Ogham Inside the Night
Iceflower/Trisol TRI 240CD
Released: July 2005
Tracklisting: Ogham the sun • Ogham the spirit • Ogham in the soul • Ogham the moon • Ogham the melody • Ogham the knowledge • Ogham on the hill • Ogham inside the night • Ogham the blood • Ogham in the ground • Ogham the blade • Ogham carved the tree
CD2: Sex and Wildflowers: Spring snowdrop • Forget me not • Virgin in the green • John in the pulpit • Knudlustysummer • Deadly nightshade • Bleeding heart • Winter snowdrop • Love’s promise • Loki • Deathlust • Bluebell* • Handfasting* • Crimson clover* • Loki rides again*
* bonus tracks
Use the player below to listen to two tracks from ‘Ogham Inside the Night/Sex and Wildflowers’:
Buy the CD: SOLD OUT
Buy as a digital download from iTunes: 
Lyrics for this album: click here
This album was originally released through Iceflower/Trisol in 2005. At the time it came as a double digipak with a re-mastered (and added to) version of ‘Sex and Wildflowers’. The reason for this is that it wasn’t possible to repress S&W. Though the record had sold out, the distributor EFA had financial difficulties and all goods (including my S&W master) were impounded. For that reason, S&W was reissued with the new ‘Ogham’ album. I also added four new songs to tie the album to the ‘Ogham’ album.
The pagan-pounding feel of the ‘Ogham’ album has a nice energy to it. The cajon playing of Jason White really complements and augments this. You cannot move on this album for guest contributions! Simone Salvatori from Spiritual Front, Chris Eckman from The Walkabouts, Larsen, Carlos Boll, Faith & The Muse and many others contribute vocals and instruments to this album.
I worked long and hard on the musical and Ogham themes of the album. Each letter of the Ogham alphabet also represents a tree and a musical note. This made it perfect for the themes of nature, music and language that I explored in this album. Many musical themes also reappear here and there in the songs across the album.
I still play quite a lot of the songs from this album in my live set. I had developed a slightly simpler layering process for these tracks. ‘Ogham the sun’ and ‘Ogham the blade’ are favourites, and I still quite often open or close concerts with these songs.
This album has sold out, but is available for digital download via iTunes. At some point I will re-release it through Redroom.
Here’s what I wrote back then:
Ogham the sun: I played this one live a good few times before I actually recorded it, to settle down the arrangements and sharpen the melodies. It’s a good one to start with—and watch people looking around on stage to see where the backing tape is (there is none) and then seeing their reaction and their jaws drop…
Prosperity Arising From The East >- Driseg, the Druidic apprentice, fochlac the advanced beginner >- The Sun as ultimate power-source >- our first god—or the first thing we gave a name to? >- tolos (Portuguese) are stone burial mounds >- Spås is an Ogham ‘space’, Sail is ‘s’ and Willow tree >- Willow represents ‘battle of divination support/denial’
Ogham the spirit: Beautiful additions by Défilé des âmes, a Greek band. They took the loop I sent them, separating it out into parts for each of them, and did a real good job of it too. I met them first in Vicenza after a Sieben concert, where they most kindly offered to be my ‘Sieben band’ when I played a month later in Greece. They knew the songs better than I did and it was a great gig, really nice night and fun times with them in Athens.
‘Harnessed to the field’—it fascinates me to think what it would have been like to live without technology, cities, cars, global communications etc—though not enough to lead me to wear a leather hat and smock, sit in a field by the A52 drinking bad wine from a plastic goat’s horn. Just a few days out in ‘the wilds’ of the north of England (no, not the cities) and you start to notice the pull of nature, and how your body clock harmonises with the rise and fall of the sun. And marvel at how chickens are incredibly good at getting up early—and at waking you up. I digress.
Heraldry, more notches on wood to signify what we are >- revel in language >- Ogham as the bones of a leaf >- Nion is the Ogham letter ‘n’ >- Straif is ‘s’, four slashes across the Ogham stave like heavy rain >- Us whittled by the seasons, us whittling Ogham >- Straf is ‘punishment’ in Danish, limmet is ‘glued’ >- Templum is the zone of the sky marked out by soothsayers
Ogham in the soul: Carlos Boll (of The Mystery School) added some really nice vocals for me here, as did my daughter April. She’s eight, and did well to demand one more vocal take when she wasn’t satisfied. She’s a child after my own heart.
The need for more than just existence, we are not purely of the physical world >- a soul in everything? >- We create for our own amusement and enlightenment >- Larch trees marked off sacred or forbidden ground >- Amrun, ritual chanting >- Each Ogham letter is a note on the harp, and each signifies a tree >-
Ogham the melody: Another band contribution, this time from Larsen, my heavily-tattooed mates from Torino. They have been well Oghamed for sure. Paul from Gullinkambi joins them to add to their mischievous art-noise, and they did a great job of bringing round a song that would have died of over-sweetness without them. And they weren’t phased by having to count in ‘fives’, which as most will know is a feat in itself for us musicians, and well-deserving of a biscuit. Each.
Melody Warming The South >- the apple tree ‘the music of harmony/discord’, among other things >- the Ivy 'poetry cultivation/hunger' >- the mind out of constraints of the body, abstracted from physical need >- Emancholl (‘cc’ in Ogham) is a beautiful spider’s web of a symbol >- Notating our music, scoring our song >- the wildflowers revisited, part of the Ogham landscape
Ogham the knowledge: Fine contributions from Monica and William of Faith and the Muse here—atmospheric and eerie vocals and a guitar that strokes the song along.
The Cauldron Of Knowledge In The West >-More to some things than the sum of their parts >- Ollamn, the Master Bard >- Grauballe and Tollund set in Aarhus peat >- Ailm, ‘a’ in Ogham, the Silver Fir tree—representing knowledge of nature science/ignorance
Ogham on the hill: Guest vocals from Andy Weaver, he of Chicken Legs Weaver, from Sheffield. Was really nice to sing my vocals along to Andy’s. If his voice were a colour it would be powder-paint deep blue. It’s not one that I’ve played live as yet, but I will. I like the pluck-bounce melody at the start.
Written traditions, or lack of >- the realities of life, not the mysticism we ascribe it >- “you can drive out nature with a pitchfork, but it always comes roaring back again” >- words too coarse to catch the world’s full force >- varves—layers of mud and silt, often used to estimate geological age
Ogham inside the night: the title track of the album, and a nice chunky beat to go with it. Love the Quert–Muin–Huarth chant at the end by the sweet mismatch chorus of April Howden, Carlos Boll and the first appearance of Spiritual Front’s big-trouser, Simone Salvatori. Q–M–H is apple–vine–hawthorn.
Cauldron of Knowledge >- carving order in the world >- Coll is ‘c’ in Ogham, and the hazel tree, and looks like a cow lying on its back with legs in the air, pronounced ‘cull’ >- Ogham to mark territory and burial sites >- Ploye - bowed and bent >- Eite Thuathail is the reversed feather, (>-) the full-stop, the final word
Ogham the blood: The first of the ‘Battle From The North’ songs—it’s bloody hard to get the loop right on this one, so I’ve never dared do this live—but I will, when I do concerts with Jason White and his wunderschönen bang-box cajon. Jane Griffiths provides some sweetly-thunderous yowling in the chorus, and Carlos Boll steps it up another notch with some fuzz guitar.
Heraldry and symbols of what we are >- carving out destiny >- per fess, cut across the middle >- Heraldic proper - the most common colours in nature found for that object >- the king allowed to live for seven moons >- Or is gold, Vert is green >- the collective noun for colts is ‘a rag’ >- there’s a ‘parliament of rooks’ too
Ogham in the ground: I printed out an image of Tollund man’s head from the net and pinned it on the studio wall by where I record my vocals. It took me ages before I could put a description to his expression. In the end, the closest I came was ‘tired of the living’. So amazing to look directly into the past, into the furrowed lines of his skin, his life. Anyone curious about the bog people should definitely seek out Lindow man, found near Liverpool. He is at halfway point between man and potato, courtesy of the earth. See also Seamus Heaney: ‘The Tollund Man’: “She tightened her torc on him And opened her fen, Those dark juices working Him to a saint’s kept body”.
Death has his way regardless >- Tollund’s hair was turned red by the peat, as was Red Franz’s >- murder or sacrifice? A life wasted through fear, or a measure of gratitude? >- Tollund Man with thirty different seeds in his belly, his last meal >- Grauballe Man is slit from ear to ear—the Yde girl stabbed above her left collarbone, wore a tatty coat >- Palimpsest, a manuscript written over >- if you listen closely, he may well whisper “eite thuathail, the final score” >- Aarhus has laughable hills
Ogham the blade: I had fun recording this! My favourite on this album, especially when I’m in ‘loud’ mode. Cajon, strings and ‘zfatoni’ Salvatori in full flight. Sure the girls will love that Italio-twang of his vocals as we croon the chorus. Such a good one to do live, this. Especially good for ending a concert, leaving the hysterical wailing loop to do its work.
Iconotroph: to make a false Idol of something/one >- Anrad, The Warrior >- The ash tree, the ‘battle of prosperity/harm’, hawthorn, the ‘prosperity of nature earth/fear’ >- Nature holds magic >- Quert and Sail are ‘Melody Warming The South’ trees
Ogham carved the tree: Chris Eckman from The Walkabouts provides just the right touch with guitar and vocal for the final album track. I knew it was the track for him. This was originally intended as the opener on the album—along with the other two ‘Prosperity Arising in the East’ tracks—but it felt better this way, with some mellow reflective tones after the whirligig of Ogham the Blade. And to bring the album round full circle.
Ogham, the alphabet given by Ogma Sun-Face, the god of Eloquence, in four pillars of equal length >- bronze branch, the symbol of Driseg >- Ailm, a plus-sign, a man standing arms out, supplicant >- Gort, ‘g’, a man leaning and raising his arms >- Ogham was damn difficult to carve in stone, and didn’t tend to encourage novel writing…
‘Ogham Inside the Night’ is a double digipak CD. The other CD contains the ‘Sex and Wildflowers’ album. Huge thanks and appreciation sent from me to Iceflower/Trisol Records for their help and willingness to give SAW another outing. SAW fits nicely in Ogham’s pocket. I’ve written four more wildflower songs for this disc, just squeezing them on. It makes SAW over 70 minutes long, and with the Ogham at nearly 60 minutes I hope you don’t get fed up with me. The loops take a while to build. I could have shortened them for studio versions, but that so went against the grain of what I was after. Feel free to stop the album while you make a cup of coffee/seek professional help for your depression/have children/move to New Zealand.
Of the four new SAW tracks, ‘Bluebell’ and ‘Handfasting’ directly link the Ogham and SAW albums. ‘Handfasting’ is dedicated to Doris and Gerold, wishing them love, vitality and loosestrife joy. ‘Loki rides again’ is a sister track to ‘Loki’s lust and punishment’, and the re-recording I made of ‘Crimson clover’ may be the scariest wildflower track by a long way.
The booklet artwork contains some paintings done by the futhark father himself, my dad, Keith Howden. Amazing how a pack of crayons can keep one man so quiet. I’m really chuffed with his four Tollund Man paintings, and the Ogham font he drew. Kristine Haffgaard again provides more beautiful photographs; really stunning images that draw on the Ogham themes and complement the album so well. And Paul Jackson slaved tirelessly over the artwork and the pile of CDs containing my photos of trees, bits of wood that I’ve carved, Ogham designs cut large into my lawn (and he had to hold the camera while I climbed on to the shed roof), scans of witch charms, and much much more…
Ogham love and thanks to those who added, really added, with their contributions. You may well be rewarded in Heaven. I wouldn’t hold your breath here on earth ;-) So pleased here with all the contributions, and I hope we get the chance to do it live together sometime. As for the album, I really took my time with it, and put more work into it than ever before with an album. I hope it shows. I revelled in pinning the Ogham to its frame, in language, and in tying in the wildflower and nature themes. And I revelled in recording songs using just violin, and tried hard not to be tempted with fancy studio-enhancing-trickery—rather, I just aimed for a simple and pure sound, something that I can reproduce live. I hope you like the album. Can I have a biscuit now?
Reviews
“Without doubt, a MUST for everyone truly in love with the miracle of music” (translated from the German)
Lichttaufe webzine, June 2005
“Together with numerous guest musicians… Matt Howden has produced, with Ogham, the high point of his career so far… The present CD is worth the investment if one values mysterious, melodic folk-pop… a complete work of art.” (translated from the German)
Ikonen webzine, June 2005
“And those lyrics! Worthy of Robert Graves’ ‘The White Goddess’, intertwining pantheism, folklore, yet keeping to the writer’s own visionary intuition, [they] are worthy of study in their own right… an excellent release indeed"
Mike Shankland, Darklife magazine, July 2005
“Ogham Inside the Night… will and should endure as a modern peak of what can be achieved in the broad area of music using elements of folk and tradition as a basis. This is truly a progressive album that advances our appreciation of existence and I hope will go on to be regarded as a modern classic.”
Mark Coyle, The Unbroken Circle, July 2005
““Ogham Inside the Night’ is in my opinion the crowning achievement of Sieben thus far. Just when you think Matt Howden has uncovered the extent of what is musically possible with a violin he awes us all with yet another innovative album that pushes the envelope.”
Malakhi Thorn, Heathen Harvest , August 2005
“Sheffield-based musician Matt Howden is one of the leading lights of the European neo-folk scene, well-known for his virtuoso violin playing and production work for acts including Sol Invictus, Howden/Wakeford, Raindogs, Der Blutharsch, Hekate and Sonne Hagal. Sieben is his solo project, a blending of distinctively English pastoralism with darker undercurrents of heathen mythology and earthy eroticism. This 2005 re-release, a handsomely presented double digipack with two fat booklets, bundles together Sieben’s fourth and fifth albums with some bonus material, and serves as a fine introduction to Matt Howden’s music.
‘Ogham Inside The Night’, the later album, is an ambitious concept piece about ogham (pronounced ‘oy-am’), which, for the uninitiated, is the ancient sacred tree alphabet of the Celtic peoples of northern Europe. The 12 tracks of Ogham… total 58 minutes, all song titles begin with the word ‘Ogham’, and the album is further subdivided into four chapters entitled ‘Prosperity Arising In The East’, ‘Melody Arising In The South’, ‘The Cauldron Of Knowledge In The West’, and ‘Battle From The North’. Ogham… features many appearances from guest musicians. The most prominent is Jason White, playing cajón, a kind of wooden box drum, whose busy, rattling rhythms can be found on most of the album’s tracks. Other guest appearances will be noted as we proceed through the album. ‘Ogham The Sun’ establishes the basic format for the songs on Ogham… - a plucked violin into sets the beat, it’s joined by the cajón, and the song build from there with vocals and bowed violin loops. Matt’s precise vocal phrasing and enunciation allow you to appreciate the quality of his lyrics, which are excellent – poetic, mystical, imagistically rich and deeply engaged with nature. ‘Ogham The Spirit’ is performed by Greek neo-classical band Défilé des Âmes, and includes clarinet, French horn, cello and flute, along with Matt’s violin and vocals and the echoing calls of crows. This song has a more neo-classical feel, derived from the fuller arrangement. ‘Ogham In The Soul’ is busily percussive. Carlos Boll of The Mystery School contributes vocals to this song, as does Matt’s young daughter April. ‘Ogham The Moon’ is the only song on the album performed entirely solo by Matt, a tender piece full of yearning – ‘Sit with me in the evening sky…’ ‘Ogham The Melody’ again commences with a simple plucked violin, but builds into a fuller sound. Italian band Larsen play on this song. Their instruments include accordion, xylophone, e-bow and slide guitar, and the steady, lugubrious pace of this song reminds me of Ô Paradis. Monica Richards and William Faith of Faith and the Muse add vocals and guitar to ‘Ogham The Knowledge’ – Monica’s intimate whispering is especially noticeable. Andy Weaver of Sheffield band Chicken Legs Weaver sings on ‘Ogham On The Hill’, which has an infectiously catchy bouncy feel to it. The album’s title track, ‘Ogham Inside The Night’ follows, with another airy, skipping beat and some lovely warm background tones which I guess are treated violins, but sound almost like brass instruments. Simone Salvatori of Italian neo-folk band Spiritual Front contributes vocals to this track, along with April Howden and Carlos Boll, chanting a ritualistic closing refrain of ‘Quert-Muin-Huath’, the names of three ogham characters, which refer to apple trees, grape vines (or brambles) and hawthorn respectively. ‘Ogham The Blood’ opens the final ‘Battle From The North’ section of the album, and a darker, more violent mood is noticeable from the start. Jane Griffiths sings on this song, and Carlos Boll plays electric guitar, as Matt’s lyrics explore heraldry, ancestral bloodlines and death cults, drawing parallels between the slashing cuts of ogham characters and the wounds of battle. ‘Ogham In The Ground’ maintains these grim themes – ‘We saw Death in the field and ciphered in the stars…’ Simone Salvatori sings again on ‘Ogham The Blade’, one of the album’s highlights with its folksy fiddle-sawing and shuffling beat – this songs always works well live, building as it does to a noisy crescendo of ecstatic wailing. The final song, ‘Ogham Carved The Tree’ begins with the splash and patter of rainfall on forest leaves, and offers some respite from the darkness of the preceding three songs, ending the album on a redemptive, upbeat note. Chris Eckman of American folk-rock band The Walkabouts contributes vocals and guitar to this song. Mention should also be made of the gorgeous booklet art of Ogham…, which includes several depictions of Tollund Man, a sacrificial peat-bog corpse, by Matt Howden’s father Keith.
And so on to ‘Sex And Wildflowers’, which was originally released in September 2003. ‘Sex And Wildflowers’ isn’t just a clever title. This is also a concept album of sorts, with frequent references to vegetation, fertility, growth, love lust, copulation and the rites of spring, and a sunny, blossom-scented afternoon in late April (which this is) is an ideal time to be listening to and reviewing this album. If only Sieben had contributed to the Ajna ‘musical herbal’ compilation Infernal Proteus – few bands could have been better suited to the task. ‘Sex And Wildflowers’ differs musically from Ogham… in that all instruments are played by Matt Howden, in contrast to the many guest musicans of the latter album, though both albums are based on the development of songs from looped violin phrases – and this is as good a place as any to mention that Matt’s website includes his very full and interesting notes on every Sieben album. The low, pensive strains of ‘Spring Snowdrop’ open the album, suffused with an atmosphere of Celtic mist, before the scratchy, shuffling beat of ‘Forget Me Not’ quickens the pace. ‘Virgin In The Green’ features warm bass notes and spooky treated birdsong. ‘John In The Pulpit’ is an explosively noisy folk-rock song, with squally electric guitar and solid drumbeats asserting precedence over the violin work. ‘Knudlustysummer’ is a strange parable about a simple-minded yokel and his teasing at the hands of flirtatious country maidens. The urgent heartbeat rhythm and darkly pulsating bassline of ‘Deadly Nightshade’ effectively evokes the femme fatale-like attraction of this alluring yet highly toxic plant, beloved of witches. ‘Bleeding Heart’ features heavy post-punk drums and bass, sounding almost like Foetus or The Birthday Party. ‘Winter Snowdrop’ is less frenzied, with a measured stomping rhythm around which the violin swoops and soars. ‘Love's Promise’ is, I think, the single best Sieben track ever, with its ravishingly lush floral imagery, its precise yet compelling tabla and snare drums, and its mesmerising, poignant refrain of ‘Will you come again?’ However, I have to admit to a slight preference for the alternative version of ‘Love’s Promise’ which appears on the Auerbach Tonträger compilation Looking For Europe. ‘Loki’ is a quite straightforward neo-folk song, with strummed acoustic guitar and bowed violin. The album’s closing track, ‘Deathlust’, though, is very different, with heavily distorted electric guitar and a militaristic snare and cymbal beat, sounding a lot like early Sol Invictus, Death In June or Above The Ruins. This reissue of Sex and Wildflowers features four bonus tracks – ‘Bluebell’, ‘Handfasting’, ‘Crimson Clover’, and ‘Loki Rides Again’ – which bring the albums running time to over 70 minutes. The most interesting of these extra tracks are ‘Handfasting’, a delicate concatenation of plucked and bowed violin and chugging drums, and ‘Loki Rides Again’, with its stately neo-classical string quartet sound accompanying some grandiosely apocalyptic Norse imagery. Three of these bonus tracks feature cajon percussion from Jason White, anticipating the signature sound of ‘Ogham Inside The Night’. The two albums together are a great package – Ogham… in particular is a real artistic triumph, showing how a deep appreciation of the past can inform new and innovative work in the present. The only acceptable excuse for not buying this immediately would be that you were saving your pennies for Sieben’s new album, ‘High Broad Field’, which if anything is even better!”
Simon Collins, Judas Kiss webzine
