VITRIOL

   from the Neurot Recordings Site.

   Ben Green (Godflesh) takes us on a haunting and elemental journey of the soul. Recorded in
   the mountains of Wales in order to document alchemical pursuits.

"In 1995 I moved to a remote cottage in the Cambrian mountains, at the top end of the Ystwyth valley, a place I had spent a lot of time as a child; a beautifully bleak, magickal place. The main reason for this was to escape the noise of the city in order to listen, without distraction to the sounds within, sounds that I had been feeling for a long time. I spent 12 months here in virtual total isolation, focusing not only inwards, but also allowing myself to be an elemental "sponge", initially at natures mercy, but eventually learning to coexist with all natural elements, becoming completely aware of the natural order and flow of things. I was also deeply immersed in the philosophies of alchemy, of natural sciences, and acquainted myself with the rudiments of magick and the qabbala, endeavouring to understand and utilise these divine and natural energies. One of the ways in which I explored this was using sound, for as a musician I was very aware of the strength of sound, particularly in a pure state, and the effect they have on our psyche, and therefore our fundamental state of being. Using a basic 8 track, a guitar plugged directly into it, and a couple of microphones, capturing natural accoustic phenomena, I layered extremely pure sources of sound and energy. I found this material to be a potent tool with which to focus and direct energy within as well as from without allowing my body and my senses to be used as a medium for this natural energy allowing what is within to be what is without, following the maxim "as above so below". A lot of my philosophical and spiritual ideas came to fruition, and the music created will always serve to remind me of how clear and, ultimately final things became. Each of the seven tracks is an interpretation and consolidation of the seven stages of self realisation, and, therefore spiritual freedom that was to be my ultimate destination in traversing the seven-fold path that is VITRIOL."

Ben Green. 2001.