Carl Abrahamsson

Roving Report 2013-35

September 1, 2013

Howdy people! Autumn has now officially begun and there’s a chill in the air to prove it. Wonderful! Time to get back to working routines and an evaluation of the times we live in. Some recent developments deserve special mention, and this little missive is meant to be a condensed update of sorts. To celebrate autumn, Highbrow Lowlife today release an album by Cotton Ferox called A Mega Golem Official. Some of you may remember this piece from Vicki Bennett’s Radio Boredcast project back in 2011-2012, but now it’s out there on its own: Spotify, iTunes, Wimp, Amazon et al… Wherever you usually shop or stream, it’s there. The Mega Golem is a project that is well under way now. It’s a magical creature (vide the Golem in Meyrink and others), that is made entirely out of art. Currently several artists are helping me to build this new life form. This official Mega Golem transmission constitutes the being’s penis and testicles. This in no way implies...

The Territory is not the Map

August 23, 2013

Taschen just released a massive slipcased tome, a facsimile of a cosmographic piece of history writing from the late 15th century: Chronicle of the World 1493 (Original title: Weltchronik/Liber Chronicarum), and its accompanying study The Book of Chronicles. Is this old tome relevant today? And if so, what makes it relevant? Let’s just put the sheer beauty of the book aside for a while. And let’s focus instead on the grandeur of the ambition that was a part of this specific age in certain sections of society. The renaissance wasn’t just an Italian phenomenon but part of a well-to-do mind frame in Europe in general in the 14th to 16th centuries (approx). It was a (re)definition of where leading Europeans were at. A celebration of human ingenuity and intelligence so far, through art, science and commerce. Also one that wanted to break free from a too intolerant religious doctrine. To be able to see oneself as a contemporary being, one needs to be centered in time as...

Highbrow Lowlife takes a leap

August 15, 2013

Genesis Breyer P-Orridge at the time of recording the album Wordship together with Cotton Ferox, Studio Konst & Ramar, Stockholm 2002. Today the first digital release from Highbrow Lowlife is catapulted into your galaxy – a little love potion squeezed out by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and Cotton Ferox. It’s an EP called I Travel which contains the original mix of that track from the album Wordship (2004) and two remixes, called I Travel C-side and I Travel F-side. The EP is available at the iTunes store, Wimp, via Spotify and all other major digital outlets. Wherever you normally stream or buy, it should be there! Enjoy responsibly! There are presently two videos, one for C-side and one for F-side, at the Highbrow Lowlife YouTube Channel. To see them in slightly better quality than these embedded versions, please go straight to Highbrow Lowlife’s video emporium here! … And stay tuned for more information by subscribing to this blog and the YouTube channel! Genesis...

Gods bless Christiania!

August 12, 2013

The Danish capital of Copenhagen has always been associated with a liberal approach to most things. The Scandinavian city of sin keeps up its tolerant banner, even as the rest of the world succumbs to the sanitized tyranny of globalization. Good for you, Copenhagen! Ordinary people can probably enjoy drinking beer, choking themselves on artificially colored sausages, or the Little Mermaid or the amusement park Tivoli, but there is one phenomenon, literally a left field area, that remains Copenhagen’s most visited attraction, year after year after year: Christiania. This is very rarely mentioned in the guide books. Why is that? What began as a loose social experiment in the early 1970s, imbued with alternative mind frames and politically naive agendas, has grown since then to incorporate a lot more tangible and realistic approaches. What was once crusty and run down has been considerably fixed up and taken care of. Christiania: a section of the city that is well ordered and self...