Join us for an evening of story, song and strange happenings with Justin Hopper and Sharron Kraus.
Dead The Long Year, Justin Hopper’s historical novella about art and magick in Bohemian London, 1912. The story takes us deep into a hidden piece of pre-war history: The Cave of the Golden Calf, the nightclub where modernist art, the occult and late-night revelry seemed destined to be an alchemical formula that would rule the nation. The story follows one young woman’s night out within this underground world. Appearances by the likes of Arthur Machen and Nina Hamnett. A ghost story in search of a ghost.
This two-part event will begin with Justin and Sharron performing interwoven readings from the book alongside improvised music, inspired by traditional folksong.
This will be followed by a discussion of the world of the novel: exploring the research and development process and the crossover between fact and fiction.
Sharron Kraus and Justin Hopper have a history of collaboration: 2019’s Chanctonbury Rings was a psychogeographic exploration of the iron age hill fort in West Sussex, combining elements of spoken word and hauntological folk (with the assistance of Ghost Box Records regulars The Belbury Poly). Swift Wings is the pair’s latest collaboration, and it sees them shine a light on the work of underappreciated Victorian poet Victor Neuburg, an acolyte of Aleister Crowley and an early patron of Dylan Thomas. Kraus provides the music: dulcimer, bamboo flute and recorder, as well as electronics, percussion and vocals.
Hopper is a well-known voice at the intersection of hauntology, folklore and nature writing. Hailing from across the Atlantic, he has explored the darker corners of Albion with pioneering zest, creating written, spoken and visual documents that respond to landscape and memory in highly original and often very entertaining ways. Kraus has been creating weird and wonderful folk music as a solo artist and as part of psych-folkers Rusalnaia for a couple of decades, as well as collaborating with Tara Burke of Fursaxa and various members of New Weird America trailblazers Espers.
