedelia, hermetic alchemical illustrations and outsider horror vacui. Liberty Realm presents a broad survey of works ranging from the acclaimed drawings exhibited recently in "Phantasmata" at The Good Luck Gallery (Los Angeles), "Talespinning" at the Drawing Center (New York), "Romantic detachment" at PS1 MOMA (New York), and "Utopia" at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center (Sheboygan, Wisconsin), to new explorations and insightful glimpses of her earlier output and formative practice. Substantial essays by Doug Harvey and Robert Wallis further untangle these fascinating phantasmal worlds. The fascinating phantasmal worlds in the work of the artist Cathy Ward. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Hardcover. Condition: new. Hardcover. The disturbing, exciting, and defiantly avant-garde films of Jesos "Jess" Franco, director of such films as Vampyros Lesbos and Lilian the Perverted Virgin.Jesos "Jess" Franco is an iconic figure in world cinema. His sexually charged, fearlessly personal style of filmmaking has never been in vogue with mainstream critics, but for lovers of the strange and sado-erotic he is a magician, spinning his unique and disturbing dream worlds from the cheapest of budgets.In the world of Jess Franco freedom was the key, and he pushed at the boundaries of taste and censorship repeatedly, throughout an astonishingly varied career spanning sixty years. The director of more than 180 films, at his most prolific he worked in a supercharged frenzy that yielded as many as twelve titles per year, making him one of the most generative auteurs of all time.Franco's taste for the sexy and horrific, his lifelong obsession with the Marquis De Sade, and his roving hand-held camera style launched a whole new strain of erotic cinema. Disturbing, exciting, and defiantly avant-garde, films such as Necronomicon, Vampyros Lesbos, Virgin Among the Living Dead, and Venus in Furs are among the jewels of European horror, while a plethora of multiple versions, re-edits and echoes of earlier works turn the Franco experience into a dizzying hall of mirrors, further entrancing the viewer who dares enter Franco's domain.Stephen Thrower has devoted five years to examining each and every Franco film. This book-the second in a two-volume set-delves into the latter half of Franco's career, covering titles including Shining Sex, Barbed Wire Dolls, Swedish Nympho Slaves, and Lilian the Perverted Virgin.Assisted by the esteemed critic and researcher Julian Grainger, Thrower shines a light into the darkest corners of the Franco filmography and uncovers previously unknown and unsuspected facts about their casts, crews, and production histories.Unparalleled in scope and ambition, Flowers of Perversion brings Franco's career into focus with a landmark study that aims to provide the definitive assessment of Jess Franco's labyrinthine film universe. The disturbing, exciting, and defiantly avant-garde films of Jesus Jess Franco, director of such films as Vampyros Lesbos and Lilian the Perverted Virgin. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.