©2017 Crafted Recordings. Some Rights Reserved (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). As always, Crafted Recordings is about stories. If you have a story you’d like to tell, get in touch, yeah?

First off, apologies for the long delay between episodes. Producing this episode was a struggle on many levels; Heidegger readers will not be surprised. Thinking about Heidegger evokes numerous struggles, one of which is Heidegger’s relationship with fascism and anti-semitism. Despite this history, interest in Heidegger’s thought remains strong. To find out why, and to more closely examine Heidegger’s (probably quite short-lived) seduction by fascist ideology, we interviewed three Heidegger scholars (in order of their appearance in the episode): Jeremiah Conway, philosopher, teacher, and author of The Alchemy of Teaching; philosopher, teacher, and Gods & Radicals writer Kadmus Herschel; and Susanne Claxton, philosopher, teacher, and author of  Heidegger’s Gods: An Ecofeminist Perspective.

Music for this episode came from Gin Mill Julep and Lani Thompson. Gin Mill Julep, at the time of this recording several years ago, consisted of Greg Bjork on mandolin, Ann Murray on accordion, and Paul Mattor on upright bass. The song in this episode is called “Mettsa Kukkia,” which is a single live performance (no overdubs) recorded in an old church building alongside the Saco River in Maine, and was remixed and edited for this episode. Lani’s performance of “Song Of The Nesting Bird” is on the kantele, an 11-stringed Finnish instrument that reminds me of a dulcimer with an utterly enchanting sound. Other background drone sounds and percussion were also added throughout the episode.

In the episode, there are three excerpts of Heidegger himself speaking in German. I found the following translations for them, but since I do not speak German I cannot vouch for their accuracy. They seem coherent to me, and are consistent with my very cursory understanding of Heidegger’s thought:

“The relation of human beings to language is undergoing a transformation, the consequences of which we are not yet ready to face.”

“I would say that men – for example in communism – have a religion, because they believe in science. They believe unconditionally in modern science. And this unconditional belief in science, that means the confidence in the certainty of the results of science is a belief and is, in a certain way – something that exceeds the existence of a single person, and is therefore a religion. And I would say: no one is without a religion, and everyone is in a certain manner transcending themselves.”

“The decisive experience of my thinking and that means at the same time for western philosophy the meditation on the history of western philosophy has shown me, that in the past one question did never appear: the question of being. And this question is relevant because we determine, in western thinking, that man is in a relation to being and that he exists by corresponding to being.”

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©2017 Crafted Recordings. Some Rights Reserved (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

This episode came together out of love and gratitude. Quite literally, the piano music by Zoe Knight comes directly from a love song, and provides the musical structure of this episode. In working with the elements, my favorite Water devotional practice is gathering my own drinking water at a spring near my home, where the cleanest, most refreshing water Iâ€ve ever tasted flows like love from the ground. I recorded the sounds of the spring (and a water blessing) on one of my recent trips, and itâ€s a perfect sonic backdrop for this episode.

The brilliant “Like A Dragon Newly Woken” poetry & performance narrative comes from Guests of the Earth, a performance group in the UK consisting of Nicolas Guy Williams, Peter Dillon, and Gods & Radicals writer Lorna Smithers. They were kind enough to send me an original sound recording of their performance by Terry Quinn.

The music in this episode is piano and vocalizations written & performed by Zoe Knight, with bass, guitar, drums, spring field recordings, production, and mixing by James Lindenschmidt. Sound recording ©2017 Crafted Recordings. Some Rights Reserved (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

by Nicolas Guy Williams

deep in the heart ran the rusting river red earth mother rushing //

cold as a whisper over grass leaping twilight ground keeping //

through city’s soul shivers drenched by the cleansing //

the mud brown sliver shivering river bed broken and hushing //

through moist eye surface oh come hither dry wither cease thy shivering //

the feet of old mister dark coat floating memory of boating //

by Lorna Smithers, voiced by Lorna and Peter

In eighteen eighty four

From the hill’s abyssal deep

Breached within the chasm

Water table reft

Unravelling inside

Culverted and banked

The spinning dragon-girl

Her spirit will not rise

The hill, no longer healing

by Lorna Smithers, voiced by Peter and Nick

Four wells at Little Plumpton.

Four wells of steel meets shale.

Four wells? A gaseous question

Four wells to decide the future.

by Nicolas Guy Williams, voiced by Nick and Lorna

it is like a metal horse

it is like a robot mosquito

it is like a metal tick

it can’t hear me screaming

by Nicolas Guy Williams, voiced by Peter

the time of winter’s love does come

by Lorna Smithers

The voice of Belisama, goddess of the Ribble:

Proud of Preston heed my entry

Proud of Preston born free traders

Mechanics shift the scene of battle

Step the Chartists to the engines

Grey arise the business faceless

High in the stone fortress

Proud of Preston I have carved you

Will you hearken to my entry

by Nicolas Guy Williams, voiced by Nick and Peter

is like a bush-break-bead-bone born from what the hurricane missed

this oh so nonchalant idea of distance

gaze grown atonements of a prize-praised eye

oh so diligent in polite society

here is the bombchord the cold ordered class called

what pierceth earth doth pierceth heart like broken glass like broken glass

do i have to ask which Herculean task this voice must break over the record of a snake sneered volatile habit of wrong thought

ain’t no money-honey in the poor in the poor

and whilst virgin forest is persecuted for gold

and stand on stone with stone born mind

like a dragon newly woken

The first book published by Gods & Radicals was the very worthy Pagan Anarchism by C.S. Thompson. This episode features an interview with the author, discussing the context of his book.

“What I see as the crisis of the modern world is that we are trained, if not brainwashed, to see the world as being dead. Dead matter. Not infused with spirit. And so, because of this mentality which was shared by both the capitalist world and the authoritarian communist regimes… we have done so much damage to the environment that Earth won’t be able to sustain a complex civilization like ours for much longer if we don’t change course. So my argument is that we need to return to a conception of the world as being absolutely filled with spirit, an animistic conception of the world, which is the core idea of pagan religion.”

There are several poems in the book, two of which, “To The Goddess Of The City” and “To The God Of The Wood”, were performed by Joie Grandbois for this episode. Music here is “Thieves Oil” by the fabulous Disemballerina.

Audio recording produced by James Lindenschmidt. ©2016 Crafted Recordings. Some Rights Reserved (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

“We have what we’ve always had, which is each other. We have the ability to come together.”

“Pushing back against the atomization of the individual is the bedrock of … solidarity. Once we have that, it’s possible to really push back.”

“A fertile and new American resistance is blossoming, and it needs a magical edge.”

This episode has a lot of fun stuff in it. It begins with an automated recital of the 14 characteristics of fascism. Next, is an invocation by Kiarna Boyd, performed by Cassandra Boyd, “To Thems What Practice War Magic.”  After that is excerpts from a discussion on fascism with Shane Burley and Ryan Smith. Dr Bones also has an an inspiring sermon about the importance of the magical edge of resistance and linking up with people around you.

Music from this episode is “Inside The Forest,” from Eddy Dyer‘s new album, Love Is At The Heart Of This Thing, Right? This album was just released and I’m very excited about it, since I was involved as a producer, recordist, and mixer. It was a pleasure to work with Eddy, and this track had the perfect vibe for this episode. Drums by Charles Greenwood, piano by Zoe Knight. Vocals, synthesizers, and theremins by Eddy Dyer.

Kiarna Boyd is an author, a practicing Geomancer, and a System Administrator. More info: www.blessedandcursedalike.com.

Shane Burley is a journalist and filmmaker based in Portland, Oregon.  His work has been featured in places like ThinkProgress, In These Times, Waging Nonviolence, Labor Notes, Roar Magazine, and Make/Shift.  He has provided interviews and research on fascism and the far right to places like The Guardian and the Huffington Post, and is currently working on a book on neo-fascism for AK Press.  His work can be found at ShaneBurley.net and at Twitter at @shane_burley1.

Ryan Smith is a Heathen devoted to Odin living in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the co-founder of Heathens United Against Racism, a founding member of Golden Gate Kindred, is active in the environmental justice and anti-police brutality movements, and recently completed his Masters in modern Middle East History and economics.

Dr. Bones, as always, can be found at The Conjure House, on Gods & Radicals, and on Disinfo.

Audio recording produced by James Lindenschmidt. ©2016 Crafted Recordings. Some Rights Reserved (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

October 31st is a good day to tell tales of the dead. For this episode, I recorded Pete Witham & The Cozmik Zombies doing their song “Dancing With The Dead.” Thanks to Jon Wyman and the guys at The Halo for the recording space. Pete Witham wrote the song, sang it, and played lead guitar. Drew Wyman played upright bass. Steve Dunphy played acoustic guitar and sang backing vocals.

Spoken word contributions came from several of my favorite Gods & Radicals writers. In order of appearance, they are:

The background sound on this podcast is a result of an accident with a campfire, a time machine, and a cave. It’s a long story.

Artwork in the image above is “Hornblower” by Danial Ryan. Used with permission.

Audio recording produced by James Lindenschmidt. ©2016 Crafted Recordings. Some Rights Reserved (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

In this episode, I spoke with recording engineer, music producer, and practitioner of Thelemic magic Oz Fritz. Oz has an extensive credit list in recording, having worked with Bill Laswell, Bernie Worrell, Tom Waits, Oysterhead, Primus, Hakim, Bey, and many, many others.

We spoke about creating space in magic & music, consciousness, brain change, quantum physics, and quite a bit about recording and mixing music and audio.

All the music heard in this episode was recorded & mixed by Oz, and performed by Bernie Worrell, used with permission. Songs include:

Audio recording produced by James Lindenschmidt. ©2016 Crafted Recordings. Some Rights Reserved (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

Never let it be said that one cannot glean political insight from astral projection. This podcast contains 4 astral encounters.

Music is “Seems Like” by Freakwitch; Matthew Shields lyrics & vocals; James Lindenschmidt music, guitars, & production; Yo Bassman acoustic bass guitar; Alfred Lund drums.

Audio recording produced by James Lindenschmidt. ©2016 Crafted Recordings. Some Rights Reserved (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

This episode was a treat. I was lucky enough to interview A Peoples’ Remembrancer, Peter Linebaugh, on Bastille Day. These comments are taken from that conversation. We spoke about a lot of things, including Bastille Day; the Green and Red struggles of May Day; prisons, plantations, & the factory as locations of struggle; coal miners; the lungs as part of the nature; rewilding the cities; welfare as referring to wellness; how the magical Will is a social creation and becomes more powerful when shared collectively; and revolt as a Peoples’ Magic.

The excitement, the joy, the emotions, and the will is collective when it becomes powerful, and then it produces events that are totally unthought of. Who could have possibly imagined that a wall 90 feet high, in parts 30 feet thick, surrounded by a moat deep enough to drown in, who would have thought that such an edifice which had remained for centuries could be brought down in the space of less than 24 hours. Thatâ€s what weâ€re celebrating on the 14th of July, 1789. This edifice of tyranny, this edifice of repression, this action of people who are rewilding it has provided inspiration for every urban revolution that has ever taken place, and it provides us inspiration now that the carceral archipelago, the huge military prison complex of the USA, can be brought down in a twinkling. These are the miracles of history, but itâ€s just as accurate to say these are peoples†magic.”

Several months ago, I had an opportunity to record Moore, Wild, & Lynch in a living room in Maine. The music in this episode, an instrumental called “The Jig,” is from that session, along with several ambient recordings of city people celebrating and the ocean.

Audio recording ©2016 Crafted Recordings. Some Rights Reserved (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

After a much-longer-than-I’d-like break, we are finally back with another episode of the Crafted Recordings Podcast. This episode is an extended discussion of the Commons, with contributions from David Bollier, George Caffentzis, Massimo de Angelis, Peter Linebaugh, and Dr. Bones.

The music came from several sources. Thanks to The Droimlins — Eddy Dyer on guitar and Jimmy Otis on accordion — with their songs “Horse Hooves on the Steppes of Eurasia (765 AD)” and “Tenement Polka.” Also thanks to Eddy Dyer for his vocals and Ethan Winer for his bass on our punk-tinged cover of “You Don’t Know What You’ve Got” by Ral Donner. Above all, thanks to the birds in the forest for allowing me to record their conversations one morning.

For a detailed discussion on the content of this episode — both on what The Commons is and why I am using the term “magic” to describe it — is available on the writeup over at Gods & Radicals.

In general, I’m not a huge fan of allegory. But I loved Rhyd Wildermuth‘s The DisEnchanted Kingdom when he wrote it several months back. When he told me he wanted to do a reading of it for the podcast I was excited. And it came out even better than I hoped it would. This one is really fun to listen to.

In addition to Rhyd’s superlative narrative, we have commentary from Dr Bones of The Conjure House.

Music for this episode was provided by Dark Follies, taken from recordings I did with them a few years ago. Songs performed, in order of appearance, are called Jovano Jovanka, Uskadar, and Dobriden. Violin by Carson Lynch, accordion by Ann Murray, acoustic guitar by Larry Averill, percussion by Stephen Carpenter, Nikki Shields, Brent Nelson, and Joie Grandbois.

The background sounds you hear were recorded on Munjoy Hill in Portland, Maine, on a point overlooking Portland Harbor. If you listen closely, you will pick up one of the neighborhood cats who had something to say.

©2015 Crafted Recordings. Some Rights Reserved (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).