2003 ALLERSEELEN PACIFIC WEST COAST

ALLERSEELEN - PACIFIC WEST COAST

VI.MMIII
Allerseelen Tour Washington - Oregon - California

MIT DER SONNE BEGINN ICH
DA GEH ICH HINAUS
GRÜSSE TAUSEND HELLE AUGEN
WIR MEISTERN DAS SCHICKSAL
WIR NEHMEN DEM ZUFALL DIE KRAFT

Friedrich Hölderlin, Hyperion

"Are you seeking entry to engage in criminal or immoral activities? Have you ever been or are you now involved in espionage or sabotage; or in terrorist activities; or genocide; or between 1933 and 1945 were you involved in any way in persecutions associated with Nazi Germany or its allies?" (Some of the questions on the form in the airplane from Paris to Cincinnati.)

Band Name: AllerseelenGenre/Style: Apocalyptic Krautpop + Industrial Folklore Band Origin: Austria

Allerseelen did in June MMIII three live performances at the Pacific West Coast - on June 14th at Optic Nerve Arts in Portland/Oregon with Sacrificial Totem and Waldteufel, on June 15th at The Fenix in Seattle/Washington with Sacrificial Totem and Waldteufel, on June 22nd at Edinburgh Castle in San Francisco/California with Chthonic Force, Children of the Apocalypse and Waldteufel. The Allerseelen Mannschaft on stage was different from the European shows which are usually performed by the percussionists Axel and Mario (both members of Hekate) and Gerhard (vocals): Aaron (Blood Axis/Waldteufel) contributed passionate and apocalyptic bass lines and soundscapes, Markus (Waldteufel/Blood Axis) played his powerful pagan Schlagwerk, Michael (Blood Axis) contributed his unique Irish bodhran drum play for the two concerts in Portland and Seattle. The lyrics were presented by Gerhard.The recent Allerseelen double lp Flamme was presented to the public as well as the beautiful new Allerseelen Edelweiss t-shirt designed by Ajna. In San Francisco the new Waldteufel 10" Eines Gottes Spur was already available too.

Oregon

Arriving at Portland in the evening. Next morning already the first holy mountain during the stay of Allerseelen in the United States - the snow-covered volcano Mount Hood. Great weather. The building where a part of the movie Shining was made. Mountaineering up to its beautiful blue glacier crevasses. At Cannon Beach. The orange and purple starfish at Haystack Rock, a huge and steep rock, covered with green moss, in some way reminding of Machu Picchu. Little shells moving with the light and shadow created by my hand. In the pike-grey Pacific Ocean on a little island the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse. Falling in love with lighthouses, like sanctuaries close to the wilderness of the ocean. Sauvie Island, an island close to Portland with beautiful garter snakes in the grass and the strange plant horse tail. Searching on this island for the mysterious Warrior Rock Lighthouse. Getting to know a young lady with the tattoo of three ravens in a circle that Blood Axis used during their European concerts in 1998, an emblem reminding of the label on the Californian wine Ravenwood. Visiting Heimliches Deutschland, the beautiful dark-green cubic domicile where Waldteufel lived for several years. A house like from the Californian gold rush one century ago. Painting and records, many books in German. A book about the mandala-like hex signs in Pennsylvania coming from Dutch and German immigrants. The great dark beers Black Butte Porters, Rasputin Stout, Terminator Stout. Visiting the Larch Mountain in the East of Portland with its beautiful view on several volcanoes of the Cascade mountains - like seeing at the same time three or five optical echos of the Fujijama, the holy mountain of Japan on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. At Optic Nerve Arts in Portland the concert of Sacrificial Totem, the Waldteufel live performance with Aaron on bass and the medicine man Markus performing ancient and new songs from the new 10" Eines Gottes Spur. The Allerseelen concert featuring Michael (Blood Axis) with his bodhran during the last three songs Wir rufen Deine Wölfe, Sonne golthi-ade, Als wärs das letzte Mal. Travelling to a small organic farm close to Old Blue Mountain and Applegate in Southern Oregon. Raspberries and home-made Raspberry liqueur, humming-birds, white and orange and purple poppy capsules scratched by unknown neighbours, the poison oak on paths and small roads. A cold and windy day at the beautiful Crater Lake, reminding of an opened black egg with a blue lake inside and inside the tiny little black Wizard Island volcano, like the black yolk of the egg. The Howling Acres Wolves Sanctuary in Williams, a wolf howling and mourning for another wolf that had died a week ago. A young Timberland wolf with silver hair at close range.

Washington

Travelling to Mount St. Helens, the second holy mountain, invisible in the clouds. The adventurous Lava Canyon south east of Mount St. Helens with its magnificent iron-grey basalt formations. The beautiful June Lake in the rain, a magical water fall, black stones covered with golden moss. Walking very close to this little water fall. The amazing Pugent Sound with the Olympic Mountains, West of Seattle. The exhibition of Charles Krafft with shovels and urns made of porcelain containing human ashes. Touching the beautiful and fragile porcelain guns and the charming hand grenades at his place. The concerts of Sacrificial Totem, Waldteufel and Allerseelen at The Fenix in Seattle. The last three songs of Allerseelen again with the bodhran of Michael, on stage three members of Blood Axis who once were not allowed to perform in this place.

California

The petroglyphs of Petroglyph Point - human figures, serpents, stars, waves, close to Newell, situated North East of Lava Beds. Close to it the beautiful salt lake in the South of Tule Lake. Green grass, a white and treacherous salt beach, blue hills at the horizon. For the first time another holy mountain, the immaculate white shape of Mount Shasta, so different from the landscape surrounding it. The black Glass Mountain in the Lava Beds - a mountain consisting entirely of sharp splinters of obsidian like black glass or mirrors used by the Native Americans for their sparrow heads. Lense-shaped silver clouds - some of them looking like saucers, space ships close to the border of Nevada over the Madeline Plains. Strange legends about gurus and saints and saucers in and around Mount Shasta. Somewhere close to Honey Lake a rock with petroglyphs and cupolas and some hidden caves. My first Californian Solstice. In the evening rose petal mead and Toblerone, the horn passed around to the participants, members of Ajna, Allerseelen, Waldteufel. In the very dry landscape there was no fire allowed. Just lighting a candle on the instrument board of the white Cadillac - the smallest summer solstice fire of the world. A beautiful night in the desert in two tents close to the car. In the black sky myriads of stars. At sunrise in a narrow cave with petroglyphs. The sun light created inside the cave on the rock a glowing orange triangle. It was scintillating like a sacred flame - almost like the Valknut symbol, consisting of three triangles. "Hoch in meine Hände atme ich dich ein/und zum Herzen wende ich dein ganzes Sein/hell in mir erglühet Gottes goldnes Tor/Sonne golthi-ade, hebe mich empor." (Bernhard Friedrich Marby). Some hours later, at noon, already being on top of another one of my beloved volcanoes, another one of my beloved holy mountains, the Lassen Peak in the Lassen Volcanic National Park. At the peak a chipmunk and a small camouflage tower looking like a lighthouse. Close to the top a crater with brown and black stones and splinters. Down to the valley in the snow. "Was noch von Krankheit/in mir schlief/ich riss es aus mit fester Hand/und warf es lachend/steil und tief/hinunter/ins verschneite Land." (Hermann Hesse). At Edinburgh Castle in San Francisco the concerts of Chthonic Force, Children of the Apocalypse, Waldteufel and Allerseelen. Children of the Apocalypse with some great beats and Persian belly-dance. At the beginning of the Allerseelen concert a huge horn filled with magnificent Ajna mead, passed around to the musicians and listeners. An almost endless journey back to Southern Oregon along the beautiful black volcanic coast of Mendocino. A magical wood of Redwood trees being that mighty that I thought to be as small as Däumling/John Thumb. Ascending several hours on mythical Mount Shasta, up to the frozen and invisible Helen Lake.

Gerhard, 22.V.MMV

http://www.theajnaoffensive.com/

Aorta c/o Petak, Postfach 778, A-1011 Wien

"Clamberers of the rock of the holy mountains, dreamers of the rose and the dew, of milken hill and vine of immortality, these are they that tell of the gay wisdom, of the true end of pleasure beyond becoming - who seek what is to be. (..) The search is to be known only to the seeker, it is not to be taught but only to be learned, and then hardly." (Austin Osman Spare, The Focus of Life)