I have seen “Current 93” three times so far – in Prague, Stockholm, and Riga. And each time it was a different musical and aesthetic experience. Listening to their extensive discography also leaves the same feeling of chameleonic transformation – how D. Tibet manages to change, move from one style to another, touching on different edges of musical dreams.
It is obvious that for D. Tibet it is important to rediscover himself, to shed old skin for new, while still maintaining what is essential inside. He can dive into electronic drone, industrial experiments, taking the listener into fields of horror (he himself loves horror literature, has published works by writer Thomas Ligotti on his label, and has recorded pieces where, over looping sounds, he reads Ligotti’s work), or it can be guitar sounds and, of course, apocalyptic prophecies supported by D. Tibet’s unmistakable vocals. He can plunge into psychedelic rock, record an intimate album where the musical background is only piano, or create very minimalist works or albums worked on by a huge team, including world-renowned names.
He was fully immersed in the London underground life, becoming one of the central figures in a movement that gathered artists like “Coil,” “Psychic TV,” “Nurse With Wound,” “Death in June,” but among his collaborations are also internationally recognized artists. His song “All the Pretty Little Horses” was sung by Nick Cave, with whom he became friends – communicating not only about music but also about books. It was D. Tibet who released the first “Anthony and the Johnsons” album on his label “Durtro,” when the artist was not yet globally known.
Over more than forty years of his creative path, not only musical directions changed but also his philosophical and religious directions – from interest in the occult, Aleister Crowley (to whom the name “Current 93” pays tribute) to deep immersion in Christianity and even studies in this field.
What has not changed are the experiences you get from his albums and especially concerts – the feeling that D. Tibet seems to enter a trance state, evoking from himself the darkest and brightest beginnings; these are like revelations, with D. Tibet singing about the light that leaves us all, like mantras casting spells and quoting Th. Ligotti that he has a special plan for this world, or almost pure passages and returns to childhood with lullaby melodies. Loops that seem so simple but are filled with energy or what could be banally described with one word: “magic.” Concerts that become almost mystical experiences, which is a big difference from the group’s early concerts in their industrial music phase, when performances lasted no longer than 15 minutes.
I read complex theological texts, but what interests me most are the simplest phrases, which are their very essence.
“Since childhood, I have been most interested in simplicity and space in music,” D. Tibet has said about his musical taste, also describing his own creative methods, saying that in fact “Current 93” music is very simple. “I read complex theological texts, but what interests me most are the simplest phrases, which are their very essence,” says D. Tibet.
Industrial music at the heart
“Current 93” founder David Michael Bunting, better known in the music world as David Tibet, was born in Malaysia to an English family working there at the time. Later he returned to Asia several times, saying he never fully understood his identity – sometimes he feels like a true Englishman, sometimes that his childhood there had a strong impact on him. In any case, he often remembers that time as a lost paradise, so opposite to what he felt when he arrived in London.
Always wearing a black raincoat, high boots, often sinking into depression and deeply interested in the occult – this is how those who knew him in early 1980s London, which was the vibrant nerve of underground music, often remember him. Austin Osman Spare, William Blake, and of course A. Crowley – his interest in their work was combined with an almost obsessive immersion in Tibetan language and music. Although he said he was interested in various music at the time, from Leonard Cohen to Gregorian chants or “Whitehouse,” his first musical attempts were in the industrial scene, heavily filtered through occultism and shamanism practices. He recorded his first album “Nature Unveiled” immersed in apocalyptic literature, and according to him, this album was an attempt to create music about the Antichrist. The hypnotic dream states evoked by “Maldoror is Dead” and other tracks on the album are still considered by some devoted fans as the peak of his ritual loop-based sound walls period.
But that was just one of many musical phases. D. Tibet became increasingly interested in folk, mythology, and began using more diverse traditions to create music, including lullabies, which he said reflect innocence, purity, the things he finds most fascinating in music. This is what he later discovered in the music of legendary folk singer Shirley Collins, who also participated in his album recordings.
When you want to have fun with demons
A turning point can be considered his more folk-based album “Swastikas for Noddy.” When this album was released, as D. Tibet recalls, many thought it was a joke (and indeed there is quite a bit of humor in D. Tibet’s music, often cleverly disguised). Where did industrial go? I myself remember when visiting the legendary industrial music record store “Staalplaat” in Amsterdam and asking for newer “Current 93” releases, the sellers struggled to hide skeptical smiles. For some “Current 93” fans, the “real” phase of the band ended as it moved toward a more melancholic, folk-influenced sound.
Meanwhile, D. Tibet himself said that he became less and less interested in industrial music – especially as many groups on that scene started making more rhythm-based music. Some of these, by the way, were among D. Tibet’s closest friends, the group “Coil.” “I never understood why people started dancing,” D. Tibet said at the time.
And when you want to have fun with demons, they also want to have fun with you.
There were other changes too. He threw himself into the esoteric London underground without sparing himself, there was a lot of acid and amphetamines, and eventually he realized he was sinking to the bottom. As he admitted to David Keenan, author of the book “England’s Hidden Reverse,” his “interests were dark”: “And when you want to have fun with demons, they also want to have fun with you.”
Turns in music
His religious and philosophical interests also changed. Although his interest in Tibetan Buddhism remained, he increasingly delved into Christian texts, sometimes it seemed like an obsession, and among his favorite philosophers were Pascal and Kierkegaard.
And the music became more complex, deeper, involving more people – besides “Death in June” founder Douglas P., “Nurse With Wound” soul Steven Stapleton, and members of “Coil,” Michael Cashmore and many others joined.
“Current 93″‘s major breakthrough was the album “Thunder Perfect Mind,” later the ambitious “Inmost Light” trilogy, the album “Black Ship Ate the Sky,” which featured artists like Anohni, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Marc Almond, and other records. But every time it seemed that D. Tibet had found a new self, he took a new path. Albums recorded with Th. Ligotti (whom D. Tibet called the best writer of our time) “In a Foreign Town, in a Foreign Land” and “I Have a Special Plan for this World” lead into horror darkness, “Imperium” is wrapped in a melancholy sense of the end, “Soft Black Stars” features D. Tibet playing some of his most beautiful and calm songs on piano. And the latest album “Sketches of My Nightmares and Dreams Occurring” again seems to bring us back to the beginning, to the restless feelings of “Nature Unveiled.”
Work with N. Cave
D. Tibet’s list of collaborations includes some unexpected names. One of them is Bjork, who was on stage as a dancer and backing vocalist during a “Current 93” performance in Iceland. Her voice later appeared on the album “Island,” filled with a Nordic atmosphere – recorded back when D. Tibet seriously considered moving to Iceland.
N. Cave also recorded several pieces with D. Tibet, himself having frequented London’s underground clubs. D. Tibet says that their shared interest in Louis Wain’s paintings brought them closer. At that time, they became quite close – meeting once or twice a week. When D. Tibet asked him to record two songs on the album – “All the Pretty Little Horses” and Pascal readings in the piece “Patripassian,” N. Cave agreed.
“We became quite close friends because our interests were similar,” N. Cave told “Sounds” magazine, describing D. Tibet as a very good person. “He has very strong Christian beliefs… In any case, he started giving me many books to read, lots of information – about his ideas and so on. So in return, I sang on his album.”
Now D. Tibet has become an artist surrounded by an almost mystical aura, whose concerts people manage to travel to even from other continents. And listening to his music, the phrase from “Coil” comes to mind, which would also suit “Current 93” perfectly: “When you listen to ‘Coil,’ do you think about music?” “Current 93” has always been much more than music.
