FEASTING WITH PANTHERS

Description

An exceptional collaboration between composer Michael Cashmore (Current 93) and singer Marc Almond, famous for Soft Cell. Two complementary creative sensibilities intimately intertwine; their exceptional compositional and vocal talents fuse to create unique and dramatic musical and vocal interpretations of striking beauty and insight. More specifically, this suite of songs showcases the heightened lyricism of an impressive array of cult, contemporary, and ancient poets. “Feasting With Panthers” is an exceptional collaboration between composer Michael Cashmore (Current 93) and singer Marc Almond, famous for Soft Cell, in a thematic echo and an immediate nod, within the latter's vast repertoire, to the darker gothic influences of his celebrated Marc And The Mambas period and his acclaimed “L'Absinthe” and “Jacques” albums of twisted songs. The characteristic aesthetic of this album is the setting to music of outsider poems. Poems by Count Eric Stenbock, as well as unique lyrical translations by the celebrated poet Jeremy Reed of works by Jean Genet, Jean Cocteau, Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine, as well as Reed's own poetry. The focus throughout the work is on “decadent” poems evoking thwarted loves, unhappy romances, self-destruction, and death: many of them are imbued with homoeroticism, tinged with opioid dreamlike states, and all are accompanied by the haunting and melancholic music of Michael Cashmore, which lends the verses a subtle aspiration to beauty and a bittersweet, melancholic nostalgia for lost innocence and youth. Originally released in 2011 and long out of print, “Feasting With Panthers” is now available in its original catalog, in a two-CD mini-album type box set, with a fold-out lyric poster and four bonus tracks. The album was recorded over several years, with the artists exchanging music files via email and mail; they never recorded together in the studio. Berlin-based Michael Cashmore composed the music from his home, playing all instruments and adding Marc's vocals from files recorded in London. The resulting album is a magnificent union of sensual talents, both vocally and musically, complementing intriguing and evocative poetic texts. The project began after David Tibet of Current 93 offered Marc a collection of poems by the German-Baltic poet Count Stanislas Eric Stenbock. Marc was immediately captivated by the dark eroticism and melancholy of the verses and so contacted Michael Cashmore, with whom he had previously worked on Current 93's interpretation of “Idumea.” He believed Michael would perfectly understand the verses through his complex and beautiful musical compositions. From there, the project grew to include many of Marc's favorite poems, written by some of his favorite “outsider” poets, sharing common themes.