IN MEMORY OF HARDY FOX (1945-2018)

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INSPIRATION
Henry Corbin, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Bela Tarr, Farid od’din Attar, Shihab od’din Sohrawardi, The Residents



« I started to work on this second part of the diptych about Henry Corbin’s Imaginal philosophy at the end of 2017 at home. Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (Jerusalem In My Heart) was probably the best person to record the first track for this album and I decided to go to Hotel2Tango, studios, Montreal, Canada for ‘Will the Night Ever End’ session with Tom Malmendier. In the studio, there was a huge piano and a wonderful organ, Tom and I recorded an improvisation only with organ and piano called ‘The Hidden Pole’.
When I came back to Belgium, I was impressed by the recording session and I directly started to write, as a long improvisation, the whole electronic theme of ‘The Encrimsoned’. The idea of the whole album came suddenly. I had to call to few friends to play on this music, like it was conceived for the previous album, the first part of the diptych ‘ANIMALWRATH’, released in 2018.

Maja Jantar, Radwan Ghazi Moumneh and Tom Malmendier were present on the first chapter and they are incredible collaborators, it was obvious for me to invite them once again. Xaviere Fertin and Sebastien Schmit are also musicians that I admire for their freedom of playing and their devotion for collaboration. I appreciate to work with these beautiful people.

‘The Encrimsoned’ is inspired by Occultation (gheybat) of the 12th Imam Theory, conceptualized by Henry Corbin in his books about Iranian Islam (« En Islam Iranien ») that I discovered reading interviews of Secret Chiefs 3’s leader Trey Spruance.

I dedicate this album to Hardy Fox (main composer for The Residents) because he was one of that man concerned by the ‘Theory of Obscurity’ founded by N.Senada and that theory joins, by another way, the Great Occultation of the 12th Imam. He was the ‘Sinister Exaggerator’, he was ‘The Encrimsoned’. He was beautiful. »

Phil Maggi, May 2020