We all want to believe. There’s a feeling in us all that something exists without tangibility. Like sharing a yawn. Or vowing to/with another. The only other thing to despair upon you, dear reader, is the idea that there are a lot of things in existence you don’t know about [or whether or not you have faith in the unknown]. Try to follow along, because nobody will be able to explain themselves ever, forever.
Here are some topics to research upon committing thyself to the awe and wonder of The World of Shells:
☯ Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn ☯
☯ Typhonian Order ☯
☯ Aeon ☯
☯ A∴A∴ ☯
☯ Kenneth Grant ☯
☯ Thelema ☯
☯ True Will ☯
☯ Magick ☯
[Writer’s Note: ☯, because maybe bad juju does exist, and I need symbols to protect me.]
Spenzy was reading a book David Keenan gave to him and Amy (Spencer’s [wife?]) about paganism in Renaissance art. They came to visit me and my crazy girlfriend last summer, and we spent 10 days driving around and discovered crazy symbols in late-night museums, churches, fountains, and grottos.
– Simone Trabucchi
Okay, but what AM I thinking? I’m relating the legend of order(s) with the Greek mythological life of Typhon, while applying simple curiosity of how shells are formed in various regions of the world.
ORDER
Spencer Clark’s methodology in The World of Shells was to fuse the musician’s personality to the creature, Chitahoori. Pinhead in Fantasia exists in the material world, which, according to its liner notes, “was in part a reaction to future monsters arriving in [his] dreams and instructing [him] to place them in a whole new locale, that being the renaissance.” It did, however, still focus on A New Image of Man. The World of Shells is that next step in not only taking a fuller effect on Spencer’s “presence” as a musician of the work, but a presence that atones for equal parts bene- and malevolent soundvisions. As Alistair Crowley conducted magical rituals for religious and individual purposes through the Typhonian Order, Spencer Clark uses the guise Typhonian Highlife to fully document the animation and protoplasmic progression to Chitahoori.
I HAD WOKEN UP IN HOLLYWOOD TO FIND MYSELF SEARCHING FOR THE APPROPRIATE MASK TO APPLY PROTOPLASMIC PROGRESSION: THE ACT OF ANIMATION. PART OF MY READING AND VIEWING RESEARCH HAD TAKEN ME TO AN INTERVIEW WITH AN AFRICAN SHAMAN CALLED CREDO MUTWA, WHO BELIEVED THAT IMAGINEERS FROM HOLLYWOOD HAD INTUITED THE EXACT LIKENESS OF SECRET AFRICAN MYTHICAL CREATURES CALLED: “THE CHITAHOORI .” CREDO INDICATED THAT A CREATURE FROM STARGATE II AS WELL AS DARTH MAUL SHARED AN EXTREME AMOUNT OF SIMILARITY TO THE CHITAHOORI FEATURES.
AND THEREWITHIN HOLLYWOOD, TO BE LOCATED, A DARTH MAUL MASK, THAT SOMEWHAT EMBELLISHED UPON THE MORE DESERT QUALITIES OF THE CREATURE… THE COMPLETION OF THIS TASK TO LINK THE NON-WAKING WORLD WITH ITS TWIN, BEGAN TO ELABORATE A FURTHER WORLD. I ENGAGED THE MASK UPON ITS MANNEQUIN HEAD WITH WIND SOUNDS FROM A CLAY JAGUAR HEAD FROM TEOTIHUACAN TEMPLE, MEXICO CITY. MY GOAL WAS TO USE THE ACT OF PROTOPLASMIC PROGRESSION IN A SOUND WAY, PLAYING WIND FOR TWO WEEKS, IMBIBING THE MASK WITH FURTHER STIMULATION TO TRANSMUTATE IT INTO A NEW-BEING.
Typhon
Out of anger, Hera prayed to Gaia for a son as strong as Zeus — for having given birth to Athena by himself — so upon slapping the ground beneath her, she became pregnant with Typhon. For the rest of his life, Typhon became a great bane to mortals, having been raised by the serpent, Python.
You can read up on your shells or just believe my conciseness: shells are hardened balls of slime. They’re exoskeletons consisting of the ocean’s dustballs, only with intricate spirals of intangible architecture, channeling out sounds that echo through tiny, cavernous entities found throughout this great Earth. And when they emit sound, it’s through a variety of languages as per their found region. Simply put: shells “talk” in accents.
Literally, with a name like The World of Shells — created by an entity that calls itself Typhonian Highlife — there’s a heavy emphasis on the “vocalization” of reticence, as if this entire album is constructed in coded language that provides magical and empirical evidence of [secrecy]. The signals crossed, all hope(s) faded, crippling cryptic melodies, “is it too white?” buried, Whoopi Goldberg, and stoked just enough that the ego is distributed, painted over, coerced, maligned, petrified, brought back, and ritually sacrificed and communioned. Typhonian Highlife is not only a single being, but a nut within The World of Shells.
SO I THINK THE ONLOOKER WILL FIND, WITHIN THIS OBJECT, REPRESENTATIONS POETIC, VISUAL, AND AURAL, WHICH ON POSITIVE IMPACT, INTEGRATE TO FULFILL THE IMAGINATION OF A NEW BEING. TRACKS 1-7 IMPART THE EXPERIENCES [IN AUSTRALIA], WHILE, THE FINAL TRACK, NUMBER 8, WAS RECORDED IN SICILY INSIDE THE EAR OF DIONYSIS, A GIANT CAVE IN THE SHAPE OF AN EAR. I HERE INTENDED TO CREATE, WITH MY MOTHER’S SPIRIT BIRD, THE EGRET, AND JEAN DELVILLE’S “ORPHEE MORTE,” A PASSAGE TO THE UNDERWORLD OF FEMININE, THAT IS ROOTED IN THE DEPTHS OF NERO’S TOMBS BUT IS AFLIGHT IN THE SYMBOL OF THE EGRET AS IT ASCENDS TOWARDS HEAVEN.
The World of Shells will not be summarized until centuries from now. Every audience is worthy of listening to and trying to understand what this crustaceous piece is trying to manifest. The conscious interpretation of Typhonian Highlife should be betrothed within an atmosphere of thy own. Whether it’s of multiple locations, people, theories, density/mass, artificiality, artifact, or [the like] worlds, attached now. The prince of darkness has graced the musical underworld once again.
More about: Spencer Clark, Typhonian Highlife
