Now we have been meaning to say something about the rather mysterious Temple Ov Saturn for quite some time now, Mysteries from deepest Nyack, New York. Dark electronica, collage, Temple Ov Saturn is something to do with multi-media artist Joan Pope. A rather prolific artist both visually and in aural form, as anyone who follows her social media feeds will know, her music is a warm rush of sound, some kind of hypnotic sensual space-rock flavoured ritualistic sound art that’s far far more than that superficial description would have you believe.
Where to start with Joan Pope? Well you have a flavour or two of the music and her visual mystery here on this page, we bring you this somewhat overdue piece of Organ coverage ahead of her appearance as one of the artists invited to take part in the latest Cultivate on-line art exhibition Mixtape No.1 that opens, once again hosted here on these Organ pages, on Tuesday October 4th.
We’re told “Temple ov Saturn is a sacred art project by Joan Pope” and that “Joan is a multi-media artist, video editor, musician, and poet. She holds a degree in Philosophy and Religious Studies. She loves nature, family, mythology, and religious art. She feels lost in the modern world and nostalgic for an ancient time well before her own” and well here, on the otherside of the video,is what she says on her own always evolving (very) good-looking website about herself…
“Joan Pope is the creator of Sex-Death-Rebirth, a religious art movement for the new world. She is immersed in utter devotion to her ministry, an audio-visual feast of Sex and the Sacred bound inextricably to light, colour and sound. Sex-Death-Rebirth is an emanation of pure desire and her work is always an act of worship; each prayer she sends is a sign and a sigil of humming flesh and communion. This project is a hypnotic barrage of imagery, word, and sound which brings together many ancient ideas through the modern streams of social media and forces you to bear witness. Sex-Death-Rebirth is the glue that holds Joan’s work together, the Logos.
Joan is also the creator of Temple ov Saturn, which serves an exoteric function in the Sex-Death-Rebirth universe. Temple ov Saturn provides a means to communicate sonic and visual allegories that express the teachings of Sex-Death-Rebirth. Transmitting via music, art, video, augmented reality, virtual reality, social media, print zines and books, Joan is revealing the sacred in everyday life, the secrets of the cycles of nature and time, and the knowledge of sex and death.
The teachings are meant to be implicit, not explicit. There is no dogma here. Allow yourself to hear the vision. Read the soul. Follow the words through to what you already know but cannot express. Find the knowledge of death and sex”.
Joan Pope’s latest album as Temple ov Saturn is a rather hypnotically intriguing rather sensuous collection of musical pleasures. High Planes Drifter was released in May of this year, it is best listened to very very loudly, some would argue via headphones but I prefer my music to flow through the air and fill the entire room. Warm, minimal, maximalist, full bodied, mysterious, something that invites you to flow with it rather than confronts you, something that does exactly what she talks of – that art of hearing things, the Art of Seeing Things, tunes, very definitely tunes, tunes that wrap themselves around you. Ritualistic, magical, magikal, entrancing, all with an edge that could well just be a little dangerous to look over. Hymns to beauty? Dedication? The muse of sacred song? There’s a lot to unwrap and explore here, it does kind of get inside you if you let it…
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There’s hours of music to explore from Temple ov Saturn, as well as her old project The Whip Angels as well as the video she made for experimental metal band Primitive Knot, something well worth checking out, It is as Temple ov Saturn that she really pushes the edges though, The Muse Of Sacred Song is a particularly warm highlight, something that almost cocoons in a beautifully glowing manner, and yes it does feel sacred, it does feel like it all needs exploring a lot more. For now we’ll leave you to explore the sound and the art, we will be back with more with the Mixtape exhibition this coming Tuesday and then, I rather think there’s a need to go a little deeper and explore the art of Joan Pope a little more. It isn’t all about her music though, Joan is a rather powerful visual artist as well, it was her art that first pulled me in. We will be back with more, this introductory piece was something rather overdue, do forgive us, lots of catching up to do…. (sw)
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