Hunter Hunt-Hendrix
Hunter Hunt-Hendrix | |
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| Born | January 25, 1985 New York City, New York, U.S. |
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| Years active | 2005–present |
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| Website | arkwork |
Hunter Hunt-Hendrix is a composer, musician and philosopher. Working with modern mythology and transcendental aesthetics, he is known for his American black metal band Liturgy, his philosophical texts, and his OIOION opera cycle.
Biography[edit]
Music Projects[edit]
Hunt-Hendrix founded the self-styled “transcendental black metal” band Liturgy in 2005 as a solo project. After self-releasing two cassettes and releasing an EP on Unfun Records, the band expanded to a four-piece in 2008, releasing three full-lengths. The group's second album, Aesthethica, which combined black metal with minimalism and math rock, was released in May 2011 by Thrill Jockey, and was ranked in the top ten albums of the year by New York Times staff writers Jon Caramancia and Ben Ratliff, and among Spin's 50 Best Albums of 2011.[1] Their third album The Ark Work, which incorporated trap and IDM production into the band’s sound, was released in May 2015. It was Spin’s #1 avant-garde album of 2015,[2] Rolling Stone’s #1 avant album of 2015[3] and the #6 album of the year for The Washington Post’s staff music critic Chris Richards.
In 2016 Hunt-Hendrix released his debut electronic album, New Introductory Lectures on the System of Transcendental Qabala, under the name Kel Valhaal in 2016, following the same archetypal mythopoeia he had conceived as Liturgy's songwriter.
He composed, directed, and starred in a "video opera" called Origin of the Alimonies that was performed at National Sawdust in New York in October 2018[4] alongside an 11-piece chamber ensemble featuring members of the band. This was the first public run-through a four-part opera cycle titled OIOION.[5]
Hunt-Hendrix has also started a new band, a "trap djent" project called Ideal, which began to play New York shows in 2019 and shared their debut track “Seraphim” in June 2019. During the spring of 2019 Liturgy began playing shows featuring long-time guitarist Bernard Gann alongside new members Tia Vincent-Clark on bass and Leo Didkovsky on drums.
Philosophy[edit]
After receiving a BA in philosophy from Columbia University, Hunt-Hendrix has published a series of philosophical texts, political polemics and artistic manifestos, beginning in 2009 with the lecture “Transcendental Black Metal: A Vision of Apocalyptic Humanism”, delivered at the symposium Hideous Gnosis: Black Metal Theory, which was later published as a collection.[6] The text was also published in the journal Lacanian Ink and as an independent chapbook by the label Handmade Birds. Other texts include the text “Notes on Nick Land’s ‘Art as Insurrection’” (2013)[7] and “Music as Messianic Politics” (2016)
He maintains a philosophical website at www.arkwork.org, where he is developing a system that combines theology, Marxism, psychoanalysis and total art.
Hunt-Hendrix has elaborated philosophical theories that underlie his musical style, including a drumming technique called “the burst beat” and a compositional technique called “general tremolo.” He has also developed philosophical and mythopoetic account of world history, called “The Ark Work” which appears in various forms on his releases. This account links themes from traditional esoteric philosophy with Marxist-Hegelian critique, and is consolidated in a metaphysical system named “Transcendental Qabala”.
Discography[edit]
| Year | Artist | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | The Return | Perverted Rites EP | self-released |
| 2004 | The Holy Wars | s/t EP | self-released |
| 2005 | Liturgy | The Paranoiac Miracle | self-released |
| 2006 | Liturgy | Eternal Void | self-released |
| 2008 | Birthday Boyz | The Bro Cycle | Unfun |
| 2008 | Liturgy | Immortal Life | Unfun |
| 2009 | Liturgy | Renihilation | 20 Buck Spin |
| 2011 | Liturgy | Aesthethica | Thrill Jockey |
| 2013 | Survival | Survival | Thrill Jockey |
| 2015 | Liturgy | The Arkwork | Thrill Jockey |
| 2016 | Kel Valhaal | New Introductory Lectures on the System of Transcendental Qabala | YLYLCYN |
| 2017 | M. Lamar / Hunter Hunt-Hendrix | Funeral Doom Spiritual | Negrogothic |
References[edit]
- ↑ "SPIN's 50 Best Albums of 2011". SPIN. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
- ↑ "The 20 Best Avant Albums of 2015". SPIN. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
- ↑ "20 Best Avant Albums of 2015". Rolling Stone. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
- ↑ "Hunter Hunt-Hendrix: Origin of an Opera Cycle". National Sawdust. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
- ↑ "Hunter Hunt-Hendrix's New Video Opera May Be His Most Mind-Altering Work Yet". Ad Hoc. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
- ↑ "Hideous Gnosis: Black Metal Theory Symposium 1". Google Books. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
- ↑ "HUNTER HUNT-HENDRIX'S NOTES ON "ART AS INSURRECTION"". Impose Magazine. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
External links[edit]
References[edit]
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