Coming Soon: Death is Coming and The Saturn Chronicle

Coming Soon: Death is Coming and The Saturn Chronicle

I’ve been busy preparing for the release of my two latest zines. Instead of my usual public output, I’ve been finalizing the details for these zines. They’ve already been printed and they are ready to go, but last week through now, I was making some last minute changes to the AR elements.

The Saturn Chronicle, at first glance, is an art zine. However, it is enhanced with various augmented reality elements. By using an AR scanner, the pages come alive with videos, more art, poetry, and music. Its been an ambitious project. It will come with a download with a new Temple ov Saturn album. If I have time, I want to make a VR video to accompany it as well.

Death is Coming is a revised second edition of my poetry collection that was originally published in 2016. This time around, its presented as a zine opposed to a book, and I added art to it. I felt like the original version didn’t really do the collection justice. This new and improved edition is much better. I will most likely include a download to the The Whip Angels album that accompanied the original book release. I may include some remixes too..

Both zines have been held up from being released because I am waiting on some art prints to arrive that will also be for sale. I anticipate some people wanting both the zines and some prints, so I’ve waited to list them for sale together so they will only have to pay shipping for one package. I also don’t want to list the prints before inspecting them. As soon as I have them in my possession, all of these items will be available for sale on my Bandcamp.

Going forward, I have some other ideas for zines, so let me know what you think.

Trailer for The Saturn Chronicle

Trailer for Death is Coming

Month in Review: November

November started with the release of Red Unseen, a 3 song EP recorded one evening. 

The month continued with an abundance of collage work. I've slowly adding them to my Gallery page and DeviantArt and anything that moves to YouTube and Giphy, while adding older works too. 

My erotic works had to take a backseat this month. I've spent almost the whole month dealing with a serious health issue. My body needed time to heal and the medication made me feel extremely fatigued and dizzy. I expect to be feeling better soon. Filming new works pretty much came to a halt, but it gave me a chance to finally slow down and get the Surrealist Erotica and The Blue Period films up on Vimeo. I plan on adding more to the Surrealist series, but they take longer to produce. I think my best works are the themed videos. I'm open to suggestions for a secondary theme to work on while I slowly chip away at the Surrealist videos. 

I just want to say that my erotic works are meant to be arousing, but they are also meant to invoke something deeper. Sometimes my energy is weaker, and I think when that happens, it shows. When my energy is stronger, it feels sexual and sacred at once and that's the point. Sex is the ultimate act of creation, the highest and lowest form of art. 

Surrealist Erotica // from Joan Pope on Vimeo.

Ritual invocations of Surrealist artists and literary figures:

Erotique Voilée // inspired by Man Ray
Dream of Venus // inspired by Salvador Dali
The Doll // inspired by Hans Bellmer
Imagine a Bullfight for You Alone // inspired by Laure
The Story of Death and Sensuality // inspired by Georges Bataille

...more to come...

The Blue Period from Joan Pope on Vimeo.

Erotica in Blue Light: a 5-part series

The month closes out with the release of my latest full length album Death is Coming. The album is a companion to my poetry book published earlier this year.

Death is Coming

By Joan Pope

Book Preview

The album features collaborations with a variety of artists that I really enjoyed working with. The day it was released was one of the most traumatic days of my life. This album was supposed to be released on tape, but it couldn't wait. I needed it to be out there, to be shared. The book and the album are a good starting place to start understanding the philosophy behind SexDeathRebirth. So much of my philosophy is communicated through the universal language of symbols. Here, some of it is translated into words, into sounds. Sometimes people ask what has inspired my words.... my main inspirations are comparative myths and religions, gnosticism, alchemy, tantra, catholic saints, Georges Bataille, Laure, Carl Jung, sex, marriage, birth, death... Musically, I draw upon the punk and trip hop influences of my youth, and my obsession with Ravel. It doesn't sound like a punk record, or a trip hop record, or a classical record but all those elements are there. Sometimes it sounds soft and gentle, sometimes the sounds are so piercing they hurt. A union of opposites. 

Death is Coming by The Whip Angels

I've been holding onto this album for months. I started working on it around this time last year, as I was completing the book companion to it. It was supposed to be released on tape, but on the day I released it, I had to give birth to something. There wasn't a choice. It just needed to be out there. This album features a series of great collaborations with a variety of artists with different styles and sounds. It was a pleasure working with everyone involved. 

Wizards Tell Lies - Lost King, After You

Lost King, After You by Wizards Tell Lies is available now through MuteAnt Sounds NetLabel .

I connected with Wizards Tell Lies originally in 2015 through Wyrd Daze. It was great to hear from Wizards Tell Lies as I was wrapping up my poetry book and getting ready to start recording for the upcoming Whip Angels album. The vocal track I contributed to this album is one of the poems from Death is Coming.

The album is darkly atmospheric, jazzy, and beautiful. Pick up a physical copy before they are gone!