CHANGES - Psychonautika

Changes return with an album inspired by the "psychonautics" theorized and practiced by German writer and philosopher Ernst Jünger. The duo, made up of Robert N. Taylor and Nicholas Tesluk, has released a new LP on Albin Julius's Hau Ruck! label (Der Blutharsch, The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath A Cloud). The record is distributed by Tesco Organisation.

"Psychonautika" is essentially a (neo)folk record that offers an excursion into the labyrinth of the human mind. It's a work sui generis right from its packaging: the gatefold sleeve, a lavish 16-page booklet and the picture disc vinyl all feature striking, psychedelic images that come to life in 3D. Inside you'll also find Chroma Depth glasses to enjoy the three-dimensional illusions of fractals and the artwork created for the occasion by Taylor and Tesluk.

In hindsight, Changes are something like the forefathers of neofolk, both in musical style and in the Heathen-inflected themes and cultural references running through their lyrics. Formed way back in 1969, when the term "neofolk" didn't even exist and Death In June's Douglas Pearce was about thirteen years old, the duo were already purveying an atypical kind of folk, above all in the subjects they tackled, largely inspired by a kind of anarchism of the soul, loosely following the teachings of Der Waldgang, the rebel theorized by Jünger. Besides an interest in spirituality, European traditions, myths and legends, Changes have always been standard-bearers for a sincere environmentalism, geared towards a firm rejection of the myths of modernity and consumerism.

Throughout the Seventies in America, Robert Taylor followed and took part in the birth of the first Odinist/Ásatrú communities. The pull of a Europe, mainly of Germanic and Scandinavian stock (though not only), seen as the mythological land of one's ancestors, was strong and was starting to take hold among a section of the American population that no longer recognized itself in what the USA had become. It was in that very period that the first organized neopagan movements emerged, searching for their own roots and their own Indo-European "spiritual" origin, almost as a kind of symbolic "homecoming". Changes took part in several events and concerts to actively support them.

In the Seventies, performances by Taylor and his cousin Tesluk were sporadic and never led to an actual record release. It was thanks to Michael Moynihan, journalist, writer, publisher and musician (Blood Axis and Knotwork), that their first album, the seven-inch "Fire Of Life", was released in 1995 on Storm Records and the German label Cthulhu Records. In 1996 a compilation came out, gathering material recorded between the Sixties and Seventies and reworked for the occasion by Moynihan and Taylor. Since then, Changes have released several more works, proof of the ever-growing interest today in these themes and in a romantic brand of folk steeped in (neo)pagan spirituality.

"Psychonautika" is their sixth full-length album and shows a marked maturation in the duo's songwriting, which, with their ever minimal and orthodox approach to folk material, manages here to craft a journey into the unknown, uncharted land of the soul and the human psyche. As they recount in the track "Chasing The Breath Of The Dragon", it's now time to set off in search of the "Terra incognita of the soul", a sort of inner "Ultima Thule".

"The Pointillist", on the other hand, is dedicated to the famous divisionist artist Virgil Warden Finley (1914 – 1971) and also aims to pay homage to the art of pointillisme, a new way of seeing the world that played such an important role in the birth of 20th-century avant-garde movements.

Since the central theme is psychotropic experimentation capable of altering an individual's personality, there's no shortage of forays into the darker side of the mind: "Madness", for instance, is dedicated to the thin line between sanity and insanity. "Jekyll & Hyde" too, a track based on the classic tale by Robert Louis Stevenson, serves as a kind of warning about the dangers of chemically altering oneself.

Of course, Taylor and Tesluk, following Jünger, aren't thinking of a "recreational" use of psychotropic substances. For them, "the journey" must have only a meditative, ritualistic and cognitive character tied to inner reflection, somewhat in the vein of the German writer's story "Visit to Godenholm", where, on a remote island in the North Sea, the Master guides three disciples in search of their true Self.

Armed with nothing but acoustic guitar, keyboard and voice, Changes deliver a conceptually flawless, sharply focused work built on rock-solid intellectual references. The highly distinctive artwork, designed to be viewed in three dimensions, adds a further touch of class and turns it into a small gem that no enthusiast's home should be without. On the songwriting front too, "Psychonautika" doesn't disappoint. Releases like this prove that a certain strand of (neo)folk still has a great deal left to say.

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07/12/2017