Open Sorcery

Tag: Our Music

  • I had this odd realization during my post-writers group smoke break today.

    I think I – as well as my system as a whole – approach making art the same way that jazz musicians play music. I was thinking about this because the piece I ended up writing today in group pulled heavily from “My Island” and yet putting an entirely different spin on it, and it got me thinking about all of the different times that I’ve done that while making music especially.

    And honestly, if I had to sum up my approach to just about everything in life, I would say that I approach most of my crafts like a jazz musician even though I don’t technically play jazz. I don’t believe in just one final product or making a recording or a piece the be all, end all. A single song can inspire me for over ten years and I’ll keep coming back to it lyrically, musically, poetically, even, in a sort of self-referential game of call and response, making something new with each iteration and reexamination.

    In the process, I’m building a recursive universe the longer I make content and art.

    I fucking love jazz.

    -Allēna

  • Hi, I (Allēna) am back in front and low-key panicking…

    I know that the people who know me will probably be like “what else is new” but I’ve honestly been so hung up on the fact that it’s been ten years since Xavier died this month that I forgot that all of the albums that I wrote and recorded in the wake of losing him will also be turning 10 as well until I saw a video of my Painter Guy headmate playing my arrangement of “Heroes” by David Bowie on a piano he found in the hospital we go to??? So that’s kinda fucking me up.

    I honestly didn’t think I would live this long. I know a lot of people when I was 18-19 certainly didn’t think I would live this long (I was a hot fuckin mess and it took me years to get out of that tailspin) so while I’m none too happy about having to figure out how to promote a metric fuckton of albums on what is soon to be the ten year anniversary of their release, I am also trying to be compassionate toward tiny grieving past Lēna and keep in mind that I didn’t have a blessed clue that I would live to see 28-29, my depression was so goddamn bad and I was constantly trying to blot myself off the face of the Earth and writing albums instead of doing worse dumb shit. As badly as I want to go back and kick Past Lēna and to some extent, Past Eight in the ‘nads for writing and recording music like they were running out of time in 2016-17, they really didn’t know what the fuck else to do and had just lost Xavier. So I can’t really be all that angry. That being said, a bitch is fucking tired and I don’t have anything close to a promotion strategy for any of this shit. I don’t even have regular access to a piano anymore.

    So yeah. There is all of that to contend with.

    Wish me mother fucking luck.

    -Allēna

  • I was clicking around the blog after months in a dormancy coma and I’ve gotta say…

    I love what my headmates have done with the place.

    Pretty neat.

    Have Allēna’s and Eight’s masterpiece album Mago as a treat before you go. If you’re finding the system via the MadMastodon tag or related ones, I think you’ll like what it has to say. It’s all about deconstructing a high control faith, surviving psychiatry and long term abuse, and finding ourselves. Enjoy.

    -Castor (he/it), the system’s original host.

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  • So I remembered our album Hardshell existed again. Have an appropriate song from this swamp creature of a record.

    Occasionally I remember our own music exists, lol. This song feels especially appropriate given the current.. Well, everything.. Going on right now.

    Enjoy.

    -Allēna