Gjennom den Onde dunkle Skog

Høsten 2021 ble jeg spurt av kunstner Una Hamilton Helle om jeg ville bidra til hennes kunstprosjekt Becoming the Forest. Prosjektet inkluderer utgivelsen av tidsskriftet med samme navn som på det tidspunktet var kommet i tre utgaver. Hun ville gjerne at jeg bidro til den fjerde.

Becoming the Forest er en publikasjon som ser på vårt forhold til omgivelsene, med et særlig fokus på den nordlige halvkules overflod av tette granskoger, og hvordan estetikken og filosofien til den musikalske subkulturen black metal har blitt viklet inn i denne topografien.

Jeg bestemte meg derfor raskt til å skrive et essay om svartmetallens forhold til skogen, og et forsøk på å kartlegge hvorfor det akkurat var skogen som ble bakteppet for svartmetallen. Jeg kalte stykket «Gjennom den Onde dunkle Skog», etter teksten til Darkthrone-låta «Over Fjell Og Gjennom Torner» fra Transilvanian Hunger (1994).

Teksten min, og ikke minst engelsken min, ble godt vasket av Una og hennes samarbeidspartner Lotte Brown. Teksten fikk også nydelige illustrasjoner av Alexandra Uppman. Takk!

Utgivelsen, og mitt essay har allerede fått god mottakelse: https://zeenscene.blogspot.com/2022/07/becoming-forest-iv.html

Becoming the Forest IV kan bestilles her: https://becomingtheforest.bigcartel.com/products.

Her er hva Una selv skriver om utgivelsen:

BTF IV includes specially commissioned essays, interviews and illustrations, by animists, philosophers, artists and musicians, including: an essay on panpsychism as a possible answer to the climate crisis; a philosophical-historical overview of the relationship between black metal and the forest; a magical-realist account of a sylvan trip gone wrong; an in-depth interview with Rune from Nordic Animism, whose project looks to Scandinavian folklore and customs for “hidden animist knowledge” and more respectful ways of living with other subjectivities. 

The symbolism of the primstav (a calendar staff used by the agricultural societies of old Scandinavia), runs through the issue. Its seasonally-based, cyclical view of time hints towards a worldview which was embedded in its environment, and which placed man as part of - and at the mercy of- nature, rather than above it.

Contributors: Lotte Brown, By the Spirits, Crown of Asteria, Drukfout, Feral Season, Una Hamilton Helle, Hedda Hassel Mørch, Hawthonn, Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen, Invunche, Helge Kaasin, Edvard Munch, Necrofier, Alexandra Uppman, Cathy Ward

Edited by Una Hamilton Helle and Lotte Brown 
Published by Het Bos Antwerpen 
Supported by the Norwegian Arts Council 
Designed by Tom Sewell 
128 pages, 210x135mm, printed in black & white, some colour 
ISBN 9789082988024 
£15 / 200 NOK

Table of Contents

Entering the forest 
Una Hamilton Helle 
Wherein time moves in spirals, and petroglyphs speak of the coming Fimbulwinter

Interview — Feral Season (US) 
In which the scorched trails of wildfires are retrodden through the range of light

Nordic Animism 
Excavating traditional knowledge with Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen 
Wherein a Dane exhumes the remains of lost lore and discovers life therein

Interview — Invunche (NL) 
In which the three-legged figure of Chilote folklore guards the secrets of a warlock’s cave

Interview — Crown of Asteria (US) 
In which mythology mixes with magical intent in the Michigan mist.

Gjennom den Onde dunkle Skog 
Helge Kaasin 
Wherein the roots of Norwegian Black Metal are found to burrow deep into the soil of history

Interview — Necrofier (US) 
In which synchronistic tales are told of a child-eating demon and a tiger-eye ring

Researchers — a Cliffhanger 
Lotte Brown 
Wherein the moon is swallowed, mud is tasted and the sound of bone hitting stone echoes through the forest

Interview — By the Spirits (POL) 
In which a Silesian mountain is ascended and a path of ancient magick traversed

Panpsychism as environmental philosophy 
Hedda Hassel Mørch 
Wherein the vast, shadowy land of consciousness is explored and the limits of Western thinking probed

Interview — Hawthonn (GB) 
In which the duo go searching for the wyrd sonic signatures of Britain’s edgelands

Further artworks by Lotte Brown (BE), Drukfout (BE), Una Hamilton Helle (NO), Edvard Munch (NO), Alexandra Uppman (BE), Cathy Ward (GB)

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