How He Loved The Moon (Moonsongs for Jhonn Balance)
Details
2005 2x12" US Beta-lactam Ring Records MT093A
200 2 x Clear red vinyl LP's in gatefold sleeve
Numbered postcard
7" mt093b
Red printed cloth bag
2005 2x12" US Beta-lactam Ring Records MT093A
1200 Black vinyl copies in regular sleeve
2007 February 2x12" US Beta-lactam Ring Records MT093A
1 Black vinyl test pressing copy in signed and personalized sleeve with gold ink drawing
Hand-written labels in black ink
Track Listing
A
  1. Tide I: Ecclesiastes XII:2
B
  1. Tide II: The Song of Solomon VI:10
C
  1. Tide III: Psalm VIII:3
D
  1. Tide IV: Psalm LXXII:7
Sleeve Notes
How He Loved The Moon

Dedicated to the Great Heart and Great Soul of our dearest friend Jhonn Balance
16 February 1962 to 13 November 2004
With burning sadness and with burning sorrow we remember You as:
kindest of men, funniest of men, most intuitive of men, most incisive of men, most generous of men
a great artist, a great voice, a great visionary, a great Soul and a great Heart
Finally you were overwhelmed by it all: by all the beauty and by all the pain
You perhaps never knew how much you were loved
Till we meet again as we know we will, our dearest friend, with love always to you dearest Geff, John, Jhonn
shape-shifter and joker, in angelic form now, playing with stars in the love of God
David Tibet and Steven Stapleton
18 XI 2004

Front cover and back cover original artwork by Steven Stapleton, tinted and eclipsed by Paul Jackson under the lunar influence of David Tibet. Photographs of David Tibet and Steven Stapleton by Ruth Bayer. Painting on inner gatefold: "The Sun Brings Flowers For The Moon" by David Tibet. Photograph of John Balance in Cooloorta, Ireland 1994 by David Tibet. All material remixed by Steven Stapleton from the album IN MENSTRUAL NIGHT by Current 93 at Colin Potter's ICR Studios in lancashir except for the 7" single, which was remixed by Steven Stapleton and postmixed by Michael Lawrence at Coptic Cat Studios, London. Current 93 were, for the original Moonsongs: David Tibet, Steven Stapleton, Ruby Tabatha Wallis, Diana Rogerson, Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, John Balance, Keiko Yoshida, Rose McDowall and Bee. Our thanks to Andria Tibet, Chris McBeth and Heather Billington, Peter Christopherson and Ian Johnstone.
Other Images
Related Items
Reviews
With last year's limited concert EPs on Jnana Records and this year's How He Loved the Moon, Current 93 makes the first tentative steps outside the World Serpent Distribution umbrella that Durtro has labored under for so many years. Moon is a double LP containing nearly 80 minutes of music, a reissue and expansion of last year's Anomalous release A Little Menstrual Night Music, containing four sidelong remixes of vintage Current 93 album In Menstrual Night undertaken by Steven Stapleton, originally commissioned as opening music for a pair of Current 93 shows in San Francisco. Beta-Lactam Ring. Though conceived and recorded well before the tragic events of last November, in retrospect the album has been dedicated in memory of the dearly departed friend and collaborator, subtitled Moonsongs for Jhonn Balance. Beta-Lactam Ring have outdone themselves with this release, a deluxe double-gatefold package with colorized versions of the original sleeve art from the 1986 Mentrual LP (never noticed that giant purple phallus), as well as a beautiful bonus silkscreened picture 7" containing edited versions of the original two mixes, included with initial pressings of the album. The glossy, colorful sleeves set a new standard for Beta-Lactam releases, and the heavy, substantial vinyl should satisfy any serious collector. Here's hoping for more deluxe editions of hard-to-find Current 93 back catalog material given this treatment. The music on How He Loved the Moon is a tangential return to an earlier Current 93, when the name stood primarily for long-form, dark ambient noisescapes; multilayered cacophonies composed of dusty drones and spooky tapes loops of rattling chains and disembodied whispers. Each sidelong track is named after a chapter and verse of the Bible. "Ecclesiastes XII:2" ("While the sun or the moon or the stars be not darkened") mixes the source material into a series of subterranean, reverberating arterial tunnels in which all of the original elements become nebulous and subliminal. On the flip side, "The Song of Solomon VI:10" ("Who is she, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners") transforms the material into a slowly percolating dubby rhythmscape, with submerged samples bubbling to the surface and a persistent megaphone voice intoning tantalizingly inaudible imperatives. "Psalm VIII:3" ("When I consider the heavens, the moon and the stars which you have put in place") is the most haunting, with voices obscured behind layers of murky silence, each muffled reverberation reduced to metallic alien syllables divorced from all linguistic sense. For those who have steered clear of Current 93 for all these years because of the increasing emphasis on David Tibet's spoken-word poetic cycles, How He Loved the Moon represents a satisfying return to the early, atmospheric C93 that really just wanted to scare the hell out of you. For others, this album will seem like yet another superfluous stopgap on the path to the brand-new studio album, due later this year. For myself, I quite enjoyed this atavistic salute to lunar concerns, and could practically imbibe the exudations of magickally charged menstruum, reinvigorating me with adumbrations of the hidden nightside aeon.

Jonathan Dean
Sunday, 13 February 2005
How He Loved The Moon (Moonsongs for Jhonn Balance)
Details
2005 2x12" US Beta-lactam Ring Records MT093A
21 2 x Clear red vinyl copies in gatefold sleeve for general sale
7" MT093B
acetate 7" MT193
Photograph of John Balance
Photograph of Steven Stapleton and David Tibet
Signed insert
Alpha-Omega Bookmarks
4 page purple funeral card (20 especially for this set)
White cloth bag
Wooden box (pine, oak and walnut)

One set, at least, additionally contains:
How He Loved The Moon poster
A set of test pressings for the LP's and for the picture disc.
2005 2x12" US Beta-lactam Ring Records MT093A
11 2 x Clear red vinyl copies in gatefold sleeve for named recipients
7" MT093B
acetate 7" MT193
Photograph of John Balance
Photograph of Steven Stapleton and David Tibet
Signed insert
Alpha-Omega Bookmarks
4 page light blue funeral card (11 especially for this set listing recipients)
White cloth bag
Wooden box (pine, oak and walnut)
2005 2x12" US Beta-lactam Ring Records MT093A
1 2 x Clear red vinyl copies in gatefold sleeve for sale by ebay auction
7" MT093B
acetate 7" MT193
Photograph of John Balance
Photograph of Steven Stapleton and David Tibet
Signed insert
Written manuscript in David Tibet's hand of the lyrics to MOONBIRD
4 page funeral card for John Balance with additional text in David's hand
White cloth bag
Wooden box (pine, oak and walnut)
Track Listing
A
  1. Tide I: Ecclesiastes XII:2
B
  1. Tide II: The Song of Solomon VI:10
C
  1. Tide III: Psalm VIII:3
D
  1. Tide IV: Psalm LXXII:7
Sleeve Notes
How He Loved The Moon

Dedicated to the Great Heart and Great Soul of our dearest friend Jhonn Balance
16 February 1962 to 13 November 2004
With burning sadness and with burning sorrow we remember You as:
kindest of men, funniest of men, most intuitive of men, most incisive of men, most generous of men
a great artist, a great voice, a great visionary, a great Soul and a great Heart
Finally you were overwhelmed by it all: by all the beauty and by all the pain
You perhaps never knew how much you were loved
Till we meet again as we know we will, our dearest friend, with love always to you dearest Geff, John, Jhonn
shape-shifter and joker, in angelic form now, playing with stars in the love of God
David Tibet and Steven Stapleton
18 XI 2004

Front cover and back cover original artwork by Steven Stapleton, tinted and eclipsed by Paul Jackson under the lunar influence of David Tibet. Photographs of David Tibet and Steven Stapleton by Ruth Bayer. Painting on inner gatefold: "The Sun Brings Flowers For The Moon" by David Tibet. Photograph of John Balance in Cooloorta, Ireland 1994 by David Tibet. All material remixed by Steven Stapleton from the album IN MENSTRUAL NIGHT by Current 93 at Colin Potter's ICR Studios in lancashir except for the 7" single, which was remixed by Steven Stapleton and postmixed by Michael Lawrence at Coptic Cat Studios, London. Current 93 were, for the original Moonsongs: David Tibet, Steven Stapleton, Ruby Tabatha Wallis, Diana Rogerson, Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, John Balance, Keiko Yoshida, Rose McDowall and Bee. Our thanks to Andria Tibet, Chris McBeth and Heather Billington, Peter Christopherson and Ian Johnstone.
Other Images
Related Items
How He Loved The Moon (Moonsongs for Jhonn Balance)
Details
2005 2xCD US Beta-lactam Ring Records MT093D
In card gatefold sleeve
Track Listing
Disc I
  1. Ecclesiastes XII:2 (20:12)
  2. The Song Of Solomon VI:10 (21:15)
Disc II
  1. Psalm VIII:3 (19:12)
  2. Psalm LXXII:7 (19:32)
Sleeve Notes
How He Loved The Moon

Dedicated to the Great Heart and Great Soul of our dearest friend Jhonn Balance
16 February 1962 to 13 November 2004
With burning sadness and with burning sorrow we remember You as:
kindest of men, funniest of men, most intuitive of men, most incisive of men, most generous of men
a great artist, a great voice, a great visionary, a great Soul and a great Heart
Finally you were overwhelmed by it all: by all the beauty and by all the pain
You perhaps never knew how much you were loved
Till we meet again as we know we will, our dearest friend, with love always to you dearest Geff, John, Jhonn
shape-shifter and joker, in angelic form now, playing with stars in the love of God
David Tibet and Steven Stapleton
18 XI 2004

Front cover and back cover original artwork by Steven Stapleton, tinted and eclipsed by Paul Jackson under the lunar influence of David Tibet. Photographs of David Tibet and Steven Stapleton by Ruth Bayer. Painting on inner gatefold: "The Sun Brings Flowers For The Moon" by David Tibet. Photograph of John Balance in Cooloorta, Ireland 1994 by David Tibet. All material remixed by Steven Stapleton from the album IN MENSTRUAL NIGHT by Current 93 at Colin Potter's ICR Studios in Lancashire except for the 7" single, which was remixed by Steven Stapleton and postmixed by Michael Lawrence at Coptic Cat Studios, London. Current 93 were, for the original Moonsongs: David Tibet, Steven Stapleton, Ruby Tabatha Wallis, Diana Rogerson, Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, John Balance, Keiko Yoshida, Rose McDowall and Bee. Our thanks to Andria Tibet, Chris McBeth and Heather Billington, Peter Christopherson and Ian Johnstone.
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